BT digital rolling out

[#1]

I've been looking around the forum but I'm just getting more confused!

I have a Plusnet router connected via my BT phone line. As the nationwide rollout of Digital Voice is coming closer to my area, will the router still work on the new line?

Alex.

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Broadband to Everything Else

[#3]

You router and broadband is not impacted by Digital Voice.
It does have implications for your telephone service, if you have / use it.

[#4]

As ever there’s devil in the detail.

You refer to “your BT line” - if your current voice service is provided by BT Retail whilst your broadband is provided by Plusnet, then the future is far from clear. There’s a county mile difference between technology and commercial considerations.

At some point BT Retail will seek to move users off the current voice service products - done unilaterally that will terminate other services on the line, irrespective of the fact that existing broadband services could technically be just switched to SOGEA.

BT Digital voice is only available with BT broadband using BT’s hubs.

There’s are other voice (VoIP) providers available, one does not have to go BT digital voice - there are lots of threads around here discussing those options.

[#5]

@ceresian 

Expanding on what’s been said, if, like I suspect many others.you retained your BT telephone service when you joined Plusnet then it’s important for you to cast off your confusion and decide on a plan of action as soon as possible.

In a nutshell you cannot have both a digital version of the BT phone service AND Plusnet broadband on the same line. Something has to change.

Do you use Plusnet as your email provider? If so, this is also an important factor.

If you do not use Plusnet as your email provider then your easiest option is to ring Plusnet and ask to be transferred to BT. They should then agree to this without imposing cancellation charges. From here on the move to digital phone is easy, you simply plug your phone into the BT hub rather than the wall socket. The down side, apart from BT being more expensive, is that as soon as you transfer away from Plusnet your email service is cancelled and, assuming that the IMAP email protocol is used, all stored sent and received messages permanently deleted.

The alternative is to ring Plusnet and ask to be transferred to a SOGEA account. I assume that this will cancel the BT phone service. At this point you have 30 days to move the number to an independent VoIP (digital phone) service. After then the number is lost.

[#6]

If I had to choose I would prefer to lose the BT phone service and keep my email with Plusnet. The trouble is that mobile signal in my house is abysmal and although I don't use it very much there's always the chance that someone might need to speak to me urgently.

I can't see anything about SOGEA on the main Plusnet site. And anyway if it's a copper-based technology (as a quick search suggests) won't it disappear when Digital Voice arrives?

[#7]

@ceresian 

I assume you're a PN customer as you speak about PN email.

BT's roll out of Digital Voice is for their customers only.Thanks to the press there's confusion over this as many people think it applies to everyone.

However, landlines are being withdrawn, probably this year. When that happens your internet connection will switch to a SOGEA copper line - which is basically internet only. No real changes to your speed or service - you just lose the phone line.

If you want to stay with PN and keep a phone you'll need to consider VOIP using an independant provider.

Brian

[#8]

And anyway if it's a copper-based technology (as a quick search suggests) won't it disappear when Digital Voice arrives?

@ceresian to be clear, only the phone service over copper lines is going. Broadband service over copper lines (SoGEA) will remain for a long time yet as the rollout of full fibre to all will take years! Digital voice (Voip) works over broadband and whether that broadband service uses copper or full fibre is irrelevant.

[#9]

The last two posts have put a much clearer light on the problem. I hadn't made the distinction between being a BT phone-only customer and a BT broadband customer, and it seems that SoGEA is a new name for what I've had for years with Plusnet - a broadband router on the end of a copper wire from the pole across the road!!

So I now hope that the 'nationwide' Digital Voice rollout will roll right past my house and some day my phone will stop working and then I can decide whether I want or need VoIP.

Thanks everyone!

Alex.

[#10]

@ceresian said "SoGEA is a new name for what I've had for years with Plusnet" - well no, it probably isn't so beware!

It's relatively new (I'm on it and have been for about a year) it's roughly the "old" FTTC system for broadband but without any copper landline capability.

See: What is SoGEA? | SoGEA | SoGEA broadband | Plusnet

[#11]

@ceresian 

You can’t just sit back and hope that it will ‘just roll right past you’.

If BT decide to remove your landline phone service then this will trigger the termination of your Plusnet service and deletion of your emails. Out of the blue you will hopefully get a ‘sorry you are leaving’ email alert.

You must move your Plusnet connection to a SoGEA service and in doing so cancel the BT landline phone connection before BT make any changes.

Also note that if you contact BT and cancel your phone service, that again will automatically close your Plusnet account.

If retaining your emails is important then you need to sort this out with Plusnet. It may be later than you think!

[#12]

@ceresian 

As @Baldrick1 says you may need to act sooner rather than later. This also applies to your phone number. If you want to keep it you have only 30 days from when you transfer to SOGEA and it's always best porting the number sooner rather than later in case of problems. Remember, you can't port the number until you're on SOGEA.

Brian

[#13]

@ceresian It sounds like you are in the exact same or equivalent situation I was a year ago, please confirm:

1. A contract with BT for a landline, hopefully as I was "out of contract" so minimal notice required.

2. A separate contract with PlusNet for broadband, is this ADSL or FTTC? MIne was ADSL.

In the end I decided the simplest/safest route to keep my landline number was:

1. Ask PN to install a NEW, SEPARATE broadband line (new account!). This was SOGEA/FTTC so roughly 3 times as fast.

2. Set up a digital VOIP phone account with A&A and source appropriate (used) kit from eBay. Set up with a new number (supplied by A&A) on my local exchange.

3. Once everything was up and working cancelled my OLD PN ADSL broadband account. Actioned the same day and I actually got a small refund.

4. Next I asked A&A to take over my (now not linked in any way to my broadband) BT phone number. Transfer took a few days but worked fine and my BT line ceased working. BT also issued a refund in due course.

My BT line was still "live" with a dial tone for some months with a different (local) number allocated but only worked for engineers testing, no incoming or outgoing calls. It finally went totally dead quite recently.

Note that I had to pay installation charges (about £50) for the new line but there were significant savings by switching from a BT landline to A&A so I recouped that in about 2 months! I don't use the A&A "landline" for outgoing calls though as they are chargeable and mobile works fine here, so they may not suit everyone. The VOIP phone kit costs I have also recouped though my old DECT phones were in need of replacement anyway.

[#14]

@HPsauce Would that approach keep the original poster's Plusnet email account(s)? I think they were more worried about those than their phone number.

[#15]

No @IMM , the old email accounts will go, but how much longer will they survive anyway? I missed that point.

Personally I'd advise anyone with a PN email account to plan a move elsewhere, probably with even more urgency than the digital phone migration. Just my opinion though.