Using Broadband Talk as main phone line

Hi there, just looking for a bit of advice/guidance.
I've got a Home Hub 2.0 and the Hub Phone 2.1, so I'm pretty impressed with the set up, despite only using the phone on occasion.
All the phones in our house (about 5) are knackered and need replacing. I've been considering making a switch towards the BBT, by getting another 4 Hub Phone 2.1s (not paying BT prices mind...) and subscribing to the Anytime BBT calling plan. Currently we have the equivalent landline calling plan, so that could be cancelled.
My thinking is that the 5 phones could be distributed around the house in the same way that are current phones are, and then each room would have access to the BBT line primarily, and then the normal line by pressing 5.
Is there anything else I should consider before making this change? I am aware of the emergency calling provisions etc. Has anyone else set up their home like this? How is it going?!
Many thanks,
Tom

I have the original home hub, and have four hub phones dotted around the house.
Broadband talk does allow you to make a number of simultaneous calls using the same number, and also answer incoming calls on your normal phone line as well.
You can only make one outgoing call on your normal phone line, by dialling "5" from one of the phones.
As we make most of our calls in the evening or weekend, they are free, so we have no need for any extra calling plans.
Overall it works quite well. We do have a normal phone if there is a power cut, but we also have mobile phones anyway.
Remember also, you have a phone socket on the home hub which is connected to BBT.
I suspect that the new hub phones are probably better than the original ones, which can be a bit quiet.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Similar Messages

Why can't I use broadband talk to call Peru at the...

In the list of destinations there are lots of countries including Mexico and Argentina, but no Peru.
My wife is peruvian and makes calls several times a day. Hence the reason I set up the Broadband Talk. She has to purchase cards from the post office and dial a prefix number. It would be nice to be able to use the Talk phone without having to do this. Is there any particular reason why Peru is not in the list, or is it an oversight?

Hi SeanT,
Thanks for posting. I'm not really sure why Peru isn't on the list. It's most likely down to the network infrastructure that may not allow us to supply a quality service. I'll see what I can find out.
Cheers
David
BTCare Community Mod
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Unable to use Broadband talk to get through menu s...

When I use my hub phone on broadband talk to dial a service that has menu options (press 1 for...) none of the buttons register. If I dial 5 to use my landline, using the same phone I can use these menus. Is broadband talk incompatible with these service?

Hi
I am going to have the same problem as you shortly.
I have contacted a company called Sipgate who tell me I should be able to port my BT voip number to them.
I have not investigated any further at this stage as I am in a fixed term contract with BT, but hope to be able to port my number with either Sipgate or another VOIP later in the year.
If you decide to give this a try let me know how you get on.

Broadband drops out & noisy phone lines.

Hi,
Not sure whether this needs to be posted here or in the phone section as both areas are effected.
My property is pretty old and the internal phone sockets/wiring is also quite dated. I've always had issues with my phone lines being very noisy to the point where i have simply done away with having a house phone (not ideal).
I use my internet for many hours every day - its an essential part of my life and income. I had a new internal socket fitted about 2 or 3 years back exclusively for my internet use to help improve the connection which had been fine until recently.
I had new windows fitted which required the socket to be moved & ever since then my connection has been unreliable and drops out.
Ive reported the fault on the line earlier today and am waiting to hear back off BT but thought i'd post here in the mean time.
I use a Belkin router and have spoken to them but they were unable to help. After running a few tests they said it was most likel a phone line fault. I have also tried a different router and experienced exactly the same issues.
How do i go about identifying the fault & getting it fixed? With it likely being an internal fault, is it likely to cost me money? What are the terms & conditions with this type of problem?
Also, how would i go about getting new sockets installed in my house so i could get a working house phone? How much is this likely to cost?
Thanks for any advice.

was the new socket you had fitted like this if so any extension sockets in your home should be connected to the back of the bottom half of the socket NTE5. It may be that moving the socket has moved some of the wires and they are loose.
BT are responsible for the wiring up to the first socket in your where the cable comes in from outside. if the problem is found to be your internal wiring after the master socket then you will be charged at least £130
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Making my 2nd BT line the main phone line

