cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Home phone going via Hub - what are the consequences of this move

23carrie
Joining in

My parents of 87 and 85 have been moved over to Fibre Network for their home phone after their landline stopped working without any notice or guidance as to what the consequences of this will have.
They have their Lifeline connected to there landline and this has now been moved over to this new system so I would like to ask a few questions:-

1. If there is a power loss will they loose the use of the phone to make and receive calls including calls to emergency services (999).

2. If their is a problem with the Hub/Router with they loose the use of the phone to make and receive calls including emergency services (999), and will their connection with the provider for lifeline fail?

3. If the broadband/internet service fails, will they loose the use of the phone to make and receive calls including emergency services (999), and will their connection with the provider for lifeline fail?

I’m hoping I’m wrong, but I believe in all 3 scenarios above the phone and lifeline system will fail.

They haven’t got a mobile phone as they find them very difficult to use as the keypads are too small especially with failing eyesight and shaking hands.

I await the answers from Virgin Media before I make any further comment.

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Koda
Up to speed

1) If there is a power failure, the router would lose power and therefore you would not be able to make a call with this system. As VM have suggested though you can get a backup battery for vulnerable people who don't have a mobile phone and this would allow the hub to continue working and allow phone calls for a short while without power. 

2) If there is a fault with the router, WiFi transmission tends to be the most common point of failure from what I have seen with Virgin hubs as of late. In a partial failure like this, the telephone system should still continue to function. If the equipment failed fully though, the digital telephony service would also shut down. 

3) If the router loses sync with Virgin media due to a line fault, the phone service will also stop working.

Unfortunately while the VOIP landline implementation is unpopular with a lot of people, myself included, it is the way everything is going these days. Not just Virgin Media but all the Openreach based networks are going to digital voice as well. BT is migrating everyone over at the moment too for example. And many other countries have done this long before the UK too. 

I appreciate that it's added expense that you may disagree with spending money on due to something you didn't cause, but there are workarounds here with the mobile phone issue. Both Alcatel and Doro make cheap handsets with large buttons, long battery life and easy to use software. Some even come with charging docks/cradles rather than fumbling around with a cable too.  Alternatively you can buy a 'GSM Desk Phone' - It looks just like a corded landline telephone, but has a SIM Card slot on the base. These tend to have a battery in them so would be fine in power failure conditions too. Depending upon the needs you could get unlimited calls to any UK number for as little as £4 per month with a SIM card if you shop around, or if it's only light use then just go pay as you go and just make sure a chargeable call is made once every few months to keep it active.

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

10 REPLIES 10

Steven_L
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hey @23carrie

Welcome back to the community and thanks for taking the time to post.

Your parents should have been advised by email to the registered address on their account about the change over of the system to fibre, I apologise if this hasn't happened on this occasion. 

Your original questions

1. If there is a power loss will they loose the use of the phone to make and receive calls including calls to emergency services (999).

2. If their is a problem with the Hub/Router with they loose the use of the phone to make and receive calls including emergency services (999), and will their connection with the provider for lifeline fail?

3. If the broadband/internet service fails, will they loose the use of the phone to make and receive calls including emergency services (999), and will their connection with the provider for lifeline fail?

Your parents should have been installed with a emergency battery back up, has this not been done as part of the change over? If there is no battery back up installed they would lose telephone services, if there was a power cut or connection issues in their area. The lifeline monitor would still be active as long as battery back up has been installed. 

You can find more information about the change over here and on the community forums here.

Regards,

Steven_L

 

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@Steven_L wrote:

Hey @23carrie

<snip>

Your parents should have been installed with a emergency battery back up, has this not been done as part of the change over? If there is no battery back up installed they would lose telephone services, if there was a power cut or connection issues in their area. The lifeline monitor would still be active as long as battery back up has been installed. 

You can find more information about the change over here and on the community forums here.

Regards,

Steven_L


Battery backup or backup line via mobile which runs on a battery for 999 calls only?

Koda
Up to speed

1) If there is a power failure, the router would lose power and therefore you would not be able to make a call with this system. As VM have suggested though you can get a backup battery for vulnerable people who don't have a mobile phone and this would allow the hub to continue working and allow phone calls for a short while without power. 

