The end of analogue phone lines, how do I switch my aunt?

prpr said:
I think you all need to be more pro-active and rattle BT's cage. You know the end is coming, you've had the comms.
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Now I know about EVAC, I've discussed it with my parents and aunt and we have decided that is the best option for her. My dad's broadband goes down every few months, that's not acceptable for my aunt's phone. The flashing lights of the broadband router near the TV (there's nowhere else for it) mean the router would have to be put in a box, which might cause overheating. Getting my aunt to power cycle the router when it gets confused (that happens to mine once or twice a year) will be a complete pain too.

I know this from the difficulty of remotely supporting her use of the HDR Fox T2, I get phone calls about the TV not working where after some diagnosis the issue is she's accidentally changed HDMI input on the TV but she's not capable of working that out herself.
 
Owen Smith said:
Now I know about EVAC, I've discussed it with my parents and aunt and we have decided that is the best option for her.
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Well as long as you know it's not a long-term solution, and you/she are going to have to have it done at some point, I guess it'll work. Or are you expecting her to cark it before then?
The flashing lights of the broadband router near the TV...
Getting my aunt to power cycle the router when it gets confused...
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You need a better router then, where you can control things. Things got easier with the inter-site VPN after replacing the unreliable Netgear $h1t with stuff that worked, and didn't crash and need power-cycling, which the former always did. That then enabled realistic remote management of the HDR Fox T2, so the only thing left was the TV which I couldn't control or monitor and life got (a bit) simpler.
I get phone calls about the TV not working where after some diagnosis the issue is she's accidentally changed HDMI input on the TV but she's not capable of working that out herself.
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I used to get that. It was never on HDM 12 (as she called it).
 
prpr said:
Well as long as you know it's not a long-term solution, and you/she are going to have to have it done at some point, I guess it'll work. Or are you expecting her to cark it before then?
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She's 85. It's a coin flip which lasts longer, my aunt or EVAC. And even if she does outlive it, she might be in a care home by then and the phone situation will be different. She's mentally fine but physically she needs to stop fainting and falling onto things. Her face was a right mess last time, she landed on something solid.

The place she is in has pull cords and pendants round their necks to call for help, and they are only just now getting around to changing that to a new one. No more pull cords, it's just a pendant round their necks and a relay box of some sort for it plugged into the mains. I think this is backwards step, are they really expected to wear the pendant when in the shower or bath?
prpr said:
I used to get that. It was never on HDM 12 (as she called it).
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Yes I get HDM 11 and it confused the hell out of me for a year until I realised what she meant.
 
antipodean said:
You do realise how much energy it takes to squeeze the signal down those wires ... :rolleyes:
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Personally I have no idea. I was surprised to see it stated in one of the articles linked on this thread that the entire UK PSTN network is consuming 1% of the UK's electricity. Frankly I don't believe it, that's a hell of a lot of electricity.
 
So how much is consumed by everybody running ISP routers instead? A lot more, clearly.
Stupid arguments by stupid people.
 
prpr said:
So how much is consumed by everybody running ISP routers instead? A lot more, clearly.
Stupid arguments by stupid people.
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Well, there's the argument that most people are already running a broadband router, so the PSTN is in addition to that rather than instead of it. The number of people getting broadband purely to run a phone feels like it will be well below a million based on the numbers quoted for people that haven't switched yet. So maybe the PSTN consumption is largely overhead that can be saved. I still don't believe 1% of the UK's electricity. Maybe that includes all the broadband cabinets, but guess what those are staying powered.

I asked my barber about their phone line. Still on analogue, they've had no contact from BT about doing anything else. It's a small 3 chair barber shop, they have no need for wifi or anything like that, mobile signal is good enough for customers to use while waiting. They only take payment by cash so no need for a network connection for a card terminal.
 
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