Landline switch to IP

[Wsm1981]

Hello all! New user, so excuse the long message. 

not sure if this question has been answered, but been told our phone lines are going digital, have no choice In matter. 

problem I am facing, the router is on the first floor, the handset is on the ground floor. Spoke to virgin who told me an engineer is coming, I should be getting a text. That was 48 hours ago. Still no text. 
Is there a charge for the engineer to come and resolve this for us ?

more worryingly I have home alarm attached to the landline, any idea how to get the alarm connected to the IP line?

thanks

[nodrogd]

The current PSTN landline system is being closed down in its entirety, including all the BT exchanges, so changing lines to an IP based system is universal & not confined to Virgin. If you have an alarm system or similar you need to contact your alarm operator & see what provision is being made for landline digital switchover.

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

There should be no charge to get a technician in to wire your old master socket to the hub or move the hub to a more convenient location.

[Adri_G]

Hey Wsm1981, thank you for joining our help forums and for your first post here.
A warm welcome to the VM community, it's great to have you on board with us.

We'd love to best help with this issue and your questions asked, sorry to see the SMS confirmation for this appointment has not reached you.

To start with, you can find all the info and details on this switchover process here, please have a read and see how we can assist with stuff like relocating the hub, connecting your alarms and any other kind of support we provide during this change.

We can advise that our engineer visit for this set up is free of cost and we're aiming to ensure the service will be up and running as well as any peripherals connecting to the line, where possible.

For your appointments, please visit this link here and let us know if anything has been booked so far - if so, you can also change the visit time and date if not suitable for you (up to 4pm the day before the appointment this can be changed via the online account always).

Please, share more on the above and we're here to help.

[Wsm1981]

HI

As you can see from the above screen shot nothing has been booked or scheduled. 

Can you please help? 

[Adri_G]

Thanks for checking this and for confirming there are no booked appointments for you yet, Wsm1981.

We'd love to have a look an help out, for this I will need to message you privately here soon.

Please, check the top right-hand side of our page to find a little white envelope.
Click on this and you'll see my message.

[Wsm1981]

Any update on this? 

Despite some friendly back and forth emails over personal message, there seems to be no update. 

Can someone at Virgin help? 

[Wsm1981]

Morning.

Following my previous message, two Virgin engineers arrived to inspect the current setup. Here's what they discovered:

• The router is located on the first-floor hallway.
• The landline and the telephone box to which the phone is connected (an old analogue box) are on the ground floor.
• The home alarm system is also directly connected to the same telephone box.

They provided a small connector (see attachments) and suggested connecting the wire from the router into it, then plugging it back into the telephone box where the home alarm is connected. They assured us that everything would work once the switch-over was complete.

However, when the switch-over occurred, it did not work. We had to remove the wire from the router and connect it directly to the landline handset. This allowed the landline to function, although the dial tone is unusual—it consists of long beeps instead of a constant tone. Apart from that, the landline works fine.

Currently, the issue we face is that the home alarm is disconnected.

Is there a solution to this problem?

[Joseph_B]

Hey @Wsm1981,

Thanks for getting back to us, glad to hear the engineers were able to help you with getting the landline working in a way that works for you.

With regards to the dial tone we would advise performing a reboot of you Hub and checking all the connections are secure. With the house alarm, you would need to speak to your alarm provider as it may be that you might require different software or to change something with the alarm to have it work off the new system.

Cheers. Joe

[Wsm1981]

I have rebooted the home hub several times. 

The WiFi from the home hub has always been turned of as I have a MESH network set up. The Home Hub still works as a router, but I have disabled the wifi. 

In terms of the home alarm, the connector provided by the engineer does not work, so I am not sure why I would need to contact the alarm company, as I was told informed by the engioneers on site and you colleagues on the forum, that this is something Virgin will help with. 

Can you please look into this for me ?

[Joseph_B]

Hey @Wsm1981,

With regards to your alarm we will connect up the landline and all connections with it to our Hub as normal, as both the alarm company equipment and your mesh system are 3rd party equipment, there is only so much we are able to do for you, the engineers who attended and got the landline connected would've done everything they are able to get this working, any faults not relating directly to the landline would have to go through the 3rd party companies.

Joe