Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I just had this email:

I'm on modem mode, how am I supposed to connect my adaptor when only 1 port is usable (and it's connected to my mesh) or can I connect the adaptor to a spare ethernet port on another mesh unit? (is the adapter ethernet?)

Or does this mean bye bye landline - bit concerned.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

The two 'TEL' phone sockets on the back of the Hub are separate to the Ethernet ports and work in both Hub mode and Modem mode.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

OK, but can I use one of the ethernets on a mesh unit? the hub was never sited to facilitate a phone as well.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

No, it has to be one of the 'TEL' sockets on the Hub. Those sockets support standard phone cabling.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

VM can install a back up battery for you so that in case of a fault with the Hub the phone can still be used to make emergency calls.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I find this post very funny :D Well put ..

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

What happens if a customer doesn't want their phone and router in the same room?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

They can use a DECT wireless handset, use standard phone cabling to extend from the Hub, or Virgin Media can go out to amend the wiring if a customer doesn't want to do either of those.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

When this happens around here, I will probably get rid of the phone line, as it will become no more useful than the various mobile connections I have (in fact, less useful, since they will still work in a power cut).

The question is, can this be done mid contract, without any cancellation charge ? [since they are making the change].

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

in my experience I have been allowed to change services mid contract on the grounds the contract is renewed. Not sure if this would be the case.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

See what you say will the price reduce if you or I decided to get rid of it. Out of contract and have have no use of that type of phone :erm:

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

got rid of my landline when VM stopped penalising customers for not having one

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Interesting, thanks. Our landline is in the home office, tucked away and only receiving rare calls from elderly relatives, whereas the router is in the lounge so good to know the options as I'm probably not too far away from techguyone so it could affect me soon.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

My contract is up in Feb, I barely use TV, I might just take the opportunity to go Internet only, my mobile signal is crap but I use Wi-Fi Calling anyway, I might save a few quid.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

More information at:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5...h-p/Switchover

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Do you know if Virgin will charge to amend the wiring in these circumstances?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Not as far as I know.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Just stick with a SHUB2ac, then they can't downgrade your phoneline. :)

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

It can - it'll be turn it off.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

They'd be in breach of contract if they haven't bothered to supply anything newer. Existing customers go swivel, as ever.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

On that note I wonder if it would be worth just cancelling and letting my wife join as a new customer and get a better deal that way (or is something marked on the address to make that not possible)

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

They send you a Hub 3, 4 or 5 to support the phone service. If you don't install it then they can't provide the phone service to the 2ac, so the alternative is to disconnect the line as Virgin Media are physically turning off the kit that runs the analogue lines.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Our line comes in, the coax goes one way to the Tivo/SHubs, the twisted pair goes the other way to sets of sockets from which our phones and devices are plugged in. We have one device powered off the phone line, one old wired phone for emergencies and the wireless set.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

In the community site, the mods said that VM will do so.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Had my line changed over in November. Hub on 1st floor, master socket on Ground Floor. Used to have 2 lines with NTL, 1 now disused to 1st Floor. Tech came & spliced the unused line to the one still in use at the omnibox & connected the old 1st floor master socket to the hub.

Works perfectly & no charges for the work.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

It won't work perfectly if your bb falls over, where as an independent phone line would.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

As is the same with every ISP and phone provider. Welcome to the future.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

That depends on why your BB fell over, a cable fault is just as likely to take the phone out as well.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

It's already changed.VM removed the telephone connection.Left with BB and TV.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

And Virgin Media will usually only patch or replace the coax now anyway and convert the phone at the same time.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Did the cost go down ? Betting it didn't !

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Why would it?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

People on this forum don’t cope well with change, do they? :D

I’m surprised that so many have converted to colour TV…

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Nope. Didn’t expect it to. Prices only ever go up it seems to me.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Except for Technology

QLED TVs for example lot cheaper now and SSDs another good example

Also if you do consider Mobile tariffs for example I get unlimited minutes and texts for £21 per month which includes a £400 phone so my calls text and data costs less than a tenner. Go back 20 years and you would have been paying 40p per minute an 10p per text so 20 mins of calls and 20 texts would swallow £10 and you would have no data.

Also consider land lines. There never used to inclusive packages and you could end up running up quite a bill and dial up internet before screaming.net and inclusive deals you were charged per minute so a heavy month on the net could easily cost £100

So if you take all that into consideration Call charges are still a lot cheaper now than they were 20+ years ago

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

My bill shows a charge of £19 per month for my lineline , no landline no charge ! No hope

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Am I correct in thinking I have a 14 day cooling off period after negotiating, with no penalty?

I hope not!!

Thats horrible,im sorry........

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

It's in colour!!!!??? My TV is just grey and black.

Landline service is 1000% better than this digital crap by the cable company!!

I was at my friends the other day and he still on the same DMS-100 switch I was on when I lived in that neighbourhood......

