Digital Phone Switchover again

[Denali]

Hi,

I've received the notification of the Digital Switchover via email. This morning I also took a very confusing call on the subject from someone who may have been a representative of Virgin Media but who said he didn't have access to the "three characters from the account password" feature so would have to ask for other personal details instead. When I pushed back against this, he claimed he now did have access to the password. It all sounded a bit shady so I terminated the call.

I would like to arrange a switchover date (and a new hub) but it sounds as though the phone lines are slammed with enormous waiting times and the text chat feature is sending people around in a loop. I'm hoping to be able to arrange everything here by PM.

As far as I know there shouldn't be any special requirements for the installation, nor a need for an engineer. I have five phones; one DECT base-station, three DECT satellite handsets and an old-school ex-BT handset from the 1980s. Obviously the latter will stop working but I'm reasonably sure the DECT phones, though old (they're labelled Cable & Wireless!) should be OK with the new hub, and maybe an adapter, once I've moved the base-station nearer to the hub.

The current hub is a SuperHub 2 which will need to be replaced.

I only have a couple of technical questions which the community may be able to answer before any official VM contact:

• Will the Caller ID function on the DECT phones continue to work when connected via the hub and/or adapter? Or is this impossible to answer broadly, and more a case of "try it and see"?
• Will the new hub be able to be configured for Modem Mode? I have my own router and a highly customised network arrangement that I'd really rather not disturb.

Thanks.

[Adri_G]

Hi, Denali.
Thank you for taking the time to post on our help forums and welcome back to the community.

We're sorry to hear of this experience over a call with our team earlier and that you've been unable to get in touch again since.
We'd love to assist with the switchover to our new fibre lines and ensure you have the correct setup, also to advise on your above questions and concerns mentioned.

From what you've advised above, you should need a new hub fitted, as well as our adaptor to use at the back of the router and connect your handset.
Please, view more here on what types of hubs we provide and their specs - we can confirm all hubs are capable of switching to modem mode should you wish.

If you have any further questions about this feel free to ask and we'll gladly advise more.

About the handsets and whether those are compatible with our 21CV line (via fibre optics) this is down to how old your handsets are practically and if the support a line via fibre.
While most devices will be compatible with fibre, some older systems might only work over an analogue phone line. If so, you might need to update your equipment. It’s best to check with your device provider to make sure.

Just so you know, your device provider may call the fibre phone line ‘IP voice' or 'digital voice'.

We hope the above info is of help to you, to be able to assist you with completing the migration process and swap your hub I'll need to message you privately here.

Please, check the top right-hand side of our page to find a little white envelope.
Click on this and you'll see my message.

[goslow]

Rough rule of thumb is that phones from the early 2000s, and before, may have issues on the new phone-via-router connection. Most often this is a non-ringing problem due to the absence of a ringing capacitor in the VM phone adapter. This can often be resolved by getting a different adapter which includes the ringing capacitor.

The phone-via-router connection works in either modem mode or router mode.

If you need telephone extension sockets reconnecting to the hub post-switchover, VM should offer to do this free of charge as part of the switchover process.

[Denali]

Thanks, goslow. I've started a PM correspondence with Adri so hopefully I'll have some answers soon. 

I had, wrongly and perhaps naively, assumed that newer DECT phones would work directly with the fibre connection while older ones would need the adapter. Having had a re-read it looks as though all handsets need the adapter and that it's pot luck whether legacy hardware works or not.

I have put one of the ring-capacitor-enabled adapters recommended elsewhere into my Amazon basket, in the perhaps vain hope that if I have any issue it'll just be non-operative ringers. I wonder how many customers replaced their "incompatible" phones with expensive upgrades before learning about this little wrinkle? 🙄

Thankfully there are only two of us in the household and neither requires special emergency access so the legacy extensions won't need to be reconnected. (In fact the last time there was a power cut in the area none of the phones worked anyway, even the old legacy straight-into-the-socket one, so I'm not convinced they'd work anyway). I do have a burglar alarm hooked up to the phone line but it's not monitored; it just calls a list of numbers if anything trips it. A nicety, but one I don't really need.

I'm just looking forward to the day when the switchover is complete, VM no longer has to support expensive legacy copper networks, and we can all enjoy the huge discount on landline rental which will no doubt follow... 😉

[notnow]

Hey thanks for the headsup RE the adapter **with the ringing capcity** ! I had just given up and was only using the landline for specific timed / planned phone calls !! 

So how exactly do I use all the plug sockets in my rooms? or will they all work fine if I use the one adapter from router to the start of the phone daisychain ?

thanks again

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @notnow 

Thank you so much for your post and welcome to the community forums, it's great to have you here.

I am sorry for any confusion regarding the switch over and we would love to help. Can I just clarify here, do you mean you have more than one handset that needs connecting in other rooms?

[notnow]

Thank you so much for replying, Ashleigh. Could you could message me, if possible? I am still waiitng for three wifi pods, and yes, he ability to use my own landline. There is absolutely no reception in my area... and even when I moved into the house and hadn't signed up to you yet, I had to call the police. And I coudln't (had to txt my friend to). So these landlines are very important to me. Thank you

[Ayisha_B]

Hi @notnow 

I will pop you a PM 📩  now so we can take a closer look into this.

Speak soon 😊