Is it just me - landline changeover

[Quorny]

I ghink its a damn cheek that Virgin are telling me I'm having the new fibre phone line , I don't want it. My router is nowhere near the phone and I'm certainly not drilling holes in my house to connect it. We have a landline as a back up but Virgin tell me that if there's a power cut the phone won't work. Thats the whole reason I have a landline. The gizmo turned up today I won't even plug it in. From the 26th I'll be without a landline because of Virgin

[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]

[John_GS]

Good afternoon @Quorny 

Thanks for posting and welcome back to the community.

I am sorry you feel this way about the phone line switchover.

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 change over now to ensure all of our customers have been migrated prior to the current telephone exchange being closed down in 2025. The below links should advise further; 
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover and https://www.futureofvoice.co.uk/

Would you like us to book you an engineer visit in, either to modify the wiring for your phone or relocate the landline/router? 

Best wishes.

[NinjaMeerkat]

Its not Virgin forcing you down this route its BT closing down all the analogue exchanges by the end of 2025.  From the 26th you wont be without a "landline" because of Virgin, you will be without a "landline" because you chose not to cooperate. 😁

[nodrogd]

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@Quorny wrote:

I ghink its a damn cheek that Virgin are telling me I'm having the new fibre phone line , I don't want it. My router is nowhere near the phone and I'm certainly not drilling holes in my house to connect it. We have a landline as a back up but Virgin tell me that if there's a power cut the phone won't work. Thats the whole reason I have a landline. The gizmo turned up today I won't even plug it in. From the 26th I'll be without a landline because of Virgin

[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]

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TV & Radio have come into the modern digital age, the phone line is next. There were a lot of complaints when analogue TV was closed down. But who now would just put up with the 4 or if you were lucky 5 channels it offered.

The whole country is going over to VoIP by 2025. One of the main benefits will be end-to-end authentication. In short no more scammers using cloned UK numbers & calling from India in incognito mode.

Official OFCOM advice below:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/future-of-landline-calls 

[Lee_R]

Hi @Quorny 

I am sorry you're unhappy with the pending landline switchover. The fantastic nodrogd has given you the correct advice regarding the reasoning for the switch.  As my colleague John has advised, we're able to look into options for you, we're more than happy to help you book a technician.  Please do get back to us, if you wish to explore your options.

Regards

Lee_R

[Quorny]

Again I'm not drilling holes all over the house because of Virgin and whatever anybody says at present I can use my landline when there's a power cut come 27th I can't 

[goslow]

In this post from yesterday

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Home-Phone-Fibre-Switch-Advice/m-p/5324600#M192488

VMUser1812 explains how the phone wiring can be modified with minimal intrusion/drilling. Whether or not it works for you depends on your existing VM cabling setup and home layout.

The alternative 'no wires' option (but at a cost to you) is to buy a cordless phone setup. Plug the base station into the VM hub and use cordless handsets around the home as required.

The phone switchover is coming to all telecoms providers across the country, like it or not. It's a case of making the least-worst changes that are acceptable to you to use the new service. Other option is just to abandon the landline altogether and use mobile-only for calls.

[Lee_R]

I am sorry you feel the way that you do @Quorny as nodrogd has advised, this is something all UK based landline providers are going to be doing.  If you're dependent on your landline etc, then we can arrange an Emergency Back Up Line (EBUL) to be installed at the same time.  Best of luck and we're here if you wish to change your mind.

Regards

Lee

[stephenbrowning]

As you will see from other posts re 21CV (21st Century VoIP) it was not Government but the Industry driving this.  Noting that Virgin equipment from the Hub3 Modem+Router onwards have carried two RJ11 Phone line connectors. 

21CV is mainly driven by Openreach (BT wiring) to get round the issue of a lot of ageing thin 28swg copper wires which carry the existing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to the premises. 

Fibre has moved on from first connecting Exchange Buildings together and to the trunk network (FTTE?) then out to boxes nearer the customer (Fibre to the Cabinet - FTTC).  Thus reducing the length of the remaining copper wires to the premises and thus allowing increases in data speeds over those thin wires. 

However, the final stage, Fibre to the Premises - FTTP, is probably over the top as regards data rates.  Unless anyone wishes to stream HD 4k TV services simultaneously on 4 or more PC!!!   And highly invasive as regards replacing the existing Openreach copper cable from the Service Bands to the premises.  With Hubs (Modem+Router) not always being co-located with the existing premises Master socket.  Hence the issues with existing internal wiring which started this thread and which I am going to have to deal with. 

The Virgin network (installed by Telecential, Telewest and others back in the 90's) uses Fibre to the Road box (FTTR?) then Coaxial Cablet (as used for TV Aerials)  to the premises.  The latter carries data over Radio frequency channels.  One Internet Send channel (at around 50MHz, 50 Megacycles per second) then 20 or so Internet Receive channels and 500+ TV channels across the main bandwidth Coax can handle; 100MHz up to 900MHz.     

And the original systems had a standard 4 pair thin copper wire cable in parallel for the phone service. That is being replaced by going via the Hub.  P.S for non Internet customers do you actually have a simpler Modem unit with just RJ11 phone sockets?   

OFCOM haven't really thought out the power cut emergency phone issue well.  Just requiring getting the Landline Phone Network providers (Openreach and Virgin) to provide a battery phone on the mobile network.  And the Cellular Network (Mobile phone) system is not itself resilient against Power failure.  Their equipment boxes at each mast have some battery backup but there is no consistent approach between the 4 mast operators (BT, Vodafone, Hutchinson and I cant remember the 4th). 

Regards

Steve

[stephenbrowning]

P.S The existing PSTN Network has considerable backup at each Telephone Exchange Building.
For example there are 21 Exchange buildings for area code 0118 - Reading and the Thames Valley Area..
Batteries backed by Generators that can can fire up in 30 seconds as the Batteries dont last too long with the equipment loadings. The phone system wiring runs at 48Volts 

The Virgin (Telecential) system with its Servers runs from a building at Winnersh Triangle just east of Reading.  That will be fibre connected to the Openreach Exchange buildings for telephone services.

Regards

Steve