Fibrephone connection

[JimH44]

Hi

I've received my adapter and details of the change over to Fibrephone on 20thAugust.

It seems straight forward enough except that my incoming phone socket is on the ground floor and my computer hub is upstairs. I can't take the hub downstairs as it has a VM cable attached which I would rather not move.

Am I expected to run another phone line through the house to make the connection ? 

[JimH44]

Hi 

I knew I was missing something. Have to visit aged parent Sunday afternoon and while talking about the phone a lightning bolt struck me. Why don't I move the Base Unit upstairs? I hadn't thought of that. It won't be as convenient with messages but it will do for now while I consider whether it's worth keeping a landline at all. 

Anyway, top marks for seeing through the fog of my deliberations.

Thank you

[goslow]

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@JimH44 wrote:

Hi 

I knew I was missing something. Have to visit aged parent Sunday afternoon and while talking about the phone a lightning bolt struck me. Why don't I move the Base Unit upstairs? I hadn't thought of that. It won't be as convenient with messages but it will do for now while I consider whether it's worth keeping a landline at all. 

Anyway, top marks for seeing through the fog of my deliberations.

Thank you

---

That's the arrangement I use, a cordless base station upstairs and a satellite cordless downstairs. On my cordless phone, answering machine messages show up on the satellite phone and can be played/deleted etc. from the satellite phone. No requirement to listen to or manage messages specifically at the base station. I would assume most cordless phone systems would do this.

[JimH44]

Hi

Thanks for that Super solver. So to clarify I could use my existing Base unit upstairs next to the VM modem and buy a satellite Base unit for downstairs which I can put where I like.

It's a BT phone so will I have to buy a compatible unit from them?

[goslow]

Do you only have the one single cordless phone at the moment i.e. one main/master cordless base station with a cordless handset that sits on it (no other satellite cordless phones)?

What is the model of your BT cordless phone?

[JimH44]

Hi

Thanks for sticking with me. I have four phones including the one on the Base Station. The model details are BT6500 Quad Digital Cordless Telephone Answering Machine. Item code:066269. S/N 1443724702. I can't remember when I bought it but it was some time ago.

[goslow]

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@JimH44 wrote:

Hi

Thanks for sticking with me. I have four phones including the one on the Base Station. The model details are BT6500 Quad Digital Cordless Telephone Answering Machine. Item code:066269. S/N 1443724702. I can't remember when I bought it but it was some time ago.

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That particular model is discontinued by the look of it. You have probably got several options once your phone landline is converted to a VM hub connection.

It looks as if that system will take a maximum of 5 handsets connected to it according to the manual (pg. 74)

https://www.best4systems.co.uk/pdf-manuals/BT/BT%206500/BT%206500%20User%20Guide.pdf

Choice 1 - Put the main/master base station upstairs and connect it into the VM hub phone socket. Make do with 3 remaining satellite stations elsewhere in the home. Use the functions of the satellite phones to access answering machine messages etc. downstairs (pg. 47 above)

Choice 2 - See if you can pick up a second hand BT6500 'additional handset' from somewhere (eBay etc.). The 'additional handset' is just a charger stand and cordless phone i.e., no line cord from the base. Pair the additional handset to the existing main/master base upstairs next to the hub (pg.74). You would then still have 4 cordless handsets plus the base handset upstairs next to the hub which would be the max. 5 for the system.

Choice 3 - See if you can pick up just a second hand BT6500 charger base only from a BT6500 'additional handset' (eBay etc.). Leave the main/master base only upstairs with the hub. Use the handset from that base with the additional charger base elsewhere in the home (i.e., no phone handset next to the hub, just the main/master base for the connection to the landline to provide the cordless signal)

Choice 4 - The BT6500 is 'GAP compatible' which means you can use other models of phone with it but the functionality of the add-on phone may be limited to just making/receiving calls. Another current additional handset model from BT might be best. There is a BT product helpline for the BT6500 (pg. 81 of the manual) and they should be able to suggest something suitable.

https://www.bt.com/help/user-guides/phones/landline-phones/cordless-phones/can-i-use-a-different-typ...

You could find a current model of BT additional cordless handset which is GAP compatible and register that with the existing base (although its functionality may be limited to just making/receiving calls). You may also find issues with the call blocking features of the BT6500 on a non-BT6500 model.

IMO though, you should probably just go with choice 1 to begin with and see how well the existing cordless setup works with the main/master base upstairs and with the VM hub phone connection. If it all worked OK under the new setup, you could then decide if you needed to buy any more equipment or not.

[Serena_C]

Hi @JimH44

Thanks for getting back to us with the detail.

Have you tried moving the main base station upstairs and connecting it into your Virgin Media hub socket as advised by @goslow?

Please do let us know how you get on with this 🙂 Hopefully this will work best as a solution and it will not require you to purchase further equipment.

Kind regards,

Serena

[JimH44]

Hi

I'll let you know what happens after 20th August as I can't move the Base station until then.

Jim

[Serena_C]

Hi Jim,

Okay, thanks for getting back to us 🙂

Let us know how things go after 20th August.

Best wishes,

Serena

[JimH44]

Moved the Base station upstairs and everything seems to be working. No problems other than organising a spare power socket which I managed to sort. I'll try some of the other tips re a new phone downstairs when I'm sure it has all settled down.

Thank you

Jim