Telephone lines getting changed from copper to "new style"

This is presumably part of the switch to digital.
They are excluding some people.
This is from BT:

BT won’t be proactively switching anyone who falls under the below criteria, where it has this information available:

Customers with a healthcare pendant
Customers who only use landlines
Customers with no mobile signal
Customers who have disclosed any additional needs.
Customers who fall into any of these categories should contact BT to ensure their data is up to date.

In the late 60's, we had to have a party line. It was not ideal but a lot better than standing outside a red telephone box waiting for someone to finish so I could ring a friend who would be waiting at another red telephone box for my call.

I am with Virgin Media and last year they installed a brand new up todate broadband hub/router and also gave me a digital landline phone with batteries so if the electricity went off or the network went down the phone changed to battery so I could use it until the problem was fixed.

The problem with smart mobile phones is that if the network goes down you cannot use your phone so have to switch to mobile data which, if your plan is not a very good one it could cost you to make phone calls. The emergency landline phone they gave me is great.

This was done in our area in the early years when I lived here. I was still renting the house then so obviously I could not have been in a position to allow them to dig up any of the property without permission from the LL. In the event there were two Openreach vans outside for a couple of days and all the work was done across the road in one location.

I was later told that BT had taken over the Nynex system in this area. So no disturbance to the residents.

Maybe we will escape the change over.

Our mobile signal is dire. We have to use the wifi.

Although our land lines are above ground on poles.

I have the BT engineer coming on Friday to make sure everything is working correctly, as part of our ‘Halo’ package,
so I’ll ask him about the change over.

biglouis

This was done in our area in the early years when I lived here. I was still renting the house then so obviously I could not have been in a position to allow them to dig up any of the property without permission from the LL. In the event there were two Openreach vans outside for a couple of days and all the work was done across the road in one location.

I was later told that BT had taken over the Nynex system in this area. So no disturbance to the residents.

That's a new one on me. What is the Nynex system?

Oopsadaisy1

Maybe we will escape the change over.

Our mobile signal is dire. We have to use the wifi.

Although our land lines are above ground on poles.

I have the BT engineer coming on Friday to make sure everything is working correctly, as part of our ‘Halo’ package,
so I’ll ask him about the change over.

I get your point re mobile reception - as a lot of people complain about it in the area I'm in and some saying it doesn't work at all.

I've just had a word with a neighbour in next road over here and, though they only bought that house very recently, they found they were still sharing a party line with their next door neighbour and had to have it amended to split it off. It's very old-fashioned here in a lot of ways! Their landline/new landline is on a pole above ground - so I'm wondering what the possibilities are of a new landline (of that new type) being run across from their pole in the next road over to my house or of a telephone pole being put in our little road and wires (of that new style) being run across to my house (and the next door neighbours).

It would cost me a fortune ringing her can I suggest you get WhatsApp, free calls anywhere

WhatsApp was my immediate thought too, for ringing your Irish friend
It's so easy to send pictures too
As for going digital, it may be that BT won't need to disturb your garden at all.
Good luck.

When the copper wires here were replaced by fibre optic ones they were taken as far as the nearest poles. Then varying companies called round trying to get customers to have the new system in their homes. I recklessly signed up as my contract with my internet company was due to run out, and they offered a great deal, including a free new line into my house, very, very fast internet and inclusive 24/7 phone calls for less than I was paying. My new wire was connected to the nearest pole, not the same pole I had been connected to before, and a black box installed inside. All done in a morning. They connected my mobile to the wifi, and installed an app on my mobile which I can control the modem with. It all works very well and since then I've added the TVs, HD recorder WiFi printer, etc. When I changed my mobile, I managed to install the app to control the system on my new phone without a problem. My old landline phone plugs into the black box, same number. The only difference being I have to use the area code for local numbers too.
Some of my neighbours have still got their old wires from the pole and there are some new wires which go over to the next cul de sac.

The mobile signal here is also very hit and miss. At home I just tend to use my mobile for internet on the WiFi.

We were 'converted' about a year ago. i do not remember the technicians doing anything to the wiring, just took the old point in the hall out and replaced internet kit in our study.

Do not believe anyone who tells you it will be better than a landline. It isn't. We have phone calls cutting out mid call, sometimes we cannot get a line.

While before I could walk all round the house when on the phone and take phone calls wherever I wanted to. I am restricted to half of the house only. Anything more than about 15 foot from the line fades out. We have a long thin house, a row of rooms and we are stricted to aking calls in the hall, study and kitchen, but no further.

I WANT MY LANDLINE BACK!

We were switched to digital voice a few months ago. They arranged an engineer’s appointment and he duly turned up and all he did was unplug the wire from the wall socket and plugged it into the back of our router. He left the connection to broadband in the socket.
All works fine and the line is as clear as a bell.

Thanks for further comments. I've been told by a techno type guy on a Facebook group that if I'm with BT it should be easier - as BT can change things at the Exchange and don't have to bother me. Let's hope he's right. The magic words according to him are "I'm having SOTAP FOR ANALOGUE" and that should keep things going for me as is at any rate until "that" year again (ie 2030). Let's just hope all round - between what you ladies have kindly said to me and what he's saying.

I do have fibre broadband anyway (as this area's speed is so slow) - but it's to the box in next road - rather than the version coming to my house. So I hope that's not a problem then.

The other little point as to why I'm trying to keep my secondary phone (ie the one in my sitting room - which I need to be able to hear the phone ring when I'm in there) is down to a personal thing of I don't want to ever have to use any "disability adaptations" in my home and am hoping it never comes to it. That secondary phone acts as an unobtrusive way of dealing with things - as I've got it sat on a very low coffeetable that I could reach - even if I were lying on the floor. That thought rather crossed my mind - given I had two "Falls" in quick succession in my house the other day and I'm blowed if I can think why they happened and thought "Agh! Hope I'm not starting to have 'Falls' !!!". But, as said, I could easily hoick that phone off the coffeetable onto the floor if need be in order to use it to make a phonecall.

