The imminent death of landlines!!!

[PiesAreGreat]

Right then... went over to an elderly relatives house today with her weekly shop and she asked me a question about what happens when landlines go byebye... so at some point in 2025 (so potentially less than 12 months away!!!) They will turn off landlines. I hadn't given this a great deal of thought as I generally use my mobile and have Fibre broadband, I know the landline system will be replaced at some point during 2025 by VoIP, and basically instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you will plug it into the router (they all have broadband).

One of them is also started to be ripped off my their current broadband provider who have changed their package and went from under £20 (including the landline) to nearly £30 a month, but also they slowed their broadband so they know get less than for about 5MB/s (just out of a point of principle of this underhand switch they want to change provider, they also uttered several things about sting on the providers doorstep, but I won't be helping them with that!), I was planning to switch them to a new provider, but the desire for a landline is limiting choice significantly! and making it a lot more expensive So I am thinking of just switching them over to VoIP now!

I haven't even looked at their routers yet, nor checked if they handsets are VoIP compatible as I am guessing most will want a handset, but also how much bandwidth does VoIP take? (I appreciate I already use VoIP in the office-network, but I didn't build that!).

So any advice on VoIP providers, VoIP handsets, etc? as I will have to do this for a few of them I want to get it correct once, so they all get the same or they will complain at me that the others have better...

Also as a final query, I though the emergency necklace thingy's; all were connected to the landlines, what happens after the switch?

[S6PNJ]

You can use existing handsets though an ATA - Analogue Telephone Adaptor. I have a VOIP service and use my Panasonic DECT handsets through a Grandstream HT802 - many other ATA's available.

[Corso Marche]

Lots of information in the other thread already discussing this;

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[OldGermanHeaps]

PiesAreGreat said:

Right then... went over to an elderly relatives house today with her weekly shop and she asked me a question about what happens when landlines go byebye... so at some point in 2025 (so potentially less than 12 months away!!!) They will turn off landlines. I hadn't given this a great deal of thought as I generally use my mobile and have Fibre broadband, I know the landline system will be replaced at some point during 2025 by VoIP, and basically instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you will plug it into the router (they all have broadband).

One of them is also started to be ripped off my their current broadband provider who have changed their package and went from under £20 (including the landline) to nearly £30 a month, but also they slowed their broadband so they know get less than for about 5MB/s (just out of a point of principle of this underhand switch they want to change provider, they also uttered several things about sting on the providers doorstep, but I won't be helping them with that!), I was planning to switch them to a new provider, but the desire for a landline is limiting choice significantly! and making it a lot more expensive So I am thinking of just switching them over to VoIP now!

I haven't even looked at their routers yet, nor checked if they handsets are VoIP compatible as I am guessing most will want a handset, but also how much bandwidth does VoIP take? (I appreciate I already use VoIP in the office-network, but I didn't build that!).

So any advice on VoIP providers, VoIP handsets, etc? as I will have to do this for a few of them I want to get it correct once, so they all get the same or they will complain at me that the others have better...

Also as a final query, I though the emergency necklace thingy's; all were connected to the landlines, what happens after the switch?

Telecare alarms are getting switched over to ip devices with sim card failover, and the newer ones are more reliable as a result. A lot have already beed switched over as the last generation of 21cn landlines have been pseudo voip anyway with end to end delays and variable latency on the line that you dont notice in conversation but it fks up a lot of the dtmf protocols they signal on, even the ones that are supposed to be 21cn compliant.
An ata adaptor is cheap and you can reuse your old handset. Port it to a voip provider and it will be dirt cheap and broadband supplier independent.

[PiesAreGreat]

OldGermanHeaps said:

Telecare alarms are getting switched over to ip devices with sim card failover, and the newer ones are more reliable as a result. A lot have already beed switched over as the last generation of 21cn landlines have been pseudo voip anyway with end to end delays and variable latency on the line that you dont notice in conversation but it fks up a lot of the dtmf protocols they signal on, even the ones that are supposed to be 21cn compliant.
An ata adaptor is cheap and you can reuse your old handset. Port it to a voip provider and it will be dirt cheap and broadband supplier independent.

