Vulnerable adult without landline

[Markg123]

We have contacted sky 3 times for my 81 year old mother. She renewed her TV., broadband and talk but has had no landline  connection since beginning of October. 

We have now been told she needed a new digital hub which was sent on 6th October but the tracking shows it was not delivered as incorrect address so it has been returned to sender. As now in the Royal Mail Midlands hub, Sky will not send a replacement. 

 So my mother has no landline and no mobile reception where she lives. All Natalie and Emil at Sky could say is that we should chase Royal Mail despite hub being returned to them. Not their responsibility. 

We have no idea when this will be sorted. Please help.

[JimM1]

@Markg123 You need to call sky, posting on the Forum will not resolve the issue for you!

[BritSteve]

My 92 year old father is in a similar position. His landline went down on 27th September and is still down today. After numerous calls I was told that the problem was with OpenReach - copper had been stolen from the local green box !!! I was also told that he has a very old router and he was sent a new one.

Does this even make sense? Surely Sky Talk is VOIP. Does it really have a connection to the local POTS?

Could it be as simple as replacing the router? Why would an old router that has worked for years suddenly stop working? Surely there should be some communication?

Steve

[JimM1]

@BritSteve It al depends on the OR solution, and they may have decided that Digital Voice upgrade was the only solution to the repair, this would without a doubt require the minimum of a SR203 Sky Broadband Hub to do so, also the old hubs are being obsoleted Dec 2025 and they may just be killing to birds with one stone!

Sky will have to go along with whatever they are told to implement, but know one on the Forum would be able to say for sure, only sky can advise what is the reason for it all!

[BritSteve]

Thanks Jim. Still doesn't make sense to me. Are you saying that dad might NOT have been on VOIP and was on a "copper" BT connection? And if BT can't fix the copper problem easily, Sky will move dad to Digital Voice (VOIP) which will definitely need the new router?

What's even more odd is if I enter dad's phone number here (https://www.sky.com/help/servicestatus/broadband-and-talk), it says there is an outage in Shetland and a ship will be dispatched from Calais to reapir a subsea cable. Hard to believe that a problem in Shetland can afffect Berkshire 🙂

[JimM1]

@BritSteve Sky talk software gathers all different information, the end off the connection is what OR have supplied, wether that be POTS,ADSL,VDSL,FFTC,FFTP it does not make the slightest bit difference to them, you mentioned that he has a very old sky Hub, take a look at the link, see if you spot which one!

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/broadband-diagnostic-which-sky-hub

Moving landlines to digital technologies - GOV.UK

Have added the about lights for the hubs should you need them, with the sky Broadband Hub, all 4 lights are needed and indicate that the last light when green the voice is sent digital and the system is now VOIP to the sky Hub as there method off landline comms and the phone now plugs into the back off the hub instead of the phone wall point connection.

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/set-up-hub-which-sky-hub-do-you-have

This link providers information about the coloured lights on the various hubs
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/hub-lights-explained-start

[BritSteve]

Thanks Jim.

My brother will be over with dad this weekend and I will suggest that he swap the router as the first step. And take photos of the old router.