VOIP switchover

[allmat]

In early May 2022 I got a call from VM on my landline to explain that it was necessary to switch my cable phone to a VOIP service. She advised that an engineer would need to do this. After some discussion a visit was arranged for the morning of Wednesday 22 June. On 18 May I got a text to my mobile from +44 7984 369306 “Hi, it's Virgin Media. You'll be switched to our fibrehome phone service on 05 July. We will send an adapter in the post to connect your phone to your Hub so you can make and receive phone calls over our fibre network.”.  Followed almost immediately by an email conveying the same message except that it reads “On 05 July your current home phone service will stop working and be switched over to our fibre network. We will send you an adapter in the post which you’ll need to use to connect your home phone to your WiFi Hub so you can make and receive phone calls over our fibre network.”.  Which does tend to imply that an engineer will not be taking up some part of the morning of 22 June after all. The email also makes the interesting point that “In the unlikely event there’s a power cut or a fibre network disruption, you won’t be able to make or receive calls and most connected devices (such as a burglar alarm linked to a control centre, a telecare device, or other phones connected to extension sockets) will be affected.”.  As on the same day this message arrived my internet service became intermittent I wondered how in future without a POTS landline would l I call 151 from my Virgin phone to hear the reassuring recorded message that there’s a complicated problem your engineers are doing their best to resolve? I sent a letter to the Sunderland address on 18 May. Some while later an RJ11 to BT phone adapter arrived in the post, and I got an undated boilerplate reply to my letter allocating a reference C-2305221742 and assuring me that someone would be in touch soon.  But of course they haven’t. So I still don’t know whether to expect an engineer on 22 June, or how to find out what’s gone wrong with my internet when my internet-connection stops working and my phone is connected via VOIP. Perhaps this message might prompt someone at VM to get in touch.

[allmat]

I'm afraid that doesn't answer the question I asked!

Be that as it may, I'm quite glad an engineer will call on 22 June, as it appears from another forum [https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Devices/BT-Premium-Phone-on-Virgin-hub-VOIP-Truecall-function-not/td-... that there might be problems with my existing answerphone and VM's VOIP implementation. Can you confirm that the functionality of my BT Decor 2600 unit will be unaffected by the change?

[Gareth_L]

The adaptor we supply that the handset plugs into is still the same as a traditional phone socket allmat ^GT

[allmat]

I've just received an email (23 June at 00:24) from VM Community Support "Someone replied to your topic about VOIP switchover Did it help? ". I assume this is some sort of satisfaction survey following the series of exchanges that ended over a week ago when Gareth wrote "The adaptor we supply that the handset plugs into is still the same as a traditional phone socket " which didn't actually answer the question I asked.

To update things: an engineer came yesterday and the changeover went off without any apparent hitch. Both my handsets were connected and both appeared to work.  BUT - I don't yet know if the full functionality of my BT Decor 2600 answerphone is unaffected. AND my other handset (BT200 "Big Button") certainly has two issues that weren't there previously, and I doubt that's a coincidence! Firstly the handset doesn't emit a ring tone when called from my mobile, and secondly the 'incoming call' LED doesn't flash.  So were it not for the incoming call ring from the other handset I would never know if someone was trying to call!  (I suspect that the issue is the lack of a line voltage compared to the earlier POTS type connection - but I'm not a telephone engineer!)

Are these known issues? And if so what's the solution?

[Kain_W]

Hi there allmat, 

Thanks for your post and welcome back to the community. 

Can I ask regarding the answerphone, is there anyway that you could test the functionality or would that require usual calls to come through?

Also just to clarify, does the ring tone only not working from your mobile specifically? 

Also are both handsets the same?

Let us know,

[allmat]

Hi Kain

As I said, the answerphone's a BT Decor 2600 and the other one's a BT200 'Big Button' - so they're not the same.  I can't test the answerphone but am happy to wait and see if any problems manifest themselves.  But the issue with the BT200's more serious.  I've just received a call from an external source (i.e. not my mobile). The BT200 did not ring, nor did its LED flash. I only knew someone had called because the other phone rang.

[Kain_W]

Thanks for the response there,

With regards to the line that didn't ring, is that directly connected to the Hub?

Cheers, 

[allmat]

Yes - the VM-supplied adapter (RJ11 to BT) is plugged into the hub, and a two-way adapter is plugged into it, to support the two phone lines. That's exactly how it was before, except that the two-way adapter was plugged into the socket of the box on the end of the VM phone cable. Absolutely standard stuff.

[Alex_RM]

Afternoon allmat,

Can you please reboot the hub for me first of all, if this doesn't help let me know as I will then need to arrange an engineer visit.

Alex_Rm

[allmat]

Hi Alex

No joy I'm afraid. Turned modem power off, waited five minutes before turning it back on, rang landline from my mobile, still no incoming call light or ringing sound on the BT200 handset.  What's the maximum REN (ringer equivalence number) that the VM VOIP implementation will support?  And as the adapter is plugged into the top RJ11 port on the modem, what's the other one for?

[Alex_RM]

The additional port is in case there were two lines/ separate numbers 🙂

I've popped you over a private message so I can confirm a few more details with you (purple envelope, top right hand corner)

Alex_Rm