2) If there is a fault with the router, WiFi transmission tends to be the most common point of failure from what I have seen with Virgin hubs as of late. In a partial failure like this, the telephone system should still continue to function. If the equipment failed fully though, the digital telephony service would also shut down. 

3) If the router loses sync with Virgin media due to a line fault, the phone service will also stop working.

Unfortunately while the VOIP landline implementation is unpopular with a lot of people, myself included, it is the way everything is going these days. Not just Virgin Media but all the Openreach based networks are going to digital voice as well. BT is migrating everyone over at the moment too for example. And many other countries have done this long before the UK too. 

I appreciate that it's added expense that you may disagree with spending money on due to something you didn't cause, but there are workarounds here with the mobile phone issue. Both Alcatel and Doro make cheap handsets with large buttons, long battery life and easy to use software. Some even come with charging docks/cradles rather than fumbling around with a cable too.  Alternatively you can buy a 'GSM Desk Phone' - It looks just like a corded landline telephone, but has a SIM Card slot on the base. These tend to have a battery in them so would be fine in power failure conditions too. Depending upon the needs you could get unlimited calls to any UK number for as little as £4 per month with a SIM card if you shop around, or if it's only light use then just go pay as you go and just make sure a chargeable call is made once every few months to keep it active.

goslow
Alessandro Volta

Key issue with older customers requiring a lifeline system though is that, in the event of a fall say, a) they may not be able to get to the EBUL device offered by VM or b) they may be unable to operate a keypad on a mobile device to dial out. A single push button emergency device is important for this group of users and one which works under all circumstances.

OFCOM have let the telecoms providers off the hook with the final requirements of the switchover and the lifeline providers have been generally slow and inactive as regards making customers aware of how things will change with the switchover in progress.

Can I thank you for a very comprehensive answer.  It was as we thought and my parents weren’t left with anything when they had their system upgraded as a result of a fault with the standard phone line.  Nothing was explained to them as to the implications of the system upgrade and we had to trawl the virgin website to find out what this meant.  My father cannot handle anything techie, and so could not cope with a standard mobile phone.  We shall look at what you have suggested in terms of a simple phone for him.   My other concern was that their lifeline needs to be constantly active as my elderly parents are prone to falls, but I don’t think getting a simple mobile phone would allow this.

 

I think I need to contact virgin to see if they can provide the backup facility which really should have been provided by the engineer at the time.

How do I go about getting the emergency backup,pack that you mentioned for my elderly parents?

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@23carrie wrote:

How do I go about getting the emergency backup,pack that you mentioned for my elderly parents?


The emergency backup line (EBUL) is shown on page 39 of the VM phone manual.

https://store.virginmedia.com/content/dam/eSales/Downloads/Phone%20User%20Guide.pdf

It is the same kind of thing as described by Koda. VM configure it as per OFCOM's requirements which is to allow 999 calls only from it for a period of up to one hour. It's of limited use if the customer can't actually get to the backup phone but that's what is on offer from VM.

If you wait for a VM forum team member to reply here (usually within a few days) they should be able to sort it for you.

Paulina_Z
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi @23carrie,

Thank you for coming back to us about your landline query and thanks for letting us know that you're wanting to have an Emergency Back Up Line installed at your parent's property.

I'll be more than happy to assist you further with this. I will send you a Private Message to confirm some details, so please keep an eye out for a purple envelope at the top right corner of your Forum page. I will be in touch soon.

Thank you.

Paulina_Z
Forum Team

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



@23carrie wrote:

My other concern was that their lifeline needs to be constantly active as my elderly parents are prone to falls, but I don’t think getting a simple mobile phone would allow this.


Unfortunately there is no fix for this. Thankfully both the National Grid and Virgin cable network is fairly robust and doesn't suffer too much downtime and hopefully in the event of an emergency o accident should they fall there will be a working phone service available. But sadly if the phone line was to go down at that time, the lifeline devices will not function. 

Unless they happen to offer a GSM version of this device that connects via a mobile network rather than a fixed line, there is no real alternative other than having them carry a simple mobile phone with them at all times. 

I wish there was more communication between the likes of Virgin, the companies that provide emergency communication services to the vulnerable, and even some vulnerable people themselves to plan and implement a better solution than they currently have. That way we wouldn't be having discussions like this and trying to think about workaround technologies where there isn't really an ideal solution at present.