Internet based "Land Line". I'm having a problem.

Surprise, surprise! I'm back!

Just now, the broadband went down. So did my internet phone (of course). So did the so-called Emergency Handset. What flaming good is that?

You can request an additional Emergency "landline" which is supposed to kick in using it's battery if the broadband isn't working because of a power cut. It actually works as a mobile.

BT/Reach are changing all landlines to broadband/Wifi, sorry I’m not technically savvy. Had BT landline for decades but it is all changing, we don’t have choice, it will all be WiFi. The problem is if there is no WiFi then landline will not work so it will be impossible to make outgoing calls even in an emergency. I personally have only just become owner of iPhone, not new, passed on by granddaughter so at least I will have some outside contact, fingers crossed..

How about walkie talkies for emergencies? We have a pair of those ......... They keep their charge a long time when switched off.

M0nica

gentleshore
They will probably tell us all to get red button call alert thingies - my Dad used to have one round his neck. I have no idea how that worked.

These too work off your telephone line. No telephone reception, no operational red button alert.

Hmm. So how are emergency call alerts for vulnerable people going to work in future then I wonder? Unless they get them working on mobile networks instead.

Hopefully the final message from me (until the next time!) Engineer came, did some checks, said "Nothing you could have fixed yourself", spent nearly an hour and a half here and at the road "box" doing what he does and my Internet speed is up from 53 MbPs to over 100 and appears stable and both the phones are working. No pixelation on the TV either.

Ok, did reset and everything is working (for the moment anyway!

Internet is working and managed to "chat" online with a person. Engineer booked for tomorrow pm - although they tried to tell me it was MY equipment. I pointed out the Emergency phone was THEIR equipment. No phoneline still but I will try a reset on the hub. I may then have to reset my internet connection to the laptop - but have no idea how! My daughter set it up for me and don't know when I will see her as she lives 40 miles away and works full time, so I might not be back on my laptop for some time. Fingers crossed!

Oh, and by the way, my laptop is about 6 feet from the Hub. I have a wireless landline set and the advice is not to have it near the hub because of possible interference, but of course I can't get it more than 4 feet away because the base has to be plugged into the hub. Ridiculous.

I lost my internet again just now. I decided to contact Virgin and complain. I'm fed up with it. My Broadband phone didn't work of course but the Emergency "mobile" handset took over. It wasn't working either! I have Internet at the moment, enough to to get on here (but who knows for how long) but both phones are still out of action. What good is an emergency "mobile" handset if it stops working as well? And for this, plus TV, they are now charging me over £100 per month!

We were forced into the same two years ago.
We have virtually no mobile signal and frequent power cuts.
We use WiFi calling for mobile calls and have a ups (battery) back up which keeps the router going for a few hours in power cuts.
Like the OP it's flaky, whether I use landline or WiFi calling on a mobile my calls drop out despite having super fast fibre broadband.
@Katek try WiFi calling. Most modern mobile phones have it. We did buy new mobiles for this but it's been transformative to be able to use mobiles.

What has helped is getting three boosters for the WiFi. Get onto your internet provider and get it upgraded. Also what helps is proximity to the router.

Elowen33

I have Virgin but do not have a landline. Virgin has the worst customer service I have ever come across.

I contact them when my contract ends and the price more than doubles, It has never taken less than an hour to speak to somebody to bring the price back down to a reasonable level.

I second this. Absolutely unbelievably bad customer service, (unless it's something like a broken remote for the TV box which is a standard option on their internet proforma & AI can do it).
We went with another provider in the end, they were just so bad I couldn't stomach paying Virgin another penny.

MiniMoon, I don't think my TV has an Ethernet connection. It is far from Smart! It connects directly into the VirginMedia Tivo box. I think there is probably a problem with the cabling. CableTell head office was just down the road in the late 90s so we got cabled up very early and they are now what Virgin use. Perhaps some dry joints?

I ought to have said that my router is situated upstairs in my bedroom hence the weak signal.

Aely I had a problem with my smart TV when we first got it. Streaming channels eg Netflix were buffering. I asked my son to offer a solution. He provided me with two ethernet cables, one to plug into the router and the other to plug into the television. This sorted the problem with the weak signal.
I would give this a try.

