FTTP installation has left me totally confused

[STEVESMITH099]

At the end of my 2 year contract (today 18 Oct 23) I arranged to have Vodafone extend for another 2 years, but they would only agree to it at £25.0 if I have a full FTTP installation which would mean digital landline. BT Openreach have been today (yes on the contract anniversary) to fit said FTTP. At the end of their installation they've left my landline still plugged in to the old copper connection. I also had to provide a network cable to connect up my existing Vodafone router to the new box, fortunately I had a spare one. Openreach left site saying broadband will be up and running soon. They neglected to tell me, they'd reset the modem so my normal network SSID and configuration was no longer available, I thought they'd just turned the router off and on again. Once I realised what had happened I reconfigured it all and got broadband working. But I can't understand why they've  left my landline still on copper, Openreach said that this is because when he (the Openreach engineer) asked if I still needed a landline I said yes, and Vodafone hadn't provided a microfilter or a new router? The router I've got is a THG3000. I'm pleased in one way because all my phone extensions still work without me messing about, I'm just a bit concerned that I might get billed for an extra or separate landline. I'm also confused that I've got a reduction on my bill for going on to FTTP , but my Landline is still on the copper cable, I was given to understand that I'd be plugging my landline into my router. I also had texts saying that some equipment would be sent by Vodafone before the installation date and that an engineer has been booked to attend and that if there was no one here on the date I would be billed for the missed call. There was no delivery and no engineer from Vodafone, just the guy from Openreach. Anyone had a similar experience?

[Jayach]

Yes, it's all very confusing isn't it.

Your phone may be working in the copper telephone extension for now, but it probably won't stay working there.

Also Vodafone don't have any engineers, they were referring to the Openreach one.

You won't need a new router but you will need an adapter to enable you to connect your existing phone to the router.

Vodafone call it a VoIP adapter, but it's just a RJ11 plug to BT socket adapter.

Is the PHONE led lit on your router?

There is more info on how to connect the phone here:

Getting started | Broadband | Vodafone

After watching, you will have more queries, so ask away.

[STEVESMITH099]

Thank you so much for your explanation. The phone LED on the router is on and is solid, not flashing or  twinkling. So using the RJ45 lead that used to connect from the router to the face plate, I connected the router tel1 socket to my DECT phone which  also connects via RJ45 and gave it a spin, It makes and receives calls. The old copper connection still makes calls but doesn’t receive. Im now going to disconnect my phone extensions from the copper and connect them to tel 2 on my router and see if I can get everything back to normal. I haven’t followed the link you provided yet but I will do that next!  Thanks again, much appreciated!

[Jayach]

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@STEVESMITH099 wrote:
The phone LED on the router is on and is solid, not flashing or  twinkling. So using the RJ45 lead that used to connect from the router to the face plate, I connected the router tel1 socket to my DECT phone which  also connects via RJ45 and gave it a spin, It makes and receives calls.

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Well done for using the DSL cable to connect to your DECT phones, that is an alternative method instead of using the (should have been) supplied adapter.

Just to point out it's RJ11, not RJ45, so as not to confuse anyone finding this thread later.

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@STEVESMITH099 wrote:
Im now going to disconnect my phone extensions from the copper and connect them to tel 2 on my router and see if I can get everything back to normal. I haven’t followed the link you provided yet but I will do that next!  Thanks again, much appreciated!

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That should certainly work, do let us know how you get on.

[STEVESMITH099 · Accepted solution]

All working fine. I found a double RJ11 point on line for £1.00 + postage and connected it to the phone extensions wiring. Using my original vodafone supplied lead connected in to this new box, all the phone sockets around the house work properly. I've had Openreach remove the old copper from my house as it was attached to a facia board and I've removed all the old BT junk inside the house. I now just have this small discreeet box for my phone extensions and a from that, a lead to my router.. Thanks so much for your input, you provided that light bulb moment when sudden clarity burst through confusion!

