Phone line issues since upgrading to Sky Q

[Averil]

Dear Sir/Madame, Ever since I had Sky Q installed and the engineer plugged my phone into the broadband router, my phone signal has been affected severely. Even with the booster box to help with the Sky Q box upstairs in my bedroom, my phone signal is affected. How can this be improved? I spend the majority of my time upstairs due to my disability. Phone calls get cut out and in an emergency, if my daughter is out, I am unable to contact anyone. The signal works fine if I move out of my room but need to use a zimmerframe and unable to stand long to use the phone. Kind regards, Averil

[TimmyBGood]

@Averil 

A Q booster cannot help a cordless phone signal: voice calls on a 'landline' may be travelling over the internet from the router, but they do not use local WiFi at all.

Is the hardware plugged into the Sky Hub a DECT base station?

[Averil]

I was given two conflicting explanations by engineers regarding this. One said a box booster would help, the other said something similar to what you said but did not say how to improve the phone signal. I do not have Sky Internet talk, my daughter is wondering if this might be the issue, my package says Sky talk as though going through landlines socket although that is no longer working since the upgrade. Could this be the issue?

[Averil]

Yes the phone is plugged into the "voice" socket in broadband router.

[TimmyBGood]

@Averil 

If the handset or DECT base is plugged into the Hub then you are using Sky Talk Internet Calls: since September 2023 this is the only option for new or switched broadband provision.

Unfortunately with that technology any internal phone master or extension sockets will no longer function.

One thing to try is to relocate either the Hub, the phone base or both to the maximum distance permitted by their existing cable lengths, preferably in opposite directions, and then to try longer cables bought elsewhere.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Averil wrote:
 One said a box booster would help

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The booster does help WiFi coverage, but a cordless phone plugged into a Hub isn't using WiFi between handset and base: it operates on a different wireless technology which the booster isn't boosting (and may in fact be interfering instead). It's not ideal to have a WiFi router and a cordless phone base adjacent to each other.

[Averil]

How would I go about boosting the phone signal through Broad rather than WiFi then?

[TimmyBGood]

@Averil 

Essentially you can't 'boost' a cordless phone: their power output is limited by national regulation.  What you can try to do is minimise any potential interference between the two different wireless technologies, and potentially relocate either the phone base or the Hub or both to put them in a better position to carry their signals in the property. 

As a first step, move the phone base as far from the Hub as possible on their existing cables: if they are currently right next to each other then that's likely to be a problem in itself.

[Averil]

Thank you for your help, my daughter says the phone location was changed due to having to be plugged into the hub as the fibre broadband installation was done at the front of the house. She will try her ethernet cable from the router to the phones old location where signal was fine before.

[TimmyBGood]

@Averil 

Yes, the change in base station location could well be an issue.  Note an ethernet cable is only relevant between an ONT and a Hub though, where the broadband is delivered over FTTP: if it's not FTTP then the relevant cable to relocate a Hub or a phone base is two or four wire with RJ11 and/or 'BT jack' plugs (ethernet uses RJ45 plugs and those don't fit 'phone' sockets)

[JimM1]

@Averil 

That is the way to go, if the original position of the phones was NOT causing you issues before your upgrade it may return to normal, The remote handset always has to communicate to the base station.

Please remember you also have the booster for wifi, make sure that it is not located near your cordless phone also. You can switch the booster off if you need to test your phone keep that in mind.

[TimmyBGood]

@Averil 

FTTP: To move a Hub further from an ONT needs Cat5 ethernet cable with RJ45 plugs at each end.

ADSL/FTTC/G.fast: To move a Hub further from an Openreach filtered faceplate wall socket needs a 'modem' cable with RJ11 plugs at each end.

To move a handset or wireless phone base further from a Hub needs 'phone' cable with RJ11 at one end and a BT jack on the other.

Note a standard analogue phone handset or DECT base cannot be made to work by connecting to an ethernet socket on the Hub even if a plug/cable combination permits this physically.

Confusingly RJ11 and RJ45 are very similar visually, but RJ11 is smaller.