Fibre phone swap over spectacularly poorly managed

[Awal]

Looking at this forum I'm clearly not the only one that has my hub and phone sockets in completely different places, but there is zero information about what to do in that situation.

If VM are forcing the change on customers, inconveniencing them and adding no benefit, in fact it's offering less (no power no phone) VM should be going out of their way to make life easy. Instead it's just a "tough. Good luck"

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post on our Community Forums @Awal, and welcome back to!

Sorry to hear of the disappointment on the lack of information available on how we accommodate customers with this request.

What we can do for you, is either relocate the hub, so this is closer to where the handset is located, or discreetly run cabling from the router to the handsets location, to accommodate the services.

Do feel free to take some time to think about which option would be preferable, and you're welcome to report back to us here on the Forums for further assistance, or give our team a call on 0345 454 1111 or 150 from your Virgin Media landline service.

Thanks,

David_Bn

[goslow]

Ask VM (via the VM forum team on here) to modify your home phone wiring so you can use your existing landline extension sockets via the phone connection from the VM hub.

VM should offer to do this free of charge for you as part of the switchover process.

Make sure they make modifications to your phone wiring so you can keep each piece of equipment in the same place (rather than the offer which sometimes crops up on here to move the hub to a different location).

Modifying the phone wiring may require some changes to internal cables in the home. How much work is involved will depend on existing locations of equipment and cable routes alongside any aesthetic considerations.

Refer here https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover

Do I need to book a technician visit? You’ll need to book a free technician visit if...

• You rely on your landline for accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile to make an emergency call – we’ll provide you with an Emergency Back Up Line so you’re always able to call emergency services.
• You’ve got connected devices such as a burglar alarm linked to a control centre, use a telecare device, or have other phones connected to extension sockets. You’ll need to contact your provider and let them know about the switch if you have any of these to make sure they’re compatible with a fibre service.
• The Hub and your home phone can’t be placed near each other.

Alternatively, a cordless phone system allows you to use phones around the home with no wiring modifications or disruption. Plug the cordless base station into the VM hub and use the cordless satellite phones around your home as required. If you already have a cordless system, you may be able to add in another cordless satellite phone to the existing setup as/if required. If you needed to buy a cordless phone system, to avoid any rewiring work, this would be at a cost to you.

[Awal]

I have 2 internal connection boxes, upstairs and downstairs, downstairs does the 2 TV set top boxes and 1 phone socket, upstairs the hub and a phone socket (in different rooms). 2 phone sockets, 1 line. This forced change is a major pain and incurs cost for me, just so VM can save money that they aren't passing on to customers and provides no benefit to customers

[goslow]

The merits (or not) of the phone switchover are discussed on here regularly. Like it or not, the change to a phone-via-router connection is coming to all suppliers

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2021/upgrading-landlines-to-digital-technology

so it is a case of finding the least-worst option that you can accommodate.

Your description of your setup sounds like the required changes could be made by modifying your home phone wiring, which VM will do free of charge as part of the switchover.

[Jodi_S]

We're sorry you feel this way Awal,

As my colleague David has advised, we will be able to relocate your equipment (hub) or have additional cabling placed in your property free of charge.

Changing to the phone service via cable is a government objective and this has to be completed by 2025, we are choosing to take the changeover now to ensure all of our customers have been migrated prior to the current telephone exchange being closed down in 2025.

Once again we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind regards Jodi.