Miracle upgrade from Cable to Fiber without entering the house!

[ianknight]

I've just had a txt telling me I need to order a piece of equipment to continue using my phone...

So I went online to order it but discovered a miracle!!

I have cable broadband (and have had for years) but apparently now it's been magically converted to Fiber Broadband sometime in April hence the need for an adaptor. I must have been asleep in April because I don't recall having an engineer come to my house to install the fiber or the new modem/router - it's still the original box and Tivo from 2015 - what sort of wizardry is this?

I'm currently in a queue (along with 1000's of others) to "Live Chat" with an agent to find out how this was achieved - I suspect I'll get an answer here first.

[jb66]

Does it matter what material is used? It could be string for all I care as long as I get decent speeds.

Have a read below to learn about the network your using, might save a pointless phonecall

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_fiber-coaxial

[Jonny-M]

You're wasting your time for some pointless gesture. The message was about your phone line being moved from the existing copper wires to VoIP terminating on your Hub.

The "calling copper fibre is bad" ship sailed years ago when the ASA decided it was fine to effectively lie in product descriptions, there's no point revisiting the argument.

[ianknight]

@jonny-M I'm not calling anything bad...

But my bill says I have an M100 Fibre package when I plainly don't - it's cable - has been since the day it was installed, the box over the road from my house where it terminates is still the original box. I would just like my bill to reflect the reality - if they can't get that correct then what else will get fouled up in the future?

If I have the connection go down - they'll send an engineer with the kit to test a fiber connection only to be frustrated when he sees my Super Hub 2 with it's cable connections (along with the TiVo connected to it). I used to do call outs to faulty kit 1/3 of the time was being told it was one thing - turning up to find it wasn't that but something else & not having the spares to deal with it.

I'd happily install the adaptor but even the link in the txt they sent telling me to do so didn't work... Besides which - they have my customer records which show broadband, TV, phone line connected (and the activity on those features) - why don't they just send the adaptor if I need it?

[risc19]

Its fiber to the green box on your street then coax cable after that.

That's why they call it fibre.

What it is not is FTTP.

[Roger_Gooner]

You will get your landline from the hub, and an RJ11 to BT adapter is needed. VM will send you one.

[mda99das]

Depending on how your phone is connected you might need to rewire your master phone socket.

In my case my old BT line ran into the basement to feed all the sockets in the house. So I located the master socket and removed the ring circuit, its not needed anymore and connected the 2 twisted pairs.

I think BT are going to move everyone to VOIP in the future.

On another note, does anyone own one of those old rotary phones with pulse dialing , those phones from the 70s / 80s. Do they actually ring ? I seem to remember that the voltage on the bell wire goes to 50V, but this is so old, but just asking as curious. 

[jb66]

Really old phones need a capacitor to ring, some adsl filters have them built in that can enable them to ring

[ianknight]

No - I won't - I have a Super Hub 2 vintage 2013 - it doesn't have an RJ11 socket for a phone line 😞

This is the point I've been trying to make (unsuccessfully) - Virgin don't seem to have a record of what kit I have installed i.e. Hub 2 and Master socket with a Tivo that was installed in 2013 (and engineers have been out to in the last 12 months) yet class this on "My Account" as the lowest Fibre package option,

Their own records will show that I need more than just an adaptor if they really are "upgrading" my phone line so why don't they send an eMail or a letter asking me to arrange an engineers visit for the free of charge upgrade? I suspect the reason is that my Tivo will need replacing for which they charge existing users £99 as well as my Hub 2 - all because they've decided it suits them to stop sending a phone signal down the bit of wire that's quite happily been working since 2013 and the upgrade they did to the local exchange for VOIP in the last year... 😞

[ianknight]

BT have stopped the upgrade program for all customers to VOIP when someone in parliament asked what happens to customers who don't have a cabled broadband connection i.e. low income families, pensioners and so on & what happens when the power goes out and a pensioner needs to use a phone in an emergency?