Digital Phones
 

Hi all,

So we're moving to digital phones in the autumn and away from analogue phones. Can i ask how this actually works?

We have one phone in the hall and another phone in my elderly mothers room. In my bedroom i have the hub.

I've been told we're going to get "adapters" but how will they work exactly? I've been told i can have a hub plugged into the hub and that'll work but i hate phones so it seems the hub is in the worse room for this digital switch over!

Re: Digital Phones
 

When is an 'upgrade' not an upgrade, when VM are involved.. ( ditto the 360 tv box as aswell.....).

Afaik your phone will need to he plugged into the hub. Guess you could have one phone plugged and wireless handsets elsewhere. But why change anything? Insist VM come and do any extra wiring, they are the ones forcing this on you and you're the paying customer. If you need new handsets/wiring - they should pay.

Also this new set up won't work in a power cut, unlike analogue, progress eh?

Re: Digital Phones
 

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dig...ice-switchover



---------- Post added at 08:10 ---------- Previous post was at 08:09 ----------

Or, you could have tried to answer his question…

Re: Digital Phones
 

Those instructions don't really help the OP if he doesn't want to change the location of his hub /phones. Where as I gave him a couple of practical solutions :)

Re: Digital Phones
 

If you have sockets like you do (and us) then let VM know and they will send someone round to "wire" in the sockets to the hub.
This was on the communication or will be when they send the adaptor. There are other situation you will need an engineer also. I found it quite clear really.

Re: Digital Phones
 

The usual trolling from you, this is not a VM specific decision.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-trans...ital-landlines

Re: Digital Phones
 

Our Hub is in a bedroom , so we had to get a phone put in there, which we never had before, the main bedroom and living room already had phones, so I had to buy a set of three phones, If there is a power cut I believe they will not work, but you can get an emergency phone that works with a plug for disabled or the elderly, who do not have mobiles, I think I am correct,

Re: Digital Phones
 

Where is your main ‘master’ socket for the phone line, from which the extensions have been wired? Is it near the router?

Re: Digital Phones
 

The Main socket is in the bedroom that did not have a phone before the change ,

Re: Digital Phones
 

My 'main' socket wasn't moved at all when VM came to sort it out, they plugged the battery back-up phone into the hub, and left my master socket where my DECT base station is plugged into, where it has always been

Re: Digital Phones
 

Meant to switch tomorrow , guess it won't hurt to wait a week or so, can't complain about aii the warnings.

Re: Digital Phones
 

Mines coming tomorrow. So I assume the phone in my elderly mothers bedroom will have to move into my room as I have the hub and the engineer will need to do something to get a working phone downstairs ?

Re: Digital Phones
 

As in my post above, the engineer wired our existing sockets into the SH5 and the existing sockets carried on working. The only change we subsequently made was to plug our call blocker into the hub and then the phone line into that so now the blocker works for all phones in the house.
SH5 -> blocker -> house wiring
We didn't need to move any phone or get an extra one.

Re: Digital Phones
 

See how well it works when your interweb is next down (and hope it's not when you really need your phone line).

Re: Digital Phones
 

my mum is in her late 70s and what virgin media offered was very poor. my mum spends her time in bed and downstairs. the hub is in my back bedroom. even putting it in my mums room wouldn't have helped as she'd be lost if she went downstairs

my mum is potentially vulnerable to strokes so i want a phone in her bedroom and the hall or preferably the sitting room where she sits.

i'm back in work Monday and i'm terrified the landlines can go down whenever now the "switch has occurred". virgin media didn't address any of my concerns though the engineer was kind and admitted the issues.

can someone please help me?

if i get this https://www.amazon.co.uk/BT3110-Nuis...35&sr=8-6&th=1

will it work if i plug it into the new extension from my hub? i just desperately want to make sure my mum has a phone in her bedroom and one in the sitting room she can call if she needs me or an ambulance.

any advice appreciated

this is what i got today. thats it. for any elderly people alone this is a terrible worrying moment: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...AAAAAdAAAAABAE

Re: Digital Phones
 

Yes, that will work and give her handsets in two rooms.

As long as your mum's VM account is marked as vulnerable, she will be provided with an Emergency Backup Line that she can use if the hub stops working.

See here for how to register as vulnerable
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/accessibility

And see last section here
https://www.virginmedia.com/help/lan...ia-fibre-phone
(That's a bit out of date. You can now call numbers other than 999 and 112 when your broadband is down)

Re: Digital Phones
 

Why not just get her a mobile ?

Re: Digital Phones
 

Can't remember last time I didn't use mobile. The only thing that happens on it is spam calls .

Re: Digital Phones
 

Sorry should say use didn't mobile for calls etc

Re: Digital Phones
 

I totally agree. But the point is that if you do currently have wired sockets these can be accommodated on the digital service but you need an engineer visit.

Re: Digital Phones
 

I have multiple extension sockets but the main lead is just plugged into the incoming master socket. Would that still work OK if the lead was just plugged into the adapter on the hub instead of a phone?

Re: Digital Phones
 

This is incredibly helpful. Thank you so much!

Had an engineer out who asked if we had wireless landlines. we said nope. Sort of shrug his shoulders. He gave me the adaptor for the hub and that was the end of it.

Mum does have a mobile but is in her 70s and has lots of friends who call her via the landline etc. Shes quite good with modern tech but still seemed horrified at the prospect of losing our landline and our telephone number. it was a landline number she had then her and my now deceased father got their first phone installed. Maybe its the little things at that age!

Re: Digital Phones
 

I don't think that should have happened. If you had told VM that you have phone sockets he should be able to get them working. The cable comes into your house and then splits to twisted pair for phone and coax for the TV/SHub. What I think should happen is they can put the phone connector onto the twisted pair going to your sockets (maybe extending the wire) and plug that into the Hub, at least that's what they did with ours. (In our case the hub and phone lines went opposite directions. It took longer to tidy up the wire than to connect things up.)

Re: Digital Phones
 

The hub adapter has arrived in the post today with installation details. Apparently VM will tell me when to change over.

Re: Digital Phones
 

Sounds exciting. A more unreliable phone service will be all yours soon....

Re: Digital Phones
 

It's was easy to set up , main and two extensions , checked it worked by using my mobile , other than that it's not been used in or out , really a waste of space , if offered a discount would scrap :D