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Fibre phone upgrade

Canarytops1
On our wavelength

I'm trying to get my head around these posts and the Virgin Letter which advises "we will send you an adaptor to connect your home phone to your wifi hub". Is this actually the "main wired" phone to the hub or the "master" cable that the service enters the house with.

I've uploaded two photos, the first shows the "master [copper] cable" entry to the house and the Virgin gizzmos it goes to. The second shows the location of my hub relative to the first. 

So if the (new) adaptor plus into the old master cable and the hub I assume all is well as they are less than 2 metres apart. If however it has to be plugged into the "master cabled phone (with answerphone)" which is in a different room (approx. 12 metres distant) looks as if I have a problem ?

I'd really like to see a "diagram" that shows devices distance limitations. I have one other hard-wired extension, all other rooms have cordless extensions (to the master base unit).

I'm also unclear if a virgin engineer is to attend every conversion or whether it's meant to be "simple" enough for the householder to connect ?20211110_160629.jpg20211110_160650.jpg

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@Canarytops1 wrote:

I'm trying to get my head around these posts and the Virgin Letter which advises "we will send you an adaptor to connect your home phone to your wifi hub". Is this actually the "main wired" phone to the hub or the "master" cable that the service enters the house with.

<snip>


VM seem to be not that interested in the reality that customers might actually have useful/working devices plugged into various telephone sockets around the home when the switchover phone connections.

Once you are 'switched over' your 'master socket' (not quite the right word) is the TEL1 socket on the back of the VM hub. All of your existing telephone wall sockets will cease to function.

VM provide you with a short adapter lead (which is shown on the bottom LHS pic below)

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/home-phone-line-faults

which takes a standard BT plug to allow connection to the VM hub.

In the VM scheme of things, the customer plugs a cordless phone base station in there and uses cordless extensions around the home where required.

In the event that the customer wants to reinstate existing telephone extension sockets to work with the new arrangement, they do this via a different lead as below

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/HUB3-to-Master-socket-adaptor/m-p/4507007#M143805

In this arrangement, the VM tech would disconnect the old incoming phone line to the master socket. The lead above is then connected at one end to the hub and the other end is plugged into the old master socket. This 'backfeeds' the new phone connection from the hub into the old extension sockets around the home to re-enable them. It is important to disconnect the old incoming phone line so as to avoid accidentally cross-connecting the new phone connection from the hub back out into the equipment in the street.

The discussions on here about doing this often go around and around in circles. Sometimes VM agree to do it and sometimes they argue that it is not their job (despite their published info saying they will do such work).

Good news is that, based on your photos, I think VM should be able to disconnect your old telephone master socket from the larger VM wall box, then use one of the backfeed leads to reactivate your extension sockets as your hub location and master socket are right next to each other.

Basically, you need a VM tech to visit to re-enable your old extension sockets as described above.

One of the forum team should be able to arrange that for you as your photos show a simple arrangement that should be easy to accommodate without any major wiring involved.

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

14 REPLIES 14

Paulina_Z
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi @Canarytops1,

Welcome back to our Community Forum. Thank you for your post, and I'm sorry to hear that you're having some issues with your new landline connection.

We understand that this can be frustrating and confusing, but we're happy to help.

Your landline should be connected as such: landline > adaptor > Hub. You can take a look at our website for more information about the Landline Switchover for more information. You will be able to see details instructions on how to plug everything in there.

Please let us know how you're getting on and if you need any further support.

Thank you.

Paulina_Z
Forum Team

New around here? Check out the do's and don'ts, in our Community FAQs


goslow
Alessandro Volta

@Canarytops1 wrote:

I'm trying to get my head around these posts and the Virgin Letter which advises "we will send you an adaptor to connect your home phone to your wifi hub". Is this actually the "main wired" phone to the hub or the "master" cable that the service enters the house with.

<snip>


VM seem to be not that interested in the reality that customers might actually have useful/working devices plugged into various telephone sockets around the home when the switchover phone connections.

