Telephone line - that swop away from normal copper lines

I agree with everything Elegran has written - my landline was switched a few years ago (BT), and it went very smoothly. I was notified by email several times when the switch over would happen, and I had no problems at all. I have the master phone in my kitchen plugged into the router, and two subsidiaries in the sitting room and bedroom, just plugged into electric sockets. All work perfectly.

Obviously in a power cut they won’t work, but my mobile can take over then.

Cariad needs to stop worrying!

I may be a gran of very little brain, but I cannot remember NOT having this set up at least in the present house which we moved to 30 years ago.

I am surprised that some people (well, Cariad mostly, who I thought would be up to date) have never heard of subsidiary handsets being plugged into electricity sockets in rooms separate from the main phone entry point.

PS I have 3 “phones” in the house, the main pod is in the study, with cradles and handsets in the bedroom and the kitchen.
It’s really no big deal.

Thanks for some sound common sense Elegran, the amount of panic generated on this thread makes me wonder what, if anything changed when my phone line went over to Openreach a year or two back. What have I missed? What happened that I didn’t notice?
I must have been enjoying a nap when the little green men trotted up my garden path and installed this alien device.

Forgot to say the ordinary electric socket can be in a different room from the main setup. No need to plug the auxiliary phone handsets directly into the main setup.

If your landline gets swopped over by BT or Openreach , your main phoneline is attached to the incoming digitalised signal and your second (third, fourth etc) phone plugs into an ordinary electric socket and works perfectly well. If your phones are older and unsuitable, there are ways to make them connect - or there are plenty of models available which will work with the new Voice system

I have had a set of phones for about 15 years whose second, third, fourth and fifth handsets connected via ordinary sockets. and they worked fine. You don't need to know how it works (though having even a vague understanding helps to prevent panicking.)

You can stop worrying about second phones (and more than second) Most of them will be fine. Just check with the engineer who comes to do the swop whether your handsets are compatible.

When they started to change mine over, they found a problem, not with the technical stuff, but with the pole to which the cables were attached - it had been there since 1943 and was now condemned, which no-one had done anything about. They weren't allowed to climb it. So there were endless delays while scaffolding was organised and so on. It took six pairs of engineers to complete the job. I found the actual BT and Openreach engineers knowledgable and efficient. The only useless one was a subcontractor hired to deal with a backlog of work.

Sorry to hear that Grandma.

I've not heard any comments either way in the town I'm living in (though it may be there's delays all round - even for those that actually want this - because they discovered the telephone exchange is riddled with asbestos and it's a "Pembrokeshire Promise" area, ie slow, slower, even slower than normal).

Good that you've got a son that's trying to sort this for you. Fortunately the one plus side is that there are a couple of manufacturers that have listened to "We'd like simple/simple/even simpler mobile phones (not smartphones) that just have a couple of easy easy easy to get extras we actually want. Reminds me I've still got to get someone to sort the Chattie phone I bought recently - just-in-case. It is not cheap! But it does look very very simple". You can get it on Amazon. There's a couple of others that are also very very simple/for those of us that basically want pretty much what we're used to. There's EMF protection cases available for them too finally - if we're having to carry them round.

I think a couple of manufacturers at any rate have clocked on there's a noticeable number of people that refuse to "go complicated" just because they and the government want us to. Any time I hear someone anywhere say "By 2030" (as so many firms/govt departments in so many contexts do) I think "Oh yeah" and am instantly suspicious this is not for our good and remember the government is supposed to serve us and not vice-versa.

So I did see an advert yesterday in this weeks edition of "TV Choice" (a cheapie tv programmes magazine) for what they say is "Easy-to-use 4G smart phone" - probably about half the price of Chattie - £130 - that looks as if it may be a genuinely simple one.

I'm going to get my Chattie working anyway - just in case - as I live in such a remote area and the public transport is appalling. In this area we and the main local taxi firm are used to doing "rescue missions" of various descriptions. So they know I might land up phoning them going "I'm stuck at so-and-so and no bus. Not quite sure where I am" and describe it and they drive out and fetch me back. So the Chattie will come in handy for that - now my very basic old mobile phone stopped on me.

