Do sky sell Battery Backup packs for their VOIP telephone service?

[Bob-32]

Lol, sorry, just re-read your post again @NigelCro  and now thinking why you're thinking of getting this Motorola hybrid phone at all if your parents now have Sky broadband and they have a digital phone with a master socket??  ....unless it's a very very old one, like 20+years old, the phone line from the master socket just connects straight into the 'phone' socket on the broadband router and it should pair automatically with the master socket, but if it doesn't, then just read any message that appears on the phone's screen to connect it. You don't need any separate connectors or this additional phone. This is my set up now and then just a mobile is used if the electricity goes off.

[TimmyBGood]

@Bob-32 

That Motorola handset has a built-in cellular function and SIM, so continues to work during a broadband failure as long as it has power from a mains socket or battery backup.  It's a more robust solution for users who aren't necessarily comfortable with mobile phones or may not keep them charged.

[Bob-32]

Yes I know @TimmyBGood ...I used to have one which was supplied by Virgin Media for free when I had a contract with them in 2023/24  as I am considered a vulnerable person and need to have a way to contact someone if the broadband went down or the electricity went off, but Sky don't do such a phone for their Sky Talk and I was told by Sky that if something like this was required, then Sky couldn't provide a contract to me. Even if an elderly (or otherwise) person has aone of those red panic alarm buttons or similar, Sky tells you to be aware that it won't work on a broadband/electricity outage. 

But sure it doesn't matter anyhow as this BT/EE Motorola hybrid phone won't work with Sky services as you'd pointed out on a previous post.

[NigelCro]

Yes, what concerns me is a VOIP outage coinciding with a low/no juice situation with Mum's mobile.

Their broadband was out for about 24 hours. The cause has been long in the making. In 2019 a car hit a pole carrying the fibre optic cables and since then the cables were entangled in a hedge. The line inevitably failed! Openreach were informed by Sky, BT and potentially others, but applied no fix until the point of failure.

Openreach have been a lot better since they were forced to break up the BT monopoly, but they're still hit and miss. A good step would be if end users could liaise directly with Openreach a *lot* more easily. I suspect pigs will fly sooner! 😂 

[Bob-32]

The only thing that I can suggest for your peace of mind then is to get a cheap mobile, or if you have an old one that you no longer use but still works, and leave it plugged in on charge constantly and only use in emergencies for this situation. Just buy a PAYG sim for it.

Usually all sim providers will turn off a PAYG sim if not used within a specific time though (6 months for Tesco), so if you visit them regularly or even just on occasions, make sure you use the phone to make a call, text or use data within the alloted time scale so the sim isn't turned off. I do this with another mobile and have given the number to only 2 family members and my 'sensible' friend who have only used it once to ring me when my main mobile was turned off, landline was down and they didn't get a reply via Messenger/social media. I was fine but this exact scenario had happened where the electricity was on the blink during a storm and my main mobile had run out of charge, lol, but I'd like to think that they would've actually come to the house if I didn't have the other emergency mobile as they have keys, so I hope u have a key too or a closer neighbour has a key and you have the neighbour's phone number too. When I can't get in contact with my elderly aunt, I ring her neighbour.

[NigelCro]

So, imporant information: you can connect a Motorola FW500 hybrid backup phone to a Sky Broadband router by plugging an RJ11 to BT Socket Adapter into the RJ11 socket (I used one by rhinocables that I bought off Amazon), and then plugging the hybrid phone into that and your main phone into the BT socket, or vice-versa. The hub provides a line to both the BT socket and the RJ11 socket simultaneously. To prove this: both the hybrid phone and the cordless phone base station (and all the cordless phones in the house) ring when the landline receives a call.

The problem I've got - and this is a problem a lot of people have had with the FW500, whether you buy it new or secondhand as I did - is that the backup battery inside it doesn't hold a charge. Moreover, it seems to use a one-of-a-kind battery that is nigh on impossible to find a replacement for! The product code for the battery is HFR-AAA750X3 (3.6 Volts). Motorola have used a HFR-AA750 (2.4 Volts) in their cordless phones for years, and this is easily obtainable. The 3 cell variant, however...

I'm going to try and find a solution for this. I feel like I'm straying off the original topic of the thread now, so I may start up a new thread on this. I hope people find this information useful, if only to know that Sky Broadband hubs provide a line to both the BT and the RJ11 sockets simultaneously!

[Mark39]

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@NigelCro wrote:

I hope people find this information useful, if only to know that Sky Broadband hubs provide a line to both the BT and the RJ11 sockets simultaneously!

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I guess that would make sense, as the Hub is designed for UK, ROI and Italia markets, with the BT and RJ11 sockets providing the connections for each.

[Bob-32]

@NigelCro  but I thought that your parents only had Sky fibre broadband now and not paying for a BT copper landline phone aswell...which is/will be switched off soon anyway and then fibre broadband is the only option for a 'landline' phone as the copper BT phone socket will not work. Have I misunderstood? 🤔

I moved into my house just over 2 years ago and the BT sockets had been turned off. BT refused to turn them back on again as said they wouldn't work in a years time anyway, but even if they did, I'd have to take a landline phone contract out with BT which would be separate from any fibre broadband contract with them or any other supplier, but after that year, the copper landline BT socket would be turned off and the phone wouldn't work anymore anyway. 

At a previous address, I used to have Sky broadband, not the fibre option, and could've had this Motorola hybrid phone plugged into the BT socket and used with the Sky Talk option, but can no longer do this will Sky fibre broadband as the 'landline' phone has to be plugged into the Sky fibre router and the Motorola BT/EE hybrid phone won't work on the Sky Talk network...I tried it while waiting for VM to come to pick up their hub, phone, etc when I changed to Sky fibre broadband. Sky said they couldn't offer me the same thing as I had before with them as the copper lines being turned off so only the fibre option was available now.