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Announcements => News Articles => Topic started by: Bowdon on June 25, 2015, 01:01:57 PM

Title: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Bowdon on June 25, 2015, 01:01:57 PM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/11696314/BT-aims-to-shut-down-traditional-phone-network-to-help-it-battle-US-tech-giants.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/11696314/BT-aims-to-shut-down-traditional-phone-network-to-help-it-battle-US-tech-giants.html)

I think this could be a good thing, especially if OR also becomes a seperate group too.

Maybe its also an indication of intent on BT to maybe start work on eventually removing all copper lines and going full fibre in the future, through its steps of g.fast from the node, then eventually offering an option to replace the copper from the node to your home for a price. Then it wouldnt be a big step to move the phone network on to fibre too. That's just my spin on the article though :)
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: loonylion on June 25, 2015, 01:08:50 PM
full fibre would mean EUs need battery backup in their homes in order to still have landline telephone service during a power outage.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Mark07 on June 25, 2015, 03:49:41 PM
Would there not be battery backups on the DPs?
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Chrysalis on June 25, 2015, 04:08:10 PM
so even BT admit the landline for voice services is starting to become obselete.

Now just need ofcom to recognise that.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: loonylion on June 25, 2015, 05:39:23 PM
Would there not be battery backups on the DPs?

possibly but you cant send power down fibre. There'd have to either be copper to carry power or a redundant power source with the EU premises to power the phone.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: renluop on June 25, 2015, 06:26:03 PM
This
Quote
BT is now urging the regulator to lift the obligation, a move that it says will have no impact on the majority of customers who are already using internet phone


Is that true? I had to read it more than once.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: loonylion on June 25, 2015, 06:28:06 PM
I don't know anyone that's routinely using voip, and only one business that is.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: jelv on June 25, 2015, 08:05:26 PM
Make that two people you know. The line I use for work is VoIP.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: renluop on June 25, 2015, 08:48:09 PM
So, is Mr Beattie being economical with the actualite?
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Ronski on June 25, 2015, 08:58:44 PM
We're looking at moving over VOIP at work.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Bowdon on June 25, 2015, 10:16:21 PM
I remember quite a few years ago, maybe 5 or 10, that the phone network here was moving over to a digital network. Not sure if they are classing that as a VOIP service. Just my 2 pennies worth.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: simoncraddock on June 25, 2015, 10:56:23 PM
Make that two people you know. The line I use for work is VoIP.

I use VOIP on my Fritzbox at home as a incoming line only for friends and family only
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: boost on June 26, 2015, 12:03:54 AM
Confused tbh.

BTOR posts record profits, likely related their chargeable diagnostic and repair activities on copper access products.
Are they bored of making easy cash?
Or is the end of the cash cow nigh, with every corner now sporting an FTTC cab/the looming silhouette of Sharon White? :)

Even if ofcom agree and BT pass the cost saving onto the EU and we all marvel at the 16 quid monthly reduction (as if) how are my aged, technology naive, grandparents going to make an anxiety fuelled phone call to the Fire Brigade when they wake up and smell smoke in the middle of the night and find the electricity is off? Let's say the fire started downstairs and has already melted the NTU/BBU. Training/coaching/education often goes out the window in life/death situations.

This is what props up the monopoly and as it stands, rightly so.

Copper access is going nowhere and I don't believe for a second that BT want it any other way unless they've found someone to pay for a UK wide FTTP rollout?
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Chrysalis on June 26, 2015, 12:52:50 AM
boost yeah its a cash cow, but remember they started a 3 year program employing new engineers at ofcom's request.  Also all the calls to seperate openreach dont stop coming.

They would never drop the line rental, it would be integrated into fiber rental :)

But obviously the profits from callouts for faults would be a loss.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: ktz392837 on June 26, 2015, 11:08:24 AM
full fibre would mean EUs need battery backup in their homes in order to still have landline telephone service during a power outage.
Don't most people use a dect phone nowadays? If there is a power cut the phone wouldn't work anyway as the dect base station wouldn't have power?
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: simoncraddock on June 26, 2015, 11:36:10 AM
I doubt we'll see anything in the next decade.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: loonylion on June 26, 2015, 01:44:31 PM
full fibre would mean EUs need battery backup in their homes in order to still have landline telephone service during a power outage.
Don't most people use a dect phone nowadays? If there is a power cut the phone wouldn't work anyway as the dect base station wouldn't have power?

Emergency service advice is everybody should have a basic corded phone available for use in emergencies while the power is out.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: boost on June 26, 2015, 02:04:04 PM
full fibre would mean EUs need battery backup in their homes in order to still have landline telephone service during a power outage.
Don't most people use a dect phone nowadays? If there is a power cut the phone wouldn't work anyway as the dect base station wouldn't have power?

Emergency service advice is everybody should have a basic corded phone available for use in emergencies while the power is out.

Where is that printed / advised? On every DECT box with a huge label, I hope? :)
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: WWWombat on June 26, 2015, 02:35:51 PM
Emergency service advice is everybody should have a basic corded phone available for use in emergencies while the power is out.

