Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Landline are to be axed by 2025, in a country wide switch to digital.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/08/16/tradi...ital-15097358/

(This is in all the papers, I just happened to pick the above).

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Will my VM bill reduce accordingly? :D

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Probably not.

Its kinda confusing though, since you will still need the actual physical line to your house, to supply the internet, its just the device on the end of it that will change.

Im not sure how telephone exchanges will cope with this, basically every phone line would need to be an ADSL connection ?

Digital calls themselves are nothing new, Ive had a skype number for almost 14 years, and still use it (sometimes) to make calls, as well as receive them.

It *should* mean calls to any other uk number would be free, since everything will be over the internet.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

IIRC BT has been preparing to switch its entire network to VOIP for years now. In previously reading about this I got the impression that there would be no change necessary to customer equipment as it was all about how the call data was handled once it got to the telephone exchange. If they are going to force voip equipment into subscriber homes I would imagine they would be installing something near the master socket that’s not unlike the fixed Openreach wall box you get if you take a FTTC product.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

By the looks of it everyone will get at least a Smart Hub 2 with a telco socket

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/wha...-can-i-get-it-

But with additional kit to use existing handsets https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/he...-userguide.pdf

Virgin Media are doing a similar thing. Telco only (or Telco and TiVo only) customers still get a Hub, just one that isn't provisioned for Virgin Fibre. The difference currently is that the Hub sockets will run existing handsets directly.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

My Sky router uses the fttp for the telco now. No phone socket in the house.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

I can't see the operators letting us have the calls for free, though perhaps they will be if they decide to put line rental up again for everybody.

A lot of people use their mobiles or apps such as WhatsApp, which is probably why line rental has become more expensive (and line rental saver scrapped) with free calls offered in the evenings and weekends.

It will be the less tech savvy that will lose out, often older people, as usual.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

I’m seriously considering binning my entire BT service when it goes out of contract. Everything our family does now is via 4G, whether calls on our own mobiles or data via our SIM-powered router, which gives us about twice the speed of the nearest house so far connected to fibre (the line ends about 2 miles from us).

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

So in an emergency and your interweb is down and/or your mobile has no reception/battery, you're stuffed. A separate independent landline might be a lifesaver.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Whats the chances of Internet going down AND all 4 mobile operators go down at the same time AND you have an emergancy?

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Here's the BBC article on the story.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58233420

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

True. However, we live in a remote location so preparedness is second nature - there are multiple USB power banks in our drawers, always fully charged. Having installed 4G home internet I am also intimately acquainted with the quirks and vagaries of the local network cells so I’m confident I can always get a signal, even if it means going outside and walking about 20 metres down the road (for good line of sight to the second-best cell in our locality, should our preferred one go down).

Our BT service relies on nearly 5 miles of pole-mounted cable, so in the sort of storm liable to take out the power, the landline is equally vulnerable.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

My dad isn't gonna be impressed as he cant use a mobile properly lol
When he sends a text we need to get it deciphered lol.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

You're assuming coverage from 4 operators.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

As has been said before, people out in the sticks already have issues with landlines.

My brother-in-law lives in rural Hampshire, and his BT line goes down about 5% of the year - overhead cables, strong winds, trees - join the dots.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

I doubt there are many populated areas not covered by at least 2 operators, and probably 3, esp as pretty much any phone can make calls on 2G.

Since smart meters also use 2G, so its probably not going away quite yet.
Some operators have made announcements, and are shutting down 3G before 2G.

One operator failing is rare, two+ in the same area would be very rare (I dont think its ever happened).

Of course, a big enough disaster could take out multiple, but thats likely to be something affecting many many people, and other measures would get put in place.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Could this not affect your business trade though? A friend who has a hotel considered scrapping her landline, but says that she fears losing repeat trade because, over the years, so many people only have her landline number. Losing just one nights booking a month would more than negate the saving on her BT line rental.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Numbers can be easily ported to VOIP providers.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

We stopped dealing with phone enquiries years ago - a benefit of being a small operator in a popular location is you can fill your rooms easily with online booking only.

Thats sad..... This digital crap is disgusting..... Then quality isnt as good and to me it doesnt sound as good.......

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

I’m sorry ?? POTS is better than VOIP ??

