landlines are changing e-mail

[#1]

For @alex_h1  's clarification -

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@bmc wrote:

... if you move to EE (or any other ISP who offers both) then it'll be a VOIP service you're offered ...

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Pedantic correction to ensure terminology doesn't go off track (as has happened in other topics)

Moving to EE or most other ISPs who offer both, will usually be supplied "Digital Voice" and NOT open standards VoIP.

With third party VoIP, you can choose provider, use your own equipment, use a mobile as a handset (via WiFi or 4G)

whereas "Digital Voice" is locked to the broadband provider's router, and has way less flexibility than true VoIP.

VoIP is usually way cheaper than the call prices for out-of-call-package "Digital Voice" calls.

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[#2]

I've asked the moderators to split off @alex_h1 's questions and answers in to a new topic,

as this thread is going way off topic !

@alex_h1  keep posting here, until @Baldrick1 or @dvorak create your own topic, and move related posts to that.

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[#3]

People keep banging on about GEN066/24

To quote the salient bit: 

As part of our ongoing All IP programme, Openreach has issued contract termination notifications to all WLR CPs with an effective date of 31 December 2025. Where assets have not been migrated and/or cancelled by 31 December 2025, BT may, at our absolute and sole discretion, allow the services and assets to remain post 31 December 2025. Any continuation of services shall be on new terms and conditions which shall comprise the terms, conditions and charges of the current WLR contract save for the following revision:

• Clause 2.3(d) shall read as not less than 90 days’ notice.

So come January 2026 or before Plusnet formally says to Openreach: "We still have lots of customers to transfer, please can we have an extension"? Do you seriously think that Openreach will reply: "No, we are going to disconnect all these customers of yours!"

I would love to be in the BTplc board meeting when the execs from BT Openreach and BT Plusnet are asked to justify this scenario!

[#4]

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@Baldrick1 wrote:

So come January 2026 or before Plusnet formally says to Openreach: "We still have lots of customers to transfer, please can we have an extension"

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And who's fault is that ?

Plusnet should have not been allowing FTTC "with phone" 18-month renewals after June 2024

knowing that the Openreach target for residential phone migrations to VoIP was and continues to be 31st December 2025.

Instead apparently even today, phone customers can renew "AS IS" for another 18 months - way past 31st January 2027 !

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[#5]

What's blame got to do with it? I can't imagine that Plusnet make strategic decisions such as when to make these moves in total isolation from the rest of the BT group.

[#6]

@RobPN WiFi calling does usually work, but seems a bit hit and miss, particularly for incoming calls.

We are probably a bt old-fashioned in still preferring to use a landline (I'm 66 my wife is 75), although I am fully tech-savvy, having worked in IT all my life. But my wife really doesn't like her mobile much. She used an old nokia for years, until deciding she really needed some of the smartphone features, but she is forever forgetting to charge it, and tends to keep it switched off when not using it. I'm much happier using my mobile, and only tend to use the landline when somebody calls in, or when my mobile is playing up with WiFi calling.

[#7]

The reason that Openreach had to extend the drop-dead PSTN switch off deadline to 31st January 2027, was because the tele-health alarm manufacturers stuck their fingers in their ears going la la la it's never going to happen, and were not able to ensure the safety of their customers with replacement alternatives by 31st December 2025.

Plusnet appear to have also been ignoring the Openreach published deadlines, and are still giving phone customers the false impression that they have until 2027 to sort their phone's out.  They also appear to have no plan for ADSL customers, who will soon lose phone, broadband, and their Plusnet account after the 90 day notice expires.

Openreach have said that the dates won't be moved again.

[#8]

@outcast I hadn't realised you could port your number to a third party VoIP supplier, so I thought the only option for keeping it was the EE route.

Now I know you can port your number, that is more likely to be the route I will take, thoguh I will look at all options once we get to the point where we will be losing the analogue land line.

[#9]

@alex_h1 if you sign ip with A&A, you can get a 'new' number to play with. This will help you get the right equipment and work out how it all works before you are force to port your number out.

[#10]

@alex_h1 

Do it now, you will save so much money on phone calls. Keep asking questions here, as most of us have already converted.

You want to get this sorted BEFORE the mass panic when the rest of the UK realise they only have 90 days to keep their landlines by converting to VoIP,  potentially creating shortages for ATA adaptors, or VoIP providers being overwhelmed with new orders.

My recommendations are A&A VoIP, or  Voipfone 

I've had various VoIP providers since 2013 (in addition to having a landline), and finally converted my landline phone to VoIP two years ago.  I'm still using the same phone I had 15 years ago, but the calls are so much clearer, and the call costs are about 5% of what we used to pay BT.  As an added bonus, when the analogue phone signal was removed from my FTTC landline, my broadband speed improved by nearly 10%.

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[#11]

@outcast I am going to wait until FTTP is actually available to me, and I will probably go to a VoIP provider that has plans with included calls, such as https://www.voipfone.co.uk/plans/residential

[#12]

@alex_h1

You may not be given the choice of waiting for Full Fibre.

Research the ins and outs of VOIP so you know what's required if the time comes sooner than expected. For example, you may need battery back up power as well if your area is subject to power cuts.

Note there could be a few days downtime on the phone if you port to an independant VOIP provider. You cannot initiate the process until you've had it confirmed by PN that your move to SOGEA (FTTC) or Full Fibre has been completed and your phone service is ceased.

Brian

[#13]

@alex_h1 

Waiting until FTTP means that you'd be changing two things (phone service, and broadband connection) at the same time.

By converting to VoIP while on FTTC, only physically involves unplugging your phone from the BT master socket, and instead plugging in via an ATA adaptor.  Your existing broadband router and wires stay the same.

Later, whenever FTTP becomes available, you would only need to swap the router's DSL cable (from your BT master socket), for an ethernet cable (to the new Openreach ONT box).

By waiting for FTTP, be reminded that you are delaying saving a huge percentage of your current landline phone charges.

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[#14]

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@outcast wrote:

So, what are your current guesses for when Plusnet will start sending 90 day notices to active phone users ?

Or, speculate your own date, but state what the evidence is for that view.

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I see it more an OR system issue, almost irrelevant to ISP's.

I therefore suspect it will be done exchange by exchange with the 90 day notices sent in blocks for each exchange (or subdivision).

Then at the physical level, once the 90 days elapse, all the wires (ADSL & POTS) from houses to each 'old green box' are cut off and the active ones wired into the adjoining FTTC cabinet instead.  One visit by OR engineers, and the FTTP installers can be similarly concentrated to each exchange area in turn.

Dial tone and analogue call function would have to be maintained until the last ADSL/POTS was turned over, then command the FTTC units to kill off the analogue side.

Anything else surely results in a country-wide rush and the FTTP installation queue rapidly exceeds the 90 days

[#15]

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@outcast wrote:

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@alex_h1 

You should be able to use your existing phone with VoIP by using an ATA adaptor, such as the Grandstream HT801 

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Probably because I had browsed to the above link for the Grandstream HT801,

YouTube just recommend to me this video - How to Setup your Grandstream HT801 Analogue Adapter 

so thought I'd share it as some here might find it relevant,

although the video assumes that the device is pre-programmed by the VoIP supplier and is ready to use.

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