Advice on Digital Landline Before Switching to Virgin

[Erskine]

I am a BT customer and am thinking of switching to Virgin. I need some info on the impact of the changes and what is involved to adapt my home, etc.

My current service is along the old copper lines of BT. Virgin provide fibre services in my area and would like to know what work is required to connect from the street to my bungalow.

More importantly though is how this will affect my landline. I do not use a mobile and will not use a mobile phone. But do require a landline. So, what will I need to ensure that I can have my landline working. Do I need any adapters or cabling inside my home? Do I need the phone next to the Virgin router? Do I need adapters, new phones, etc, etc?

Any and all help would be great.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey Erskine, thank you for reaching out and a very warm welcome.

Eventually all major providers will be on the 21CV not just Virgin Media.

However the phone line would plug into an adapter and we would make sure your phone line is correctly set up for you and any needs you may have please do not worry.

Phones that work with 21CV will be needed, an older phone may not be compatible  

[goslow · Accepted solution]

If you are in a long-established VM area, your VM connection would come from the street via a coax cable which emerges from a cover in the pavement. Look outside for similar VM covers (may be branded VM or CATV) as per

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Outside-Cable-Cover/td-p/5370676

In newer VM areas, a fibre optic cable is used. VM can install these underground as well or VM is sometimes using overhead poles or underground ducts belonging to Openreach. In the newest version of VM's fibre, I don't think the landline is available yet.

In terms of the connection in your home, you plug in a normal telephone into the back of the VM hub to the TEL1 socket using an adapter provided by VM.

The connection is best used with cordless phones. Plug the cordless base station into the VM hub and use cordless handsets around your home as required.

[Matthew_ML]

Thank you for posting some advice goslow.

If you need anything else answering the sales team can answer it on 0800 183 1234.

[Erskine]

Many thanks, Goslow and Matthew.

VM is fairly new to this area and has only been available for app 1 year. I have seen at least one home where a cable comes out the ground into a small brown box on their wall and then a cable from theat enters the house. I wondered if this was VM. It is not like the one shown in the post linked above. So maybe not.

The landline is an essential and it may be from what I read above that this would not be available since the fibre lines here are so new. So maybe a call to the team would be the safest option.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for the reply @Erskine on the forums. 👋🏼

So what you've described is how our network is - the cable comes from the ground to the Omnibox, which is the external box situated outside a property and then goes in to the house to the broadband and then the TV.
The setup there is for the landline, from the hub we have an adapter which the landline plugs in to and then is used as part of the digital switchover. More information on this can be found here. 

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Erskine]

Great, that is very helpful Ilyas. A search for Omnibox brings up an image which appears to be the very thing I have seen on a neigbours house.

Next question (.....bear with me, I am almost done!) What type of phone do I need for use on 21CV? At present, I have the standard BT cordless phones which run on the old copper nextwork. Base station with answer phone and remote 2nd handset. I have had a few searches and it is not exactly clear which types of phones are needed for VoIP.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for the reply! 👋🏼

From what we are aware - all modern phones will work with the new line, only some phones (pre 2000 year) may have issues with it ringing through.
But if the phones are fairly new - i.e. within the last few years, there won't be any issues with them. 😇

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[nodrogd]

What you have to bear in mind with 21CV (& not just Virgin, with all suppliers from next year) is if your power fails, so does the phone service. At the moment the only solution for vulnerable customers is an EBUL (Emergency Back Up Line). This is a phone that plugs into the hub, but also has a mobile phone SIM card installed that will allow emergency calls to be made via the mobile phone network during outages..

[Erskine]

Thanks. My phone may just be pushing on a bit. It is a BT Synergie phone and as far as I am aware, it is a design which ahs been around for some time. Although my actual phone may not be 24 years old in itself.

And, thanks for the advice about the landline going down during power failures, etc. I was aware of this and while it is inconvenient, it is not an essential requirement for me.