Unable to use a corded phone connected via Sky fibre broadband router when there is a powercut

[Dillondog13]

I'm hoping someone can find a solution to this for me please.

My 80+ year old housebound mother switched from Sky broadband to Sky fibre broadband and phone line.

She lives in a rural area and as a result of several power cuts in her area I bought her a corded phone for Christmas and in trying to set it up I have just realised that she no longer has a BT phone socket to connect a corded landline phone too. Her current cordless phone plugs into the purple socket on the back of the black sky router box, so as soon as there is a powercut her phoneline goes as well, with no apparent way to use her new corded landline phone which is very concerning for me as she is in poor health and a widower on her own.

There is no mobile signal where she lives so that is not an option. 

Is there anything that Sky or BT openreach can do to resolve this problem? so as to allow a landline corded phone to still be able to work when there is no electricity?

She still has her original BT phone socket at the opposite end of the living room to where her BT Openreach large white socket was connected, but that phone socket has been totally dead since they fitted the broadband fibre box.

If anyone knows any way to resolve this I would be really grateful as its very concerning knowing that she is not in the best of health and has no way to contact anyone when these powercuts occur.

Many thanks

[Mark39]

Unfortunately that's one of the downsides of the Sky VOIP service, where telephony is provided via the broadband Hub. If there's no power, or the Hub fails, or the internet connection fails, the telephone service also fails.

So far as I know, Sky currently has no solution for this, and the old phone line is no longer usable after switching to fibre. Perhaps a small uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to maintain power to the Hub for a few hours might be sonething to investigate.

[Dillondog13]

Thanks for your reply Mark, it's much appreciated 🙂

It seems crazy not to be able to access an ordinary BT phone socket so as to be able to enable a corded landline phone.

Since posting my question I have found out that according to Ofcom, all service providers need to be able to provide a way for customers to be able to access emergency services at all times when power cuts arise. This unfortunately obviously isn't the case. 

There must be thousands of customers in the same position, I know that I am, as we also live in a very rural area with no mobile signal at all, and our power is usually the first to go in a storm, or otherwise, but unlike my mother we can drive few miles until we can find signal, and have each other for support should an emergency occur.

I will look into the UPS.

Thanks again for your help

[Mark39]

I don't know for how long that particular OFCOM requirement has been in place, but my understanding is that it is the cause of a delay in Openreach's rollout of digital phone services across all providers by 2025.

Other Community members may know more.

[Dillondog13]

Hi Mark,

I don't know how long that particular Ofcom requirement has been in place either.

It's onky with me continuing to research this this afternoon that I have just discovered that apparently  all landline phone lines are going to be swapped over to broadband only access, even if you don't require broadband, apparently there will be a phone only option router, but it will be more expensive than current landline only prices, presumably due to the cost of replacing all the old copper cables.

It sounds as though the service provider should provide a UPS to anyone who has medical needs and requires immediate access to a landline for medical reasons, should their power supply fail. I will look into this myself as I wasn't aware of UPS back up until you mentioned it, so thanks again for your help.

[cymru123]

@Dillondog13 solutions to this is documented at https://landlinesgo.digital/powercut

Examples of UPS devices also listed.

If there's a telecare or care alarm these need to be checked and potentially upgraded too so they are compatible.

Sky should of explained this when the package was ordered and worked with you to find a solution.

BT Consumer are restarting their own mass migration to their own Internet based phone service this spring.

From 5th September 2023 this year a nationwide stop sell across all providers comes into force that means only Internet (Digital) based voice services can be ordered and providers will be mass migrating their customers onto this internet based service.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Dillondog13 wrote:

apparently  all landline phone lines are going to be swapped over to broadband only access, even if you don't require broadband,

That's correct: 2025 is still the (pre-pandemic) target year.

apparently there will be a phone only option router, but it will be more expensive than current landline only prices, presumably due to the cost of replacing all the old copper cables.

Replacement of copper is a much longer process: millions of copper lines will still be in use after 2025 but they will be carrying IP data without an analogue PSTN ('voice') signal

It sounds as though the service provider should provide a UPS to anyone who has medical needs and requires immediate access to a landline for medical reasons, should their power supply fail.

Ofcom has extensive consultation and documentation on this: you'll discover (as usual) they insist ISPs/telcos must 'identify vulnerabilities' and 'offer a solution' without specifying what that is...

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[Dillondog13]

Hi, @CymruN 

Thank you for the link, very helpful 🙂

I live 70 miles away from my mum, so my brother who lives 10 miles from my mum tends to help her sort out her Sky package and has her on speakerphone while he does it. At her last renewal the call handler told them that due to the very low Internet speeds in her rural location she would be better of with Sky fibre and they had a special offer on so she decided to switch 

They have both said that at no point did the Sky call handler  mention anything at all on the phone about my mother not being able to access her landline if she had a powercut, so they were both totally unaware of it. My mum previously had a corded landline phone but the wiring g had broken in the lead.

It wasn't until she had a couple of recent powercuts that she realised that she had no landline phone, hence me buying her a new corded phone, but then when I went to show her how to fit it if there was a powercut I realised that there is no BT phone socket at all, hence my question on here.

With her being disabled and housebound it is a big worry and there must be loads of people in similar situations or will be once the new roll out proceeds. It doesn't seem as though service providers have given much thought to those in rural locations who cannot get mobile signal, they don't necessarily need to be old for it to be a problem should someone fall seriously ill or be injured in an accident at home.

I will contact Sky on her behalf and see what they say. I will continue to look into the UPS as it is something that I will need for myself as I also live in a rural area without mobile signal, for a few miles, so if we have a powercut we are in the same position.

Thanks for your help.

[Dillondog13]

Hi, @TimmyBGood 

Thanks for your input.

Reading Ofcoms documentation on this subject, I did notice that Ofcom seemed to have "avoided" specifying a solution, so seems like a cop out by them.

I'll continue to look into the UPS as it looks as though in future I will need one myself as I am also in a rural location with no mobile signal for miles and snail speed Internet, for which we have had problems over 20 years. Openreach engineers say our line isn't fit for purpose but as we are remote BT will not replace the line.

Currently when we have a powercut we can just plug in a corded phone but that clearly isn't going to be a choice in future.

In my mum's cases, with her now on fibre, she needs some sort of emergency back up straight away, as she has no close neighbours she can contact for assistance should she need it.

If my brother can seethat my mum has not been on messenger for a long time and can't get hold of her after trying numerous times for a long time he will usually do a 20 mile round trip to check she is OK, not ideal but it's for peace of mind.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Dillondog13 wrote:

Reading Ofcoms documentation on this subject, I did notice that Ofcom seemed to have "avoided" specifying a solution, so seems like a cop out by them.

To be fair, that's partly because there aren't any great solutions: no UPS which is a reasonable size dimensionally for a domestic setting (excluding something like a Tesla powerwall) has the electrical storage capacity to cope with a multi-day power outage, as can happen after a big storm.

Powering a handset from the exchange worked really well for a century because it had to: when the first telephones were rolling out there was no mains electricity....