Fibre

As a general rule the two services are side by side. There should be a minimal amount of down time.

Or at least there was for me.

That piece of kit is the Smart Hub. There's a conventional phone socket on the back - you just plug the phones into there instead of into the wall socket.

I would ask the Openreach bod what time is best to switch them over - it may be there's some lead or lag in switching over the phone service compared with the fibre going live. If you suddenly find yourself without dialtone then I'd try the Smart Hub socket.

I'm not sure why they've sent you a digital phone handset. Are you on a BT Business package rather than the consumer package? On the business package I've heard they supply handsets and they make it difficult to use your own.

Theo

Does the smarthub have a green(?) BT socket on the back? Are you changing ISP?

Ok.

The handbook covers this.

Hmm. This is a business but there has been no mention that I can recall. I suppose it may have cropped up in specifying *anytime* calling.

Green BT socket yes.

We are changing from Plusnet to BT.

My Mum's phone switched to A&A VoIP this morning, it was offline for an hour, but seems to work now.

As an aside, I bought her a Panasonic handset, assuming it would be DECT/GAP compatible with a Gigaset base station. I'm beginning to doubt this is the case. I thought all modern "cordless" phones were DECT/GAP.

Are you on a BT Business contract? They are pushing people onto the 'BT Cloud Voice Express' system where they lock everything down to use only their supplied handsets, and you have to pay them to buy an alternative from their very limited selection.

See a thread in uk.telecom.broadband from a while back:

Theo

I have to press the button on the smart hub to connect so the handset must be linking to the wi-fi. Perhaps it is age related together with the backup power supplies although we don't currently have any emergency links.

No doubt all will be revealed tomorrow! Now, I must go and tidy up the hedge so they can reach the pole!

Hmm. reading through that mammoth thread, it seems the ATA is a way forward but there is a comment about the initial cost and further use charges.

BT has not forgotten the glory days of the GPO, when you not only paid for your line rental and calls, but had to rent your telephone(s) from it.

TBH, if you're going to use the phone beyond the minimum, it would be better to port the number to a third party VOIP provider. Then you're free of all BT's shenanigans, and may well be cheaper too.

Theo

All big companies strive to become monopolies, by buying up or destroying their competition.

As they have supplied battery packs, I assume this is for a vulnerable person. The two battery packs allow the ONT and SmartHub 2 to function in a power cut. The Digital Handset has its own battery so it too will funcion in a powercut.

You can plug your Panasonic base station into the POTS style socket on the SmartHub2 BUT most DECT base stations won´t work without power so do not satisfy the Ofcom requirements to provide a phone service in the event of a power cut.

I believe you can also pair your Panasonic DECT handsets with the home hub 2 but you may lose some functionality such as answer phone or shared phone book.

They have done that, but like you many people only have DECT base stations which don´t work in a power cut. By providing you with a Digital Handset they have ensured that is not the case.

Dave p.s. if you read this please let me know. Other entries in this thread seem full of mis-information.

You don´t get a "Digital Handset" on the business package, you get an ATA that self configures. I assume as there are battery packs this is for a vunerable person who needs a service in the event of a power fail. BT therefore also supply a Digital Voice handset, which has its own battery, so the combination will work in the event of a power cut even if their DECT base station won´t work as it needs power..

Dave

most are but dect/gap only covers a very limited sub-set of functionality. I have a Fritz!box and two types of Panasonic DECT phones. One sees the Fritz!box shared phone book, the other does not

Dave

If you have a Digital Voice handset you are not on a business contract. Did you buy a business contract? Is any one classed as vunerable.

Dave

DECT phones may only be compatible with each other for the purposes of making and receiving calls. Additional facilities like automatically sharing phone books etc. may not be covered.

Not BT but my router has a FON connector into which I plug my DECT answerphone base station. The router can also act as a DECT base station and answerphone. I can also install an App on my mobile phone and make calls from it, via wi-fi and the router.

Thanks, I knew, but a good point. Making and receiving calls is the critical one. I'm willing to do the phone book myself, how hard can it be!(famous last words).