Thanks, Well part of the problem is some of them have anytime call packages, and do use them a lot, so they need any time calls. I am not sure it will be that cost effective as a lot of providers are rather shy of detailing their anytime cost (I was looking for Sky and Now TV and one of the top google search pointed me at a pricing guide from 2020!!!)

Corso Marche said:

Lots of information in the other thread already discussing this;

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thanks, I did notice this; lots of technical information, but not that helpful although very good to hear they can use their existing handsets, I bought one of them a new phone for Christmas, so I am glad that is likely to work! Although the advice on porting their existing numbers will prove useful... I would get the blame is any of those were lost.

It just seems they are rushing into this change before they have set everything up, I would have thought they would have all the VoIP services set up and used widely before even considering switching the existing network off, it is all very well saying but they can do this/that, to someone in their 80s who just wants to talk to another 80 year old a few miles away and doesn't understand a basic mobile!

[OldGermanHeaps]

Take an internet only fibre provider, then port your landline over to a cloud voip provider who provide unlimited anytime calls and buy an adaptor like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125999983157?mkcid=16&a...

Then you keep your same handset, same number, unlimited calls, and you arent tied to any internet provider , you can plug the box in anywhere and have your landline with you. You can also get your landline on your smartphone as a softphone app.

I have a few sipgate subscriptions for different lines, but i dont think they are taking any basic residential customers on just now, but a customer has lovevoip for his landline, something like a tenner a month for unlimited calls.

[OldGermanHeaps]

A 30 second googling brings up hundreds of contenders. The market is already mature and ready, just most people haven't needed to pay attention until now.
https://www.virtuallandline.co.uk/devices#buzzbox
55 quid for a preprogrammed adaptor and 8.75 a month for anytime unlimited landlines and 1000 minutes to mobiles

[21TonyK]

So whats the score in my situation? Poor broadband, no fibre available, copper only and very unreliable. Regularly drops out for several minutes, sometimes hours, maybe 2-3 times a month. Dodgy mobile reception, need to be outside or upstairs.

[OldGermanHeaps]

They will be forced to run gigabitish fibre to your property before they can switch off your landline. The 2025 deadline should hasten this. In the meantime either starlink or the mikrotic parabolic lte dish modem pointed towards your nearest uncongested cell. This might require a pole to get enough height for line of sight. I have used these to get 70 down 20 up at houses where normal phones and 4g routers say no singnal at all.

[Leptons]

I reckon they should sort out mobile coverage first. I can’t believe that in 2024 the signal is still as st as it is around here yet they have the audacity to roll out 5G and turn off landlines

[snuffy]

I'd not worry, there's no way it's going to happen any time, certainly not by 2025.

It's already been pushed back, and it will just get pushed back again, and again, and again.

[gus607]

Why bother with a landline phone anyway ?
A cheap unlimited call & text SIM is cheap as chips & you have the portability of a mobile handset.
My wife's unlimited minutes & texts with 1gb of data is £5 per month.

[snuffy]

gus607 said:

Why bother with a landline phone anyway ?
A cheap unlimited call & text SIM is cheap as chips & you have the portability of a mobile handset.
My wife's unlimited minutes & texts with 1gb of data is £5 per month.

The problem is, whilst that is true, there's a lot of opposition to getting rid of landlines, especially from the elderly.

And people like the idea of being able to make a call if they have a power cut; well, that's true, but only up to a point.

[nuyorican]

gus607 said:

Why bother with a landline phone anyway ?
A cheap unlimited call & text SIM is cheap as chips & you have the portability of a mobile handset.
My wife's unlimited minutes & texts with 1gb of data is £5 per month.

I agree with you. However I stuck with a landline (cordless) for a long time before binning it completely about eight years ago. My primary reason was call/sound quality. But of course this only has benefits if the person on the other end is on a landline too. If they're wandering through a noisy city centre or their reception is fading in and out then it's pointless. As more and more people stopped using them, and the fact that you'd get so many spam calls every day I just ended up disconnecting it ultimately binning the handset. I mainly used it anyway to keep in contact with an elderly relative who had subsequently died.

It's not like the mobile has replaced talking on the phone though, It's still unbearable. So unless a certain company or government body insists on a phone call I just don't do it. Friends and family is all Whatsapp, emails for most other things.

This isn't all to say that the idea being discussed isn't a potentially bad idea, or being brought in too soon however.