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

As people move over to digital services providers can offer better voice quality.

It already happens with VoLTE on mobiles, and BT offer it between their Digital Voice between their own customers. Hopefully that will be co-ordinated to work between all UK landline providers.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

We know you have an obsession with old outdated analogue tech but a digital voice call is so much clearer and sounds much better than an old analogue one.

Digital has proved to be the better tech as more data can be transmitted versus the analogue version.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

You hear it when people phone in to radio shows now - rarely do you hear someone who actually sounds like they’re on a telephone any more. It’s quite confusing really, because you used to be able to tell who was an expert contributor to a programme, or a celebrity, and who was a mere civilian phoning in for a quiz or a dedication when only the ‘official’ participants got to sound as if they were on an ISDN line. :D

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Your statement does not have any contact with actuality.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Yeah, it's not Vinyl versus CD.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Twisted pair copper to house for phones carries power so a simple phone can make calls in a power cut (or should). It's also "wired" to the wall so you know where to find it and it also supplies location to the emergency services so a 999 call then collapsing can still get help to you.


And I'm one of those who don't have a mobile (personal) and my work phone though better now has weak signal. We used to need a pico cell over the internet but now can make calls over wifi but neither of those would work in a power cut.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

The phones in my last job switched to VOIP, the downside was in a power cut, or the network goes down you can make zero phone calls, including 999.


It happened a few times, and even when it was up, the audio quality was crap.

---------- Post added at 14:32 ---------- Previous post was at 14:19 ----------

IIRC operators will allow each other to use their towers, this will save a fortune in building new towers.


Especially those in remote areas.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Had an email from BT a few days ago saying that my phone service is changing to digital voice, it should start within 48 hours of 2nd Sept 2021.

They recommend that you buy a new Essential (£39.99) or Advanced (£44.99) digital home phone, obviously so you can spend a bit more with them.
Then goes on to say you can continue to use your existing phone by simply plugging it into the phone port on the back of the BT Hub, which is what I shall be doing!

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

What if you dont use the BT smarthub as your router, what is there solution there?

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Doesn't seem to be an official one. BT's Hubs don't have a modem mode so you can't do what you can with the Virgin Media Hub for a third party router.

Lots of discussion about how to make it work by bypassing as much of the router as possible - https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-pho...r/td-p/2095493

Yup same here....... Lousy network,drops call all the time........

I would love to have our GOOD landline service back!

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

https://www.choose.co.uk/news/2019/m...k-4g-coverage/

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

A great idea and, further to one potential barrier to it coming about, we are no longer in the EU so the state aid component has stuff-all to do with the European Commission.

I’ve long thought that the emergency services infrastructure in remote areas should be open to tower sharing. It seems a bit pointless if the emergency services can talk to each other in these places but you can’t use your mobile phone to call them out there in the first place. :D

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

The linked article was from end of 2019 at which point we were still in the EU and it wasn't clear when the final exit would be.
Remember though, emergency mobile calls use whatever network is available. No 'normal service' network sharing required ;)

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

I know - hence “further to” ;)

Can a mobile phone make a 999 call via a TETRA mast? I was unaware … I thought there needed to be at least one public cell in range for that function to work.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

Well probably not but then the Emergency Services are moving the ESN which is 4G based so the coverage will then be similar as far as I understand it?

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...rvices-network

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

I suspect that work is connected to the earlier plan in some way.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

currently, IIRC all 999 calls will piggyback on the best signal, regardless if it is your operator or not.


So if that can be done, surely it's easy to allow them to make ordinary calls

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

It’s technically easy but not desirable. Cells have limited capacity, as we know only too well around here. Most of the year I can get close to 150Mbps from my local EE cell, which is its maximum. But for a few weeks in the summer when all the local caravan sites are full I’m lucky to get 2Mbps download in the evening. Now, EE is the only functional network in the area, and it struggles to cope at times, just from an influx of its own customers. Imagine the havoc if they just allowed any phone to use the cell.

Infrastructure sharing, I think, is likely to go little further than tower sharing. Each network operator is going to have to put their own hardware on the tower and ensure there’s enough backhaul capacity for their needs.

Re: Landlines to be axed by 2025
 

A mobile phone will be able to make a 999 call even if you have no sim card in it.