Can someone explain in simple terms

[Onslow52]

Ive got my broadband with EE, not fibre, which I pay for. The landline is BT and someone else in the house pays for that

I had a problem recently where we lost the dial tone( its happened before), a fault was raised and its was fixed

The broadband speed drops when the land line doesnt work to 1.2m/b and usually goes back to the normal of 7.5/8 ( I know thats slow but its plenty for what I do) but its stuck on 2.2m/b now

I phoned to get it fixed and long story short they are sending me a new router because I changed to aftermarket one!

Anyway this has made me think about moving to something a bit faster

How does it work regards the landline not being paid for by me and if I get newer broadband as I seem to see you lose the landline  if I go for a fibre upgrade? I wont go full fibre

Would the landline with BT need cancelling? Would all calls become free if they went digital? Im confused by the whole thing

Th BT landline bill payer is in his 80s and I dont want him losing the phone or his number he struggles with things as the best of times

Thanks

[XRaySpeX]

Sounds like you currently have ADSL, sometimes called 'standard' BB, which is copper line all the way from the exchange to the phone socket in your home. The voice landline shares the same line but is on a separate contract with a diff ISP, BT, paid by this other person. Not all ISPs allow you to do that. I had similar a few years ago.

When the landline is faulty or noisy it tends to slow the BB drastically. The landline fault needs fixing for which the other person would need to contact BT (who are quite likely to pass the buck & blame the BB). A new router won't fix the voice fault.

Considering moving to something faster, depending what is available in your area, you could move to:

1. FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) without landline (SoGEA). This has copper just from your local cab. to your home. It will gives speeds up to 80 Meg (VDSL) or maybe 330 Meg (G.Fast). The voice landline with BT can be left unchanged but you will need a 2nd phone line installed as part of the FTTC w/out landline. I have this at the mo'.
2. Full Fibre or FTTP (Fibre to the Premises). This has fibre all the way to inside your home. It will gives speeds up to 1600 Meg. The voice landline with BT can be left unchanged & is now separate from the BB. I'm going to this next Mon.

What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker.

[Mustrum]

@Onslow52   you need to be very careful about your choice if you wish to keep the BT Landline going. You must be on an old EE broadband contract, and any change to it will impact the phone contract. The PSTN network is due to end in the next year or so - it will vary depending on where in the country you are. But a change to a broadband service on that line will cease the phone side of things.

You may be able to take out a separate full fibre service with EE or other providers may be available to you. 

That said your combined costs are likley to be more than a new broadband contract that also has Digital Voice, so worth doing more research.

[XRaySpeX]

Why, @Mustrum ? I got a new FTTC contract in Sept w/out it impacting my analogue landline. I will be doing the same next week with FTTP. The secret is to leave well alone with the landline to avoid WLR withdrawal territory. 

What I do in 2027 is another matter!

[Onslow52]

Thanks that's interesting. Looks like I'm the same as you I join Freeserve and have never changed except when going from dial up to bb 

When I spoke to EE about the slow speed the guy on the phone just decided it was the router without actually listening to what I was saying.  He sounded quite annoyed when I told him I had thrown out the original router they sent me in 2005 😂. 

As soon as the box turns up I'll connect it and phone back and try to convince them to send an engineer back out and have another look. 

But apparently my package has no minimum speed guarantee so they haven't got to get it back to the previous speeds.

On another call to either BT or EE one of them claimed BT automatically slow the BB speed down when there's a fault to protect the line

[Mustrum]

@XRaySpeX  according to you, you got a new SOGEA contract, no Voice. Not the same thing

[XRaySpeX]

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@Mustrum wrote:

That said your combined costs are likely to be more than a new broadband contract that also has Digital Voice, so worth doing more research.

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With 2 peeps contracting & paying separately for BB & voice that's not likely to cut much ice.

[Onslow52]

Thanks. I thought it would be just a simple case of selecting a new package and I'd be away. 

I'm from the Freeserve day. If they can just get it back to the old speed I'd be happy I can't even load the YouTube home page currently it's that slow. 

I know I'm just putting off the inevitable but my hand is being forced into a snap decision as I don't really have a useable net connection currently 

[Mustrum]

@Onslow52   if you can have a listen on the phone line, and if noisy as suspected get BT to sort that out, your speeds will then return. EE could then speed that process up with a line reset.

The issue is, a change of service on the line will cancel the phone service. BT will have plans to upgrade the phone line to digital, so the sooner you speak with and agree a plan with the phone line player the better prepared you will be. Of course waiting for BT to force the issue may well be the your best plan.

Also just as a matter of interest, does yours and the phone payers combined bill come to say less than £30?

[XRaySpeX]

@Mustrum : No, that's not what I said. I went from 1 FTTC SoGEA contract to a new FTTC SoGEA contract at the min. term of the former because of price whilst retaining landline on a separate line unchanged & untouched. That is similar to my suggestion 2. to OP.

BTW: Many homes have the BT phone cable coming to the home with 2 lines within, 1 mostly unused. I use both.