VOIP for a Landline.

[Lazy Sod]

We currently have fibre to the cabinet and about 1km of copper to the house. It looks as though we will loose the copper landline. There is already fibre on the pole in the roadside hedge clse by that also carries our copper line. Our EE contract is nearly up and they will not offer a landline.

If we then have fibre to the house, will our wiring around the house supplying 4 phones still be able to connect into the new master socket? Am I right in thinking that we will pay a third party firm to provide us with VOIP and how does that work, do they provide us with a box and does that connect to the new master socket or to the router?

 

[ApprenticeBodger]

We currently have fibre to the cabinet and about 1km of copper to the house. It looks as though we will loose the copper landline. There is already fibre on the pole in the roadside hedge clse by that also carries our copper line. Our EE contract is nearly up and they will not offer a landline.

If we then have fibre to the house, will our wiring around the house supplying 4 phones still be able to connect into the new master socket? Am I right in thinking that we will pay a third party firm to provide us with VOIP and how does that work, do they provide us with a box and does that connect to the new master socket or to the router?

When we lost our copper phone line with a very similar sounding situation. I disconnected our house system which supplies 5 phone sockets from the old master socket and soldered on a standard phone line plug. This now plugs straight into the back of our router and works just as it use to, both broadband and phones on the same contract so don’t know how it would work if separated.

 

[neilo]

You are not tied to using your internet provider for your VOIP service, although BT will bundle it (at extra cost). My VOIP contract is a PAYG contract with Andrews & Arnold, and costs a whopping £1.20/month, with outgoing calls charged per minute (if you make any). As we have WiFi calling on our mobiles, I'm thinking about dropping the VOIP now.

The VOIP phone/base unit will plug into the router, completely separate to the phone wiring.

 

[Happy hillbily]

I've just had to replace my ageing mobile phone, and the new one has WiFi calling. I feel like I have been living in the dark ages till now, I've a better signal in the house than I have outside.
I do have fiber to premises which is great, I think dropping the landline is on the the top of the to do list now. Nothing but cold calls on the land line.

 

[Lazy Sod]

The line comes through the wall into an upstairs bedroom (the office) to the master socket, by the window. The internal hidden phone wiring is connected into the back of master socket and thereafter goes to a socket on the opposite wall and through a filter to supply the router and a phone on the desk. There are a further 3 sockets for phones around the house.

Presumably the VOIP company will supply a box which plugs into a (new type of) router? Then the desk phone plugs into the box? If so, how do the other 3 phones get connected? Two of these do not require a mains supply. Presumably these will no longer work.

 

[JockCroft]

Just realised we are now a year on VOIP. Pair of cordless phones cover the house.

We did have a big problem at changeover. Our provider had major software problems and we had no voice phone for 5 weeks after change to fibre. Once sorted out no real problems, occasional gremlin but most likely cause is other party's phone. Especialy mobiles.

Are other folks finding mobile coverage has deteriorated over last two or three years. Text sent thursday came through last night.

 

[Lazy Sod]

Mobiles are no use to us as there is no signal here. How are you cordless phones connected @JackCroft?

 

[Wesley]

Mobiles are no use to us as there is no signal here. How are you cordless phones connected?

Not exactly voip related but Wifi calling is brilliant in this situation. Stick an aerial outside to beam wifi around the yard & buildings & jobs a good un. Only issue with voip (& any other cordless phone) is no phone connection in a power cut. Otherwise voip is great & far cheaper than copper landlines.

 

[JockCroft]

Mobiles are no use to us as there is no signal here. How are you cordless phones connected @JackCroft?

Master phone plugged into Fibre box.
By the way, master phone (new) would not work through an extension cable. Had to be straight into box.
Older phone system we had for years was blamed as problem at start. Problems were caused by a software fault at server.

 

[scavinge]

We have had BT VOIP for a couple of years it works fine but, if a tree blows down on the line they have to replace a whole length of cable from joint box to joint box, had one instance of squirrels eating the fibre cable with phone and BB off for week, internally there are four mains powered items including the handset and router. None of our old Panasonic wireless handsets worked with it. I've got a inverter which i could hook to a tractor battery in a power down situation but I've been told the electronic boxes don't like dirty power so hesitant to try it. The internal electronics are changing and evolving all the time I know people with different internals to me supplied at a later date with adaptors for existing phones. One thing I cannot find is a big button simple VOIP handset.

