The Big Switch Off (landline copper 2025)

Sun 2 Apr 2023, 13:25

I'm not sure how everybody else fared last Sunday (26th March), but our power was off for a total of about 18 hours.  During that time we had a number of conversations with Scottish and Southern Electricity, in the course of which the estimated re-connection time moved from 11.00am to 1.00pm to 4.30pm to 6.00pm to 9.00pm, with re-connection finally happening around 9.25pm.  I've been trying hard not to imagine what the day would have been like if we had been unable to talk to SSE after the first hour and a half or so (which was before anybody was up in the morning anyway) ....

Fri 3 Feb 2023, 13:29

The other thing I realise is that the firmware in these routers most probably will be supported for three years and all the SIP/VOIP settings could be in the router. It will be interesting when these devices are End of Life get swapped out ( or compromised ) and then the phone stops working. I guess land lines will gradually die and then everyone will be forced to mobile networks.

Hi Steve, assuming you have a very hungry router and DECT base station (lets say 35W) connected to a UPS with 650VA will get you about one hour and twenty minutes up time. This would cost £60 to £110 dependent upon which UPS is purchased. Typically the load would be below 20 watts and would give you over 2 hours uptime.

Hi Alan, indeed we will have to adapt, but like you I think the consideration going towards vulnerable people is woefully lacking.

Hi Geoff, you could replace those Nickel–metal hydride (Ni–MH) batteries in your DECT phones, indeed it is likely that you can purchase AA or AAA Ni–MH batteries with larger capacities these days.

Fri 3 Feb 2023, 12:54

The Which? article on the switch off says: BT is supplying vulnerable customers with a battery backup that will ensure digital phone services will work for an additional hour if an outage occurs. 

I do trust that this is the case, although power outages do on occasions last for more than an hour.

Fri 3 Feb 2023, 10:52 (last edited on Fri 3 Feb 2023, 10:53)

I also keep one inline phone. For 2 reasons. Firstly it works when the power is off, as mentioned, but there is a second use for when making (or receiving) very long phone calls to  service centres (hold the line please...) which would otherwise exhaust my rather aged cordless phone's batteries.

Thu 2 Feb 2023, 22:01

Like Steve, my experience is of several minor power cuts each year, but we also seem to experience a more major one every year or two.  Perhaps I am looking at the wrong products, but what I have seen suggests that a UPS would keep my router alive for a couple of minutes after a power cut in order to allow an orderly shutdown.  But I rather doubt whether that would be long enough for me to verify that an outage has not been caused by a domestic trip switch (which itself requires a trip to the garage, which takes a bit of time in the dark with the automatic door no longer working....), then get in touch with the electricity company, listen to their recorded messages, wait for an operator to become free, and so on.  And it certainly wouldn't allow them to get back in touch with me with an update if expected time scales change, which they currently offer to do and actually do do some of the time.

I take Steve's point that people are just going to have to adapt to this, but I remain to be convinced that the policy has really been thought through - or is it another example of  if something works for 80% of people then the rest don't really matter?  (I'm not really worrying about my own circumstances here, just using them as an example of what can happen to people in places without decent mobile coverage.  And I think Steve's experience of "most" people no longer having line-powered phones looks like a huge over-generalisation when compared with my own experience.  Frankly, the image of elderly aunts in rural areas being completed cut off from the world when the power fails is not one I like to contemplate.)

Thu 2 Feb 2023, 11:08

In my experience most people no longer have line-powered phones. If you have cordless phones then they won't work in a power cut anyway. Older phones cold be powered from the (nominal) 48V DC which comes down the phone line from the exchange, where there is a bank of batteries to cope with outages, but that could never provide sufficient power for something like a DECT phone base.

I do have a UPS, not for the phone service, but to keep the router running and allow the computer and, if necessary, NAS (Network Attached Storage) to close down gracefully. The latter really doesn't appreciate the power being pulled, and my experience is that I get several short, but annoying power cuts every year. That's always signalled by the clock on the cooker flashing away preventing the oven working until I look up the arcane sequence of button pushes required to reset it.

In any event, I'm afraid that people are going to have to adapt to this. The days of dedicated copper networks back to the exchange which are mandated to provide line-based power to work through power cuts are passing. For some considerable time fibre-only operators have not been required to provide that service, and this will only spread.

nb. my advice is also to keep a spare router as well, maybe an older model (I bought one cheap off of eBay). Don't throw out the old one. It's extremely useful to eliminate one possible cause if you have a broadband fault (and I had one fail due to a nearby lightning strike).

