If you have any relatives in Salisbury, Wiltshire or Mildenhall, Suffolk and they are the sort of person to ignore post then ahead of changes Openreach will be placing on old copper services we urge you to get them upgrade to digital voice and/or full fibre for their broadband.
The two towns are the trial locations for a total switch-off of the old PSTN voice network that is getting very old rapidly and modern VoIP (digital voice) services can offer a lot more starting with better call quality.
Unfortunately the original date for a full switch-off in Mildenhall and Salisbury has had to be extended from 19th April 2023 to 9th October 2023 due to the number of people still using analogue phone lines even though providers have tried to get in touch.
With the deadline for retiring analogue services approaching, we’re working closely with service provider to migrate their customers smoothly and safely off the old analogue network.
Our trials in Salisbury and Mildenhall have been a great testing ground to identify and iron out issues, and we’ve already managed to upgrade the vast majority of customers in those areas successfully. Having said that, a small minority of customers are yet to upgrade despite several attempts by their service provider to contact them, so we’re planning some gentle measures which will nudge them to contact their provider and have a conversation about their future service.
James Lilley, Director for Managed Customer Migrations at Openreach
The gentle measures might not sound so gentle for those caught out unsuspectedly but in an effort to get people to follow instructions previously sent out, or to ask for help if unable to carry out what they’ve been asked. For some it might be as simple as the worry a care pendant will cease to function and they just need a bit of help and double checking that their system is compatible with digital voice services.
The measures to be adopted are:
- Broadband over the legacy network will be restricted to 2 Mbps from 24th April 2023
- A bar on outgoing calls will be put in place from 5th June 2023, but emergency service calls and numbers for Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs) and communication providers contacts will also be exempt from call barring so that telecare devices continue to function and for customers to call their service provider.
- Protecting vulnerable customers during this process is a key priority and Openreach has worked closely with CPs, local councils and industry, to make sure those customers (such as people relying on vital services like care alarms that use the legacy network) are exempt and unaffected by the changes.
There are some lines where an agreed exemption is already in place and that exemption will be respected. Also to avoid any call centre meltdowns the restrictions will be introduced in batches.
For those who are vulnerable in the area who have already switched to digital voice they should have been provided with some form of battery backup, or at least offered the option for one. For those who fall outside the vulnerable group who want to ensure their new digital voice service keeps running during a power cut our guide on how to power your broadband hardware in extended power cuts will be useful. Remember if you have a DECT base station plugged into the routers phone socket that the base station will need backup power too, unless it is one with a small UPS battery.
Some of the flexibility that digital voice (VoIP) creates e.g. directing calls to a mobile number or always being able to answer the house number via a smart phone app mean many people in good mobile coverage areas will be happy to rely on their mobile.
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From what I have heard from calling the couple of digital voice lines, the quality is worse than the old analogue system, sometimes it sounds like I am talking on a Single sideband radio. My own Voip system while ok is not a patch on what the analogue phone line system
We are a care pendant household and despite being asked for our details by our care provider, nothing appears to have been done about transitioning us to alternative hardware and there don’t seem to be any timescale for a migration. The CAS Alarm is the ONLY use for our copper landline but we are still having to pay the line rental. We cannot use a 3G dongle because our home has no indoor mobile signal. As an unpaid carer this is an unnecessary expense that I would like to get rid of but I am trapped because I have to keep the pendant.
The clock is ticking and they have less than 3 months to transition to another service or be cut off.
As we discovered yesterday during a planned power cut, the batteries in FTTC cabinets are not necessarily maintained – our VDSL connection dropped after just two minutes (to our battery-backed modem). We still have analogue voice but Openreach clearly have more work to do before they are ready for this transition.
Incidentally, in what way is VoIP telephony an ‘upgrade’ for most users? We already have very rich OTT products for day to day use – it’s the universally reliable, line-powered service we need from Openreach.
Most people do not realise until there is an area power cut that their broadband connection and their mobile phone connection will both fail within a couple of hours maximum, including 999 capability. Things failing after much shorter times, as described by almiles above, are also common. Ofcom could have required copper PSTN to be maintained until an equally resilient replacement has been provided, but this would not have gone down well with providers or our “bonfire of red tape” gov’t.
Ofcom could indeed have required better support for power outages, however they probably accepted the risk assessment based upon incorrect assumptions made by Openreach that ‘all will be well as we’ve got cellular as a backup’ whilst completely disregarding those who don’t have mobile phones such as the elderly or vulnerable. Too often the regulator believes what it wants to hear and doesn’t have enough knowledge to ask searching questions to cover the ‘what if’ scenarios. This is what ‘light touch’ regulation looks like.
Being managed by Openreach – poor souls.
I do not trust either BT Wholesale or Openreach senior management to be both professional and competent despite the two workforces having great workers at the customer level.
When blaming customers they both display a degree of blatant unprofessioalism that is hard to accept or forgive.
In the near future I shall say goodbye to a 1970 installed below par landline and years and years of excuses instead of final solutions.
I have found a lot of brilliant engineers over the years who all didn’t seem to be valued by their employer. The culture of ‘private’ profit margins prevails.
The digital voice “service” was forced upon me when we went full fibre 6 months ago, despite the sales agent saying we could keep copper based line as well. Copper line IS in place, but 4 hours after full fibre activated it went dead. Well, is powered but does not make / accept calls.
If you know some workarounds to “bypass” the BT hub, use own router and still get digital voice to work, it’s ok ish.
Call quality is ok, bit of a pain to have to use national dialling code instead of just the local part, but OK.
Call back from companies- for 2 FA e.g. NS&I, HMRC, Halifax – does NOT work.