Full fibre (FTTP) and digital voice/home phone.

[Mickmac7]

Hi, I  would be grateful for any advice regarding a problem  I'm having  with BT/EE activating my digital voice/home phone. I originally agreed to an upgrade with BT at the 1st of May. An engineer installed the full fibre to my property on the 17th of May. Since then I have had no home phone connection and we are now fast approaching the end of June. I first contacted BT two days after the installation and was told to plug my phone into the original copper wire landline connection until the the digital line was activated, which I did, not realising that my copper wire line  had been removed.

Having made multiple calls over the next days and weeks I was told that the digital voice part of the package had been cancelled. I asked, who had cancelled it because it certainly wasn't me, I was told it was the "system"!!!!!! On one of my subsequent phone calls I was transferred to a lady from EE and was told that I could migrate to EE on the same terms as the BT package., so having been given assurances that the digital home phone would be activated, I agree to becoming an EE customer. This was at the end of May/beginning of June, I'am still waiting for my phone to be activated.

I have now been informed that the problem is with number porting. "The system" keeps rejecting my landline number and it seems to me that BT/EE cannot muster anyone with the technical knowledge to overcome "the system". I have complained until I'm blue in the face about the phone system not giving the option to contact, customer services, the connections team or the number porting team, I am at my wits end and feel like I've been banging my head against a brick wall for the last 5 weeks, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[FIZZYLP]

Hello @Mickmac7 

Sorry to hear your having issues with Digital Voice Service (IPVS) also known as DV so I’ll refer to it as DV going forward.

First things first let’s make sure you’ve set your DV up correctly so please verify these steps have been completed by clicking HERE.

If set up correctly then you’ll require a Credential Regeneration known as SIP REGEN and if that doesn’t work then EE can preform a System Reboot known as a HSS Refresh, both of these MUST be completed by a EE Guide via Social Media, Phone, Letter, LiveChat or Here in the Community.

If known of them work then EE can refer the case to it’s Technical Management Centre known as TMC who should be able to remotely fix your DV Service.

In most cases Engineers cannot resolve DV issues as it’s ran through the Cloud and Openreach don’t have access, Openreach launched their own service called Future Voice Service known as FVS but this never took so and was completely shout down on 31/Dec/23 so therefore cannot be served by Openreach.

[Mickmac7]

Thanks for your advice. I have followed the instructions and videos on both the BT and EE websites and Apps regarding setting up digital voice. My problem is that my DV service needs activating by the provider and so far it seems that ,what should be a simple task, is beyond the technical abilities of both providers. When I go into my router settings it says "Phone not configured". All the information I received when I first gave the go ahead for the upgrade gave my landline number as the one to be ported to my digital voice service and stated that if there were any issues they would inform me.No one has ever contacted me to say there was a problem. Ever since the 17th of May my home phone has been plugged into the back of my router awaiting activation. 

It was only after about four weeks without a working phone, and after numerous telephone communications, (by mobile), that I was put in touch with someone from connections. There is no option for connections when you ring BT/EE. I have tried my home phone on almost a daily basis but have been unable to receive or make calls ,it just dead. However, last week, when I tried it, I was getting a recorded message, telling me "to try again and if the problem continues to ring BT/EE. Curiously, after trying to tell one of the guides that it must be connected to something else I would not be receiving the message, the next day it went back to being dead, no message.

I am banging my head against a brick wall, bt/ee's answer is to cancel the whole upgrade order and start again with a new order. No one is listening to me and no one can tell me why "the system keeps unilaterally cancelling things, asking me to return my kit and why people keep making promises to sort it out but don't do anything.

[FIZZYLP]

HI Again @Mickmac7 

Most the time it’s because the Hub isn’t registered to your digital voice service this can be corrected with a SIP REGEN or a HSS Refresh if not TMC can resolve the issue.

If none of that works EE can cease and reprovide the Digital Voice service but that’s last resort.

What advice was given when you called EE? 

could also be possible when you moved from BT to EE that your digital voice never moved.

I would absolutely verify the status with EE if it’s meant to be working and active request a SIP REGEN this sends an update to the hub to register that hub to your digital voice.