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Looking for good dumb phone as backup for full fibre

talkingcats

Casual Member
Hi, I am looking for a good quality dumb phone as a backup for the VOIP land line that comes with full fibre. Alas my old Nokia 2630 is locked to Vodafone and seems to be too old to unlock. Also its SIM expired thanks to a prolonged period of non-use.

Critical features: MUST have are: excellent battery life as I may have to rely on it for days in the event of a power outage. Also replaceable battery.

The Doro 1370 has been suggested to me. I would welcome any other suggestions.

Thanks
 
You may find a dumb phone a little restrictive if it is your only means of communication.

This might be useful if Smartphone.
Prolonged obviously when off but would give this sort of life if used infrequently during the blackout. You can also use a charged powerbank to extend further.

Have you considered backing up the broadband by using say a MIFI or a UPS/Corded phone for router?
Thank you that suggestion. I already have an iPhone but you cannot rely on it in a power cut. I know from personal experience when I went through a prolonged outage last year and the only way I could summon assistance was by plugging an old 1980s phone into my land line which gave me a dial tone. Thanks to the irresponsible idiots at Ofcom, ISPs are not obliged to provide battery backup for VOIP phones so I either get an expensive UPS solution or I rely on a cheap dumb phone.

The cheapest pro-grade UPS that does the job is £145 and even then itr provides 140m up time assuming a 35W load. A dumb phone operating off 2G or 3G seemed like the most robust and cheapest solution
 
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As always backup scenarios vary depending on the kit you have, potential use and how much you are willing to spend. We all hope FTTP will be far more resilient, but some Altnets are relying on mains powered street equipment.

If your outage is likely to be prolonged, then it may be worth considering a small solar unit with a more efficient router. Depends on whether you are tied to the ISP router for VoIP.

All the ISPs are moving to more power-hungry beasts with the router doing it all. In my campervan I use a GL-iNet Beryl travel router which consumes <8.65W. It's powered by USB so power-banks are fine which can simply be charged in a vehicle if required. You can either tether to it or buy a model with a SIM slot which may draw even less power.
 
Thank you that suggestion. I already have an iPhone but you cannot rely on it in a power cut. I know from personal experience when I went through a prolonged outage last year and the only way I could summon assistance was by plugging an old 1980s phone into my land line which gave me a dial tone. Thanks to the irresponsible idiots at Ofcom, ISPs are not obliged to provide battery backup for VOIP phones so I either get an expensive UPS solution or I rely on a cheap dumb phone.

The cheapest pro-grade UPS that does the job is £145 and even then itr provides 140m up time assuming a 35W load. A dumb phone operating off 2G or 3G seemed like the most robust and cheapest solution
The dumb mobile phone also assumes the mobile network will be around in a power cut, and that isn't guaranteed, and if they continue working then they will not work for long.

If you have full fibre then this is likely the most reliable connection in a power cut as the exchange supplying it will have robust back up power. The difference between fibre and an old phone line is you need to power your own kit when using VoIP and fibre during a power cut. This backup power supply costs money as batteries are not cheap. A decent UPS and perhaps a spare battery for it you can swap out is probably one of the cheaper options.

Search Amazon for solar power generators which will give you a whole host of options (with or without solar panels) ranging from a few hundred pounds up to a £1500 or more.

Going DIY and using a safe lithium ion phosphate battery, then a typical 1200 watt capacity battery costs around £400. At 35 watts to power your kit it would last almost 1 and half days, so that kind of gives you an idea as to why these things are not cheap.
 
If you have full fibre then this is likely the most reliable connection in a power cut as the exchange supplying it will have robust back up power. .
Good advice but not all FTTP provision is the same. While I have reasonable confidence with OR power backup on other suppliers is not published particularly where it’s not passive all the way.
 
The dumb mobile phone also assumes the mobile network will be around in a power cut, and that isn't guaranteed, and if they continue working then they will not work for long.

If you have full fibre then this is likely the most reliable connection in a power cut as the exchange supplying it will have robust back up power. The difference between fibre and an old phone line is you need to power your own kit when using VoIP and fibre during a power cut. This backup power supply costs money as batteries are not cheap. A decent UPS and perhaps a spare battery for it you can swap out is probably one of the cheaper options.

Search Amazon for solar power generators which will give you a whole host of options (with or without solar panels) ranging from a few hundred pounds up to a £1500 or more.

Going DIY and using a safe lithium ion phosphate battery, then a typical 1200 watt capacity battery costs around £400. At 35 watts to power your kit it would last almost 1 and half days, so that kind of gives you an idea as to why these things are not cheap.

Thanks for that. I still think it is utterly irresponsible for VOIP to be pushed through without any consideration of the consequences should power fail. In areas where there is unreliable 4G - such as mine - this is going to cost lives. Frankly I cannot afford the sort of sums you mention there so i guess I will avoid full fibre for as long as I can.