Wed 1 Feb 2023, 15:39

Thank you Colin

You are educating me.

Hannen

Wed 1 Feb 2023, 13:55 (last edited on Wed 1 Feb 2023, 14:05)

Hi Alan,

That is correct. 

To get around this you would need a UPS ( Uninterruptible Power Supply ) unit to supply the mains/battery power to the router. The telephone/DECT base station would be plugged into a voip port on the router.

Single order Generic Ethernet Access (SoGEA)

SOGEA refers to fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) broadband services. It is based on the current Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology, and SOGEA uses a combination of copper and fibre technology, without the need for a traditional analogue telephony connection. Fibre technology is used from the local Exchange.

From BT

For people requiring voice only services, in areas with no Fibre alternatives eg FTTC, FTTP, or G.fast will be offered a special Single Order Transitional Access Product (SOTAP).

Wed 1 Feb 2023, 12:46

Does this all mean that there will be no way to report a power cut for those who don't have a useable mobile signal?

Wed 1 Feb 2023, 09:37

Hi Christine,

I'm sure you will be notified as BT won't be able to charge you for a phone call if they do not migrate you.

I found this on your link "If you’re simply migrating to a digital phone line without upgrading to full fibre, then there won’t be any change to the physical infrastructure. Your service will work using the wiring that’s already in place - it’ll simply be a case of connecting your phone via your router." 

I think this is the SOGEA solution on ZenInternet link.

With regards to telecare devices they will only offer battery backup ( a UPS) for the router that will last one hour.

Wed 1 Feb 2023, 09:24

Thank you Colin.

I've read through the link, tried to find out more details by inputting my postcode. But it's not recognised, and I remain confused as it's discussing those areas in which full fibre is not available at all, but it is available for us (via Gigaclear).

Moving to Gigaclear would be a huge disruption for me, given my long front garden and the internal layout of my house. But I couldn't afford to be without functioning broadband.

I found the Which? explanation of all of this very reassuring: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/broadband/article/digital-voice-and-the-landline-phone-switch-off-what-it-means-for-you-aPSOH8k1i6Vv

Am I being naïve is just waiting for BT to sort it all out? 

Wed 1 Feb 2023, 09:19

Hi Hannen,

My father used to be a BT engineer in Westminster and used to take to work with him when I was young so I have fond memories of the GPO(BT), however when dad was in his 90s BT really took their customers for granted and raised prices in a sneaky way, I moved to him Zen then ( it still uses the BT infrastructure ). I can phone up Zen and talk to a human in ten minutes, if I want something custom they can do it for me, I must say that if that service has been faultless.

I've got nothing against Gigaclear ( apart that they are inflexible and expensive) I just don't want them being the only (effective) ISP. I would gladly take fibre to the premises on the BT network but I can't get it here.

My main concern is that no one seems to realise how breakable a router based telephone service is in times of emergency. When say there is a regional blackout and everyone tries using their mobile phone the cellular network will be overloaded. Unless you have a big uninterruptible power supply on your router and voip phone a regional black out will also stop calls. The current phone system (due to be switched off in 2025) supplies 50 volts so that the systems can be used in times of emergency. This is also not to ignore that a lot of voip solutions have weak or non-existent encryption giving cybercriminals ( and state actors ) a social attack vector and more convenient phone tapping facility. Not to forget all the security alarms and health alert systems for the elderly that are still dependent on the PSTN phone system, I'm not sure how these will be affected or if there alternative will be robust enough ( they certainly will be much more complicated).

Wed 1 Feb 2023, 05:16

Thank you Colin.

Interesting.

My wife and I have been loyal to BT for decades and have found their  service faultless.  We each have a PC, and mobile phones, and can use them all with the BT TV, and landline - sometimes all at the same time. BT engineers pop round (giving notice) and upgrade the router and "stuff".  We are told that we now have fibre broadband,  frankly I haven't a clue, all I know is that it just works.

Even Alexa likes it!

Of course, everyone is free to make their own choice.

Hannen.

Tue 31 Jan 2023, 16:18

I found a good post on the 2025 switch off of our landlines and forced move to Voice over IP phones. It seems that if you do not want Gigaclear's fibre you could use a SOGEA service and but would have to have a VOIP service for your land line.