topic Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones in Talk

Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Toni+Cornish — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:53:12 GMT

I've been a Sky TV Customer for over 21 years, but today I have moved my broadband and phone service from BT to Sky. With BT I had 3 cordless VOIP phones which do not need to be plugged in (these ones https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/digital-voice/advanced-phone/BT-Advanced-Digital-Home-Phone-User-Guide.pdf).

I have tried everything to connect them to the new Sky hub (which every other wireless device in my house has successfully connected to) but the phones, they just won't connect. I no longer have telephone extension sockets as BT switched me to the VOIP phone line a year or so ago. I phoned Sky earlier and they said my BT phones would work with the Sky hub (all the lights are on on my hub, including VOIP). I'm now really fed up as my mobile signal is terrible and I really don't want the extra expense of having to buy new phones as our house is quite spread out so I cannot just have the one phone.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

GD1 — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:56:18 GMT

@Toni+Cornish Any standard landline phone will work with Sky VOIP service the the phone plugs into the back of the hub, there is no VOIP settings you can use with any VOIP type phones.

Go for cordless dect phones of you need them in more than one room.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Mark39 — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:55:58 GMT

They're not compatible, I'm afraid. Sky don't have an equivalent. The simplest solution is cordless phone kit, where a base station plugs into the Hub, and the handset or handsets wirelessly communicate with the base station.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

cymru123 — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:57:54 GMT

@Toni+Cornish

The BT Digital Voice handsets will only connect wirelessly (via DECT) to the BT Smart Hub 2 and it's functionality is primarily development and provide only to work with BT's own Digital Voice service.

The Sky Hub works with most other cordless or corded handsets that can plug into the phone port on the back of the hub. You can buy a modern house hold phone from online retailers

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Toni+Cornish — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:59:16 GMT

Thanks although I had a conversation with Sky before I switched and they spoke in great detail about their VOIP system and said that it would work.

Why is there a VOIP light on the hub? Am I missing something?

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

cymru123 — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 21:09:13 GMT

@Toni+Cornish

The voip light on the Sky Hub illustrates that the hub is connected to Sky's own VoIP service.

How sky's VoIP service works is that the voip client is within the Sky hub and in order to use it you then plug a phone into the ATA port (the phone port on back of hub) to then make and receive calls.

The BT Digital Voice handsets are specifically designed for BT's own VoIP service call BT Digital Voice and BT's own consumer router call the BT Smart Hub 2.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Toni+Cornish — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 21:22:58 GMT

Thanks for explaining. I wish I'd been told that by Sky when I agreed to switch my phone/broadband to them. I will now need to go and buy some new cordless phones. How annoying when I had four which worked perfectly well before I switched. 😩

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

TimmyBGood — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 09:08:48 GMT

@Toni+Cornish wrote:

How annoying when I had four which worked perfectly well before I switched. 😩

Perhaps worth reflecting it was BT who designed those handsets to only work with their own Smart Hub rather than specifying them for wider compatibility. As noted above that hardware isn't actually VOIP (which is a generic standard): it's a closed wireless system with the Hub acting as base station and the VOIP part starting at the router outwards.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

MightyQuinn — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:08:58 GMT

Hi @Toni+Cornish

Did you keep your BT Digital Voice landline number when you moved to Sky Internet phone? With the pending 14.4% BT increase I am thinking of moving over to Sky but would like to keep my old number that I have had for 36 years.

Luckily I kept my old BT Premium phones! I have 4 BT DV HD phones with Alexa, how are you finding the audio quality moving back to analogue phones?

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

deakmann70 — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 17:34:24 GMT

Unfortunately DECT phones are not an option if your router and base station are in different parts of the house, the BT wireless adaptor for DECT phones also only works with a BT Smart hub.

I can't beleive there aren't VOIP phones which work with Sky?

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Mark39 — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 19:48:00 GMT

@deakmann70 wrote:

Unfortunately DECT phones are not an option if your router and base station are in different parts of the house, the BT wireless adaptor for DECT phones also only works with a BT Smart hub.

I can't beleive there aren't VOIP phones which work with Sky?

Move the base station?