Still very glad my UW rep tells me "They're saying by 2030 for the swop-over and maybe not even then/probably not in fact". There's quite a lot of us in this area that instantly get suspicious when we hear that date and think "Oh yeah - Klaus Schwab's organisation - again - and they want the whole world changed by that date - to suit them".

Very glad my rep tells me....everyone tells me pretty much...that I seem to have picked a house located in a "sweet spot" for keeping things the way I have decided and I think they're unlikely to go changing anything ever against my will. They tell me about this area "It's the Wild West here - and, if you think it is now, you shoulda seen how it used to be.....whew...". There are some advantages to that...

The switchover here was November 26th. My landline has not worked since. My son has had ‘discussions’ with BT, and put in a complaint, but nothing has improved. I am upset and furious, as I don’t at the moment have a functioning mobile.

Oh well and I'm with UW (via a friend of mine who is a rep of theirs) and she has just got back to me - as I'd not heard a peep out of them and said she's been enquiring officially re their position. Their response was:

"I won't have to lose my landline- even if the work is going on . Its only that I can't change suppliers or get a new one. It's between OpenReach and the government re the decision about stopping the landlines and it was set for 2025 - but now its 2030 and he (the guy my friend talked with) seemed to think that the way it's going it's not going to happen even by then. Even if it does I'll still be able to keep my landline."

****************

Hmmm - THAT date again - ie 2030 that we keep getting told for so many things (a date my friend and I are both familiar with from a lot of different contexts and we're on the same page on that one).

Sits back and thinks "Looks like I've been 'protected' again". Guessing that other UW customers might be in that position too. Thought there might be something similar to the forcible swopping of electric meters that has been going on (against many peoples will) - and the deadline gets delayed and delayed and the ones they've done to date are showing up all the "bugs" and I expect they've got that 2030 date in their mind too. Yep my electric meter also got swopped just after I moved in - to my surprise - so hopefully counts as a new "old style" meter as at 2014.

So it feels to me like some of us - including me - have a layer of "protection" in almost that we didn't realise we had, ie being with this particular supplier. In my case an intelligent/technically-minded neighbour of mine has also been telling me that the fact my phoneline is a very new one anyway is helpful (ie it was still a partyline when I bought the house only 12 years ago!!!! and cue for me contacting OpenReach at that point of "Why is my phoneline like something out of historical fiction books - I've never even heard of anyone still having one of those?" and they changed it to a normal modern one at that point).

Now about New Years resolutions....and one can see some people need to make one "to be a nice person". Not an easy one to work on for some....but very necessary - as we can see.

CariadAgain

Aely.....and to think there was a time - years back now - when I honestly assumed manufacturers of any more "essential" type goods would have a panel of members of the public (both sexes/all sorts of ages and abilities/etc/etc) to try out their designs for things before they put them out for sale on the market.

Duh! One of the things one learns on getting older is "What should happen and what actually does happen are so often two totally different things".

There just doesn't seem to be any sort of consumer panels anywhere that I can see.

Consumer consultation was used when designing tech products.
That why the manufacturers designed and inserted voice activation which you can use for practically anything on your device.
I first used this on a laptop in the early 2000s.
Now voice activation is so much more advanced.
Not that you want to know all that because if you did you wouldn’t have anything to complain about, would you?

I have dyspraxia, congenital cackhandedness. I find typing on tiny touch keyboards almost impossible because where my finger goes is quite approximate. I also constantly transpose letters, I also have trapped nerves in my back that mean my finger sometimes 'stutters' and I type the same letter/ number twice because there is a delay in me lifting my finger off the key

When mobile phones first came out I thought they were wonderful and I couldn't get one fast enough. I have now discovered what was always for me, until smart phones came into use, only a minor problems, is now a major problem that is causing me major problems.

Aely.....and to think there was a time - years back now - when I honestly assumed manufacturers of any more "essential" type goods would have a panel of members of the public (both sexes/all sorts of ages and abilities/etc/etc) to try out their designs for things before they put them out for sale on the market.

