OpenReach Techincal Update

[#1]

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/02/update-on-openreach-g-fast-fod-sogea-and-fttp-broadban...

Brian

[#2]

I was interested to read about the switch to an all VOIP network and am wondering how this will work for people who don't have an internet connexion — they do still exist.  Will they have broadband to their house and then plug their 'phones into an ATA or will they not notice the change and the conversion be done in the cabinet or at the exchange?

It makes no odds to me as my POTS line isn't used for out-going calls anyway — the only reason anything is connected to it is for incoming calls as they don't cost me anything and it's probably more reliable.  My experience is that broadband is more likely to temporarily vanish than the 'phone line and if my ATA failed it would be while before I got a replacement.  In the interim I could use my mobile to make calls or if really desperate the POTS line at great expense.

[#3]

So what happens to fax machines - will a fax copy still be considered to be a legal document - despite getting the digital makeover?

I bet there is all sorts of cases where a telephone line is connected to an ancient machine that's been running for decades.

Telex anyone?

X.25 is stillmight be still used (e.g., as of 2012 in the credit card payment industry) and available in niche applications such as Retronet that allows vintage computers to use the internet. [I had to make a Ceefax-like system keep running via X.25 in the 1990's]

[#4]

I'd think you'd find that once a phone line gets to an exchange it gets a digital makeover anyway. Hardly hardwired all the way through.