careline digital telecare device

[#1]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Full Fibre to My Order

[#2]

@ND1 

Can you not place the order online?

Brian

[#3]

When I moved a relative with a careline type device to BT FTTP on a social tariff they asked what model it was and told me it didn't use the phone line - I did check with the care company and they confirmed it had a SIM (I felt a bit daft as I should have realised!).

So it is quite possible for the ISP to take enough interest to avoid issues (either cutting off the careline device, or refusing to migrate a customer because they have one). In fact I'd suggest it is essential that ISPs do this - otherwise there is going to be a lot of last minute issues to resolve.

[#4]

@corringham 

"So it is quite possible for the ISP to take enough interest to avoid issues (either cutting off the careline device, or refusing to migrate a customer because they have one). In fact I'd suggest it is essential that ISPs do this - otherwise there is going to be a lot of last minute issues to resolve."

Indeed.

I wonder how refusing to transfer at this point leaves people who DO have landline phones and careline devices?

1. Landline phone is a Plusnet service
Plusnet will have to deal with this at some point - they can't just cut the phone and (potentially) leave users stranded.

2. Landline phone is not a Plusnet service
I guess in this case Plusnet will be leaving the other supplier to sort it out. Not sure what that means for customer's existing PN digital services.

Perhaps Plusnet will firstly proceed (as now?) on the basis of 2. Then, in the end, when everyone left is (hopefully?) a Plusnet landline phone customer, deal with them all in a batch?

[A little bit of politics!]

This does all seem to have the feel of 'A Great British Mess' - seemingly largely as a consequence of past political policies of 'competition' and 'liberating' the communications industry.

I may no longer have a landline telephone line - but I still own a wired telephone with a blue Mercury button on it!

[#5]

I saw the same thing happen about a month ago.

Even though I demonstrated to the engineer (a subcontractor) that it had already been moved away to a 4G/5G connection, his hands were tied - computer says no.

He had to refer it back to Openreach for an actual Openreach engineer to come back and do the work that he could have done.

[#6]

To put it politely, that is beyond crazy, @mike600 .

[#7]

What is it about post #12 that is so hard to understand? The BT group policy is that if any type of careline is installed in a property, then to ensure that BT group fully satisfy their duty of care obligations, the customer shall be transferred to BT retail. They have a specialist team responsible for ensuring that the careline service is not compromised by the demise of the PSTN.

If that results in the loss of customers due to what is seen as an un-necessary, over cautious approach, then so be it.

[#8]

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@pvmb wrote:

... seemingly largely as a consequence of past political policies of 'competition' and 'liberating' the communications industry.

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Does anyone really think that things would have been better if telecoms had been left in the hands of the GPO?

The "political policies of 'competition' and 'liberating' the communications industry" has no bearing on the indisputable fact that the PTSN is somewhat past its best before date, irrespective of who runs it.

What is it that irks folks here - that the choice of supplier is being dictated to the user, in a paradigm where the "political policies of 'competition' and 'liberating' the communications industry" has delivered the option to choose?  God forbid that we should all be forced into the clutches of BT Retail and their off-shore call centres.

[#9]

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@Townman wrote:

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Does anyone really think that things would have been better if telecoms had been left in the hands of the GPO?

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Don't even go there - please - .

[#10]

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@Townman wrote:

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@pvmb wrote:

... seemingly largely as a consequence of past political policies of 'competition' and 'liberating' the communications industry.

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Does anyone really think that things would have been better if telecoms had been left in the hands of the GPO?

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No. As the "GPO" ceased to exist in 1969.

It's fairly well known by now that BT was gearing up to start installing fibre, in the 1980s/90s - but blue buttons on phones were the political priority - so...

https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost-the-broadband-race-in-1990-1224784

Dr Cochrane knew that Britain's tired copper network was insufficient: "In 1974 it was patently obvious that copper wire was unsuitable for digital communication in any form, and it could not afford the capacity we needed for the future."

"In 1986, I managed to get fibre to the home cheaper than copper and we started a programme where we built factories for manufacturing the system. By 1990, we had two factories, one in Ipswich and one in Birmingham, where were manufacturing components for systems to roll out to the local loop".

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@Townman wrote:

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God forbid that we should all be forced into the clutches of BT Retail and their off-shore call centres.

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Aren't they characteristic of cost saving businesses? Hardly limited to BT plc, is it?

Anyway... Back on topic now!