It seems that the OpenReach vans gathering around Dunure over the past few days are
upgrading our phone lines.

The villages of Dunure and Fisherton should have more reliable and faster connections to the phone and broadband networks.

Information is difficult to find – Openreach (who do the cabling) have closed their phone helpline, and companies like Vodafone, EE, Sky etc. don’t give details on their websites.

So I had a wee word with the engineers.

Once they’ve finished changing the cables to fibre cables and the new cables are commissioned, an email will be sent to everyone telling them about the change.

You don’t need to do anything at that stage – everything should work as before.

In 2027 that will change.

In early 2027 the old phone network will be switched off and everyone will have to move to a new fibre phone, or VOIP as they call it it the trade.

VOIP is short for ‘Voice Over Internet Protocol’.

The trouble is, when the old connection is removed, our
old phones will stop working.

All phones will have to be replaced with ‘VOIP’ phones.

That’s all well and good, but there’s one way the old phones were better than the new ones.

The old phones were powered by the phone line, so you could rely on them at all times. The new phones will need a new phone socket, and that socket will need to be powered from the house’s electricity.

The new phones don’t work in a power cut.

So if you rely on having access to a phone line at all times – say for medical reasons or a ‘telecare’ device – you will need to ask for a battery backup pack. If you are vulnerable you should be able to get that free of charge. Don’t worry – nothing happens until 2027 – you have plenty of time to get ready for the change.

If you have a burglar alarm connected to the phone line, you’ll need to check it will work with the new system.

Details are provided by Ofcom – click the button below for more details.

When the changeover happens, your phone company may offer to transfer your existing phone number to the new line. If so, well and good. Not all companies are good at this though, and you may still be locked into months or years of your existing contract.

If your phone company tells you that you’ll have to change to a new number, don’t agree to anything. You can use a process called ‘One Touch Switch’ and keep your own number. Basically, you choose who you want to run your landline, tell them a few details, and choose a date for the switch. You may need to set up a new contract for the landline separately from the broadband.

You should be able to get a new ‘VOIP’ phone included in your new contract. Just make sure your old number gets transferred at the same time.

I’ll put up details on changing phone contracts in a separate post.

Now for the good news!

The new fibre connections will allow much faster connections to the internet. If you opt to stay with your existing cabling you will probably see only a small increase in speed. That is, you’ll have FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet). To get the full advantage of the connection you’ll need to upgrade to a fibre connection to your house (FTTP or Fibre To The Property). The upgrade will probably be free, depending on your supplier: they’ll change the copper wire to your house with a fibre cable using the same telephone pole.

For many of us the only change will be a doubling of download speed for the
same price as we pay just now – good news!

The speed you should be able to get can be found here –
just put in your postcode to check your speeds.