What do i need to do?

[sasam75]

I don't even know if I've put this in the right section. I currently have a phone line and broadband from sky. It is plugged into a BT socket. With BT changing to digital or what ever they are doing, what do I need to do? Do I need to contact sky and upgrade to fibre for my phone and broadband? I'm disabled and need access to the Internet to pay bills, do my weekly food shopping, and socialise.

[GD1]

@sasam75  You don't need to do anything at present.

[sasam75]

So I don't need to do anything now.

What will I need to do in the future?

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

@sasam75 

Between now and the end of 2026 (the recently revised date for the switch-off of PSTN) ISPs and telecoms companies will be contacting all their subscribers to make appropriate arrangements where not already in place: these will either be a migration to FTTP where available, or the supply of a router which supports digital voice service over copper.  Telephone users without broadband will get a basic IP circuit with some form of VOIP-capable hardware.

Because government designates internet and telephone access as a critical service, this is specifically an industry-led rather than customer-driven process.

[TimmyBGood]

@sasam75 

For each individual property, the resident will either:

A) Get repeatedly offered dates for installation of FTTP if that's available in the area (eventually this may carry a degree of compulsion)

B) Where FTTP isn't available and the resident currently has a Q Hub (or older) this will be replaced with a Sky Broadband Hub or Max Hub, where an analogue phone handset or DECT basestation plugs into the rear of the Hub.

C) If a Broadband Hub is already in place but digital voice is not currently in use, a date to remove the telephone jack plug from the wall and plug it into the Hub will be arranged.  This should already be the case for all Max Hubs.

D) For the million or so properties which have never had broadband, the current telephone company (typically BT) will work with the resident to provide a voice-capable digital circuit: those are predicted to be the trickiest users to engage, and one reason the deadline has been extended (the other being analogue care alarms)

Ultimately the project, overseen by Ofcom, is specifically designed so that no household looses telephony at the point when PSTN ceases.