Abolutely beautiful.... You press a key and the # hears it instantly...... Ya press a key on time warner crap we have at my house and its 1/2 second delay!!

Absolute rubbish....

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

just had an email to say this comes into effect 11th May, I assume they have some way to justify charging you line rental even thought you're not using the line, for the "admin" etc for the "new" system :(

My parents live locally, only have a phone through Virgin, no internet or cable TV (they had cable years and years ago but cancelled it, and think about getting internet now and again) so what happens to them?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

You're still using specific technology that runs the phone service that's separate to the Fibre service so costs to run that still apply.

Customers with no broadband get moved over onto a Hub with no broadband or WiFi enabled.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

In the end I zapped all my TV & phoneline. My pocket thanked me (I also got rid of TV licence too)

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

So if you don't want the phone service , and it is separate it can be disconnected . I don't pay open reach or anyone else for a line I don't use but it is in my home :erm:

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Yes. Virgin Media have never forced you to have a home phone to get broadband or TV.

The Hub based lines can also be switched off separately to having Virgin Fibre broadband.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

They do however penalise you if you only have part of the complete package (phone/TV/Broadband) with higher pricing.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Please tell your agents , every time I have said I don't want a phone line the answer come down too is hard luck :D

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Do people still use landlines at home in 2023?

Whatever provider I have used BT based services or VM, I have never had anything as reliable as my mobile phone, covered by multiple masts so redundancy, always worked in power cuts as well, plus works when I leave home.

But ignoring all this when landlines providers lost it and started silly things like connection fee's I would have thought they killed off their own services from the sheer cost of using it?

VOIP which is the replacement, I would like to think brings costs closer to using a mobile phone? So no more connection fees, line rental etc?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Currently both Virgin Media and Openreach based providers charge line rental for home phone services.

When all customers are moved over to IP based lines, the pricing structures may change, but that's a while off yet.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I would guess that it'll be re-branded as a service charge.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I think like a lot of ppl we receive calls from

a) my parents
b) the in laws
c) nuisance


dentist and gp might use landline as well, but that's about it.

going to be a bit of pain, as router is in opposite corner of lounge to where the phone socket is

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I repeat I have an openreach line to my house , even have/ had a number , have not used for years so have no idea if it is still live, clearly has no service as such. However it is costing nothing to physically leave it there. Perhaps I should charge them rent :D

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

OK. I don't understand what point you're making there. If you had active services on the openreach landline you'd be charged for the service.

If you didn't have an active Virgin Media landline you wouldn't be charged for it.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

My point, I repeat is, when I say I don't want it I am told hard luck you are stuck with it .

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

So I have a phone Downstairs and a Phone Upstairs so How on earth do I plug both phones in ?? Not that I use them any more as all I get on them is SCAM calls.

If I cancel Home Phone do I still have to pay that Stupid £19:99 ??? THANKS

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I don't think the phone adds much if anything to your bill. At 24p a minute if you dare to make call, that's all they need

. I guess most would use wireless phones now so you'd just need one downstairs near the hub plugged in. Always best to have one phone that is wired and not reliant on your BB though. I won't be changing to voip till forced. My hubs too old for it anyway, so I won't be changing that either !

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

My bill lists landline at £19.99 per month :mad:

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Mine isn’t broken down by service…

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...2&d=1676911562

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Same for me. I'd love to be able to see a fully itemised bill again.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I Retired from virgin in 2019.
In a meeting with a pretty senior manager from HQ he waxed lyrical about all the vm services and paid particular attention to the landline. He called it the golden money tree as it needed no maintenance and ran itself. he said this was never to be mentioned outside this room.
I think that says it all about the landline service they still charge £19.99 pm for.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Sounds like a typical clueless manager. :erm:
Its true that digital exchanges require less maintenance (Nottingham runs System X I think) but they do of course still require it. Like all electronics, things can fail, plus of course, so can the connectivity to the end user.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

You're being over charged there Hugh. I'm paying £68 for the same package, plus extra tv box, and that's after the current price rise. Get on that land line and give them hell ! ;)

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I’m happy with the deal I’ve got…

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

so, i got a letter to ring them to arrange for new hub to be delivered, only had this one a few months - hub 4!

so eventually spoke to someone was on hold for 10 minutes, to be told they'd send me a text to arrange an engineer! i don't need an engineer, i can do the self install, well i think i can, i normally do :)

maybe i should have waited to 24th march, and tried to make a call to go to right dept?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

This VOIP service is shite, every time my wife phones her mum the call lasts for about 5 minutes before it cuts off and she has to redial and make the call again, absolute rubbish service.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Have you reported it?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Does her Mum have whatsapp? I been using that to call my Daughter and it is great quality call

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I'd gladly pay extra for a phone service that would cut off my Mother in law after 5 mins.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

:D

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

My phone line has had no dial tone for a month and I finally got around to getting it fixed today, apparently it was dead at the exchange so the engineer has run it through my broadband Hub5, as I never use the land line I don't mind as I plan to eventually cancel it.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Good luck with that, being trying to do for the last three contract renewals, yes I know what Ben says but failed each time:(

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

It's easy enough, I did it, I went to a BB only (as I didn't want TV either)

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I'm out of contract so it'll be easy, I plan to drop to broadband only.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

So lost power for 15mins, this meant I lost access to my phone line too but the power outage appeared to reduce the power to my mobile transmitter making it next to useless, I was standing upstairs with the phone hanging out the window trying to get some kind of a signal...... I never got a usable one.

