Switching from copper

[mikewot]

Just had a call saying from Virgin Media, woman sounded Indian, not the usual Philipino.  Anyhoo she said that we will need to be switched over from copper to fibre for the phone.   I read that it's a government requirement before 2025.  OK no problem with that except our phone doesn't come via yea olde BT copper wire (because that only runs to the outside of the house, I removed all the internal wires years ago), it comes with the broadband and that comes into the house via coax cable.  Our house was wired up by Telewest around 23 years ago on coax and Virgin took them over.

My question is, does this mean that Virgin are going to replace the coax with fibre?

[llamedos1]

If I purchase Hands free sets will this come off my bill? I like the phone I've got.

[Travis_M]

Hi @llamedos1

Thank you for your reply

The handsets would not come off your bill, this is just if it would make it easier or if you would prefer to have less cabling if using wired handsets we'd advise for you to purchase these yourself. As for cancelling the appointment, we can sort this for you but all customers are going to be migrated to 21CV regardless.

Regards

[llamedos1]

Well engineer came out on Friday, what a waste of bloody time, I stayed in on a beautiful morning, moved furniture etc, when he arrived I explained about the phone being in the hall, the extension phone upstairs, which is already connected to the one in the hall, so nothing to change there and the hub in the lounge, he said he's not here to run any cable just connect an adapter to the hub and connect the phone to it and that he wasn't trained to fit a BT 4 connector (normal phone plug) so couldn't connect to cabling so left phone in lounge next to the TV made sure it worked and left. Now I could of done that as an adapter arrived next day through the post to be fitted on the 6th June.

[mikewot]

He just took the phone cable jack out of the wall socket and plugged it into your hub ( using an adapter)?

I have an engineer coming mid June, adapter came in the post yesterday, switch over is 5th July. Wonder what he'll do?

[Hayley_S]

Hello @llamedos1,

Thank you for the update, I am sorry if the appointment did not go as planned for you.

If you wish to raise this with us, you can do this by visiting our code of practice.

Please do let us know how it goes on the 6th of June.

Many thanks,

[llamedos1]

Well you can't cancel the appointment apparently just re-schedule it, so just go with it, I just bought some phone extension cable and BT4 plug and crimp tool and routed cable where I wanted it to go, if the engineer came back the next day I could of trained him how to fit the BT4 plug, phone back in my hall and all working fine now, I did ask the engineer if he could leave me some cable for re-routing but that didn't happen, I'd rather do these myself anyway I know it's done to my satisfaction then. Hope you have better luck.

[llamedos1]

No I don't want to raise a complaint, at least he was polite and gave me an extra connector, I've now got my phone back in my hallway and everything is working fine, so thank you for your concerns.

[Hayley_S]

No problem @llamedos1.

Thanks for the update, If you ever need anything please do not hesitate to post! Then we will be along to help asap.

Many thanks,

[beasti4maggi]

Hi Virgin Media

I have received the message "your home phone will be switched to our fibre network on 17 August. We’ll send you an adapter in the post, so keep an eye out for it as you’ll need to connect your phone to your WiFi Hub to avoid any issues."

The hub arrived in the post yesterday

As I understand it, once I have connected one of my phones to my WiFi Hub using the adapter my 3 extension phones will no longer work and will become obsolete.

Will Virgin Media send me 3 free WiFi replacement phones together with 3 free WiFi booster plugs so I can continue to answer calls in any part of my 3 story house?

If not, please can Virgin Media reduce my phone charges by 75%, if 75% of my previous service is being removed?

Thank you

[John_GS]

Hi beasti4maggi

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community.

I'll send a PM as you'll need a tech visit regarding the extension 🙂

Best,