2025 analogue phone line switch off

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

The plan though is to sell off the exchanges and remove the cabling for recycling. The fact is that the router will still need power as will the street infrastructure, be it coaxial cable or fibre.

Virgin have decided not to fix new wiring into faulty phone installations, where possible just move the subscriber to a new unused circuit. I imagine they will be going down the same route. One problem I have had with land lines using voip is that a tone dialling memory device held against the microphone is nowhere near as reliable as on a directly connected phone. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

They need to get a better codec for phones generally as you can clearly hear which they are by the grittiness and the gargling effects and reduction in presence as the lines get more congested. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Its downright stupid. One big outage and we could all be taken over before we knew about it. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Unless the power cut drops the local cell down of course. Brian

[Steve Walker]

I had one for a few years. When I moved in, the phone line had been re-allocated to another house and there were no spare cores in the multicore to the telegraph pole. I therefore ended up with a DACs unit on the wall to multiplex my phone onto a line shared with another house. It had its own battery to power it, that recharged from the phone line when it was not in use. It also had a mains charger, in case unusually heavy usage drained the battery faster than the line could recharge it.

Of course the problem with rechargeables is that you only notice that they have died when you need them!

SteveW

[Ray]

It does with both FTTP and FTTC because with those there is no way to provide that power anymore. While the wires are still there with FTTC, the micronode is in fact powered by the consumer. And even with FTTN, the node doesn?t have the capacity to supply power to the consumer anymore.

[Dave Liquorice]

Mobiles yes but not proper VOIP calls. Unless you are trying to use VOIP over an iffy mobile data link rather than a stable ADSL/VDSL/FTTP connection but even then it's just drop outsrather than the mangled donald duck noises that mobiles produce.

[Ray]

But not for long, nothing like as long as an exchange can do that.

[Ray]

Never ever get any mangled donald duck noises with my mobile and I use it for all calls now.

[John Rumm]

The FTTP "cable" typically installed, is actually a hybrid cable with a main fibre section, but it also includes a thin copper pair bonded to it.

The PON termination kit, with the fibre modem, and PSU etc includes a battery backup as standard.

[Dave Liquorice]

Presumably you live in an area with a good signal no matter where you are inside or out. Here you have to be upstairs, by a window, on the right side of the house to stand a chance of being able to make a phone call without, donald duck noises, drop outs or the call just disconnecting.

A lot of people don't seem to notice these issues or the delay all of which I find very distracting.

[invalid]

When I was working on the future BT network they were still going to have POTS but all the exchanges were going to be removed and replaced by cards in the green cabinet and a softswitch to run it all.

We were developing the stuff to do it when Gordon Brown bankrupted Marconi.

[Andy Burns]

The huawei and eci MSANs in the green cabinets support pots/isdn/adsl cards but openreach only fit vdsl cards ...

[charles]

have you tried somethink like Vodaphone "Sure Signal". The box connects to your internet router and provides a local cell within the house. I've been using one for about 6 years (when I first discovered it). Phone works anywhere in the house. I think other Phone operators can provide something similar. But there's now "connect by WiFi" which probably achieves a similar result.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The problem with phone by internet is when the internet goes down

either as a power cut or as a thing in itself.

[spuorgelgoog]

And VoIP is fussy to set up. I went a year with no VoIP on the phone but VoIP on the tablet because of Sky's router not playing nicely.

Owain

[Bob Eager]

Agreed. But both can be mitigated (as I have). UPS and 3G fallback.

[charles]

Yes, and the cell phone won't work if the cell goes down. But, for 99% time it is a lot better than hanging out of an upstairs window.

The only time I lost internet was when some scroates stole the cable. Then BT put all my call throuht to my mobile - which was getting a rotten/nonexistant signal. But that was 5 years ago.

[invalid]

It will be in the cabinet as they are selling the exchange buildings at some time.

[Andy Burns]

Maybe they'll have a few powered 'master' cabinets for the other passive ones to feed off?