Duh! One of the things one learns on getting older is "What should happen and what actually does happen are so often two totally different things".

There just doesn't seem to be any sort of consumer panels anywhere that I can see.

OldFrill

^On a completely separate issue. The design of mobile phones the flat thin screen make it very difficult for anyone with any problems with their hands to use, while the 'landline' style phones with their rounded shape are far easier to hold for any length of time^

There are various aids that help people to hold a mobile phone.
There are voice activated mobiles so no need to hold the phone. Devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home can be used to operate the phone by voice, play calls through the speaker, or hearing aids/headphones.

Old Frill, I have that problem, with my hand cramping if I use either my wireless landline too long or the rare occasions when I dig out the old Nokia 1200 to let my daughter know my Chiropodist appointment has finished, also difficulty with accurate screen use - just like I really can't use the touch pad on my laptop and rely on a mouse. I have never heard of Amazon Echo or Google Home before.

I have a different issue with the size of the modern Smart Phone. When my daughter hands me hers to look at something, it is completely the wrong size and shape for me to hold comfortably for more than a few seconds.

I think the battery in my Emergency handset is supposed to be about 8 hours but I don't know if that is when it is in standbye or if it lasts less time if one actually uses it.

The Emergency handsets, when they first came out, tended to connect only to the Emergency Services and the Internet Provider, but I can use mine for any calls if I wish. I just end up paying for them at the Mobile rate, and not on my Call Anytime package.

CariadAgain

Quite M0nica.

I think this situation equates to the WASPI women stealing of State Pension and not even bothering to tell us and some didn't find out until literally weeks away from their expected retirement date of 60.

What we should have had:
- Check out with us how we feel about swopping type of phoneline
- IF the majority of us agreed - then little leaflet/booklet through each door explaining exactly what's what, making it plain we personally wouldnt be expected to cover any costs, telling us about the two different types of housephone and how we could evaluate the correct one for us. We're having to kick/scream/ask questions for information they should have told us anyway and so all we had to do was look down at our leaflet/booklet they didn't produce and say "Answer to this question is here on page 7, paragraph 5. Answer to that question is there on page 20, paragraph 2". etc.

- Plenty of notice when it came to our personal house

I "theenk" (cautious optimism) that maybe a new line itself situation might not be a problem for me after all personally - as my intelligent/techno-capable neighbour has explained to me that I've probably landed up safeguarded in advance on some aspects by the way I had to have my phoneline substantially swopped after I moved here anyway (despite that being 2013 it was still a party line!!!!! and they had to swop it when I kicked up about that). The conversation then started getting rather "technical" and over my head - aided and abetted by his English is good-but not great.

But I'm still concerned re how a 2nd phone away from my router is to keep working and can't see how....fear it may not be possible. I still fear they'll just turn up on the doorstep and expect to bully/assume their way into doing "whatever-it-is" when I'm not going to be there etc etc - and so I won't let them. I live in an area now where a lot of workmen expect there will be a "housewife" available to wait on their requirements and I've had to explain to a lot of them there's no "housewife" anywhere near my house - just a modern "person" who has a life to get on with/may be out etc. But I don't have a "housewife" living here that I can delegate to for their convenience.

I'm still concerned they'll pull a "turn up without warning" stint on me.

I'm still concerned with how one makes phonecalls if the electric is off - extra gadget ! and that gadget (battery) only lasting about 1 measly hour.

How does that song go? "All I want to say is they don't care about us....".

If you read my post you'll see I have answered your questions.
The second phone works just fine. It just plugs in a socket like an old school landline.
The "gadget in case of power cuts" works for at least 6 hours in our case. Might be longer because our longest power cut this year was 6 hours.

There are also voice activated phones available.

On a completely separate issue. The design of mobile phones the flat thin screen make it very difficult for anyone with any problems with their hands to use, while the 'landline' style phones with their rounded shape are far easier to hold for any length of time

There are various aids that help people to hold a mobile phone.
There are voice activated mobiles so no need to hold the phone. Devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home can be used to operate the phone by voice, play calls through the speaker, or hearing aids/headphones.

