Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Just checking my reasoning.....

Some time in the next few months BT's national roll-out of switching all landlines to digital (using fibre optic instead of copper wire) will come to this area. I just want to check that my reasoning is correct.

All home routers using the current analogue broadband signal will have to be changed. If you're with BT they'll supply the new router. If you're not (as far as broadband/internet is concerned) your ISP will supply a new router. I've already checked and my ISP will supply an AVM Fritzbox 7530 AX Wifi-6.

BT will at some point disconnect the current landline, drill a hole through the house, connect the new digital line to the BT Master Socket on the living-room windowsill, plug in a box, (ONT = Optical Network Terminal), into which the new router has to be plugged. (They make an appointment to do this.....)

The computers here are in the office, the other side of the house from the master socket. Therefore, from then on the computers will have to use wifi to get on the internet. Right now they're ethernet wired into the Netgear router. I'm just about sure that they will indeed find the new router by wifi (since a Samsung pad can connect when upstairs at the moment, and it'll be a new wifi router). It will be a nuisance not having the router right next to me where I can keep an eye on the lights, but I suppose I'll get used to getting up and going to the other room if necessary.

As to plugging the landline phone into the new router (not even possible right now anyway), that doesn't seem to be a problem but I guess I'll find out.

That just leaves printing. My plan is to leave the Netgear exactly where it is, with my computer ethernetted to it and the printer likewise. Then the (now redundant) Netgear will serve as the "middle man" for me to print if necessary. The printer is not wifi enabled and I don't plan to buy a new one since I rarely print.

I've done a lot of research on this and hope my reasoning is correct. I had a grim "smile" when I read that BT will "send you an email" when your fibre connection is up and running. Oh? How is anyone supposed to read an email without the internet?

Yes I want to retain a landline. An option is to abandon that completely. But landline phone calls have much better signal than mobile phone calls. Yes you can keep your landline number.

I'm sorry this is so long: I'm trying to be concise! Main points are (a) Macs wifi-ing across the house; and (b) printing, as above. Many thanks for any helpful comments.

According to the AVM website, you can connect to the Fritzbox via Ethernet, so you could run Ethernet cable to your computer instead of a wifi connection. Also, the box has a USB port so you can directly connect your printer to the Fritzbox. That may mean you have to walk to the printer to collect your output. Then again maybe you don't want a printer in your living room. But if they have to drill a hole to connect to the BT Master Socket, why not do it in the area of your office? That way the printer is close and the Ethernet cabling is shorter.

Cool!

If I interpret the "Wifi-6" correctly (the notation is not the accepted standard) that means your ISP's router is capable of Wi-Fi 6E which is the latest and greatest standard and fully backward compatible with earlier standards. This is a good thing as it assures all of your current devices will be compatible and will maximize the network capacity of future devices. You can find more about the AVM Fritzbox 7530 AX Wifi-6 here.

Wi-Fi signals can sometimes be flaky, but there is no reason to think it will not work. If there are connection issues, there are workarounds, including continuing to use your existing router.

There is a USB port on the AVM Fritzbox 7530 AX Wifi-6 intended for use with printers, file servers, etc.

In a former life, I was a telephone central office foreman during a transition from copper to fiber and can assure you the transition period will last months, even years, during which both systems will active.

I abandoned my landline because it was less reliable and I was receiving between 5 and 25 spam calls a day on it, in spite of the number being on both state and federal no-spam lists. It is a lot easier to block spam on my cell phone and unlike the landline, the blocks work.

No apologies necessary or expected.

Hi Ira,

I thought of that. My handyman says he can take their fibre cable and run it OUTSIDE the house to the office-side. However, this leaves out their "must connect to master socket" line.

A problem which I didn't mention because I didn't want to provide too much information, is that for the last couple of years my husband has slept downstairs for health reasons. This bed is in what I call the office. It's now half-office (desks, computers, printer) and half bedroom.

The landline phone after/during all this must be plugged into the new router. Neither of us want a phone in his bedroom, which could ring at any time....

Or have I misunderstood you? Easily done. Are you suggesting that we run ethernet cables from this room, across the hallway, to the living room?
I don't understand the USB / printer thing. The printer is Ethernet, via the current router, to this Mac.

The fiber OTA is not self-powered and requires connecting to the home's electrical system, and moving a fiber optic cable is NOT a home handyman task.

Assuming the fiber optic port enters the house at the same point as the existing landline phone, rather than connecting a telephone instrument to the router, the router can be connected to the existing telephone wiring and you can plug your landline phone(s) into any phone jack in your house. The BT technician should do this when installing the modem.

I ran an ethernet cable from the point of entry (front door) to the rear of the house (office) and connected my router there. Everything works fine. I'm with Vodafone, but all the lines are OpenReach, so should be the same for BT. The tricky part is running the ethernet cable around the door frames, along the skirting board, under the carpet, whatever... make sure you have a lot longer cable than you would have expected.

I told the BT engineer that if he left enough cable, I would fit the cable to the walls. He was so pleased, he didn't even charge me to fit the office connection box. I use a Devolo power line adapter (with an ethernet port) to bring the wi-fi back to the front of the house.

I live in a lower ground floor flat. We used to get a terrible mobile signal in our flat. Now, I can make wi-fi calls via my mobile. A definite plus. We also have a landline and used to get a really crackly service over the copper wires. We've moved to VoIP and the landline is much more clear. Trouble is, when the broadband goes down, so does the landline.