You can't use any VOIP phone with Sky Talk, because Sky don't offer the native VOIP service which would be required to connect a handset directly to the internet. It's the Hub which converts the output from a standard handset into a form that can be transmitted via the broadband service.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

TimmyBGood — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 11:40:01 GMT

@deakmann70 wrote:

Unfortunately DECT phones are not an option if your router and base station are in different parts of the house

Once an address is provisioned on SOGEA broadband (with no PSTN service) then by definition the router is the connection point for a DECT base: there's no longer a 'phone' signal at any socket other than the rear of the Hub.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Brian+slade — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 15:40:34 GMT

I think it's totally disgusting. Sky are changing to fibre optic but have not considered people with more than one extension and they have no answer to the problem. You will no longer be able to have more than one phone unless you have the cordless set which has one that plugs into router and others straight into electrical socket. Even then they are not guaranteed to work. My cousin is 88 and has be left without a phone for 4 days now. It's totally disgraceful. If you have a new product in place you have to consider all aspects and how it affects others but Sky really don't care. You can see why so many ditch their landline altogether and just have a mobile.
So bad ! They really are the most terrible company. My cousin is terrified. How is he supposed to call an ambulance if he is unwell ?

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Mark39 — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 15:56:51 GMT

@Brian+slade actually it's Openreach driving ALL service providers, not just Sky to change to an Internet calls solution in preparation for turning off the analogue phone network completely, scheduled for 2025.

The simplest solution is, as you've identified, a cordless phone kit

Personally I agree that it's a retrograde step with several disadvantages and no advantages (that I can see), not least that if there's a power cut, or your broadband service goes down, you have no phone service either.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

Brian+slade — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 02:24:47 GMT

That's what I'm so annoyed about. My cousin is deaf and we bought 4 phones suitable for the deaf that are corded as he could not get on with the cordless type now they are all useless. Nearly £300 to throw away. Sky should have had something in place. No wonder people are doing away with landlines altogether and just having mobiles.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

GD1 — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 07:32:38 GMT

@Brian+slade wrote:

That's what I'm so annoyed about. My cousin is deaf and we bought 4 phones suitable for the deaf that are corded as he could not get on with the cordless type now they are all useless. Nearly £300 to throw away. Sky should have had something in place. No wonder people are doing away with landlines altogether and just having mobiles.

What would you suggest an ISP do when the old infrastructure is not longer there? It's already been explained this isn't Sky driving the change but Openreach.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

TimmyBGood — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 11:49:52 GMT

@Brian+slade wrote:

Sky are changing to fibre optic

That's just not correct: Sky does not lay network infrastructure. Nationally there's a push for fibre to replace copper, running alongside the deadline to switch off PSTN in 2025.

https://business.bt.com/why-choose-bt/insights/digital-transformation/uk-pstn-switch-off/

https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/products/the-all-ip-programme/stopsell-updates

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

deakmann70 — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 12:10:28 GMT

I kept my phone/broadband with BT in the end as they at least provide mobile adapters so you can use your dect base station away from your router.

However having been told I was being changed to digital voice and having bought the adapter the line never changed over. I rang them and they said no order was in place and they most likely wouldn't force me to change until full fibre was available in my street/or more likely once I ordered it.

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

TimmyBGood — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 13:21:36 GMT

@deakmann70 wrote:

However having been told I was being changed to digital voice and having bought the adapter the line never changed over.

BT suspended their Digital Voice rollout for nearly a year after the storms of spring 2022.

https://newsroom.bt.com/were-pausing-our-digital-voice-plans-for-consumers-while-we-work-on-a-more-resilient-rollout/

They gave an update at the end of the year

https://newsroom.bt.com/getting-digital-voice-right-for-our-customers/

And it's resuming 'trial' rollout this month.

https://newsroom.bt.com/were-expanding-our-trials-of-digital-voice-for-customers/

Re: Sky Talk - Compatible internet phones

cymru123 — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 07:05:32 GMT

It would be good if Sky would offer at least a engineer visit (e.g what virgin offer when migrating to their VoIP service) to do voice reinjection or to wire up extension phone sockets connected to the back of the sky routers ATA port if Sky have decided not to do what BT have done and offer (be that locked to specific provider) adaptors that wirelessly (DECT) communicate with their router.

Saying that a local telecom engineer from the yellow pages will be able to help do voice reinjection to extension phone sockets.