Can I use a VIOP phone through my router before the copper wire line is switched off?

[HSA1]

My analogue phone has just broken and I need to replace it. Can I plug a digital phone into my router and use my landline phone number before my copper line is turned off? Nearly all phones I look at are digital and I don't want to invest in an analogue only to find it obsolete in a couple of months.

[GD1]

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@HSA1 wrote:

My analogue phone has just broken and I need to replace it. Can I plug a digital phone into my router and use my landline phone number before my copper line is turned off? Nearly all phones I look at are digital and I don't want to invest in an analogue only to find it obsolete in a couple of months.

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You can choosea VOIP provider over your broadband line even before PTSN switch off, most providers will have relevant hardware to connect to their services, however providers such as Vonage for domestic customers, provide an adapter which a standard phone which can be purchased on the high street will connect to.

However if the issue is simply your phone is broke why not buy a new handset, it will continue to work when sky switch you to their VOIP service as they use the hub to convert the signal to allow a standard phone to be used.

[HSA1]

Thank you. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@HSA1 wrote:

Nearly all phones I look at are digital and I don't want to invest in an analogue only to find it obsolete in a couple of months.

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Just for clarity, most domestic telephone hardware remains analogue (as in the signal at the BT jack end of the cable) rather than IP.

'Digital' in this context is a marketing term which manufacturers use extremely sloppily to describe things like having an LCD display and not requiring a tape cassette for voicemail.  Technically the signal between a wireless DECT handset and its base station is also digital.

As @GD1 indicates, to facilitate the end of PSTN service nationally all modern ISP routers convert the analogue BT jack signal to IP so that it can travel using broadband.

An exception is BT 'Digital Voice' branded hardware: that's proprietary to BT Broadband and the BT Smart Hub.