Where is that printed / advised? On every DECT box with a huge label, I hope? :)

How many actually pay attention to that advice?
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: WWWombat on June 26, 2015, 02:58:59 PM
On the issue of access to emergency services (which is somewhat different to the USO regulations over keeping copper), there are some interesting discussions and statistics to be found here:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/superfast-broadband/summary/battery_condoc.pdf

The document is primarily focussed on backup-battery for fibre services, including the case where voice service is carried over fibre with no copper alternative.

If ever the USO regulations change to remove a guaranteed copper exchange line, towards a guaranteed IP-service (over which voice can be carried), then the consequent considerations for access to emergency service will probably match the ones in that document.

One snippet:
In 2009/10, there were 31 million triple-9 calls, of which 12 million came from landlines, of which 7 million were actually put through to an emergency service, of which 2 million were ultimately deemed to be urgent.

The maths behind power outages combined with different backup batteries, comes out with:
Quote
a 1 hour battery backup ... means that for around 99.95% of the time,
an emergency call is possible (or, put another way, for just over 4 hours in a year a
customer would find themselves unable to make a call due to a power outage).

For a two hour battery backup, this increases to 99.98%, and for a 4 hour battery this
increases to 99.99% (which translates to around 1 hour in a year that customer
would typically be unable to make a call as a result of a power cut).

We also note, and discuss later, that many customers have mobile phones, which greatly increases
their capability of contacting the emergency services in the event of a power failure.

Logically, the availability percentages of an N-hour backup battery apply equally for the exchange, cabinet, or ONT in the home. Or even mobile cells.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: loonylion on June 26, 2015, 03:10:14 PM
Emergency service advice is everybody should have a basic corded phone available for use in emergencies while the power is out.

Where is that printed / advised? On every DECT box with a huge label, I hope? :)

How many actually pay attention to that advice?

probably not many, but its their loss if they get into a situation where they need it. Common sense isn't so common anymore.

Quote
We also note, and discuss later, that many customers have mobile phones, which greatly increases
their capability of contacting the emergency services in the event of a power failure.

It's quicker and far more accurate for the emergency services to trace a landline call, if necessary, than a mobile call.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Chrysalis on June 26, 2015, 04:19:31 PM
mobile phones are more suited in 2015 for emergencies.  Seems their advise is out of date stuck in the 1980s.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Bowdon on June 26, 2015, 05:53:35 PM
I wonder if BT buying in to the mobile phone network market as anything to do with this. They could move all their main home phone packages to their cell phone deals. It would actually cut down on a lot of money because there would be no maintenance for copper lines needed anymore. The only 'land lines' would be the fibre lines.

If the power went out, there would still likely be cell phone power.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Ronski on June 26, 2015, 07:42:19 PM
We have a DECT phone and no corded phone in the house, and yes I have seen the advice, but with 5 mobiles in the house do we really need to worry, I think not. I did used to have our DECT on my UPS, but it was moved in case it was causing problems with the broadband, and never moved back, so worse case and not ideal in an emergency I (but none of the rest of the family) could pretty quickly plug it into my UPS power strip and phone socket next to it. We could almost do away with the landline, we never use for outgoing calls, and very rarely get incoming calls on it.

What about all the people that don't have a land lines, how do they cope?
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Dray on June 26, 2015, 08:02:55 PM
What about all the people that don't have a land lines, how do they cope?
Funny that, BT have an obligation to supply everyone with a landline.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: renluop on June 26, 2015, 08:40:53 PM
I wonder if BT buying in to the mobile phone network market as anything to do with this. They could move all their main home phone packages to their cell phone deals. It would actually cut down on a lot of money because there would be no maintenance for copper lines needed anymore. The only 'land lines' would be the fibre lines.

If the power went out, there would still likely be cell phone power.
  Funny, such were the thoughts of my IT Mahager son in law 10+ years back; phone= mobile, data = fixed. He's also said that quite a few things newish today were known about years ago, but were just not practical then.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Ronski on June 27, 2015, 06:34:00 AM
What about all the people that don't have a land lines, how do they cope?
Funny that, BT have an obligation to supply everyone with a landline.

Only if they want a phone line, I know somebody who doesn't have land line and BT is not knocking on her door insisting a line is installed   ;) Come to think of it I know of two others that don't have land lines either.
Title: Re: BT aims to shut down traditional phone network to help it battle US tech giants.
Post by: Jaggies on July 02, 2015, 11:46:21 PM
I have a vague memory of Tomorrow's World on BBC1 demonstrating fibre optic cable (note spelling - fibRE, not fibER, please!!!) sometime in the 1970s. Apparently BT wanted to replace its copper network with fibre, and some remnants of those early experiments remain, with TPON. However, this was before privatisation, but AFAIR Maggie T. put the boot in and refused the necessary funding, as this would have made the company less attractive to investors.

Note that the above is from my very fragile memory, and is to be taken with a handful of salt.  ::)

Still hate Thatcher, though...  ;D