VoIP. Is Phone by Wire Nearly Dead?

Thank you Kirit for your explanation of these terms that are bandied around so frequently by product marketing organisations in the hope that 'the general public' will be easily 'taken in' by these 'allegedly' new technologies. I must apologise if my comments appeared to reflect any ignorance on my part. On the contrary, I made the mistake of assuming that many IET Forum Members would realise that I was actually being heavily critical of the very loose use of terminology and the false promises of cost savings alluded to in the TalkTechDaily Advert link posted by Zoomup.


From my own recent experience, of upgrading my broadband from Basic Copper ADSL (10Mbit/s download, 800kbit/s upload) via copper pair cable from my home to the local exchange approx 1 mile away, I was offered a small cost saving, of some £2 per month, fixed for 18 months to upgrade to a much faster Fibre Broadband service, which gives typically 36Mbit/s download and 10 Mbit/s upload speeds. Not that I needed any more than 10Mbit/s download for watching BBC iplayer etc via the WWW, but the much improved upload speed given by this new, mostly optical fibre based service has already proved a bonus when uploading large data files into various 'clouds'.

Dependency on Exchange 48 volt Supply

The observations made by some members regarding the dependency of the user's landline telephone handset on the availability of the nominal 48 volt exchange supply, for correct operation of their 'phone, especially in the event of an emergency, where the local national power grid fails is undoubtedly an important consideration. Indeed it was/is common to see DECT landline handsets supplied with a red warning label that the cordless handset to base station link will not work in the event of a mains power failure (since it is illegal to draw any significant power from the exchange 48 volt supply - it is traditionally only used for 'signalling' when using an old fashioned round dial 'return to zero' handset). Presumably, customers equipped with Fibre to the Home connections to the local exchange via associated electronics will not be supplied with any 48 volt line into their premises. I am not fully up to date with the fine details of these FTTH systems, but assume we are expected to use our mobile phones to make emergency calls in the event of local mains power failure, and hope that the nearest 4G/LTE mobile phone network antenna/mast and associated electronic gear is all fully battery 'backed up' by UPS systems.

Malcolm,

Most likely you re to the FTTC/N (Fibre To The Curb / Node) rather than FTTH (Home) so the last bit to your home is still copper cable and if so then it should provide emergency service as C/N are supposed to have battery back-up for x min (I do not remember x - too long ago!)

People do forget that there is a high data requirements these days for watching Netflix, iPlayer, gaming, youtube, etc. etc. not forgetting Zoom/Skype/Video calls by several people in home at the same time.

So you will most likely end up having a land-line and d pay for it. The only difference is that BT has to unbundle the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) so one could save a bit of money depending on the calling pattern/requirements. I make lots of international calls and so cheaper for me to have landline POTS when you look at bundled tariff offers.

I was expecting to be switched to VoIP this week.  When renewing my Sky broadband deal, I was told I would be sent a new router with a phone socket.  After the switch over, my existing phone line would not work, so no phone calls during a power cut.


It turned out that the call handler was reading from the wrong script.  VoIP is not yet being rolled out on my old-fashioned ADSL2+ service, and I got a normal broadband router.


So it seems that some ISPs are now being proactive and switching over their fibre broadband users.  Most likely to avoid paying bills to BT Wholesale, rather than because they want to be ahead of the curve.


But there are all sorts of pitfalls with the new VoIP lines:

• They don't work in a power cut.

• They are not compatible with some home alarm services.

• If you have extension sockets, they won't work - you have to use the socket on the router.

• If there's a broadband fault, the phone line will always fail at the same time.

So in reality, it's inferior in many ways, and offers no advantages to the consumer.

Simon Barker:

But there are all sorts of pitfalls with the new VoIP lines:

• They don't work in a power cut.

• They are not compatible with some home alarm services.

• If you have extension sockets, they won't work - you have to use the socket on the router.

• If there's a broadband fault, the phone line will always fail at the same time.

• They may be some proprietary implementation of VoIP, rather than SIP, further tying you in to their router and service.

In terms of extension sockets, there are VRI voice reinjection faceplates available, and Openreach's standard is that the ISP should supply one that the customer can fit to their existing NTE.

https://support.aa.net.uk/VoIP_How_to:_Voice_reinjection
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/12/bt-confirm-uk-trial-locations-for-standalone-fttc-fibre-broadband.html



Image from https://community.sky.com/t5/Talk/Sky-Talk-VOIP-on-SOGEA-with-own-ATA/td-p/3133316

Well, I'm just taking my first steps into the world of VOIP having just taken delivery of the unit programmed with my access phone numbers. With this I can plug in my olde worlde dial phone and call up several mates who are also online, listen to the original speaking clock (!!!) and even turn the lights on and make PA announcements at a site 200 miles away. This should be interesting (and a steep learning curve!).

One thing I have noticed in recent years (and this may not be directly connected to VOIP, but possibly the method by which people make the calls) is the quality of a lot of the phone calls/interviews one hears on the radio which can range from almost natural to distinctly dalek. I'm not too well up on the mechanics of VOIP but I assume when the network or parts of it are at capacity the various systems start screwing down on bandwidth/data rates and reducing the audio sampling rate and hence the quality is one result?

As I had mentioned, almost all calls are now VoIP, the difference is where does it start! Is it your local exchange where conversion takes place or at your premise. Basically, very simplification, before there was a dedicate one-to-one circuit between caller and called party (circuit switched). Now the voice (info) is converted into digital packets and sent over internet as packets. These packets may take different routes and may arrive at destination in different order! So at destination they are converted back into correct order and into voice. If one packet did not arrive, you get "clipped". The quality of sound may depend on the (internal) "codecs/ modem)" used to change voice-to data and then date-to-voice.

For someone who really pays extra (typically an enterprise), they can demand a "virtual circuit" (like it was in the good old days) to ensure that all the packets use the same route to destination!

So: VoIP is a protocol (the P is for Protocol) which also may use SIP, ....

Depending on what the "VoIP" operator has provided, you may be able to use old house phone lines and old telephone (their equipment acts like local exchange and if they have also included battery back-up), then in the event of power failure, you will be able to make phone calls for typically 1 hrs (depends on the backup power capacity).

This is the future (!) and more likely we will all migrate to fibre optics as this is again cheaper still to provide and maintain (compared to copper wise).


Best wishes,

Kirit

This thread has just made me look up BT Cloud Phone - which BT tried very hard to push on us a couple of months ago (because my wife is self employed from home we have a BT business line / fibre to our house). Here's an odd thing - as far as I can see all their VOIP phones are wired ethernet. What??? You don't hard wire things these days - that's why we have WiFi! 


Does anyone know (for technical interest) what other providers are doing?


I don't know whether we would ever go to it. Our landline is for a) our mothers, b) my wife's business calls for which a dual SIM mobile would probably actually be better, c) those friends and family who we don't contact often enough to get around to giving them any other number. Everyone else uses our mobiles or web messaging.


Cheers,


Andy

Oh, and of course d) Microsoft telling us our computer has a virus / Amazon telling us our account is about to be disabled / various banks (who we don't have accounts with) telling us there has been fraudulent activity on our account. These seem to make up the majority of our landline calls :(