Had a telephone line fault to my house a few days ago, no dial tone, so had to call in Openreach, the UK telephone and broadband infrastructure provider, via my BB provider.
So, yes I do still have a phone landline! So, the BB provider took the opportunity to pitch for a new contract deal, as they do! The choice was a new fibre connection, or continue with the snail speed copper. I was undecided so she sweetened the offer by reducing the fibre below copper, but then mentioned in passing that copper is being phased out and will be obsolete and unavailable in 6 years!!! This is by virtue of Open Reach network policy. Now I had no idea that fibre was even available in my area, as it's rural and always at the end of the Q for everything, I can't even find the fibre cabinet and it is fibre to the property so it must be there somewhere! I was on the Open Reach network update list and have not been er' updated!!
Now you are wondering, what is this fool blathering about!! Good question. I collect and use old telephones and this means I will no longer be able to use them, as telephone landlines are not included with fibre BB!!
So do I stick it out on copper for the next 6 years and enjoy my old phones for as long as possible, or take the pain and disappointment now and go fibre?! I know it's not the end of the world but I feel so sad about this, the world is changing too fast for me!!
Landlines aren't going obsolete, just copper wire. My house is just over 4 years old and doesn't have copper, only fibre. It has a landline and I would never get rid of it, as despite being in an urban area, my mobile phone service is flaky.
Landlines aren't going obsolete, just copper wire. My house is just over 4 years old and doesn't have copper, only fibre. It has a landline and I would never get rid of it, as despite being in an urban area, my mobile phone service is flaky.
But you HAVEN'T got a proper landline, by the sound of it. Because Fibre ONLY, can't conduct electricity, so it is powered by a box of tricks, in or near your home, somewhere. So, if there is a (local) power cut, you will lose the ability to use your 'landline'.
A real (copper based) landline, will continue to work (usually), even in an extended power cut. Which I believe is done by a bank of 48 volt lead-acid (or more modern) batteries, at the local telephone exchanges.
So, if you or anyone in your household or nearby. Needs urgent (999 Emergency) services, and your mobile phone connection, decides to flake out, at the wrong/worst time. Someone/people, could have bad things happen.
These days, I seem to hear many stories, where even if someone calls 999, for an urgent ambulance, in the UK. It doesn't arrive for ages (even days), with unfortunate results, in some cases.
That's not true at all. My fibre connection has small UPS so the telephone service continues to work, during a power cut. It doesn't power the router, so the broadband will go down, but I'll still be able to make emergency calls.
BT are required to supply vulnerable customers with a UPS solution for powering the telephone during power cuts, F.O.C. It's a £60 UPS from Amazon more or less, but it will run a <10W handset for about an hour or two. The telephone exchange/fibre unbundlers have backup batteries within them, not sure how long these last.
CPs must provide a Battery Back Up unit for vulnerable customers that will give a minimum
of one hour of power for the router, in accordance with OFCOM guidance. If you do not
qualify as a vulnerable customer, you may wish to purchase one of these units from your CP
or from an independent supplier.
The wording is pretty clear:QuoteCPs must provide a Battery Back Up unit for vulnerable customers that will give a minimum
of one hour of power for the router, in accordance with OFCOM guidance. If you do not
qualify as a vulnerable customer, you may wish to purchase one of these units from your CP
or from an independent supplier.
Doesn't matter if it's BB or phone.
Just two percent of UK households do not have a mobile phone, according to recently released statistics. That's a pretty small fraction who would be unable to make an emergency call. For those in an area without a mobile phone signal, purchasing an inexpensive UPS at the cost of two months' phone service is not a huge ask. The elderly or financially infirm would probably come under the "vulnerable" category though I agree OFCOM should standardise this.
To appreciate the real world risk you've then got to work out how often it is you would have a correlated emergency - in other words no phone and a need to use it simultaneously. A power cut in itself is not an emergency for most, so there is not necessarily a need to make a phone call; and the average power availability for a UK household is in excess of 99.9%. You could have a fire or similar knock out power to a building, but there is no guarantee the phone line will still be working either in that case. And a large-area disaster like a flood, or maybe in the future with climate change forest/woodland fires, will present other issues for infrastructure. So I'm not really sure it is as big a problem as you state.
I still would have preferred a solution, something on the lines of having a thin copper wire(s), running along the fibre cable (bundled together), between the street cabinet and peoples homes. Then it could be designed to carry on working, even if there is a power cut.
I think it is not the copper wires that are the expense, it is the telephone exchange at the other end of the copper. Think a large building with battery banks and chargers and racks of equipment and so on that have to be maintained.
I still would have preferred a solution, something on the lines of having a thin copper wire(s), running along the fibre cable (bundled together), between the street cabinet and peoples homes. Then it could be designed to carry on working, even if there is a power cut.
I think it is not the copper wires that are the expense, it is the telephone exchange at the other end of the copper. Think a large building with battery banks and chargers and racks of equipment and so on that have to be maintained.
This is a big problem for the UK, their policy has held us back with poor BB service and speed, whereas in other parts of the world they've had gigaspeed BB for years!!!
If UK government had invested as heavily in communications as they have in useless and pointless green energy policy, the whole country could have had comms technology that would have actually been beneficial
Fibre for phone lines before the internet?! What would have been the point?
BT are required to supply vulnerable customers with a UPS solution for powering the telephone during power cuts, F.O.C. It's a £60 UPS from Amazon more or less, but it will run a <10W handset for about an hour or two. The telephone exchange/fibre unbundlers have backup batteries within them, not sure how long these last.
I've done some googling around it, thanks to your post. It seems BT (and perhaps other suppliers), are getting around those rules, by either ignoring them, or saying "THIS is ONLY a BROADBAND service, no phone services, included with it".
But there is lots of information, and it is difficult to digest it all, and know who is 100% right, and who is NOT, as regards the other websites.
Unfortunately, people in (e.g.) their eighties/nineties, who really need this, on safety grounds. Potentially, don't realize/understand why/what/how/reasons why they need it in the first place, and are probably NOT able to sort out something, technically complicated like that themselves. So really, I think it is a partial mess-up, by the authorities, standards creators, etc.