[Sheepshanks]

gus607 said:

Why bother with a landline phone anyway ?
A cheap unlimited call & text SIM is cheap as chips & you have the portability of a mobile handset.
My wife's unlimited minutes & texts with 1gb of data is £5 per month.

Mobiles still have iffy indoor coverage for a lot of people. I live about 300 metres from a mast for our provider - but they transmit in cone shapes and our house is between two of the cones. It took a big aerial to get the smart meter to work and it drops out quite a bit.

[Chuffedmonkey]

snuffy said:

I'd not worry, there's no way it's going to happen any time, certainly not by 2025.

It's already been pushed back, and it will just get pushed back again, and again, and again.

What's not going to happen? The old Telephone system as we know it being switched off? Its already being switched off and millions of households can no longer receive a analogue telephone system. It is being done City by City, area by area all the time.

[snuffy]

Chuffedmonkey said:

snuffy said:

I'd not worry, there's no way it's going to happen any time, certainly not by 2025.

It's already been pushed back, and it will just get pushed back again, and again, and again.

What's not going to happen? The old Telephone system as we know it being switched off? Its already being switched off and millions of households can no longer receive a analogue telephone system. It is being done City by City, area by area all the time.

By the fact that so many people are asking what they have to do on here rather suggested to me there's an awful lot of people in the dark about it.

It was supposed to be all turned off 2 years ago, that never happened.

c.f. when analogue TV was switched off; huge publicity in the media, adverts on TV and on the news. And that went on for ages (years). Switching from PSTN to VOIP - not a peep.

For example, I can find lists of areas where copper landlines are no longer being sold, but I can't find a list of anywhere PSTN has actually been switched off yet/

[Hill92]

snuffy said:

By the fact that so many people are asking what they have to do on here rather suggested to me there's an awful lot of people in the dark about it.

It was supposed to be all turned off 2 years ago, that never happened.

c.f. when analogue TV was switched off; huge publicity in the media, adverts on TV and on the news. And that went on for ages (years). Switching from PSTN to VOIP - not a peep.

For example, I can find lists of areas where copper landlines are no longer being sold, but I can't find a list of anywhere PSTN has actually been switched off yet/

The planned switch off date has always been 2025 since the original announcement in 2017. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/05/open...

2023 was just when Openreach stopped accepting new PSTN orders. https://marlincomms.co.uk/blog/pstn-switch-off-upd...

There have been no delays to the deadlines.

[Chuffedmonkey]

snuffy said:

By the fact that so many people are asking what they have to do on here rather suggested to me there's an awful lot of people in the dark about it.

It was supposed to be all turned off 2 years ago, that never happened.

c.f. when analogue TV was switched off; huge publicity in the media, adverts on TV and on the news. And that went on for ages (years). Switching from PSTN to VOIP - not a peep.

For example, I can find lists of areas where copper landlines are no longer being sold, but I can't find a list of anywhere PSTN has actually been switched off yet/

It has been happening and you probably wont find data on what areas have been switched off as that is company internal data. Analogue TV switch off was massive as it affected everyone with a tv aerial and they had to buy a Freeview box or similar to be able to watch TV.

The Telephone system is the same, only this time you don't have to buy new equipment as phones will still work.

The old Telephone system is not used by the majority anymore, sure we have the elderly and vulnerable that use the system for safety and to talk to people, but the safety is still covered by providing SIM back ups in the event of a power cut (for the vulnerable). The majority also have cordless phones that wont work in a power cut anyway.

Its old technology which costs a fortune to maintain and is very energy hungry, this allows the IPS to invest in fibre that provides faster speed for us all, like it or not fibre is the future.

[OutInTheShed]

For most people it's a non-event.
Instead of having your analogue phone (or DECT base unit) plugged into an ADSL/phone filter, you plug it into a socket in the back of your new router.
Job jobbed.

Your phone line is then converted to VOIP in your router instead of in some cabinet or exchange somewhere.

A few people who have a landline but no router will need a box of some sort and a 12V wall wart, which their phone service provider will presumably provide.
A very few people have phones not compatible with the new routers or maybe don't have a 'master socket' yet.

Some Telecare providers and resellers may have been asleep at the wheel for the last 5 years.


Many people may take this as a catalyst to dump their landline number, I may do that if it's a significant saving next time I sign up to an ISP.