Virgin Media Community

[martinianpaul]

I'm curious.  After reporting a fault on my landline, the visiting engineer changed us to a VOIP connection, explaining a calls were now made via the on-line connection 

So why am I still being charged "line rental"?? 

[BenMcr]

Why wouldn't you be? It's still a landline that you are renting.

The Hub based lines are delivered through a separate IP connection to your Hub than your Virgin Fibre service and so there are still costs involved in providing a landline service no matter which technology delivers it your home.

[martinianpaul]

VoIP (it stands for Voice over Internet Protocol) means that you make calls over the internet rather than over the traditional phone network. 

[Paul_DN]

,Hii martinianpau,l
Thank you for reaching back out to us, we appreciate we are providing the phone line by a different method however we are still providing the phone line and the number you were using when you were connected Via the wall socket, the charges for the line would stand as long as you keep the service with us.

Regards

Paul.

[BenMcr]

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@martinianpaul wrote:

VoIP (it stands for Voice over Internet Protocol) means that you make calls over the internet rather than over the traditional phone network. 

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It doesn't mean it's always over the internet, it means it's over the 'Internet Protocol'.

For some 'Over The Top' VoIP providers e.g. Skype, this does mean it's over the public internet, however for Virgin Media it's a private IP connection between the Hub and Virgin Media. It's separate to your internet connection for Ethernet and WiFi.

There is then also technology required to connect your Hub phone connection to the wider telephone network so you can make calls to people with other phone providers and they can call you. These all come with their own hardware, power and maintenance costs.

[nodrogd]

Previously, your line was analogue on a copper twisted pair from your house to the local fibre node where it was converted to digital. Sent along a fibre to the headend exchange & converted back to analogue.

Your line is now 21CV. All that has changed is that the entire portion between the cable headend & your hub has gone digital. Your calls never touch the internet. They are carried seperately down the coax/fibre connection, where they are then, as before, converted back to analogue & sent through the same analogue exchange you have always been using. Hence you are still charged the same.

[Roger_Gooner]

The traditional landlines have copper wire connections to TDM switches which are connected to the PSTN, now we have the hub communicating with IP voice switches. VM does save money in not having techs doing things like installing phone wires and sockets and no longer needing siamese cables but the biggest savings will come when the PSTN is decommissioned by December 2025 - then we'll see if any savings will be passed onto customers (but don't be optimistic).

[Tom_W1]

Hi @martinianpaul, thanks for your post.

As @nodrogd has explained, your phone line has now converted to a more digital method but does still exist, hence the phone line charge.

I do hope the information provided in this forum helps, but please let me know if you need any further help!

Regards

[Hipper]

I too have had this 'improvement' to my service.

Two things I note:

1. My router now needs to be on as long as I want the phone to be in use. Normally I would have it on for internet use about three hours a day at an approximate cost in electricity of £5 per year. If I now have the router on for 24 hours a day it would cost me £38. Not a great deal I agree but still an additional energy cost.

2. If there's a power cut I have no phone.

I don't consider this progress!

[Adri_G]

Hi Hipper, thanks for posting on our help forum.

We're sorry to hear you're not happy with this change to our landline from copper to fibre due to the energy costs.

Please, visit this page for more info on our landline migration process and how we support you in case you need a backup line for emergency calls.
We do provide those for our customers that rely on the landline for their health and wellbeing.

We appreciate the fact that this change will require your hub to be up and running so the telephone line works too, however you may still turn these off during unsociable or late hours if you want.
Has this change completed in your area, and have you accepted to switch your line to line via fibre?
Let us know where you are with this process and we're happy to advise on the best options you have in regard to the above.