So....... This digital phone line is an awesome technological advancement in technology..... Whoever came up with it should be taken outside and shat on and denied any form of internet access for life. :rolleyes:

Anyway this is not the stress I needed when my 81 year old father just got admitted to hospital at 5am last night, so I affectively had no contact with family for an update.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Probably everyone was ringing everyone else saying "has your power gone off ?"

---------- Post added at 14:15 ---------- Previous post was at 14:13 ----------

JFYI, a loss of power has killed my phone for about the last 15 years since I had a DECT multi handset system with base station, no power means that stops working, so its very old news to me. I now have no landline at all, got rid of it when my contract was up.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Only just found this thread.
I use my landline to phone my father every day. It worked Sunday and didn’t Monday so I rang from my mobile, last time I tried that a couple of years ago he couldn’t hear me which is why I use the landline. It still didn’t work Tuesday evening so I reported it Wednesday. Engineer came out and fixed it yesterday (a problem at the main box) and I mentioned about having to change to using the hub. He said they were rolling it out but didn’t seem to think it was imminent here.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Have had 2 emails and even more texts telling me when it's happening and asking me to confirm it's ok . Haven't even got the phone connected anymore so really don't care :D

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

The mud has cleared from my eyes and I now understand how the emergency backup system works. You have to keep it charged!

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

The instructions don't seem to mention a Hub2ac. I'll be gutted if I miss out on this 'upgrade' ;)

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

The only thing you'll miss out on is having a phone line at all, it'll simply stop working.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Then I'll simply stop paying for a non existent phone service. They've never offered to upgrade my hub.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

You could end up paying the same amount. Reducing the services you subscribe to may even increase what you pay as VM will be loosing the telephone rental.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

You'll be told when you have to migrate and offered a Hub swap at that point.

Or if your current line stops working the fix will likely be the swap as it's increasingly difficult to fix the analogue lines.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Thanks for that info. Will they also be offering to rewire phone extensions throught the house or is that something I'll have to chase/ do myself?

It is a downgrade whichever you look at it. Landlines are a lot less robust as result. I just dislike the term 'upgrade' when it's clearly not.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

When my line became faulty at the exchange I had to move my landline phone and put it next to the hub.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I've had to move my main landline next to the hub, however with it being a DECT system the other units can still remain where they are.

It's another annoyance deigned to save VM money and make landlines worse. First it was mobiles using 'Wi-Fi calling' because in many places the mobile signal is shocking (my own address included) so now if my internet is down I can't use my mobile.
And now, they've done the same with Landlines. Marvellous isn't it. Upgrade my arse.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Voice over WiFi is part of a mobile spec that also includes Voice over LTE - it moves the voice calls to IP delivery and means you can continue to make voice calls once 2G and 3G signals get switched off.

I'd be interested in knowing how you'd expect Openreach or Virgin Media to provide analogue phone services using kit that no-one is making spare parts for or over a full fibre-to-the-Hub connection.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Yea I get all that, it doesn't get away from the fact the service is less resilient and useful as a result though. Lose the broadband connection, lose everything.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Can you not change mobile provider for better signal?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Sadly no, it's a black spot, it's not even rural.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Maybe you can get a booster?

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

They've all stopped them, I used to have a EE signal Box and it was awesome, but everyone everywhere are tightening their belts and withdrawing services.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

All the consumer network sold mobile booster kit also used broadband to connect back to the mobile provider. Just instead of WiFi signal they broadcast a 3G one. So you still have the same dependency.

Even if they still worked, as 3G is being switched off soon anyways so they'd have to be withdrawn.

You can buy a third party repeater https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-tele...e-phone-signal

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

I saw that earlier, over £1000.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

Looks like the forced voip switchover is on pause. Hope for landlines yet if you haven't already been downgraded.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...tal-landlines/

Mobile networks are unlikely to function for more than three hours (probably less) if power supplies fail, so they're no back up.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

That's good to hear.

I believe that BT/EE will force this by the end of 2025 but whether this is BT Openreach or whether it is just BT/EE is something I'm not clear about.

Re: Important: Your phone service is changing
 

We had a power failure last night, for about 15 minutes.
HV tripped, so took out a large area (about 90,000 homes).
There was no mobile service, it obviously took out all the local cell towers as well.