Hi
I've been trying to find a solution for this with no luck. Spoken to several BT engineers (all based abroad!) and no one seems to understand the issue, let alone help. A pointer in the right direction would be hugely appreciated!
We have 2 lines coming into the flat - Let's call them Line 1 and Line 2. Line 1 is the main line around the house. If you plug any basic phone into a socket in any room, you get Line 1.
We have a Panasonic PBX system with both Line 1 and Line 2 going into it. Plug in a programmed Panasonic phone into any socket, and you get both line 1 and 2 available from the phone's selection menu.
We are dropping Line 1 and want to make Line 2 the main line in the house (Line 1 is hardly used anymore). We want to be able to plug a basic phone into any socket and get Line 2 by default. We also want to remove the PBX, although this is less of a priority. Main thing is to make Line 2 the default standard house line, and change our phones to basic standard phones.
I must be asking the wrong questions as I can’t find anyone than can help. Is this something BT can do? Is it the company that set up the PBX system (Spitfire I believe)?. Is it something I can do (I’m not hugely technical, but can follow basic steps)? What do I need to ask for, and to whom?
We do have a Cable & Wireless box near the PBX with two ethernet style cables coming out of them. They are labelled with the actual phone numbers of Line 1 and Line 2. I tried swapping those round, but it made no difference. Line 1 was still the main line. I suspect this is something compeltely unelated.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Cheers

This was originally sold as a business system, was there once a business operating from the premises?
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BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Broadband working (kinda) but phone line is dead

First of all, BT is the worst company I've ever delt with in my entire life. They are sloppy, inept and not sympathetic in the slightest.
This entire problem started with me unable to get phone/net for near 3 months due to a mistake I made on my order. From there, BT messed up the entire thing and I spent WEEKS getting this sorted, only to be palmed off with a 'Goodwill Geasture' of £10 (which as of yet, still hasn't appeared on my bills). I had to get onto Citizens Advice and go through their Consumour Helpline to get the entire mess sorted out, because ringing BT was like trying to knock down a wall with a rubber mallet. The amount of times I had to explain my situation made me so angry and I suffered from several panic attacks out of pure anger at being dicked about. I found out my entire phoneline had been, leaving me with no phoneline for 7 days, from the service station and I was told personally by an Openreach Enginneer that the box is the worst kept box in the whole of Penzance. WHY HASN'T BT ADDRESSED THIS PROBLEM WITH THE BOX AND FIXED IT COMPLETELY?
Since the 16th April, I've been using the Broadband every day and it works fine! YAY! All that hassle was worth it.
Oh no, it **bleep** wasn't.
As of the evening of 4/5/2014 my broadband began to flash orange and cut out intermittantly. I contacted Tech Support who did line tests, I plugged in a spare home hub and suffered with the orange flashy light of doom until about midday 5/5/2014. I was promised by Tech Support I would be rung between 12.45 and 14.45 with an update. BS! No phonecall, because they never do ring you back and its complete BS that we're paying all this money and getting a **bleep** service.
As of tonight 6/5/2014 internet is working, but sporadic and quite slow, funny as it was working FINE from 1pm to 5.30pm.
I REFUSE TO PAY £130 FOR BT TO TELL ME THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH MY LINE. I am a Carer and I can't afford to be spending that much money for BT to tell me 'the line is working fine' when evidently it **bleep** isn't.
I have tried the test socket, I've tried line tests, BT tech support has tried line tests and I am beyond P-ed off that BT is willing to take your money but not sort anything out. This should not be happening 20 days after being connected!
Tomorrow, I will be contacting the Consumer Line again and get their help. In the meantime, is there any advice I can get about this issue? I've read other people who have had the same problem, so repeat of information is no good.

Hi TigerMoran,
Welcome to the community forum. I am sorry to hear about the problems you have had with BT recently. I does sound like you have a fault on the line. I'll be able to help you get things sorted. Please send me in your details using the "Contact The Mods" link found in my profile.
Thanks
PaddyB
BTCare Community Mod
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Is there a way to send a fax using Mountain Lion but no phone line?

We've ditched having land lines some time ago, so NO hard-wired modem connection.
Is it possible with Mountain Lion to send and receive a fax from my MacBook Air.
btw, my scanner is a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M (if that makes any difference).
Even if the answer is absolutely not, I'll appreciate knowing.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello:
I have no clue.
However, I think that most people who send documents use E-mail attachments.
Barry

Broadband Talk number on phone bill is incorrect.

I just noticed that the BBTalk number on my phone bill is different to the one my Hub reports it's using. My hub is using an 056 number I have had since BBTalk started. But my bill has a local 0113 number listed on it. I can only assume some mix up when I have recontracted at some point.

All BBtalk numbers are 05, but it is possible to have a geographic area code prefix instead, which 0113 [Leeds] is. Have you requested a geographic code at any point?
AQ.
"Welcome to Royston Vasey - You'll never leave."