I thought I had this all figured out, now I'm confused, which is hardly surprising since we're not even "there" yet.

Are you saying that their ONT box needs a power supply, AS DOES the new router, AS will the landline phone base set?
So that's three power plugs needed, extra, in one room?

More research reveals that:

They take out the BT master socket.
They replace it with an ONT.
The ONT does not need to be where the master socket was. < this is new information.

None of the existing telephone sockets in this house will work afterwards. Only the "base hub" which will be plugged directly into the new router, which will be plugged into the ONT. This turns out to be a minor issue.

Therefore, if I get them to put the ONT on this windowsill here, in the office, I could continue with ethernet connectivity to both computers and printer.
But I'd have to put the phone in here. (The extension phone in the kitchen/dining room would still work as an extension.)

SO. We're either going to go with ONT + new router in living room > wifi for computers,
or
get them to put ONT in this office and somehow tolerate landline telephone in this office/bedroom.

That's what I thought, by different routes of discovery.

I'll suggest this without knowing if it's feasible: I've got two landline phones, and the ringer is turned off on one of them, but my place is laid out so I can hear the other one ring wherever I am.

1. The fiber optic entry port (ONT) needs power to convert a light signal from the fiber optic to an electrical signal that can be used by other devices.
2. The router needs power to convert the electrical wave into a binary pulse and transmit it via Wi-Fi and to power the telephone port.
3. The telephone base station needs power to charge the battery in the hand set and transmit a radio signal to the handset.

There are different ways this can be done, but in my experience the entry point (ONT box) will be hardwired into the home electricity, connected to an outlet near the point of entry, or have a battery that has to be replaced at frequent intervals. The new router is a separate device and will need its own power supply from your home, as does the telephone base station. FWIW, I chose to connect all three to an uninterruptible power supply to assure a working telephone connection during power outages. So only one electrical outlet was needed. But that was my choice. We are not talking about a lot of power, several watts for each device, so an outlet multiplier will work. An advantage of the cell phone is having its own battery and therefore functional during a power outage. The reason for the additional local power connection is copper wire telephone networks can carry electrical power from the central office, but fiber optics cannot carry power.

It is entirely possible to connect the telephone port on the "base hub" to the telephone wiring in your home so that the telephone sockets throughout your house will remain active. The BT installer that brings the new modem should be able to do that in less than fifteen minutes, assuming they are familiar with wired telephone at all.

BT don't supply my broadband, therefore the new router will be sent by my ISP in advance.

Some handypersons are competent to connect the new router to the phone lines in your house. It is not rocket science. Since you will have the new router in your possession, I would ask the person who installs the fiber optic port if they would do that and be prepared to give them a tip for the additional service. That is how I did it, but that was twenty-five or thirty years ago.

Now that I think about it, you seem to be implying that BT is going to switch you to fiber optic and leave you without telephone service unless you have a router provided by an Internet Service Provider. That cannot be right! What if you did not have internet?

Call BT and talk to a customer service representative. Tell her you want your phone service to be available to the existing phone jacks and an internet service connection, and I am confident they will make that happen and explain -- in detail -- what you need to do to make that happen. It is easily accomplished, but there is a division of responsibilities that can vary from country to country, province to province, town to town, and telephone company to telephone company. BT knows your specific situation and can explain it to you. Rest assured, you are not the only BT customer that is confused and concerned.

OK, I've looked this one up. As far as I can tell from multiple sources, the BT-supplied ONT box has a power lead and plug. I have not found anyone on multiple forums (e.g., BT, Openreach, various broadband sites) saying that the ONT has to be hardwired into the home electricity.

Indeed, some installers refuse to go further if it will not have its own power socket - i.e., will not be plugged into an extension lead. It all depends on who you get on the day (which seems crazy to me). If that's the case they're immediately going to have a problem here. There are NO power sockets anywhere near any potential installation. Nearly every thing in this house connects to their sockets via adapters (more than one thing plugged into same socket) or extension cables (more than one thing connected to one socket via an extension cable).

So far, in my whole life, I've only found two things which will NOT work off an extension cable: my husband's respirator machine, and the electric recliner (mechanism).

It occurs to me on this interesting research journey, that my questions are EXACTLY the ones which are NEVER addressed in all the pre-installation HooHa. People all over the country have to find out 'the hard way'.

With an exception or two I will not respond to your queries since after my post there was a flood of other informative posts. And judging by your responses to some of them, you now seem to be more and well informed. I was suggesting running Ethernet cables to the computer in lieu of wifi, but that's your call. Also, unless it is unusual, the printer can connect to the new setup with USB. You may need the common but different than other USB cables, printer to USB cable.

Perhaps I could have worded this better. thow about...

The only reasons I can think of that would prevent an extension cord from being used asre...

1. in the case of devices that require a "neutral" wire in addition to power (a.k.a. power) and ground. In other words a three prong socket vs a two prong.
2. the device is expected to pull an exceptionally heavy load and an additional device might overload the circuit.

Correcting either case is a job for your electrician, and as long as they are involved you could have them run another outlet (preferably dedicated) near the ONT point of entry.

If you have to use an extension cord, consider my suggestion of putting the ONT on an uninterruptible power supply so you telephone will continue to work in the event of a power failure.