I had thought of a mobile solution because last year the government said that 2G and 3G would still be around until 2033 which would satisfy me. Of course this might be like every other government promise since 2016 and prove to wholly be inaccurate, based on wishful thinking or utter mendacity.
 
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talkingcats

Are you sure you have to give up your copper cable landline?

I ask as there is a lot of misinformation around

Well that is what BT and Sky say. I am not an expert in this field so perhaps there are other options. If there were a way of retaining the copper land line then of course I would be very happy to take it. If I lived somewhere where there were a strong 4G signal then I wouldn't have an issue. But I don't and I do :(
 
2G may remain for some time for emergency calls only and some legacy but exact closure is likely to be well before the Ofcom date of 2033.

EE and Vodafone will be withdrawing 3G from 2023 (next year) and THREE from 2024. I don't know if VMO2 have confirmed their 3G plans yet.

These are the sunset dates. The actual network may still support them for a period of time.

Network Operator
2G Status/ Sunset Date
3G Status/ Sunset Date
Source
EE​
31.12.2025​
31.12.2022​
GSMA​
3​
No service​
31.12.2024​
GSMA​
Vodafone​
31.12.2025​
31.12.2023​
GSMA​

Similar timescales across Europe. The operators state they cannot commercially support multiple technologies on their spectrum especially when 2G/3G use is already at very low percentages and continues to decline.

Any new consumer investment really needs to be 4G and ideally 5G (importantly 700Mhz n28 compliant).

If landline resilience is important, then hold on the that PSTN line until close to 2025 if you can. But I'd say VoIP can be made as power supply resilient for under £100 when you are asked to move over, and the overall reliability of a Full Fibre line is far better than a copper line. Voice just needs some thought.

Note: If you have only cordless phones, you have a problem now if power failure is your concern.
 
If there were a way of retaining the copper land line then of course I would be very happy to take it. If I lived somewhere where there were a strong 4G signal then I wouldn't have an issue. But I don't and I do :(
Think about it talkingcats.

You have copper lines coming into your home servicing your old fashioned telephone.

FTTP is full fibre is not copper. They will be bringing something else to your home. No reason to remove the copper wires. Why should Sky waste money and time removing the wires?

T
 
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Think about it talkingcats.

You have copper lines coming into your home servicing your old fashioned telephone.

FTTP is full fibre is not copper. They will be bringing something else to your home. No reason to remove the copper wires. Why should Sky waste money and time removing the wires?

T
I think the issue is that whilst they will not physically remove the wires, you would need to pay an additional amount each month to keep the copper landline as it becomes a second product if moving to FTTP.
 
I think the issue is that whilst they will not physically remove the wires, you would need to pay an additional amount each month to keep the copper landline as it becomes a second product if moving to FTTP.
The OP said he'd like to retain the copper line so my guess is that he'd accept he needs to pay for it. Nobody will give him the telephone service for nothing, surely?

I'm in the process of ending my copper line broadband as I have a faster less expensive service over the cell system. But I am continuing to pay BT for the copper phone system so I can be secure if we get power outages.
 
Thanks for that. I still think it is utterly irresponsible for VOIP to be pushed through without any consideration of the consequences should power fail. In areas where there is unreliable 4G - such as mine - this is going to cost lives. Frankly I cannot afford the sort of sums you mention there so i guess I will avoid full fibre for as long as I can.

I had thought of a mobile solution because last year the government said that 2G and 3G would still be around until 2033 which would satisfy me. Of course this might be like every other government promise since 2016 and prove to wholly be inaccurate, based on wishful thinking or utter mendacity.
I quite agree. Originally the intention was to supply FTTP with a battery backup and some people will have received this early on, but Openreach dropped it, mainly because they are leaving the voice market and only want to supply data. As time has gone on people just don't use landlines so much, but the irony is people often hold onto the landline "for emergencies".

Whilst the physical fibre is more reliable, what we call landlines will become only as reliable as a persons Internet supplier, router and to a certain degree their own technical abilities to understand it and troubleshoot it, and so will be much less reliable than a typical landline has been. Personally I think VoIP is missold to the general public who in the main have no idea what they are switching to and the negatives.

You can't rely on the mobile network either really. When we had lock down announced immediately after I had a relative call me mobile to mobile in a bit of panic, we were quickly cut off, I couldn't call them back using the mobile and neither could they call me. I can only assume this was because the mobile networks were suddenly overwhelmed with people calling each other. Of course picking up the landline and calling their landline was no problem!
 
"Personally I think VoIP is missold to the general public who in the main have no idea what they are switching to and the negatives."

My friends have no idea of its reach limitations. The 'extension' in the garage or stable for instance. I know the limitations of DECT and/or wifi as I live in a flat built in 1902.
 
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