Sky landline not working via BT Smart Hub

[Mentor2]

A few months ago I migrated from BT to Sky for a broadband/TV/landline package. Because we have a perfectly working BT wholehome mesh system, I decided to keep using my BT Smart Hub. The landline had been plugged into the back of the router and previously worked fine. We almost never actually use the landline, so I have only just noticed, several months on, that the landline does not work at all for outgoing calls (no dialling tone and an error message on the handset) and if I call my landline number I get a recorded message saying it is "temporarily unavailable". How do I fix this, as I am paying for an emergency backup landline which simply isn't working! The broadband works fine (though the reported speeds are way below the 100 mb/s I'm paying for and i sometimes get lengthy buffering delays when streaming TV. How do I actually get hold of a real person at Sky to fix this for me?

[Mark39]

The only connection to Sky's internet calling service (Sky VOIP) is via the phone socket at the back of the Sky Hub. That's where your phone needs to be plugged in.

If it's a BT phone, designed to work with BT's Digital Voice service, it won't work with Sky VOIP.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Mentor2 wrote:

How do I actually get hold of a real person at Sky to fix this for me?

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Sky certainly won't provide support with using a BT Smart Hub, and you absolutely cannot expect Sky Talk Internet Calls (which is what's provisioned with Sky Broadband) to function through one, even if broadband is, by coincidence rather than design, managing to do so. 

Sky also won't even look at broadband speed if their own router isn't in use: for a start that's required for any of their remote diagnostics to work.

[Mentor2]

I tried swapping my Sky Hub in for the BT Smart Hub, but it still wouldn't work. I finally managed to find a phone number to call Sky for support and after over half an hour on the call, with multiple rebooting of the hub, they found that for some reason the hub hadn't been added to my account. Eventually they sorted it all out and the land-line is now working. The broadband speeds seem to have improved as well. The bonus is that I was able to get the BT Whole Home mesh system working with the Sky hub really easily, so all our existing Wi-Fi dependent systems still work fine (smart tv's, sonos, hive, ring doorbell, laptops, tablets and phones), attaching to the same ssid as before, which is a great relief. Phew!