Zen, DigVoice, Fritzbox in diff. place to DECT Base Stat.Tel

Hi

Sorry if this is a silly question, but I've been unable to find a definitive answer online and Zen haven't been that helpful either...

We are on the verge of switching from a Landline to Digital Voice, and have a technical question about connecting a DECT Base Station Phone (+ satellites) to the Zen Fritzbox Router when they are in different physical locations.

Our Master BT socket & the Fritzbox is located upstairs in a bedroom.
Our DECT Base Station Phone is located downstairs and plugged into a phone extension socket.

The main question:
Can this set-up (device positioning) be maintained and made to work with Digital Voice ?, as ideally we do NOT want a phone ringing in a bedroom !

Can something like this https://www.bt.com/help/user-guides/phones/digital-v... , be used to wirelessly connect the Fritzbox & Base Station together ?
OR
Do they have to be physically wired together ?,
either positioned together in the same room ? OR
by disconnecting the house extension wiring from the master socket and re-purposing it as a long extension lead ?

Alternatively I assume the Base Station could be ditched and the satellite phones easily paired to the Fritzbox instead ?

Thanks for your assistance with this.

The BT Digital Voice Assistant probably won't work with the Fritz[!]box, because BT's Digital Voice is more or less exclusive to BT. You might be able to pair the phones direct to the Fritz[!]box, this is what I would investigate first.

However, routers and ISPs come and go but landline services endure forever. So if pairing to the Fritz[!]box turns out not to be the line of least resistance, don't fret. Repurposing the internal phone line from the master socket to the base station is going to work as long as you have the know how to isolate the cable from the incoming line.

It may be that 'voice reinjection' would work for you, but I don't know much about it, apart from seeing it mentioned on this forum.

In reply to a post by burble:

It may be that 'voice reinjection' would work for you, but I don't know much about it, apart from seeing it mentioned on this forum.

That is only a fancy term for "Repurposing the internal phone line from the master socket to the base station"

In reply to a post by thefireflies68:

. . . as ideally we do NOT want a phone ringing in a bedroom ! . . . .

If it is the phone that rings and not the base station leave the phone somewhere else overnight.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

In reply to a post by thefireflies68:

. . . as ideally we do NOT want a phone ringing in a bedroom ! . . . .

If it is the phone that rings and not the base station leave the phone somewhere else overnight.

EvEn better, the Fritzbox allows you to block phone calls on a per device basis. You can add exceptions so close family and friends can reach you in the bedroom, while allother callers get sent to the answerphone.

In reply to a post by DrBob:

You can add exceptions so close family and friends can reach you in the bedroom,

Even these should only be allowed in person, not by phone.

I had the same situation, DECT Base station and two satellites. In the master socket, I disconnected the wire to the exchange, connected the master socket to the phone socket on the Fritzbox using the supplied adapter and cable and that's it. Everything works as before as essentially the wiring is the same, with the router replacing the exchange.

In fact, using a doubler I also connected another ancient non-DECT phone which was on a different extension socket. Really easy I'm pleased to say.

You can do this, but you will have to open your master socket and disconnect the incoming copper telephone line before you do this. Once this is done, try plugging the phone cable into "FON" port on the router and the phone port on the master socket. I'm guessing the extension is wired directly into the phone port. If not you will have to wire it directly into the extension. It's only 2 wires so it should be easy regardless.

Originally I was going to do this myself, but in the end I had my Fibre brought in where my main telephone would live. And I ran some CAT6 to that room to connect up the rest of my network.

Looks like stevejm has done exactly what I said and it works, so it should be easy peasy.

Alternatively you can ditch your old phones for some digital voip and pair them with the router. More than one way to skin a cat, but the cheapest is to just use what you've already got.

Edited by LeJimster (Sat 27-Sep-25 19:37:14)