 

[Lazy Sod]

If you've got wiring around the house to phone sockets, how is it connected to the router or a box (if they provide one) by the VOIP company?

 

[PI Stsker]

I’ve not had a phone line to the house for over 5 years.
we use a 4G and now a 5G router with a phone SIM card in it (unlimited data for about £25/month) this powers all WiFi we use. I have also used VOIP for an office ‘land line’ for about 4 years and have yet to have any issues with either. Now majority of the time the router sits on a 5g signal it’s flying allong, I will admit when it reverts back to a 4g signal you can tell as it takes a microsecond longer for TFF to load

the advantage of the router I have is I can unplug it and plug it back in anywhere and it works, so if I go on holiday I can take it with us. The other advantage of VOIP is I can seamlessly answer and make landline calls on my mobile via the app so no worries about being out of office etc.

 

[scavinge]

If you've got wiring around the house to phone sockets, how is it connected to the router or a box (if they provide one) by the VOIP company?

Some of the VOIP routers have and a normal phone socket on them, My business BT one did not so we bought an extra VoIP handset.

There are phone adaptors sold like this one: https://amzn.eu/d/8r4D80g

I usually end up having to spend money to sort these issues on a trial and error basis.

I do like the idea of a 4g/5g router or Starlink and getting rid of the cable hanging on poles for miles. Something to research before the present contract runs out.

 

[steveR]

Some of the VOIP routers have and a normal phone socket on them, My business BT one did not so we bought an extra VoIP handset.

There are phone adaptors sold like this one: https://amzn.eu/d/8r4D80g

I usually end up having to spend money to sort these issues on a trial and error basis.

I do like the idea of a 4g/5g router or Starlink and getting rid of the cable hanging on poles for miles. Something to research before the present contract runs out.

Having a 'mare trying to get the VoIP working here with Starlink. Not sure where the problem lies, as everything seems to be talking each other, BUT, not the same language apparently! The theory was exactly what you describe!

 

[PI Stsker]

Some of the VOIP routers have and a normal phone socket on them, My business BT one did not so we bought an extra VoIP handset.

There are phone adaptors sold like this one: https://amzn.eu/d/8r4D80g

I usually end up having to spend money to sort these issues on a trial and error basis.

I do like the idea of a 4g/5g router or Starlink and getting rid of the cable hanging on poles for miles. Something to research before the present contract runs out.

Before you make the plunge sit there on your phone on 4g / 5g and type in speed test to google.
That will give you a ‘ping’ test and give you an idea of if your signal is reliable enough to go ‘wiress’

 

[Cowabunga]

We currently have fibre to the cabinet and about 1km of copper to the house. It looks as though we will loose the copper landline. There is already fibre on the pole in the roadside hedge clse by that also carries our copper line. Our EE contract is nearly up and they will not offer a landline.

If we then have fibre to the house, will our wiring around the house supplying 4 phones still be able to connect into the new master socket? Am I right in thinking that we will pay a third party firm to provide us with VOIP and how does that work, do they provide us with a box and does that connect to the new master socket or to the router?

VOIP just works through your router with a VOIP phone receiver/arial box connected to it. You can choose to have internet from one provider and VOIP from another as I understand it. It will not use existing wires or sockets in the house. I have four VOIP phones, being with BT they are Yealink handsets but although they work well enough, they don’t synch contact lists with each other like previous wireless handsets did. You have to enter contacts manually into each handset, which is laborious and time consuming.

Not sure about distance but my handsets work throughout the house and so does the internet with the latest BT business router. With the previous copper wire phone system, which was a tiny fraction of the data speed of fibre, I had to have repeaters working through the electric system wiring for any distance or thick walls in the house. Now only need this for the television which is sheltered behind a fireplace with thick stone walls to three sides of it. I’ve no idea whether the VOIP handsets work through the router or the handset aerial thing wired to it, but they work well.

When I first had fibre, I had recurring issues with calls dropping at random during conversations but not had that issue for over a year now and it was probably resolved with a software update.

BT are a shower of a company though. You cannot depend on anything any of their reps say. I was phoned last Friday by a nice lady rep saying that my contract on this line was coming to an end and we arranged a new cheaper contract for data and VOIP. She promised to send me the contract to electronically sign and we agreed on the preferred email address. Not had the contract yet nor any dickey bird further from them. Not the first time either.