I was repeatedly being asked to change to the new full fibre lines, I kept ignoring it till recently, because they will be changing from the old copper lines sometime soon, a couple of weeks ago my landline went dead....check line cord was the message I got , as I have a smart phone and a mobile that I take with me everywhere, I didn't bother letting my broadband and phone provider know, and openreach were installing full fibre last week, I'm with vodafone and trying to get through to a human,,,who is not in India that I was able to understand is almost impossible.. so I left it till last week when full fibre was installed, a small box was fitted to the wall and the router connected to that and my phone line attached to the router, openreach told me that it could take 12 hours before I was able to send and recieve calls....it was too...next day...I have a pair of phones, one upstairs and one down, they both work perfectly, I was worried that the one downstairs wouldn't work. but I'm not too happy about the fact that if there's a power cut, you can't even phone emergency services, that is not good...and anyone who has an alert button won't be able to use it either...not thought out well enough

Gentle S: Lifeline/telecare is the red button thingummybob around neck or on wrist. At the moment it only works with conventional land lines.

Current satellite phones and communicators are pretty much the same size as mobile phones and don't have a separate transmitter. They work directly from one of many satellites and are ideal for emergencies. The reason I say emergencies is because these phones can be very expensive to run. Monthly contracts can run into 3 figures but you can also buy prepaid airtime which is what we have. It was around £40 for 30minutes of airtime which isn't cheap, but what price peace of mind? Handsets can be expensive but our second hand buy was £300. Again, what price peace of mind? Oh and they work just the same as a conventional mobile phone. DH had one for work as he could end up in places with very poor mobile signal and DIL as a keen hill walker/climber has a much smaller, cheaper communicator which basically just sends out an emergency signal with her location. It's one way of providing yourself with a degree of security but certainly not a cheap option. It was either this, short wave radio and a Morse key or smoke signals!!

CariadAgain
The first satellite phone I saw was in 1997. He was someone who came to look at our boat which was for sale.
The second time was 2004 when we needed a freelance international customs officer.
They are bigger than the mobiles we know.
They have a big transmitter that connects to a saterlite.

I agree with all the above. It is a truly retrograde step in so many ways and leads to a lot of stress. My consultant called me to give me my brain tumour results and it kept cutting out. When we got it through our new Sky broadband package we were told it was "all singing all dancing and could do so much more than the present phone". Total lies!!!!

Katek

We were transferred to the new digital service almost 2 years ago despite raising grave reservations with BT. It is not unknown for our power to be out for 2/3 days-no internet, no phone connection. The mobile signal here is patchy and the mobile mast can also go down in a power cut. It does not have a generator backup so we are left with no service via either mobile or landline. We have the domestic 12 hour battery backup up which is completely useless if we do not have a signal. The last power cuts meant a drive of around 8 miles before we picked up a mobile signal. As we both have health issues we felt extremely exposed/vulnerable and have now bought a second hand satellite phone to provide us with communications in the event of a power outage.

I've not heard of the concept of a satellite phone.

How does that work out?

- How do they work?
- What do they cost to get them?
- Is using them just like a standard old-style landline phone? (ie they ring when someone is trying to ring you, you are on the phone however long you decide to be, you can ring whenever you please (even if the electric has gone down)?
- What is the cost of using them?

I have Virgin but do not have a landline. Virgin has the worst customer service I have ever come across.

I contact them when my contract ends and the price more than doubles, It has never taken less than an hour to speak to somebody to bring the price back down to a reasonable level.

Elowen33

I may be stating the obvious, but have you restarted your router? It cures most things. If it is affecting the TV as well it is your broadband that has a problem.

I am resetting my router every couple of days. When I have had a good enough broadband signal to check the companies "status page" it marks my TV and internet as being "intermittent" but my phone as fine - which it is when my signal is good enough to do the check!

gentleshore
They will probably tell us all to get red button call alert thingies - my Dad used to have one round his neck. I have no idea how that worked.

These too work off your telephone line. No telephone reception, no operational red button alert.

I live in London and recently switched from EE to Community Fibre. I have problems with my TV and phone, but not on the same scale. I have been told it is Community Fibre's problem, but I do not know what they can do about my phone.

I have three landlines, the kitchen, the sitting room, and my bedroom. It is very irritating when I am expecting a call but the phone does not ring.