Digital phone line, ethernet phone cabling question

You can do this "if" you port your phone number to a proper VOIP supplier. 

The VM is not VOIP per se, as they are only using the Hub to relay the phone line to the VM exchange (sort of)    If you can't port, then perhaps a cordless base station at the Hub, and the phone handset elsewhere?

Hi Andrewilley 👋 welcome back to the community forum! 

Thanks for posting these concerns about your landline setup when the switchover comes. Once you are notified of the switch, if you need an engineers appointment to help re-arrange the setup in your home we will be able to book this in. 

It may be that we set up an extension via the existing telephone socket, or we can re-locate the hub for you. 

If you have cordless handsets, only the base station needs to be connected to the hub - so this may also be a solution for you. 

You can find a bit more general information about the switch here 👉 https://www.virginmedia.com/help/digital-voice-switchover 

Sadly there's not a lot we can do in the meantime, but please do get back in touch when you are notified of the switch and we will offer further support!

Wishing you all the best. 🌞

Re-locating the Virgin Hub is not an option. It's in modem-mode and needs to connect firstly (and only) via Cat-6 to my Netgear Nighthawk router, which is then the master network point/firewall/DHCP server/etc from which everything else in the house is connected. There is only one Cat-6 link from the network shelf to the lounge, so to move the Hub would require running a second return Cat-6 cable - which of course is the whole problem.

Putting the phone baseunit in the network rack area shelf is also not a viable solution as it is the answerphone base unit (with call counter display so you can see when there is a message) and is also the charging station for the lounge telephone handset. I guess if Virgin would provide us with an extra charging base to go in the lounge that would be a partial solution, but still not ideal as we only ever listen to messages by pressing the Play button on the base unit (which would no longer be accessible). Not sure my wife would take kindly to being told she has to regularly check for messages on the tiny telephone handset display! ;)

I think the least-problematical solution might be to bore a new hole from the lounge to the cubbyhole area. It used to be an external wall prior to an extension being built, and now I look at the configuration it might actually be relatively easy with a very long masonry bit (which I presume Virgin engineers carry)? Then we could just run a four-core phone cable from the Hub's RJ11 connector in the cubbyhole into the lounge with minimal messy internal wiring.

Andre

If I was going to install any kind of new cable connection, I would try to make it an ethernet cable and use a patching kit to patch the voice connection over the ethernet cable.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PCSL-Brand-Telephone-Structured-Cabling/dp/B007UGF3EU

Hard to say much without fully appreciating the layout of your home but ...

If an ethernet connection is not possible, do you know where the existing phone cable from the lounge is connected to next? You mention the master socket in the lounge and coax going a short distance to the outside box. If the phone cable from the lounge master socket goes to the outside omnibox, does it make the task any easier to run a phone cable from the VM hub location to the outside box and make a join in there to the cable feeding the phone socket to the lounge?

You should set your expectations to quite a low level as to what a VM tech might do for you in rewiring your telephone sockets. We occasionally read reports on here of a telephone rewire job well done by a VM tech for a happy customer. More often though, as reported on here, the VM tech has little/no idea about telephone wiring and will not spend time taking a complicated route to hide cables. The usual approach is surface mounted cables via the easiest/quickest route for the VM tech.

If the aesthetics are of high importance you might want to consider getting a local contractor to do the wiring mod's for you who may well have better knowledge and time to do a proper job in the way you want.

I did all the original network cable running in the house myself. Luckily we got the property before selling our old one so I was able to run the wires neatly behind plasterboard and through walls while a small extension was being added. Made the Virgin installer very happy when he arrived to find concealed coax already routed directly to all the box locations, and even boxes screwed to the walls; he just needed to connect the cable from the road and terminate the coax runs (I used their own stock boxes & cables, given to me in advance by the guy who came out to do the pre-install survey). Installer said it was the easiest install he'd ever done. :)

So I'll probably just get the tech to drill a hole (as my drill won't be long enough) and I'll connect and terminate the RJ11>phone wires myself, unless he feels like doing it. Now I've worked out the logistics of the room layout, that cable run will actually be very short and tidy - but if they go the surface route it's about 20m of skirting boards and four door frames to tackle.

Do we know when this digital switchover will happen by the way - is it discretionary timing by the consumer, or dictated by local exchange schedules?

My hub5 is n modem mode under the stairs. I use a RJ11 to Ethernet cable into my patch panel. This is patched over Cat6 cable to the back upstairs bedroom where I have a Ethernet to old type telephone adapter, where the phone base station is plugged in. If have phone handsets all over the house and in the shed at the end of the garden.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Many years ago we have a pair of devices like these to provide a telephone line to SkyHD unit.  I've no idea if they are still available.

http://multimediasystems.co.uk/store/PHONEJACK-Wireless-Phone-Extension-Kit--DECT-BT-Extension---PHONEWIRELEXT.html