Telephone lines getting changed from copper to "new style"

We've just moved over to voice over Internet telephone and it works fine. On the copper wire we had a main phone and 3 extensions. Now we have a main phone and five extensions. But we don't have any call button-type equipment - not yet anyway.

It might depend where you are, definitely digging involved where I am.

Well today our VOIP phone kept cutting out and there was no line available when we tried to ring back. It was like that for about 20 minutes. We were sitting near to where the internet connection comes into the house.

Highly irritating when you are in the middle of a call

CariadAgain
"and/or

if they start getting awkward then I "forget" exactly whereabout their telephone box is underneath my expensive new paving stones I won't let them take up and point out a telephone pole some other peoples phonewires are coming from that is about 60'/70' feet from my garden and tell them they will be installing a (new-style) phonewire to my house for me (rather than expecting to change the telephone wire buried underground that is currently serving my house).

I hate to tell you that what you suggest you could do, is exactly what BT want to do. They aren't interested in the old copper wire under your house, that is the technology that is being phased out.

You will be delivered fibre optic cable overhead and BT will make an entry point into your home for it. This happened to me. My old copper cable came up in the middle of the house but the only outside wall accessible for the optic fibre cable was through the wall in the kitchen. The optic fibre terminated there and I had to pay to get an electrician in to cable additional power points to support the new router and VOIP phones. (I had temporary cables draped around the kitchen until the electrician did his work).

The SOTAP FOR ANALOG is only a temporary solution using the old copper cable. BT will provide this service for those who really have no other way of getting help in a power cut until something better comes along. The really do not want to support the copper wire network any longer than they have to.

BT gave me very poor service and should have surveyed our property beforehand. However, our VOIP calls are crystal clear and internet speeds brilliant. We also have a strong mobile phone signal so I am not worried about power cuts.

Thanks M0nica and LaLa.

Looks some potentially promising avenues to pursue. I've had my internet/phone provider swopped recently to BT by that firm (Utility Warehouse?) and so I guess my best bet would be to ring Utility Warehouse and say "Re one of my services through you - would you be able to tell BT for me I only have a landline - and, from there, I'd have no access to a mobile phone/smartphone in emergency?"

Lahlah65 - do you (or anyone else) have a link to that particular section you are quoting there - eg a webpage I can check out and then quote the "official lines" to UW?

Right now I'm tossing-up between the:
- tell them I don't have a mobile or smartphone and my landline MUST continue working as it does now

and/or

- if they start getting awkward then I "forget" exactly whereabout their telephone box is underneath my expensive new paving stones I won't let them take up and point out a telephone pole some other peoples phonewires are coming from that is about 60'/70' feet from my garden and tell them they will be installing a (new-style) phonewire to my house for me (rather than expecting to change the telephone wire buried underground that is currently serving my house).

But did she tell BT about it lahlah?

Customers who fall into any of these categories should contact BT to ensure their data is up to date.

NotSpaghetti

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.^

Well, my mum would tick at least 3 of these but still got switched to a digital line. I don’t think they would want to maintain the old infrastructure just for her and generally everyone welcomed the better broadband speeds.

CariadAgain If you want a security pendant you should speaak to Age UK, www.ageuk.org.uk/products/mobility-and-independence-at-home/personal-alarms/

Can't edit posts on this forum - but re someone checking re healthcare pendants - maybe one tells one's Internet/phone provider? I know that when I changed provider recently they included in the stuff they sent me a letter asking if I was in a "vulnerable" position - so they could put me on their register as such. As far as I could work out that listing me as "vulnerable" would be pretty much an automatic thing just for being over 60 and I told them I'm in my 70's now. Don't quote me on that - but I have an idea that's how it went and, as they are my provider, then presumably they would tell t'other lot what their list of people is in a road before they came to do it.

re Housing Association "junk land" or whatever that the nearest pole is sited on (but not currently used by my property) it's just a very odd tiny little bit of land that's not usable for anything basically and about the only way it ever might be would be if their nearby buildings got redeveloped - and, by then, my wire would already be safely attached to that pole.

Hmmm....now wondering if I should get a healthcare pendant if it facilitates this sort of thing. I am in my 70's and I have just been told "Heart....heart....heart...that's what it will be for you whenever - as your readings are sky high for that. Or it could be a stroke on the other hand". What is the process and cost for that please? I could always get one temporarily maybe? and get rid of it once it had served that purpose....

