Bt Landline Going Digital

[JBW1366]

I have been informed that my landline is now going digital and I am to plug my phone into the broadband router. Why do I still pay for landline? when I don't even have a phone plugged into it but you have to have it - is the catch that the router is still plugged into the wall? Curious

[barry1010]

Shedman, perserverer was talking about the old system, not the problems you have had since the switch.  He is right, phones like yours that only plugged in to the BT socket and not the electric socket worked in a power cut.  Most phones that plugged in to a power socket as well, like mine, didn't.

Under the new system, all phones need electricity.

[jourdain2]

We get lots of power cuts, barry.  A few months ago it was off for well over24 hrs and it was below freezing temperatures.  Not funny.

[New Judge]

“Nobody will need to pay line rental in the traditional way when PTSN is switched off.”

It depends what you mean by “in the traditional way”, barry.

In the UK, the “local loop” (i.e. the network from telephone exchanges to subscribers’ premises) was liberalised by Ofcom in 2001. Up to then it was a BT monopoly. This liberalisation process (known as “Local Loop Unbundling”) meant that competitors were granted access to BT’s local network and their exchange buildings. They could utilise parts of BT’s local loop (or install their own) and install their own equipment into BT buildings.  

But (leaving aside access by the mobile network) however you gain your broadband and speech services you will need a physical connection from your house to a telephone exchange via the local loop.

The copper wires which predominantly made up the local loop are being replaced by fibre optic cable and whoever provides your broadband and/or speech service, they will require payment for your use of the local loop. Traditionally, before LLU and certainly before the liberalisation of telephone services in general, it was customary to pay a single provider for use of the LL and for calls. This is now changing and customers may well find there are different ways of paying for the two. But I can’t see any provider abandoning charges – raised in some way or another – for making use of the LL.

The issue of phones not working during power cuts is quite straightforward. Before the advent of fibre, all phones were connected to the telephone exchange by a pair of copper wires. As well as conducting signalling and voice, these could also conduct electricity to power the phone. That power was provided at 50 volts from the exchange by banks of batteries.

The first stage of fibre rollout in the local network was “Fibre to the Cabinet” (i.e from the exchange to the green boxes seen roadside). Fibre optic cable cannot conduct electricity so the power which previously came from the exchange was instead provided to the cabinet from the local mains supply, and then onwards by the copper wires which were retained from the cabinets to the customers’ premises.

With “Digital Voice” these final stretches of copper wires are being replaced by fibre so no power can be transmitted to work the phone. Hence why a mains supply is required at the customers’ end (which most people already have in place anyway).

[barry1010]

By 'in the traditional way' I meant paying BT or similar company line rental every month.   

I pay £41 a year for my Skype number but of course I can use that number wherever I am in the world. It looks like a  landline number and people don't know they are calling a Skype number.   Other VOIP services are available.  

It is useful because it is the 'house' phone, everyone uses it and everyone answers it when it rings, like a traditional home phone.  

[barry1010]

We were liberated from BT around 1997 when we changed to Telewest.  It could have been a bit earlier. 

[New Judge]

Telewest was a cable company which built its own "local loop" network, Ken. It predated Local Loop Unbundling.

There were quite a lot of these which grew up following the privatisation of BT in 1984 (although there were a very few before then).

Following a number of acquisitions and mergers, probably tthe most extensive and well known is now Virgin Media.