VOIP and burglar alarm

[rockster24]

Hi all,

Looking for an updated answer to this now that so many customers seem to be faced with the issue.

I've been told I have to move over to the VoIP service. Have a burglar alarm which requires a traditional phone line to ring out when the alarm triggers. Spoke to alarm company who say virgin are able to "do something" to keep the line active and enable the VoIP so no changes are needed to the alarm and all works as it does today.

Virgin say nope, traditional copper phone line will be disconnected in October meaning alarm will stop.

I've read about adapters and things that may or may not help?

Do we have a definitive answer to this question?!

Thanks!

[goslow]

VM's explanation/management of moving people over to 21CV, and dealing with these kinds of issues, is not very clear IMO. In regard to your alarm, you need to consider a couple of things.

Firstly, you need to have your existing alarm telephone extension socket re-wired so that it connects to the telephone socket on the back of the VM hub. VM might/might not do this for you if you have a technician visiting as part of the switchover and depending on how your existing phone sockets are wired up and how easy a job it is.

Other posts on here from VM forum staff have advised VM will only provide a working phone connection to the phone socket at the back of the hub and VM will charge £99 to re-wire existing extension sockets to the VM hub. In further posts, some people have been left an adapter lead by the VM tech to plug into the existing phone sockets and 'back-feed' a connection into the old telephone wall sockets (a bit of a clunky way to do it IMO and with some variable outcomes in how well that method worked). The outcome seems to vary on a case-by-case basis and if the technician on site is willing/able to help in wiring up previous extension sockets.

Secondly, have a read through the link below which explains the 21CV connection and how it works and some of its limitations.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/home-phone/virginphone#whatishappening

Most notably, if there is a power cut or the hub is offline for any reason, the 21CV phone connection might not (probably will not) work. If that happens, then the alarm will not be able to dial out if the landline is not working.

Alarm companies do not seem to be very proactive in dealing with this looming issue. In some cases, the customer should be able to have their alarm panel modified to dial out with a mobile/SIM connection using power from the alarm's battery. If that is not possible, add-on devices are available which use the landline by default but can automatically switch to a mobile connection if the landline is down for any reason.

The above probably won't have made things any clearer for you! But, from the posts on here, it seems to be a mixed bag of possibilities and outcomes for different customers.