Crackly phone line and broadband disconnecting

For a month or two i have been having problems with our phone line and broadband connection. The phone line is extremely noisy (interferance) and when you make a call or recieve a call the broadband disconnects. I have tried different filters, routers and wires but no good. I have conducted a quiet line test and the result was i could hear nothing on the line. When i unplug the hub and just have the phone connected to the socket the noise on the phone has gone and their is no problem, connecting the hub make the noise come back. As a result of all this my broadband speeds are very low.
Here is my hub stats and a bt whole sale speed test.
ADSL Line Status
Connection Information
Line state:
Connected
Connection time:
0 days, 00:36:05
Downstream:
6.75 Mbps
Upstream:
448 Kbps
ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI:
0/38
Type:
PPPoA
Modulation:
G.992.1 Annex A
Latency type:
Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up):
19.7 dB / 22.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up):
7.0 dB / 3.0 dB
Output power (Down/Up):
13.9 dBm / 12.2 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up):
7077 / 0
CRC Events (Down/Up):
12 / 0
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
HEC Events (Down/Up):
19 / 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):
131 / 114
Hide details
Download Speed
0.81 Mbps
0 Mbps
2 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed
Download speedachieved during the test was - 0.81 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 0.4 Mbps-2 Mbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :6.91 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.45 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 1.25 Mbps
My dsl connection rate can get as high as 7.9 Mbps
Any advice would be helpful thank you
Solved!
Go to Solution.

your drops in connection have at one point reconnected with a far lower speed than normal resulting in the low ip profile. if you stay conencted 24/7 for 3/5 days the profile will correct itself for your current connection speed
I would as john46 suggested connected to test socket with a new filter and see if that helps
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Call charges for Broadband Talk

Hi
I wonder if anyone can help. I have an unlimited anytime plan with BT and use Broadband Talk. As I understand it, calls from Talk fall under the same tariff as the main phone line, so I am confused as to why I get charged for calls to a local number, eg, a 11 min call to a local UK number at 1pm on a weekday cost me £1.09.
According the the BT tariff plan (http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Cust_Opts_Res_boo/2-3230_d0e91.htm) this call should be free.
I am missing something or am I being charged when I should not be?
Thanks
Steve
Solved!
Go to Solution.

ses2310 wrote:
Hi
I wonder if anyone can help. I have an unlimited anytime plan with BT and use Broadband Talk. As I understand it, calls from Talk fall under the same tariff as the main phone line, so I am confused as to why I get charged for calls to a local number, eg, a 11 min call to a local UK number at 1pm on a weekday cost me £1.09.
According the the BT tariff plan (http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Cust_Opts_Res_boo/2-3230_d0e91.htm) this call should be free.
I am missing something or am I being charged when I should not be?
Thanks
Steve
Hi.
Unfortunately you are missing something I'm afraid. BBTalk is not the same as a normal landline and is treated as a different line - they each have different calling plans too depending on where you call.
The tariff plan you show
http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Cust_Opts_Res_boo/2-3230_d0e91.htm
does actually show that the call you made will cost 11 x 7.95p plus any connection charge. At the very top if the page it shows that you need to pay the anytime plan cost of £6.20 per month. (My figures include vat)
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Broadband Talk Problem - hub faulty?

I have recently found several times that telephone numbers stored as Shared Contacts on the hub have disappeared from all the connected handsets. Also it seems that the call lists on the handsets are not being updated and stored. I've tried resetting everything to the factory default and setting up from scratch again, but the problem reappears. Everything used to work fine. I can't find any reference to a similar problem, all I can think is that the hub 2 has developed a fault in storing this stuff. I think the hub is still in warranty, can I get a replacement sent out?

You may be able to get a replacement hub, but the latest hub 3 does not support Broadband Talk or hub phones.
I am guessing that they are probably still sending out hub 2 replacements until stock is exhausted. There are quite a few on the second hand market
If you start a new contract, with the promise of a new home hub, then you Broadband Talk line will be ceased, as its no longer being supported for new orders.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Phone line cancelled

I set up a BT landline in my flat along with broadband about 3 months ago - after taking a month or so to finally start working we were quite pleased with the service until a couple of weeks ago when we recieved a letter saying that somebody had requested our number and unless we called within 3 days our account would be cancelled. We duly rang to say we did not want our line cancelled and thought that was the end of it, until 3 days later our phone line and broadband were cancelled. 2 and a half hours later, having spoken to at least 15 different people from numerous departments (all of whom were extremely unhelpful - some even told us we would have to pay a years line rental again!) we were told that our phone line would be up in 3 days and our broadband in 8 - no explanation for why we had to wait so long.
The phone line came back on in three days but eight days later there was still no broadband - we were told that the engineers couldn't find our postcode (the same postcode on our account and used to re-install the phone line) so it would be three more days. It has now been five and no help has been forthcoming and we are still without the internet. The problem is getting absolutely ridiculous and we are extremely annoyed with the service that we are paying for but not recieving.

