Upggrade to fibre broadband has caused loss of my landline phones and Vodafone does nothing to help

[ojos]

I have had Vodafone broadband for several years. This included a contract for my landline phones which I have many around the house connected to phone sockets in different rooms. It was all working 100% fine until the fibre upgrade.

When I spoke to Vodafone support a few months ago about my interest in upgrading to fibre they said that, by default, landline phones would then needed to be connected directly to the router. I explained that my phone plugs around the house had been installed by BT and when I joined Vodafone broadband engineers it took them several days to check and re-cable my landline sockets to ensure they all continued to work. Vodafone said that yes, they were aware that some customers needed to continue to use all landline phone sockets. This could be solved by fitting an adaptor to the router. They said a note was made against my account to ensure this will happen upon my upgrade to fibre.

My broadband upgrade was booked for the end of May. A week before the upgrade I called Vodafone and reminded them of my need to continue use of my landline sockets. They did some checks and said, while by default, my home sockets would not continue to work, the engineers could install an upgrade with appropriate additional work and this would ensure the fix. They sent a note to Openreach to say that appropriate installation had to be done to ensure my landline sockets continued to work.

Upon arrival of Openreach on the upgrade day I spoke to the engineers who stated that the upgrade would be done to ensure my landline phones continued to work. When the engineers left, the fibre was not yet working although all my landline sockets continued to work satisfactorily. It took about 24 hours for the fibre broadband to start working, but conversely my landline then totally ceased to work. I contacted Vodafone who assured me it could take a further couple of days for my landline to be fully initialised. However, it's now been about a fortnight and I've lost my landline for which I am paying Vodafone. Vodafone has come up with all kinds of dubious excuses but the bottom line is "tough luck, to use your landline you have to plug a phone directly into the router". They've shown not the slightest interest in explaining why they promised the necessary work would be done for my phone sockets to continue working. I've raised formal complaints but Vodafone just continue to sit on their backsides and do nothing. I'm now stuck paying for a landline which has just a single phone plugged into it which is pretty much useless to me.

[Ripshod]

---

@ojos wrote:

---

@Jayach wrote:

---

@ojos wrote:
As I've explained, unfortunately it is not possible to take a photograph of it due to where it's located. However, I have seen a reference to Grandstream offering an ATA. If so, could you (or someone else) please provide me a photograph of it? This may enable me to check if it looks similar to the device that was installed by the engineer.

---

I understand the problem of getting a picture of the "ATA", but could you please let us know if it is connected to the LAN or TEL sockets on the router? A picture of the back of the router would do. That should be easily accessible.

---

Can I first ask that you or someone provides me a photo (or technical documentation) of a Grandstream ATA (or any other ATA) as the question of ATA/no ATA has dominated this discussion.?

---

You've apparently got one there - look for yourself. No-one here is going to show you a photo of a Grandstream ATA so you can find a photo of the same.

Can you not get to the router to answer @Jayach's request.

[Jayach]

---

@Ripshod wrote:
Can you not get to the router to answer @Jayach's request.

---

I've only asked about 4 times.

[Jayach]

---

@ojos wrote:
Can I first ask that you or someone provides me a photo (or technical documentation) of a Grandstream ATA (or any other ATA) as the question of ATA/no ATA has dominated this discussion.?

---

Oh my goodness, you only have to google it.

Analog Telephone Adaptors- Grandstream Networks

[Cynric]

@Jayach  Indeed so, as I posted about 20 mins earlier 😁😎

[Jayach]

@Cynric I have say even I missed your post, it's because the forum now no longer takes us the the first unread, so I just scroll to the last post, and miss some new ones in between.

[Cynric]

@Jayach Same with me. Even having tweaked the settings the forum sometimes mixes things up.

[Cynric]

@ojos  A quick dabble with a search engine provides the following;

https://www.grandstream.com/products/gateways-and-atas/analog-telephone-adaptors

[Jayach]

---

@ojos wrote:
The Vodafone tech team who advised me prior to the fibre upgrade specifically stated that the landline sockets connection cannot be done without an appropriate ATA.

---

That is (unusually for a Vodafone tech team) true. The appropriate ATA is built into the Vodafone router, which is why people using their own routers have to go through additional steps to get the supplied landline working.

[ojos]

---

@Jayach wrote:

---

@ojos wrote:
The Vodafone tech team who advised me prior to the fibre upgrade specifically stated that the landline sockets connection cannot be done without an appropriate ATA.

---

That is (unusually for a Vodafone tech team) true. The appropriate ATA is built into the Vodafone router, which is why people using their own routers have to go through additional steps to get the supplied landline working.

---

I confirm again that about a year ago I spoke at length to several members of the Vodafone tech team. They said making my numerous plugged-in landline phones all around the house continue to work after fibre upgrade would be a significant challenge. For example, all these phones needed to have their power directly supplied through the BT plugs (no mains power being used). In view of the number of such landline phones I have connected using very extensive cabling around the house they feared just getting sufficient power supply alone might be a challenge.  Fortunately, my recently obtained ATA fitted by the very experienced ex BT engineer appears to have instantly solved all the potential problems.

[ojos]

---

@Jayach wrote:

---

I suspect what the ex-BT man has done is exactly what I suggested, voice re-injection.

It does not involve any form of ATA (Analogue telephone adapter), that is already built into the router.

---

You are totally incorrect. because, having thoroughly looked at my setup, the ex-BT man explained to me that to cure the problem he needed to fit an ATA and it could only be sorted by him fitting an ATA. He went away and arranged to come back another day with the required ATA. Having shown me the ATA he then spent some time fitting the ATA and connecting it to the router. He said the ATA would connect to all the landline phones plugged into my house. It took him a significant time to do the necessary to fit and wire up the ATA. When he completed he asked me to carefully check each and every plugged-in landline phone by making and receiving test calls and they all worked.

Despite what you incorrectly suggest, there is no question whatever that my landline phones would not work without the necessary ATA being fitted.