You’re right M0nica. You can buy mobile phones which look and feel exactly like landlines, so I don’t think that is a major concern, but alarm system rely on GPS, and link to the alarm network via a mobile network, so are more vulnerable. I think for older and larger buildings you can get a signal booster to ensure all areas are covered, but nonetheless if the mobile signal goes down they don’t work.

Casdon

I think it’s because home telephones are slowly fading out of use M0nica, not that that’s an excuse for poor service, but it is the reality. They probably won’t exist at all in 20 years time.

Home phones may, but landlines were used for a variety of other services including emergency and alarm systems, and if the replacements are as unreliale as our VOIP phone, then that is putting lives at risk.

On a completely separate issue. The design of mobile phones the flat thin screen make it very difficult for anyone with any problems with their hands to use, while the 'landline' style phones with their rounded shape are far easier to hold for any length of time.

Why don’t you just give up all the fighting snd join the 21 st
Cariad I have a cousin who will be 100 after Christmas she does online learning and calls me for free calls on messenger
I ring my son and family in NZ every Sunday for free I use WhatsApp for free talk as long as you want, anywhere in the world you could talk to your friend in Ireland for as long as you want, free of charge you can send her photos or videos
My best friend is 90 has had a stroke but has her mobile phone and her iPad we exchange photos on her iPad all free of charge and chat as long as we want
It can be daunting at first but you will soon get the hang of it if you just give it a go

Quite M0nica.

I think this situation equates to the WASPI women stealing of State Pension and not even bothering to tell us and some didn't find out until literally weeks away from their expected retirement date of 60.

What we should have had:
- Check out with us how we feel about swopping type of phoneline
- IF the majority of us agreed - then little leaflet/booklet through each door explaining exactly what's what, making it plain we personally wouldnt be expected to cover any costs, telling us about the two different types of housephone and how we could evaluate the correct one for us. We're having to kick/scream/ask questions for information they should have told us anyway and so all we had to do was look down at our leaflet/booklet they didn't produce and say "Answer to this question is here on page 7, paragraph 5. Answer to that question is there on page 20, paragraph 2". etc.

- Plenty of notice when it came to our personal house

I "theenk" (cautious optimism) that maybe a new line itself situation might not be a problem for me after all personally - as my intelligent/techno-capable neighbour has explained to me that I've probably landed up safeguarded in advance on some aspects by the way I had to have my phoneline substantially swopped after I moved here anyway (despite that being 2013 it was still a party line!!!!! and they had to swop it when I kicked up about that). The conversation then started getting rather "technical" and over my head - aided and abetted by his English is good-but not great.

But I'm still concerned re how a 2nd phone away from my router is to keep working and can't see how....fear it may not be possible. I still fear they'll just turn up on the doorstep and expect to bully/assume their way into doing "whatever-it-is" when I'm not going to be there etc etc - and so I won't let them. I live in an area now where a lot of workmen expect there will be a "housewife" available to wait on their requirements and I've had to explain to a lot of them there's no "housewife" anywhere near my house - just a modern "person" who has a life to get on with/may be out etc. But I don't have a "housewife" living here that I can delegate to for their convenience.


I'm still concerned they'll pull a "turn up without warning" stint on me.

I'm still concerned with how one makes phonecalls if the electric is off - extra gadget ! and that gadget (battery) only lasting about 1 measly hour.

How does that song go? "All I want to say is they don't care about us....".

If you have a reliable mobile signal I really don't see the problem.
We have no mobile signal in our village and rely on WiFi calling, also frequent power cuts. They still swapped us over. It means that if the power goes off we cannot make or receive calls.

We get round that with a device called a ups. Bit like a giant battery. BT paid for it.
It's been tested many times during power cuts and keeps our internet and phones going for at least 6 hours.

I think it’s because home telephones are slowly fading out of use M0nica, not that that’s an excuse for poor service, but it is the reality. They probably won’t exist at all in 20 years time.