Petition to delay switching to digital landlines

[#1]

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@JSHarris wrote:

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@newagetraveller wrote:

No doubt that will mean the purchase of another phone/device which will connect to my router?

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Yes, you either need a router with a phone port (and some providers are already supplying these) or you need an analogue telephone adapter (ATA).  Either way you also need a contract with a "voice over internet protocol" (VOIP) telephone service provider.  Plusnet do not offer such a service.  I've partly made this switch, have bought an ATA and set up a VOIP telephone service account with Andrews & Arnold (A&A).  The adapter cost about £40, the VOIP contract with A&A costs £1.44/month plus call charges.

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No, there may not be any need to purchase another phone/device, there are plenty of suppliers who will provide a service that allows you to plug your existing phone into an appropriate socket. Clearly PN is not one of them, but if your landline is that important to you then you could move to a supplier that does cater for your needs, or go about the DIY approach as suggested.

[#2]

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@Mustrum wrote:

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No, there may not be any need to purchase another phone/device, there are plenty of suppliers who will provide a service that allows you to plug your existing phone into an appropriate socket. Clearly PN is not one of them, but if your landline is that important to you then you could move to a supplier that does cater for your needs, or go about the DIY approach as suggested.

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As long as you accept failure of the phone when the power goes off then you are right, but I was specifically replying to @newagetraveller  who was asking about maintaining a working telephone during power cuts:

@newagetraveller wrote:

Just the job when there's a power cut, my area has quite a few. Router will be dead and the mobile signal is non existent too.

Your solution does not address this key point, as routers with a phone port stop working when the power goes off, and even if provided with a backup power source they only work until the battery in the street cabinet dies (in my experience this is at around the 30 to 40 minutes point after a grid failure).

[#3]

@JSHarris   the suppliers I had in mind also supply BBU if required.

There are very few people who need to go to the extremes you appear to be suggesting.

[#4]

the suppliers I had in mind also supply BBU if required.

All very well, but as @JSHarris has pointed out, the elephant in the room is the street cabinet which loses power after 30-40mins. So if you're on FTTC or SoGEA then it doesnt matter how much backup you have in the home...

I'm not sure OFCOM have considered this, rather they are assuming everyone will be FTTP which (we believe?) will have longer backup

[#5]

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@MisterW wrote:

I'm not sure OFCOM have considered anything.

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Corrected it for you!

Ultimately it is down to the bean counters - no one wants to pay for a resilient service, and those out in the sticks are very much a minority who are unlikely to shout loud enough to make a difference.

[#6]

Spot on, @MisterW , this is the key issue.  Just in our village alone there are 61 homes impacted by this.  None can get a mobile signal, all are subject to the same incidence of power cuts in winter, all are fed from the same street cabinet that stops working some time after the power goes off.

This leaves an entire community with no means to call the emergency services, at a time (most likely during a bad storm) when the need to call for help may well be more likely.

All very well for those living in towns and cities to pretend this isn't an issue.  The reality is that it is one that's causing enough concern for impacted communities to be getting together to try and find solutions.

If the PSTN switch off was delayed until fibre is rolled out then I believe the major part of the problem (the street cabinets and mobile masts failing in a power cut) goes away, as FTTP I believe carries on working.  That makes a decent battery backup in each home a viable fix, but one that needs a lot more capacity that the short duration BBU systems available at the moment.    When the power fails here in a storm it will usually be out for several hours, perhaps as long as a day.  The Storm Jocelyn cut earlier this week lasted about four and half hours, which is typical for a day time cut.  Night time cuts usually last longer, presumably because of the added challenge of getting them repaired in the dark.

[#7]

The petition is now 1000 or so signatures shy of the point where the UK govt has to respond.

[#8]

A 'response' from the government will likely be a bit 'meh'.

Getting to the 100k for it to be 'considered for debate in parliament' is a hurdle. And note that it will only be 'considered for debate in parliament'.

[#9]

9948 as of this am!

[#10]

Now over 10,000 as of lunchtime! Get writing to your MPs to drive the message home.

[#11]

Don't hold your breath, 10,000 just means the Government has to respond which means a Civil Servant had to draft a letter for a minister usually just restating current policy. 100,000 means possibly ("considered for") a debate but that's usually NOT a Commons main chamber debate but in Westminster Hall so pretty meaningless.

[#12]

The problem with this is that only a few people know about the PSTN switch off.  AFAIK it's not been widely publicised by anyone.  I've seen no public information broadcast, not read anything about it in the main stream media.  It doesn't even seem to have been picked up by the media consumer programmes.

It seems likely that the only people responding to this petition will be those that have read fora like this one and spotted that their landline is going to be turned off in 2025.  If I had to guess then I'd say this forum only represents a tiny proportion of Plusnet customers, probably less than 5%.

I remain somewhat amazed that such a serious change to a critical safety-related service isn't attracting more attention.

[#13]

@JSHarris See links contained in here: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pstn+switch+off&sca_esv=51dc62383943f62b&source=hp&ei=59-3ZZnaL_qR...

I haven't read any of them, as I am aware of what is happening, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of some of them - especially those linked to 'interested party's' or sensationalist/uninformed sources. Other search terms may produce further information.

[#14]

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@HPsauce wrote:

Don't hold your breath, 10,000 just means the Government has to respond which means a Civil Servant had to draft a letter for a minister usually just restating current policy. 100,000 means possibly ("considered for") a debate but that's usually NOT a Commons main chamber debate but in Westminster Hall so pretty meaningless.

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Anything that raises awareness on this issue is worth doing. Especially if it gets the issue on paper in front of a minister and expects a signed response.

[#15]

@jab1 I was reading the money supermarket one  https://www.moneysupermarket.com/news/what-is-the-pstn-switch-off/#:~:text=The%20PSTN%20is%20due%20t.... and was initially thinking , they've actually got it right and then they went and spoiled it with

BT Openreach has since rolled out its new digital-only home phone service across East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, and Northern Ireland. The next phases are as follows:

oh dear , yet another that doesn't understand the difference between Openreach and BT Retail!!