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New Installs - Phone Line and Activation Fee

pkw5
Joining in

I have just had VM 200MB and Phone re-installed after 14 months via a Quick-Start.

I have all connections to the property in place, exterior brown box, interior connector white box for broadband and a separate telephone socket with an extension to a bedroom all hard wired in.

It seems after reading through the literature (although VM have forgot to mention older installations and customers who are re-installing) that the separate BT431A Telephone Socket is redundant and the phone signal comes via the Co-axial cable.

As no engineer was present for the installation, can anyone state that this is the case, or can I opt for the telephone to come via the original separate line, so I do not have to disturb the extension wires .

I was also surprised to get stung by a £35 "Activation Fee" when it wasn't stated whatsoever in the signing up procedure (apart from terms and conditions). Surely the whole point of a Quick Start Pack is to save money and not having to pay for a sneaky ghost engineer fee.

4 REPLIES 4

jb66
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

New connections come with the new phone line on the hub, not the older phone lines.

 

If you want your extensions wired up you may be better paying for an engineer visit rather than quick start 

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@pkw5 wrote:

I have just had VM 200MB and Phone re-installed after 14 months via a Quick-Start.

<snip>

It seems after reading through the literature (although VM have forgot to mention older installations and customers who are re-installing) that the separate BT431A Telephone Socket is redundant and the phone signal comes via the Co-axial cable.

<snip>


This was discussed in a recent topic with an answer provided by one of the VM forum team at message #5 about phone extensions.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Extension-phone-cable/m-p/4749109

Different outcomes, for some customers, have happened in the past and different outcomes might happen, for some customers, in the future too!

The cost of a set of decent cordless phones would be in the same region as paying VM £99 to deal with the extension wiring if that is an option for you.

Many thanks Goslow for the info and link.

It was news I was expecting, and no doubt the telephone signal is supplied this way for when all properties are FTTP upgraded. It is after all, the way Openreach supply their signals, but unfortunately for VM the split is at the hub not the wall socket.

The only thing that bothers me is that the phone signal supplied in this way relies on power, and if there is a power cut - obviously no phone.

jb66
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Always handy to have a mobile phone if your worried about power cuts