Today I received a letter from BT explaining that my phone would shortly be switching to ‘Digital Voice’.  Their letter says that the phone service will be delivered through my broadband connection rather than my old copper phone line (cheerio Dixon of Dock Green!).  I do have ‘full fibre to the premises’ so the copper wires are essentially redundant in my case.  There is a socket on the back of the ‘smart home hub’ for ‘Digital Voice’ which takes any standard phone plug, so anyone could do the changeover.  Obviously the smart hub can still be used for voice even if your broadband is delivered over the copper pair.  BT can disconnect the copper pair at the telephone exchange as the broadband signal is injected at a street cabinet.  What a change from the dozens of pairs of humming copper wires strung from pole to pole that I remember from my youth, although the thick, black, fibre cables are just as unsightly.

They warn you that if you have a burglar alarm or ‘pendant’ (personal safety) alarm, you shouldn’t change yet.  Presumably these might require power from the phone line.

There is one issue that they studiously ignore – if you have hard-wired extensions, or an extension bell, these will not work as they rely on wiring from your landline socket, which will be deactivated.

There is an acknowledgement of this hidden away on their help pages, suggesting that you don’t changeover yet.  It is clear that if you need phones in several rooms, they expect you to use cordless phones which will use the DECT wireless system.

They also acknowledge that if your power goes off, your smart hub and ‘digital voice’ connection will cease to work.  I’m assuming that given that the vast majority of people now have a mobile phone, BT feels that this is no longer the risk it used to be.  (I remember the instructions that accompanied the rotary dial telephones, explaining how to dial 999 when in a blackout or smoke-filled room!)

I suppose that preparing for the changeover will cost BT quite a bit, but there will be huge savings from not having to maintain all the digital switching equipment and all those unreliable copper wire connections, not to mention the huge amount of power needed to run the old system.

So it is looking like the time is coming to bid the PSTN to RIP.

Implementation of Digital Voice temporarily paused –  29/03/2022

BT has paused its plans to replace landline phones with digital ones. The company said the decision was made following feedback from customers, with the Chief Executive admitting BT had ‘got it wrong’ in a public statement. The rollout, which saw copper landlines replaced in favour of fibre-optic cables, resulted in some customers, including those living in rural areas and pensioners, being unable to call emergency services during stormy weather across the country earlier in the year, when some people were without power for days

BT and other telecom companies had pledged to equip all homes with digital “voice over internet phones”  by 2025 as part of an update to the UK’s communication infrastructure.

The bleak reality for too many living in rural areas is they are not yet in a position to move over to digital to carry out every day functions, even if they wanted to.

Those who live and work in the countryside should not be subject to a communications blackout and are pleased to see that BT has listened to the concerns of many of its customers.

Marc Allera, BT’s chief executive of consumer brands, apologised and said BT had “underestimated the disruptive impact this upgrade would have”. He added that “in hindsight” the technology had been rolled out “too early”.

According to The Telegraph, some two million customers have already had their landlines removed to make way for the new systems, with around 160,000 forced to make the switch on average each month since the roll out started in April last year. The rollout will continue once the issues are resolved.

Mr. Allera’s statement added: “We will aim to re-start once we have key solutions in place to provide our customers with more resilient connectivity.

These include:

• Hybrid phones that can switch to a mobile network and have an in-built, long-lasting battery.
• The option of longer-lasting battery back-up units for customers who want or need them.
• Providing in-home ‘mobile landlines’ for people without broadband.
• Addressing so-called mobile ‘not-spots’, with continued investment in the Shared Rural Network. We’ve recently announced a further 1,500 locations that will get better coverage as a result.
• Launching an awareness campaign so that our customers better understand the need to switch.
• Continuing to proactively engage the related industries – like healthcare pendants and burglar alarm providers to ensure our most vulnerable customers continue to get the service they need.
• And we’re continuing to work on other things, too, including advancements to scam-call shielding and fraud reduction tools, that we know are becoming ever more important to our users of landlines.

I would comment that many rural areas have very poor mobile signals and that mobile masts will presumably fail if they get no power, so whilst mobile switchover will help when the broadband network fails, it will still not have the resilience of the old landline system, which had its own power supply.

New Deadline (Oops!)  – Update 20/05/2024

BT has now abandoned its deadline of completing the national switchover by the end of 2025, and will instead aim to complete the move by the end of January 2027.

There is particular concern of ensuring that ‘Vulnerable Customers’ will not lose service, especially of items like personal alarms.  These will need battery backup and/or switchover to the mobile network to ensure service during power failures, and will need to be easy for vulnerable people to use.  Apparently, BT are not always able to identify such customers.