Openreach List Next 86 UK Areas for Copper Phone to Fibre Switch – Tranche 5

A_Builder says:

At some point OR will focus on getting these little pockets done.

OFCOM won’t let them switch off the relevant DSLAM until there is FTTP and OR will then start to systematically work through the outliers as switching off DSLAMS is the financial upside to this.

Stan says:

Hopefully, your experience won’t mirror mine, my whole town was cabled in the days of Cable Tel but not my road and now won’t do it, tree roots apparently.

Dassa says:

I normally reboot my router every few years, usually for some kind of upgrade, you need to give your router supplier some grief if it needs resetting more frequently. Similarly, I have about 2 disconnects a month, mostly in the early hours. If you are getting frequent dropouts then they need fixing.

More generally, there will be a steep learning curve for ISPs and VOIP providers as they will be supporting telephone services which people might be relying on in emergency situations. Whilst in theory they do this now, at the moment they can deploy an argument of “You need to keep a real telephone line for emergencies as we can’t be trusted.”

If we don’t end up with reliable telephony then I suspect that eventually OFCOM will end up having to intervene to force ISPs and VOIP providers to meet reliability targets (regulation may well be one of many factors which will eventually drive consolidation of the many small networks springing up all over). Note however that the target will be reliability, if reliable communications can be achieved by halving the speed of a broadband connection then that might be the preferred option from a telephony perspective.

Phil says:

VoIP will NEVER equal the old land line for reliability, it simply can’t. There is a younger generation of people that are conditioned to things not working for various reasons and so needing to be turned on and off or updated etc, and they don’t generally use land lines. Of course there are many people for whom the concept of needing to do this with a landline is completely foreign, many of those same people don’t or hardly use the Internet and may not have mobile phones, these people are going to find it hard to adapt to having extra boxes flashing away and the new terminology that comes with it when they contact someone about a problem. (Do you have the latest firmware? Is the DSL light on? Can you reboot it? Do you have an Internet connection?…)

An example of a recent issue, my parents decided to get broadband due to the lockdown situation and wanting to learn to video call from a laptop (as shielding), thankfully their land line wasn’t converted over to run as VoIP from the BT Hub, because within a few days the Internet started to become unreliable and disconnecting at random, had the phone been moved over we would have lost contact with them completely, but with the land line still working we were able to offer remote advice and stay in touch and eventually got the broadband issue sorted out. If the land line was on VoIP they wouldn’t have been able to even contact support themselves, and as they were shielding they wouldn’t have to go to a phone box (like they could find one) or use a neighbours phone. We’ve now got them a cheap mobile phone as a back up.

Phil says:

Exactly, most people are used to a reliable phone line we have now. Of course, a POTS line isn’t 100% reliable, but it’s a damn sight more reliable than xDSL or even FTTP which still isn’t immune from issues (I’ve lost my FTTP connection twice in 18 months for an hour or so due to ISP network glitches).

Try explaining to many people, regardless of their age the differences between PSTN and VoIP, two acronyms most will never have heard of before, why they now have to have a UPS and a box with flashing lights and things plugged in 24/7 to give them a phone in an emergency, and how that is progress? Don’t forget most people with broadband think they have fibre already, the number of blank faces and “you must be wrong” when I’ve explained to friends and family they don’t actually have fibre optic cable to their home, so trusting the industry to educate people correctly is a bit far fetched. People aren’t being told when they switch over the negatives of VoIP, its all sold with fake positives, i.e. its all digital and new and its HD (even though HD calls rarely if ever get set up over VoIP, even mobiles it’s hit and miss).

The reason we are switching to VoIP is because Openreach make no money from voice calls anymore, so are ditching it. With FTTP the option was there for a phone to plug directly into the ONT so simplifying things some what where only a phone line was wanted, and the ONT was even installed with battery backup, about as close as you could get to replacing like with like, but they’ve stopped that now and leave it up to the ISP to supply a voice service using routers. So even if you don’t want internet, you still have to get all the kit installed to continue having something that looks like a normal telephone line, but in reality is about as far removed from one as you can get. It’s not progress, it’s a deception.

John says:

Good to see Barnoldswick on the list to be honest. But, as always, Earby’s being left in the dark, again!

Hopefully, once they’ve finished in Barnoldswick they do Earby next. We are in the rollout plans now but anytime between now and 2026. I also think the Earby exchange is to be demolished also.

gri says:

@sammy earby dosent have g.fast, if we doo send me the link so i can get it

CarlT says:

Which has what to do with the topic at hand?

Yours, a guy nowhere near a major city given it has only 750k population, who formerly lived not far from Bexleyheath, no longer a part of London despite being one of the major urban areas in the Greater London Plan.

May I recommend Fluoxetine?