Fibre network switch when house has 2 phone lines?

[Jo4West]

I have just been cut off from 151 yet again, so posting here!

I moved in with my elderly mother last year and installed a new broadband & phoneline in the study so I could work from home. She already had a longstanding phone line on the other side of the house, so this is the MAIN phone that only she uses with a number she has had for 40+ years.

We received 2 x Fibre Adapters for the 'switchover' and a leaflet saying the old phone service will stop working when the switch happens.

However, a VM technician visited the house to fix an issue recently and said the Hub can only support ONE phone line, despite having more than one slot, and as the MAIN phone point is right across the house anyway they would not be able to 'upgrade' that one to Fibre.

I rang 151 to check this and was told that the old line will remain operational so tell Mum not to worry. However on the leaflet it says "Your old phone service will stop working soon"!!!

So my questions are:

1) Will the MAIN phone line still be operational after the switch to fibre network.

2) If the MAIN phone line will not be operational after the switch, does VM offer another solution for households with 2 phonelines? 

Thanks for any info 🙂

[Kain_W]

Hi Jo4West,

Thanks for posting and welcome back to the community!

Really sorry for the confusion here, with regard to the phoneline, all of our network is moving to our landlines being connected through the router with no plans to keep the present landline system.

Has the technician advised that this line will be kept for the foreseeable? 

Thanks,

[goslow]

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@Jo4West wrote:

I have just been cut off from 151 yet again, so posting here!

I moved in with my elderly mother last year and installed a new broadband & phoneline in the study so I could work from home. She already had a longstanding phone line on the other side of the house, so this is the MAIN phone that only she uses with a number she has had for 40+ years. <snip> 

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Can't help with all the specifics of your query (sounds a bit complicated) but is this one single VM customer account at the property which has two phone lines on it (or have you somehow managed to get two separate VM accounts at the property, each with their own services, which is not that common as I understand it)?

From past topics on here, I had understood that the two phone sockets on the hub could provide two phone lines (assuming you have one customer account) but you would need one of the expert forum regulars on here or VM forum team to confirm if that is correct.

VM's published information on connecting existing extension sockets to the phone socket on the hub during phone switchover used to advise they would do this FOC but that page now seems to have changed (today) and that text has gone. You may be able to pay £25 (typical non-fault call out) and get them to wire up phone extensions to the hub but VM generally seem to envisage that customers will use cordless phones with the new connection (plugging the cordless base station into the hub and using satellite handsets where required).

[Jo4West]

Thanks for responding.

Technician who visited a few weeks ago said the hub supports only one phone line and was going to check with his manager what happens on houses with 2 lines then J heard nothing.

Talking to 151 today the person I spoke to assured me Mum’s standard line would stay operational even though not on the hub. I said will it cost the same, he put me on hold to check and my call then disconnected. As I had already had 3 calls disconnected I thought I would post here hoping to have a definitive answer that I can refer back to!

[Jo4West]

Thanks for your response.

It’s one VM account with 2 phone lines. The main phoneline is literally miles away from the hub, which is in the study with the hub and second line. The technician who popped out weeks ago said the hubs only support one phone line, even though they have more than one free port. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @Jo4West 

Thank you so much for updating us and I am so sorry that this has happened. 

I think it would be best if we took a look into this via PM so we can see what can be arranged. 

I'll send you a PM now, please keep an eye out for the purple envelope in the top right corner of your screen alerting you to a new message. 

Thank you.