SEB wrote:
I set up a BT landline in my flat along with broadband about 3 months ago - after taking a month or so to finally start working we were quite pleased with the service until a couple of weeks ago when we recieved a letter saying that somebody had requested our number and unless we called within 3 days our account would be cancelled. We duly rang to say we did not want our line cancelled and thought that was the end of it, until 3 days later our phone line and broadband were cancelled. 2 and a half hours later, having spoken to at least 15 different people from numerous departments (all of whom were extremely unhelpful - some even told us we would have to pay a years line rental again!) we were told that our phone line would be up in 3 days and our broadband in 8 - no explanation for why we had to wait so long.
The phone line came back on in three days but eight days later there was still no broadband - we were told that the engineers couldn't find our postcode (the same postcode on our account and used to re-install the phone line) so it would be three more days. It has now been five and no help has been forthcoming and we are still without the internet. The problem is getting absolutely ridiculous and we are extremely annoyed with the service that we are paying for but not recieving.
Hi.
If you don't mind me saying, this seems extremely weird. What phone number was on the letter to ring ? Was it actually from BT ? I can't say I've ever heard of people being "told" that someone else wants that number and the service would be cancelled if not acted upon.
There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there, and this sounds like one of them.
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Making Calls with Broadband Talk

Hi Guys,
I was just wondering if someone could clear this up for me??
When making calls using Broadband Talk, do you have to dial the entire number (incl. STD Code) or should you just be able to make the call without this?
For example, I live in Derry, N.Ireland and the full number starts 02871. When dialling from a normal landline you would just dial "71" and the the rest of the number. However. if I do this using my BB Talk line, I get a Dead tone. I tried to make a call and entered the number with the full STD Code, puely on the off-chance it would work, and it did actually work!! Is this necessary or should I be able to make a call without the full STD Code??
Cheers
Solved!
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I think you always have to enter the dialling code I'm afraid

Voicemail Broadband Talk

In April I subscribed to BT's Infinity service and after a day or so I setup my Broadband Talk number. I've used it a few times to make calls by plugging in an old handset into the Home Hub to make out going calls. When I wasn't using Broadband Talk for an out going call I unplugged the handset as I didn't have the voicemail service switched on.
I recently purchased a hub phone for my Home Hub so I could make more use of the service and also start to use it for incoming calls. As I have a phone always connected I thought I'd better switch on the voicemail service. I've logged into the Broadband Talk settings page (https://service.btbroadbandvoice.bt.com/selfcare/consumer/adminOverview.do) and then clicked on the link to add voicemail. I choose the option and click on submit and I always get the following message back
I've been trying to add voicemail for the last couple of days but every time I try I keep getting the same message. Which number or email address at BT do I need to contact about this?
Thanks for any help you can provide
Darran West
Solved!
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Hi Tubaloopy,
Thanks for the post and welcome to the forum.
I can help you add Voice mail to your Talk service. Please drop me an email to [email protected], include your BT account details, Broadband Talk telephone number and the link to this thread.
Cheers
Sean
BTCare Community Manager
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We are sorry that we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)

Using broadband/phone line to receive faxes

Hi. At the moment the line that comes in is split, one to my computer and one to a fax machine. Is there a way I can send/receive faxes but still use the stand alone fax to answer phone calls and send some faxes? Thanks for your help. I receive so many spam faxes that it would save a forest! I'm in the UK if that makes a difference

So, can you clarify your phone and internet connections, you mention you have broadband and one split of the phone line, so what all is actually connected to the computer? Are you using a phone-line split to the computer USB/dial-up/fax/modem or a phone-line split to DSL modem to computer Ethernet or both of these? You may need to run an additional split to get both, and don't forget those in-line DSL filters for every phone/fax/modem line.
If you want to fax from the computer you have to use the USB/fax/modem with a phone line in addition to the Ethernet line from your broadband (DSL/cable?). If you are using dial-up for internet (not broadband, very slow band), then you can't simultaneously use the fax/modem to fax while you are connected via dial-up modem.
Since you have a dedicated fax machine, but don't want to waste the paper on the spam faxes, you may have to turn off auto receive on the dedicated fax and have the computer set to receive faxes as electronic files so you can just print ones that you want to save paper, is that your plan?
So, you can use a hardware fax/phone switch to route the fax calls to the computer, or some folks use a dual numbers on a single line phone service with distinctive rings and set up the computer to answer only the fax-ringer calls. Not sure which alternative is cheaper.
For outgoing fax calls, either computer or fax can use the phone line split, just not simultaneously.

Using Broadband Talk as main phone line

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