Oopsadaisy1

Maybe we will escape the change over.

Our mobile signal is dire. We have to use the wifi.

Although our land lines are above ground on poles.

I have the BT engineer coming on Friday to make sure everything is working correctly, as part of our ‘Halo’ package,
so I’ll ask him about the change over.

It’s your wifi signal that’s relevant, as the new system is digital it operates via wifi. We had a free update to our BT wifi hub when our telephone system was updated to digital.

CariadAgain do you have a mobile phone?

Just to add to my previous post that we’re with BT, we have a set of 3 BT 4600 cordless phones. All are working perfectly since the change to digital which took minutes. No more crackly lines!

Jaxjacky

CariadAgain do you have a mobile phone?

At some point - hopefully/maybe. As in I had a mobile phone years back/replaced it when it gave up on me. Then I tried buying a smartphone - and I could not get the hang of it for the life of me (as in I just don't have a technical brain). So I've worked my way through buying a couple of replacement mobile phones when I got rid of that smartphone and neither of them were as simple as my first two mobile phones from "way back when". Currently I've got yet another mobile phone I've bought and am looking at it currently wondering if it's one of the more difficult ones of the current era or simpler like the first ones on the market. It's on the list to take it to local Mr Helpful Handyguy and get him to set it up for me and hope it will really be simple (given he sold me one of the "too dificult" ones I've recently had to get rid of). It's all part of my reason why I stick to basic landline phones - as they're so easy.

I understand Cariad, I was just concerned if you are injured, through a fall or not, in another part of your house you may not be able to reach your ‘house’ phones

Thanks for the concern Jaxjacky - must admit the thought of calling for help from the NHS in this area would scare the bejesus out of me - as they can be told it's as urgent as heck and they'll still take hours and hours before they turn up. Followed by you could take one look at the nearest hospitals to me and would probably be shocked - ie Haverfordwest (half of it literally falling down - due to wrong materials used - and an expectation of waiting hours and hours in A & E with precious few facilities) or Carmarthen one (like something out of the Stone Age/crowded/I'm so glad I'm not a member of staff having to try to find something decent to eat in the "restaurant" there, as I was free to wait my chance to get something elsewhere the first & last time I went there). Though I guess, if it came to it, I could call for a private ambulance to take me to a private hospital maybe (and the nearest one of them is some distance away....). Admits to being at a bit of a loss as to just what I would do here if it came to it - whereas the A & E Department in the city I've come from was a place I visited just twice (daytime and night-time) due to accompanying other people in there and I don't know if it's changed in the years since - but both times the people I was with were taken literally straight in no problem at all.

We had ours changed over because we are with Virgin and we rent telephone from them and didn’t have any choice.
But unfortunately it had to be sighted next to the router which is in the main bedroom.
But we have an extension in living room, so not too inconvenient.

On a different tack on this - does anyone know if these new type of phonelines they are trying to bring in across the country can be hung from conventional telegraph poles (ie as the current type of copper phonelines are)? As, if so, that could be another line of enquiry I could go down - ie just tell the engineers "Yep...I know our existing copperlines are buried underground - but put our replacement new-style phonelines hanging from your telegraph poles instead". It's only myself and my immediate closest neighbours that have our lines buried underground, but everyone else's nearby are hanging from telegraph poles.

I’ve changed over, some months ago it was done and no problem at all . All done with the underground cables in the street and Openreach did it with no fuss at all.
I’ve also had Fast Fibre broadband which everyone should have by 2025 again with no bother at all.
It’s not something that you can choose to have as you will not be able to use your phone or broadband if you don’t. Everyone will have it so I thought I might as well be one of the first before the rush begins.

Pippa your attitude, reflected ours, until we had to live with all the new systems limitations. Phone calls cut off, sometimes no line and only being able to use it within 15 feet of where the line comes into the house., which in our case is a real problem as we have a very long thin house and the phone line fades out when we go to the end of the living room or further, let alone try and use it in the bedrooms.

Pippa22

I’ve changed over, some months ago it was done and no problem at all . All done with the underground cables in the street and Openreach did it with no fuss at all.
I’ve also had Fast Fibre broadband which everyone should have by 2025 again with no bother at all.
It’s not something that you can choose to have as you will not be able to use your phone or broadband if you don’t. Everyone will have it so I thought I might as well be one of the first before the rush begins.

We have lived here for 26 yrs, we still have a rubbish mobile reception, best uninterrupted signal is down the road to the end, turn right and 50 yards down we get a signal. Not very handy in an emergency.

We are 4 miles from the nearest large village and aren’t expecting anyone to dig underground for any cables any time soon. Far too expensive for just 100 homes. So everything is either Satelite or telegraph poles for the phones and Electricity (no gas here either).

However our fast broadband is excellent and stretches to the other end of our driveway one direction and down to the bottom of the garden the other direction ( we have the Halo from BT)

My problem is rather like M0nica's - but we still do have a copper wire landline.
The phone is in the sitting room with a wired extension to the study. ...Unfortunately it's very crackly.

Mobiles only work some of the time - largely at the front of the house. The bedroom at the top of the house always works for making mobile phone calls as it normally has a decent signal - but as we have 3 floors it's a nuisance.
I can't get any signal (phone OR WiFi) in the kitchen. Our central heating control has to be next to the boiler as 5 feet away it doesn't work!
We have nearly impermeable walls it seems. 😕