[MACH1]

I am amazed! The identical situation arose for me on exactly the same day!   I have been tearing my hair out and have had several very long chat sessions with Vodafone technical support most of whom seemed to know less about telecoms that I do - which is a very bad sign!

The bottom line is that they say I SHOULD have ben sent a new router and a VOIP adapter in order to be able to use FTTP - as my existing router is incompatible. (Incidentally a very helpful Openreach engineer told me our router was useless!)

Yesterday afternoon/evening I took a crash course in digital telecommunications!   It seems that (probably) all the big ISPs use a '##~## technology' that ties THEIR installation SPECIFICALLY to their own bundled routers - which is really crap, as I, like you have a very good router of my own (Netgear in my case).

It seems that there IS a potential solution, but it is not for the fainthearted!  There is a device called a Grandstream HT801 which is a Digital Voice Adapter.  This plugs into a port in the back of your router, and it has an RJ11 socket for connecting an analogue telephone. 

The problem is that you will need to obtain the VOIP settings from Vodafone - (I am not exactly sure at the moment what this entails) - and they may be reluctant to give them to you - although I believe another forum member HAS managed to get them by escalating his call.  Once you have the settings, it is a simple matter of loading the parameters into the Grandstream device and you SHOULD be up and running.

The downside - and it is significant - is that the Grandstream is NOT a 'consumer' piece of kit, so from what I understand it is not simple to configure.  I have actually posted a question asking if any forum members have experience in the matter that they might be prepared to share.

The only alternative that I can think of is to daisy-chain your router with a new Vodafone one. I guess they would say connect THEIR router to the ONT and YOURS to the back of theirs via an RJ45 cable. You would switch the wifi on the Vodafone router off, and switch yours (assuming this is possible) into wifi only mode (no modem).  Hopefully this would work, as it is my 'backup work-around'.   From a technical point of view, I personally reckon it would be better to connect your own router to the ONT and the Vodafone one to it - as I am hazarding a guess that our 'Third party' routers are actually higher performance than the 'cheap-and -cheerful' routers that ISPs give away for free.

Good luck, and I would be interested to hear if you manage to resolve the issue. (I am still waiting on new hardware arriving and keeping everything crossed that they don't disable my FTTC copper connection before I am up and running properly over FTTP INCLUDING my landline.

[Jayach]

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@MACH1 wrote:

The bottom line is that they say I SHOULD have ben sent a new router and a VOIP adapter in order to be able to use FTTP - as my existing router is incompatible. (Incidentally a very helpful Openreach engineer told me our router was useless!)

How was that helpful, there is nothing wrong with the THG3000 as a simple ISP supplied router (I've been using mine for 3 years)

There will be no difference between a THG3000 supplied for FTTC and one supplied for FTTP, so no you don't really need a replacement.

[MACH1]

My router was NOT the THG3000, but an earlier model that they had obviously been clearing out their stock of.  It was fine for FTTC when the landline was delivered over copper pair, but where there would have been Tel sockets on the back, these were  blanked off.  I am presuming that when these were made by the subcontractor, Vodafone did not want the Tel feature, as (at that point) they were not using VOIP.

[Jayach]

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@MACH1 wrote:
My router was NOT the THG3000, but an earlier model that they had obviously been clearing out their stock of. 

@MACH1 

They have been supplying the THG3000 for over 3 years, so as you didn't specify what router you had, and the OP stated they had the THG3000, it was reasonable to assume you had the same, as you stated "The identical situation arose for me on exactly the same day"

So not identical at all.

[MACH1]

Sorry, I had missed the bit about the router you had.  However, in all other respects the situation WAS indeed the same - with us being left with the landline on the CTTC copper pair after the FTTP broadband was up and running.  The situation WAS resolved once the new router arrived - but even then it needed another chat session to Vodafone as something had not been configured correctly to allow the landline to work.   THis has now been fixed so we have broadband and landline - but still running on the Vodafone hardware pending me gettinf further advice on configuring the Grandstream ATA.