Plusnet accidentally disconnected my landline and broadband last week.
It took me 3 days and several hours on the phone to get the broadband back, but they are saying I can’t get my analog phone line back as effectively I’m now a new customer and they’ve stopped doing analog landlines for new customers as they’re going to disappear in a year anyway. As you can imagine I’m pretty pissed off.
My son has a medical condition and it’s sometimes necessary to call 999 for an ambulance. It was nice knowing I could call them on the landline in case the mobile network was down, plusnet have said I can get a voip phone line if I switch to EE (their sister company).
Am I correct this wouldn’t give any safety advantage over using my mobile phone in the event I need to call 999. My understanding is that a normal mobile phone will use voip over the internet if there is no mobile signal anyway. Is that correct?
If you dial 999, it will find mobile signal. 999 means it will use ANY mobile signal, so unless the whole phone network goes down, you’ll get through.
Our home has moved to all digital, still have a home phone. Is it that you held onto analogue in case of power failure ?
I think you have a good case for escalation.
We still have a landline, but it's VOIP strictly as it's now just plugged in to the router - we forgot, as no-one calls us via landline, then realised we'd not moved the phone line from the wall socket to the back of the router.
If you dial 999, it will find mobile signal. 999 means it will use ANY mobile signal, so unless the whole phone network goes down, you’ll get through.
Oh great, I didn’t know that. I assumed it prioritised them as I’ve had a 999 calls only message before but didn’t know it uses other networks.
Our home has moved to all digital, still have a home phone. Is it that you held onto analogue in case of power failure ?
I think you have a good case for escalation.
We still have a landline, but it's VOIP strictly as it's now just plugged in to the router - we forgot, as no-one calls us via landline, then realised we'd not moved the phone line from the wall socket to the back of the router.
Yeah, an analog phone will still work if there is a power cut. I’ve raised a complaint with plusnet, but they insist it’s not possible to get the analog line back. I’m planning on flagging it with Ofcom
If you've kept the analogue (we had no choice - phone went to VOIP) for reasons of health, they will have to do something - I'm thinking stuff like Redcare that my MIL had. If you need a guaranteed connection, then there should be something that can be done.
I think the official advice on this is that you can use a mobile as a backup. You can dial 999 even when you might otherwise not have signal. As above - it uses any available network.
If that isn't an option or you have concerns, then push back. The telephone companies are supposed to be providing solutions to this.
There's quite a lot being discussed. I think it is the "digital voice" switchover. There won't be any land lines (as such) soon, if it hasn't already happened.
It may differ depending on infrastructure so this may to be a solution.
We're on fibre to the property, before we ditched the landline on the system the ONT had a battery backup and the phone line connected direct to the ONT. Used VOIP but the phone stayed up during power cuts.
Like I say, may not be relevant if you're on fibre to the cabinet, that said a uninterruptible power supply on your router would keep the land line live.
One advantage calling 999 from a landline used to have over mobile was that it was linked to your address and this was passed to the emergency service call handler on connection from 999 handler. If this is still a thing with the VOIP system it can save some time as you only need to confirm address and call taker doesn't need to enter it.
Assuming you don't live on an island with three other people and a flock of sheep, the chances of you losing power to the house and mobile signal across all networks whilst still retaining POTS landline service is vanishingly remote.
If you dial 999, it will find mobile signal. 999 means it will use ANY mobile signal, so unless the whole phone network goes down, you’ll get through.
Kind of. Depends where you live. If you get a signal for any network then yes, you will get through regardless of which network you are on. But if you live somewhere where there is no mobile signal at all then no, you won't.
I don't know what happens if you are a fancy telephone with a satellite phone in it, I expect that will always work?
Devil's advocate - what was your plan for when the analogue lines are switched off in a year anyway? Is it worth the stress of several months dealing with customer services for something that will disappear 9 months later? Get a decent compensation out of them (including free switch to EE if VIOP landline is critical) and move on. I'd also be pissed off if they had disconnected me accidentally but sometimes you need to take a step back and look at it with pragmatism rather than emotion.
Mobile phone is still going to work in a power cut if its charged up. Get a decent power bank for emergencies, they only cost £20 or £30 for one that will charge 4 or 5 phones.
But yeah get some compo out of them as well!
How analogue was the old analogue phone? wired handset with the only connection being the cable to the telco, with the phone being entirely powered from the phone line?
If not, and it had a wall wart power plug of any kind, eg for cordless, or a screen etc, then essentially you're in the same boat anyway.
All analogue is going. TBH I thought it was pretty much gone to VOIP already across the whole of Europe (mine was the December before the pandemic lockdown, had a few issues, but fortunately all sorted before things became problematic).
If I had any critical need for the phone/internet connectivity, then I'd be considering a UPS (unless such a device would interfere with it). At least it might give some power cut safety margin.
Mobile phone is still going to work in a power cut if its charged up
Depends. Mine has gone down once, during Storm Arwen, but I guess there was some damage to the power supply to the masts , or the masts themselves. Only down for three days so didn't bother me, but my need is less urgent than the OP's. If it's just your house/street/village losing power then you'll be fine, if the network goes down then less so
This thread has reminded me that I really need to look into this.
My 95 yr old Dad;
- Uses his BT copper landline for all his phone calls
- Has not one jot of mobile signal for any network at his house
- Internet is via Starlink (because - see below)
- There is fibre installed along his road (Gigaclear not BT/Openreach) BUT his house is 200 meters from the road. Gigaclear wanted thousands to do an install.
Should someone have proactively contacted him about the analogue switch off and what his options are? If I want to sort this out - who do I contact? BT even though they don't provision digital anywhere near his house? If I got a VoIP handset and plug it into the Starlink router is there way to port over his landline number, and who do I get this service from?
The UK's Public Switched Telephony Network is going to be switched off by 31st January 2027. This includes all the traditional analogue lines. It has been replaced with IP based services - i.e. voip.
There is nothing that OFCOM can do apart from maybe check whether your existing provider has failed in any obligations they may have had to inform you of this and offer an alternate voip based system.
If you have home broadband you can use a SIP based service along with a device to allow you to plug an analogue handset into your home Ethernet network or a SIP phone handset that can plug into the network directly.
Some ISP's supply ports to connect analogue handsets on the back of their routers - I have a Virgin router with that facility and it is probably the best option for most people if you still want a "landline".
Most providers would also allow you to port your existing landline number over to their voip service. I did this when we moved house 15 years ago so this is not new technology.
Regarding the OP's dilemma moving to a voip landline and having mobile which can call 999 using any network provider might be enough. The only way to add more redundancy that I can think of would be to get a Starlink satellite internet link as a backup.
The only way to add more redundancy that I can think of would be to get a Starlink satellite internet link as a backup.
I'd put the Starlink as the only data supplier (not backup) - it should work as long as you have power .... And even then the units can be battery powered (esp the Mini).