14 hours ago, StephenFord said:

This mad rush towards 'digital' has totally negated all common sense in what 'progress' really means. Without electricity, digital simply doesn't work.

Analogue actually doesn't work without electricity either, you seem to be confusing analogue vs. digital with electrical vs. mechanical. Analogue and digital are just two distinct ways of manipulating an electrical transmission to represent data, analogue being a "continuously variable signal" while digital is much more "regulated", see pic below. Well actually, technically, neither analogue nor digital require electricity, they're just two distinct forms of signalling that can apply to multiple transmission mediums, light based for example (though with light you tend to use electricity for the transceivers at either end of the connection).

Perhaps there's a misconception that a standard (non-cordless) 'analogue' landline doesn't require electricity because you only plug it into the phone line, not a socket. Actually though it's receiving a 48-volt power supply from the exchange over the copper phone line. The reason that they continue to work during a power cut is because either the exchange itself still has power, or the exchange is supplying power from a battery backup. (A fancy cordless landline takes additional power from a socket for its extra functionality).

The term 'fibre' refers to 'fibre optics' which uses light rather than electricity to get data from one end of a line to the other (the line is an internally reflective tube). While technically a fibre line can be used as a power delivery mechanism (Power-over-fibre), even alongside data transmission, I haven't heard of any plans of openreach implementing this, and I've no idea how efficient it is, so afaik fibre broadband will only ever transmit data signals.

There are two forms of fibre broadband, FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), where fibre is used between the exchange and your nearest green cabinet, but the 'last leg' from cabinet to your house is still copper, and FTTP (fibre to the premise), aka. 'full fibre', where the whole connection, from exchange, to cabinet, to house, is all fibre. (Note that with FTTP you need a piece of equipment called an ONT in your house between your fibre line and your router, essentially the equivalent of a modem; it requires power from a socket).

The move to fibre infrastructure is great for internet use, bringing huge leaps in bandwidth which allows files to be transferred much faster, higher quality video streaming / calling, better support for multiple devices in a home doing such things at the same time as each other, etc, so one could argue that this new infrastructure is very much progressive and even transformative for many people given modern internet usage demands.

However of course's there's the disadvantage that with FTTP we loose that power supply for our landlines which can impact us during a power cut, an ugly wart on an otherwise beautiful plan. (With FTTC in theory we could still be provided power from the cabinet, but I'm not sure if they're doing that, and FTTC is just a stop gap until everyone is eventually upgraded to FTTP). This loss of the electrical power supply from the exchange doesn't mean we can't have a landline anymore, we can, newer routers have a special (square type) phone socket into which you'd plug your phone and thus the router would provide the 48-volt supply instead of the exchange, it just means that during a power cut we now loose the phone too since it's then dependant on the house power supply rather than the exchange. The burden of having a backup power supply for our landline has unfortunately shifted from the exchange to each of us, though many people who can are dropping landlines in favour of mobile only, and many others have cordless landlines that won't have worked during a power cut anyway (unless they have a battery on the base unit), and those lucky enough to have solar installations with a battery conveniently already have a solution. It's a huge technological leap forward for broadband, but at the cost of a headache for vulnerable people in a power cut.

The only way to gain the advantages of fibre while avoiding this loss of landline during a power cut, putting battery/UPS systems aside, would be for openreach to maintain the copper lines in parallel to new fibre ones, and consequently maintain all of the old exchange equipment that supports it. Unfortunately maintaining all of that old equipment is a huge costly burden, there's supposedly an increasing difficulty in obtaining replacement parts, and those costs are passed onto all of us in the form of line rental charges. There's no appetite for it. (FYI similarly the old radio-teleswitch devices that automatically switch old power supply meters in and out of economy-7 mode rely on a single old longwave radio transmitter run by the BBC which is a big burden to maintain and sourcing replacements parts is difficult, so that's shortly going to be gone too; anyone who still has one will have to get a modern meter, but don't get me started on smartmeters 🙄).

Edit: Or another way we could get the advantages of fibre without loss of landline during a power cut would be if they could implement power-over-fibre to power the ONTs and let us hook up our phones to the ONT which could then power the phone and do analogue-to-digital conversion.

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'Digital voice' is a related transition. Landlines will need to be moved from our master sockets to our routers. The landline itself and the signals on the cable between it and the router will remain the same (analogue), but between the router and the exchange the signals will become digital, transmitted via broadband. One major advantage of this is supposedly 'crystal clear' voice quality. This transition builds upon the inevitability that we will need to soon plug our landlines into our routers anyway due to the loss of power supply from the exchange due to the fibre transition. Openreach are eager to ditch the old burdensome analogue exchange infrastructure so are planning to switch it off in 2027 rather than wait out the completion of fibre rollout (which I imagine still won't be completed by then).

It's arrived, just over 48 hours since initial OfCom complaint! Darn heavy at about 5Kg. But looks really easy to use. 2 x simple sockets, one for my router, and the other for the fiber ONT supply. No idea how long the supply will last, but at least I got it free of charge. Not the prettiest thing, but will easily be concealed out of sight making sure it's ventilated.

The packaging wasn't the usual Sky pristine, not branded anywhere on box or appliance. It's as if someone went down an old warehouse and thought what on earth can we send out to pacify this complaint LOL Still, I'm happy at the conclusion...

Looks like at least BT are taking this seriously:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/08/bt-prep-advanced-battery-backup-for-uk-phone-and-broadband-users.html

13 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Looks like at least BT are taking this seriously:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/08/bt-prep-advanced-battery-backup-for-uk-phone-and-broadband-users.html

You see, it's not just me that has identified the fundamental flaw in 'digital' landlines to the home 🤣

Am sitting here 45 minutes into a power outage. Because of my UPS, was able to phone NIE to be informed there is a fault effecting 1600 homes, and they expect service to resume prior to 1pm.

The very fact that I'm able to post this shows my UPS kicked in perfectly, though it does annoyingly beep every 10 seconds LOL Just listening to my battery radio. At least being daylight, no need to light candles 🤣

I appreciate its not a man thing, but does it say somewhere in the destructions how to turn off the annoying beep ?

Just now, Jimpster said:

I appreciate its not a man thing, but does it say somewhere in the destructions how to turn off the annoying beep ?

No it doesn't LOL Though, I do now find it quite reassuring 😂

Powercut now over after 2 hours - UPS lasted throughout. I miss the beeping 🤣

beep