Landline to fibre conversion

[Soadyheid]

Hi,

I've received notification of the upgrade to fibre landline via the WiFi hub, the upgrade seems quite straight forward, however...  I have three phones connected to my existing landline, none of which are particularly close to my hub.  My question is, can I fit an extension cable between my hub and plug my house phone cabling in.  I know that there is a limit to how many physical phone connections can hang off one source but I can't find any info for the upgrade.  I note that it should work with wireless base stations feeding multiple wireless connected phones but this could be an added expense if I have to go that way.

Thanks for your help.

[goslow]

The REN for the hub's phone connection is 3 per line so your 3 phones should be OK.

You need a moderator or VIP to move your query to 'Home Phone' as the VM forum staff don't usually reply here in 'Community Natter'. The default cut/paste answer to your query is ...

Ask VM (via the VM forum team on here, when they reply to this topic) to modify your home phone wiring so you can use your existing landline extension sockets via the phone connection from the VM hub.

VM should offer to do this free of charge for you as part of the switchover process.

Make sure they make modifications to your phone wiring so you can keep each piece of equipment in the same place (rather than the offer which sometimes crops up on here to move the hub to a different location)

Refer here

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover

Do I need to book a technician visit?

You’ll need to book a free technician visit if...

• You rely on your landline for accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile to make an emergency call – we’ll provide you with an Emergency Back Up Line so you’re always able to call emergency services.
• You’ve got connected devices such as a burglar alarm linked to a control centre, use a telecare device, or have other phones connected to extension sockets. You’ll need to contact your provider and let them know about the switch if you have any of these to make sure they’re compatible with a fibre service.
• The Hub and your home phone can’t be placed near each other.

[John_GS]

Hi @Soadyheid 

Thanks for posting and welcome back to the community.

I'll send you a PM now to get some details and get an engineer visit out for the wiring.

Best wishes.

[Tudor]

The REN is not the number of phones connected, it’s the number of phones when the ‘ring signal’ enabled, it can be many more than the published figure.

[goslow · Accepted solution]

The number of devices which can be connected, and still work/ring, depends on the actual REN of the individual items of equipment.

Those asking on here for extensions to be wired to the hub are often using old, corded phones which are powered from the line and may well have a REN closer to 1 than a modern-day, mains-powered phone.

AIUI, within an actual range of REN <=1, the phone will still be marked as REN = 1 though as the actual REN of the device must not exceed the marking on the case.

For simplicity for end-users, if the device is marked as REN = 1, then it should be OK to connect 3 of them to a phone line on the hub without issue.

It might be possible to connect more devices (within the total limit of REN = 3) but it would depend on the actual REN of the individual devices. The customer would have to experiment to find out what did/did not work in a reliable way.

[Soadyheid]

Thanks for the info goslow.  I have at present one "wired in" phone which was to cope with power failures, my other two extensions are via a wireless answer machine/hub. As power failure is now going to kill the connection anyway, I'll just use the two wireless phones.  But...  I'm going to use a 5m BT phone extension cable to connect the router adapter to the phone hub which should be fine, allowing the main phone to stay in its present location.

Thanks again for the clarification.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for the reply @Soadyheid on the forums. 👋🏼

Let us know how you get along.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[PaulPursglove]

Do I also need an engineer visit. My modem is mounted in a different room to my telephone.  The telephone has a 1.2m cable and the nearest I can move the phone to a convenient location near the modem is about 4m.  The phone is currently a 14m run from the modem.
I would be able to do relocate the phone with an extension cable, or the current phone socket cable could be extended and routed to the modem from the wall box connection outside.

[goslow]

---

@PaulPursglove wrote:

Do I also need an engineer visit. My modem is mounted in a different room to my telephone.  The telephone has a 1.2m cable and the nearest I can move the phone to a convenient location near the modem is about 4m.  The phone is currently a 14m run from the modem.
I would be able to do relocate the phone with an extension cable, or the current phone socket cable could be extended and routed to the modem from the wall box connection outside.

---

You'd do best to start your own topic for your own query but ...

Ask VM (via the VM forum team on here, when/if they reply to your post) to modify your home phone wiring so you can use your existing landline extension sockets via the phone connection from the VM hub.

VM should offer to do this free of charge for you as part of the switchover process.

Make sure they make modifications to your phone wiring so you can keep each piece of equipment in the same place (rather than the offer which sometimes crops up on here to move the hub to a different location)

Refer here

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover

Do I need to book a technician visit?

You’ll need to book a free technician visit if...

• You rely on your landline for accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile to make an emergency call – we’ll provide you with an Emergency Back Up Line so you’re always able to call emergency services.
• You’ve got connected devices such as a burglar alarm linked to a control centre, use a telecare device, or have other phones connected to extension sockets. You’ll need to contact your provider and let them know about the switch if you have any of these to make sure they’re compatible with a fibre service.
• The Hub and your home phone can’t be placed near each other.

Alternatively, a cordless phone system allows you to use phones around the home with no wiring modifications or disruption. Plug the cordless base station into the VM hub and use the cordless satellite phones around your home as required. If you already have a cordless system, you may be able to add in another cordless satellite phone to the existing setup as/if required. If you needed to buy a cordless phone system, to avoid any rewiring work, this would be at a cost to you

[Robert_P]

Hello PaulPursglove

Thanks for posting in regards to the recent landline changes and impact caused, we're happy to help via the forums and welcome to the community.

As goslow has advised, if you wish us to assist with the wiring we're happy to arrange a technician to attend and make the necessary changes. There is also the alternative of a wireless handset as well, let us know and we can take it from there.

Rob