In some areas 5G mobile eliminate the need for wired connections, full internet and voice calls, when my co tract ends next year I’m going to look seriously at 5G.

If it's like the KCom changeover then it's just a case of plugging an extra bit into your modem. No digging or rewiring.

Thank you NotSpaghetti I am with BT phone and broadband so I should think they would know. We are having terrible problems with phone calls at the moment buzzing on the line and cutting off for no reason. I have reported it but it’s not much better, just hope it clears up soon.

Mine was done a few years ago.
It just happened, no problem. Only issue we had, was we had a replica 1950 's phone which worked off a phone socket in the hall, unfortunately BT can't support that, but still in situ as an ornament.

Celieanne86 presumably your supplier knows - but the info I copied (above) was to contact BT

I’ve got a healthcare pendant so it would seem I don’t have to have the change over but how will they know, does someone do a check beforehand, it’s rather worrying.

You don't need a new phone line. No new wire to your house. Your current landline provider will give you a new Internet modem/router with a socket in the back into which you plug your phone line.
If you haven't already got a compatible house phone they ought to provide you with a new one. They can easily be bought online, I bought a pair in readiness, we haven't been switched over yet.

I asked if I could see an engineer before I agreed to anything.
They said no.
I'd like someone to see the set-up really.

What is Housing Association dump ground land?

Being only able to use it within 15 feet of where the line comes into the house bit must have been very frustrating. There is an odd set-up in this house anyway - from previous owners. When I moved in here - the friend that was with me looked for phone points to plug my two phones into and couldnt find any and I knew there had to be something - as the house had had a phone in the hall when I came viewing it. Turned out the bodging that had been done on my house included some gimcrack arrangement of phoneline coming into my house into a hall cupboard (!) and having a line trailing out from there. The putting right consisted of them re-activating an old-style socket by the front door and running a modern one off from it into my sitting room and then declaring that was now "THE" phonesocket. It took all sorts of doing and employing a private guy to put a socket in my study (ie 2nd bedroom) and then one heck of a lot of doing of me telling the BT people every single time they came here trying to get my line to work normally that they might be calling the socket in sitting room near my front door the "main" socket - but, in actual fact, the socket in my study is the real main socket (ie the one I actually use). The main BT guy coming in on a Friday and studiously ignoring me saying yet again that my study socket is the one I use was back again on the Monday (after the local next door neighbour - who he knew - had moved out over the intervening weekend). Hmm....funnily enough he "heard" me for the first time once she had moved out and made an adjustment to my actual main socket that took him a matter of moments. There's been an enormous amount of callouts by me in between me moving here and the next door neighbour moving out (50? 60?) as I had to fight and fight to get my line working normally in the first place. Hence another reason I'm nervous about the whole set-up (and given the new next-door neighbour is friend of the 1st one - ie also obstructive and determined to remind everyone she's "local" and I'm not). So - yep....it's got to be VERY clear what way they can do this that is acceptable and will work.

I am wondering whether they could run an overhead phoneline over from the nearest telephone pole to me with this new-style line - and I would say it's around 100-120 feet away from my house and I've checked the legal position that they are indeed allowed to run a wire over someone else's land (the land concerned being Housing Association dump ground land).

BT told me I had to change when I moved into this property earlier in the year.

To say it was a nightmare is an understatement.

Between BT & Open Reach it took almost 4 months to complete the changeover.

I cannot tell you how many different people came over the course of that time. There were missed appointments and unfulfilled promises and I spent over 14 hours on the phone to BT (I started logging it after week 1).

The Open Reach engineer ruined my vacuum cleaner and the brush to my long handled dustpan and brush. He made various ridiculous excuses as to why I couldn't have my router where I wanted it.

With the new digital voice system you now have to dial the local code if you're using a landline. If there's a power cut you'll need to use your mobile. If the mobile then runs out of charge then that's tough as you can't charge it if there's no electricity. So you need to have a power pack just in case.

I had to buy new landline phones as my old one wasn't compatible - BT offered me an adapter but that still would only have given me 2 handsets and I have 4 dotted around.

And apparently, this is progress

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. 😕

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)

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.

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.

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.