Once you are 'switched over' your 'master socket' (not quite the right word) is the TEL1 socket on the back of the VM hub. All of your existing telephone wall sockets will cease to function.

VM provide you with a short adapter lead (which is shown on the bottom LHS pic below)

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/home-phone-line-faults

which takes a standard BT plug to allow connection to the VM hub.

In the VM scheme of things, the customer plugs a cordless phone base station in there and uses cordless extensions around the home where required.

In the event that the customer wants to reinstate existing telephone extension sockets to work with the new arrangement, they do this via a different lead as below

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/HUB3-to-Master-socket-adaptor/m-p/4507007#M143805

In this arrangement, the VM tech would disconnect the old incoming phone line to the master socket. The lead above is then connected at one end to the hub and the other end is plugged into the old master socket. This 'backfeeds' the new phone connection from the hub into the old extension sockets around the home to re-enable them. It is important to disconnect the old incoming phone line so as to avoid accidentally cross-connecting the new phone connection from the hub back out into the equipment in the street.

The discussions on here about doing this often go around and around in circles. Sometimes VM agree to do it and sometimes they argue that it is not their job (despite their published info saying they will do such work).

Good news is that, based on your photos, I think VM should be able to disconnect your old telephone master socket from the larger VM wall box, then use one of the backfeed leads to reactivate your extension sockets as your hub location and master socket are right next to each other.

Basically, you need a VM tech to visit to re-enable your old extension sockets as described above.

One of the forum team should be able to arrange that for you as your photos show a simple arrangement that should be easy to accommodate without any major wiring involved.

Sigma
Fibre optic

So the phone has got to be connected to my Superhub?? What if that's upstairs, but my phone is downstairs?

What if I have an older Superhub 2.0 (the regular version, not the AC one)? Will I be forced to upgrade it?

If you were using an older Hub we would look to upgrade you for free to a newer model Sigma.

 

Rob

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@Sigma wrote:

So the phone has got to be connected to my Superhub?? What if that's upstairs, but my phone is downstairs?

What if I have an older Superhub 2.0 (the regular version, not the AC one)? Will I be forced to upgrade it?


From past topics on here, VM's default approach is that they have provided you with a telephone connection socket on the back of the hub (equivalent concept to the old master socket) and that is the end of their responsibility. For most people this should work OK by plugging in a cordless phone base station into the back of the hub and using cordless extensions elsewhere in the home as required.

If you want your existing extension sockets linked into the new VM hub phone connection you have to argue the case with VM to get that done as part of the switchover (as explained above). From posts on here, it is seemingly more likely to happen without a fight if it is an easy task where the hub and old master socket are next to each other. If you have an older hub with no TEL1 socket on it, you will get a newer hub as part of the switchover.

@Robert_P - The reason I've stuck with the Superhub 2 is because of the Puma chipset issue the other hubs have, which has never been properly fixed. Will I be able to get a Superhub 5? If not, do I absolutely have to upgrade?

I really don't want to have to plug my main phone base station into a Hub that's located in a spare bedroom and I don't want to relocate the Hub. This sucks, honestly, and if my broadband goes down or there's a power cut, I assume I'll have no landline either.

@goslow - Thanks.

goslow
Alessandro Volta

It's not really a choice as all telecoms providers are following the same programme of change

https://www.futureofvoice.co.uk/

2025 is the target date for completion

Sofia_B
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Thanks for getting back to us @Sigma

 

Apologies our Hub 5 isn't widely available as of yet, you can find updates on this here

 

In this case, we would upgrade your Hub. As helpfully advised by goslow, landline connections are changing with all telecoms providers. 

 

If you'd like us to get the upgrade arranged for you, please let us know. 

 

Thanks,

Sofia
Forum Team



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It's not a choice, no, however VM are telling me it has to be done by March 2022, not 2025, and they're not willing to give me the latest Hub, so I'd have to switch to one that has a known fault.

I might just cancel the landline altogether. I will have to think about it.