Phone line

[#1]

@RobPN   It seems you've also misunderstood the basic concept of replacing 'landlines' with digital voice services such as VoIP.  

Yes I have.... I haven`t a clue, hence my  simple minded uneducated questions...  seeking further clarification as to how it would work, in the scenario of when the  landline telephone system stops working...

[#2]

@shutter 

Put simply, you'll still be able to have a 'landline-like'  telephone service (in most cases with your existing number), it's just that it won't be an analogue service over a copper line like it is now, but a digital service over whatever physical infrastructure comes to your house.  Eventually that will be fibre (I mean fibre, not VDSL which is delivered over copper), but as you know from your use of ADSL, digital services (your present Internet connection) can will be delivered over copper, and that's the way the digital voice service will continue for a while for those people who haven't had their copper replaced with fibre by the time the analogue service (PSTN) is discontinued.

As I said above, that was putting it simply, but in reality there is likely to be a 'basic' digital service provided to just carry voice signals for those who don't want an Internet service etc..

Put another way, maybe you could better understand if you compare the new situation with your use of Morse over your Internet connection.  In the past those dots and dashes would be sent over copper wires, making and breaking the circuit, but with your present method some software converts your key presses to a digital signal which will then be converted back at the other end.

HTH  

[#3]

@shutter  just imagine a phone you plug into an ethernet port, rather than a phone line.

They have done this kind of thing in offices for years.

Depending on the system you can log in to it and take calls on a variety of devices, I had a phone in the office and one at home, could take calls on a soft phone on my laptop anywhere I was connected to the internet, or have them come up in my mobile. Callers had no idea where I was, and did not need to know my mobile number - quite a handy thing these days when more a more companies allow BYOD (Bring your own device) but you don't want to give people your personal mobile number.

Not that I expect you will get to do all this with cheapo version ISP's will be giving to customers.

[#4]

Here you go @shutter , if you want to find out a bit more about VoIP by experimenting, have a look here and maybe sign up for a FREE account.   https://www.sipgatebasic.co.uk/

It won't cost you a single penny, you won't be signing any contract to commit to anything, and you'll get a FREE 'landline' telephone number with pretty much any UK area code you choose, with no monthly charges to hit you unexpectedly, and you can use it to receive incoming calls from your landline, mobile or any other person can call it.

You won't be making any commitment to port your existing landline number to Sipgate unless you request that, the new number will be completely independent of what you already have, and no extra physical lines will be involved, it's a purely digital service.

As (I assume) you don't possess any physical equipment such as an ATA or SIP/VoIP phones to plug in to your router, you could simply download a FREE softphone to install on a computer which you can probably find either by Googling or someone might be able to recommend one.  With a softphone you can make or receive calls from/to the number you get from Sipgate, but obviously you won't be able to make chargeable outgoing calls without putting some credit on the account, but nobody will force you to do that.  Sipgate allow calls to 0800 numbers without putting credit on the account.

You may have to give some information such as your address to receive a verification code.

[#5]

I bet these softphones don't work well on a computer with no microphone or with the loudspeakers switched off.