How I Never Fit In, aka Story Of My Life

[Anonymouse]

To explain:

Recently I received a text from EE saying they've modernised services in my area, i.e. faster broadband as it's entirely wireless. Fair enough, I thought, I'll upgrade. All was well...until I remembered that the landline would be taken out. Oops. Thse days my memory's like a...what d'you call 'em, filter thingies you use in a kitchen...sieve, that's it!
I currently use a service which depends on the landline, so I tried to get wireless installed but with landline left in place.

Nothing doing. The system didn't want to know. I've been waiting for word for a couple of weeks, then yesterday I called in at EE. Apparently every deal EE can do me involves taking out the landline. The only answer is to wait till my contract is up, then switch to BT.

So it'll be next January before they can do anything.

This is the story of my life - I never seem to fit in. Through no fault of my own nothing is ever straightforward. It's daft - if anything it's a simpler job with less work, so why can't they do it?

Oh well. At least my new laptop is coming and I'll have time to learn its ins and outs...unless something goes wrong there, too. I've decided to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 11. We'll see.

[Taf]

I had an email from VM to say that in 60 days my landline will no longer work, so they will send me an adapter to connect my home phone to the modem.

That will mean moving the DECT telephone base station to the bedroom where the modem is.

But they said that if I really need a landline, they can have one fitted, so that I can use the phone during powercuts.

No info on how to arrange that though.

Originally Posted by Taf

I had an email from VM to say that in 60 days my landline will no longer work, so they will send me an adapter to connect my home phone to the modem.

That will mean moving the DECT telephone base station to the bedroom where the modem is.

But they said that if I really need a landline, they can have one fitted, so that I can use the phone during powercuts.

No info on how to arrange that though.

With BT that’s impossible because they are progressively removing the hardware that enables it. I assume that’s also the case with VM as and when they upgrade street cabinets with the latest kit.

Perhaps what they mean is that they will supply a UPS (battery backup) so your modem continues to function in a power cut. That’s the only way they can continue to offer a landline-like service if all the actual landlines (which carry a current independent of your home’s power supply) are decommissioned.

As a BT FTTH customer I can buy the UPS if I want it, but would be entitled to a free one if I fell into certain categories of vulnerable customer.

---------- Post added at 09:43 ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 ----------

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

This is the story of my life - I never seem to fit in. Through no fault of my own nothing is ever straightforward.

A gentle observation if I may: Often I find people who can’t understand why they don’t fit in, are unaware how choices they themselves have made have contributed to the not-fitting-in.

To take a trivial example - you’re one of just two contributors on this forum who bothers to change the default text in your posts. You switch it to Arial, Seph switches the colour to blue. In both cases the pair of you actually make your contributions slightly more difficult for some other members to read, though in this case it’s hardly bad enough to be worth over-riding your choice.

As I said, that’s a trivial example and you’re probably wondering why it’s even a thing, or why the forum allows formatting if you’re not supposed to use it. Of course, you can do it if you want. But the point is, nobody else on the forum does (with the one exception I mentioned). Your posts stand out as different, and it was your deliberate choice that caused that, even if that wasn’t the intention behind your choice.

Obviously I don’t really know you, and you don’t know me. I can’t start telling you what specific things you should do or not do if you want to fit in. All I’d say is that your own choices define your fitting-in perhaps more than you realise and you’re not entirely powerless to change your circumstances if you want to.

[tweetiepooh]

When we swapped our line we reported that our phone was not near the modem and an engineer came round and "wired" the hub into the existing phone wiring so all the sockets work and the hub and phone can remain where they are. We still now have the no phone in power cut issue, even on the wired phone we have for that purpose.


We did have to move our call blocker close to the hub, that is powered by the phone line and kept locking up when left near the phone. This does mean that our wired phone is also supported by the blocker now.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Taf

I had an email from VM to say that in 60 days my landline will no longer work, so they will send me an adapter to connect my home phone to the modem.

That will mean moving the DECT telephone base station to the bedroom where the modem is.

But they said that if I really need a landline, they can have one fitted, so that I can use the phone during powercuts.

No info on how to arrange that though.

Is the phone plugged directly into the VM phone box?

Not sure if a Wireless Access point can operate in reverse or there is another device that does it. Cheap router might be an option. Would allow WiFi from your VM modem to provide an Ethernet connection for the phone adapter. I should imagine all sorts of devices are out there to solve these issues.

[Taf]

Originally Posted by nomadking

Is the phone plugged directly into the VM phone box?

Not sure if a Wireless Access point can operate in reverse or there is another device that does it. Cheap router might be an option. Would allow WiFi from your VM modem to provide an Ethernet connection for the phone adapter. I should imagine all sorts of devices are out there to solve these issues.

The email says the home phone should be plugged into the back of the modem using an adapter.

All 4 outlets are in use, so I won't be happy if it is to be done that way.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Taf

But they said that if I really need a landline, they can have one fitted, so that I can use the phone during powercuts.

It's a mobile-based emergency back up unit for vulnerable customers.

[Taf]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

It's a mobile-based emergency back up unit for vulnerable customers.

I understand that during a power outage, the mobile masts would stop working within minutes. So a mobile backup would be pointless.

Originally Posted by Taf

I understand that during a power outage, the mobile masts would stop working within minutes. So a mobile backup would be pointless.

Highly unlikely. I lived in remote ruraldom for almost 20 years and experienced multiple week-long power cuts as a result of severe storms. We never lost mobile coverage once in that time.

*If* a mast loses power, then yes, it won’t stay online for long. But there are lots of masts in any given area, and they unlikely all to be connected to the same part of the power distribution network as each other and also you. So a power cut affecting you is unlikely to affect every single mobile phone mast you could potentially connect to (and if you make a 999 call then any network will pick it up, not just your own). Wide area power cuts that take out entire clusters of villages and all the mobile phones are extremely rare, are usually caused by a single failure near the core of the local distribution network, and because of the threat they pose to large numbers of people there are effective plans in place that repair them quickly (we had one or two of those as well but they never lasted more than an hour or two, and guess what - even then we could get mobile signal because at least one mast was on a different part of the power grid).

Storm Arwen in 2021 did knock significant numbers of masts out, leaving chunks of rural areas without any connectivity, but this was highly exceptional. And a storm that destructive is just as likely to take down an old-fashioned telephone line as it is an electricity cable.

[Taf]

Our local masts all powered-down during three powercuts in 2021. Out twins were squealing not due to the lack of leccy, but of lack of signal for their phones.

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by Taf

Our local masts all powered-down during three powercuts in 2021. Out twins were squealing not due to the lack of leccy, but of lack of signal for their phones.

Same here the other week and when it came back I had not enough signal to browse or make a call when normally I have no issues with both.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Same here the other week and when it came back I had not enough signal to browse or make a call when normally I have no issues with both.

But if you had a landline independent of your of your bb / power supply that may well have worked. VM should be discounting customers bills for downgrading their phone service.

Your phoneline will be all important one day, when you make that vital 999 call. You don't want to be waiting for your hub to reboot or your mobile to charge/get a signal.

[Taf]

Originally Posted by Mr K

But if you had a landline independent of your of your bb / power supply that may well have worked. VM should be discounting customers bills for downgrading their phone service.

Your phoneline will be all important one day, when you make that vital 999 call. You don't want to be waiting for your hub to reboot or your mobile to charge/get a signal.

I have an old Mitel phone in the cupboard next to the master phone socket so that I would have an active phone if the power went off (including the DECT system we normally use that needs mains power to operate).