Digital Voice and the landline phone switch-off

[Buckman]

My home phones are very old, but DECT nevertheless. It’s been around for a long long time. I might be wrong but I thought WhatsApp calls are WiFI.

John

Apologies for confusion. I did not phrase it correctly as we use mobile phones and laptop for Whatsapp.

 

[Sam Vimes]

You need to look for Wi-fi calling as an option in your mobile phone setup menu before you go any further. only the more modern phones have the facility.

Some SPs used to do a box which plugged into your router and created a pico-cell around your home so that you could make calls. It didn't matter who supplied your broadband it would still work. However I have a feeling these have largely gone now - look at the Vodafone web site as they certainly did provide them.

One thing has yet to be clarified: if BT is your phone provider but not your broadband, will BT provide a VoIP interface unit that hangs on their phone line or will you be expected to run the BT phone connection through your broadband SP - I'm thinking here of BT v VM as I have?

If you have been able to follow the technicalities of moving to VoIP come 2025 (which is in theory being done so that the presentation to all properties will eventually all be by fibre which needs little or no maintenance) have a look at www.theregister.com - it is a fascinating read sometimes!

Your mobile phone service provider also needs to support WiFi Calling. Unfortunately mine doesn't but my phone does.

One of the issues I've not looked at yet is if I want to switch away from BT will other providers be able to offer both. Of course I could just take Broadband and then use a separate VoIP service but would that give me the same features BT provide.

 

[Guzzilazz]

Two point from me:
1. I was switched by BT with about 3 weeks warning. The initial setup was far from smooth, but the technical customer service agent with a lovely Geordie excellent was FIRST CLASS! The warnings that came with the "we are moving you to Digital Voice" info included that it was problematic for either burglar alarms connecting to a control centre or the "panic button" systems often used by elderly or disabled people...

2. Phone calls have been trunked on IP networks and across the oceans on Fibre optic cables. I was born at Porthcurno in Cornwall. This was until the 70's Cable & Wireless cable station in the UK, and the tunnels built to protect the infrastructure for WWII are now an absolutely brilliant cable museum. They give the length of time it would have taken to send the bible by telegraph (as I recall just over a week) over the old armoured transatlantic cable, and then pointed out that you could send thousands of copies in a second over a modern fibre cable.

 

[Tobes]

IMO, not a chance, much more likely micro wave over the air or bouncing off satellites [where copper wires are too challenging] or optical; copper or aluminium is now largely in the UK between you and the box, with some also still the box to the exchange.

Using WhatsApp, you are most definitely into using VoIP already.

All regional and national and international voice calls have been carried over a digital (mostly optical) transport for decades. It's only the local last mile that remains copper.