House phone wiring

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PhilANZ

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#208256 3-Feb-2017 10:42

UFB became available in our Lower Hutt suburb last month. We had ours installed this month - and getting results as expected. Success story - no gripes (although some aspects of cablling were at best marginal).
We find out NOW that our new ISP only provides VOIP services over their locked router. They are happy to make changes we want - but we don't know what's there. After a quick skim through the manual we requested some changes - will review in detail later. Their router only offers 2.4 GHz WIFI. Our extender offers offers both at this end of the house - but not in the living area. We had to take their router because it handles VOIP (currently we use a VOIP box - which still works when pugged in to the new router.)
We had the phone transferred to VOIP (at least the POTS phone will be transferred this afternoon - VOIP line date still to be confirmed). And that is a source of confusion for us. We expected the bedroom phone to still work via some magic we don;t understand. Chorus said they couldn't connect it until the VOIP system was running. We had thought it was all being done on the one day but the ISP got the broadband installed and are now switching the phone over.
They say (now we know to ask) the connection to the house wiring is our responsibility. We already had to wear a connection fee. We chose the ISP carefully and decided that was OK - but obviously our lack of knowledge affected us in minor areas.
Just wondering if that is normal, or if "free" installation actually includes connecting house wiring?

froob

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#1714890 3-Feb-2017 11:19

Most of the Chorus "free" installations I've seen include installing a white box next to the ONT, which is used to connect VOIP phones back into the house's phone wiring.

There a photo which shows one in this thread: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=151795&page_no=2

Guide: Installing Network Cabling in New Zealand Homes

richms

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#1714901 3-Feb-2017 11:49

They even seem to put one in if you dont have an active phone service

Richard rich.ms

PhilANZ

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#1714911 3-Feb-2017 12:07

That's what that white box is next to the ONT. I'm not always the quickest on the uptake since a stroke a few years ago so generally get my wife to deal with tasks like this. Trouble is she has trouble hearing at times - especially when accents are involved.

We were wondering what it was. It has two phone ports - but can't tell if it's connected behind the scenes. Will wait and see this afternoon when the phone is transferred. Once it works, then we'll see what happens down this end.

Thanks for that.

Aredwood

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#1715215 4-Feb-2017 00:17

richms:

They even seem to put one in if you dont have an active phone service

I told them not to put one in as well. But they said they had to as they would get in trouble if my install got picked for auditing and it wasn't there. They had to link it back to the ETP, as there was no working POTS cabling in my house. Except they linked it via the hybrid fibre / cat cable to the ETP. Where it junctions to the original bit of CAT5 that goes right back to where the ONT is. So all it did was make the ADSL slightly slower due to it being a multiple on the line. Until I rang up my old ISP and got the ADSL disconnected.

Even the fact that my install was on Friday evening and the last install of the day for them. They still didn't want to take a shortcut on the job that I told them to.

PhilANZ

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#1723716 21-Feb-2017 13:50

A final follow-up. Chorus were back yesterday - been waiting for a decent fine spell (not the best summer ever down here) so they could seal the little trench across the path for the cable. While they were here I asked what about the phones. Our new ISP had deferred switching the home phone at the same time - seems to be policy. So Chorus had installed a dummy box. They replaced it and now our bedroom phone (plus another) work as normal. We're pretty happy customers.
All in all Chorus did a great job. Our only regret is when we asked them to leave an extra 3-4 cm on the cable to allow for us lowering the path (not in the next year or two) they said they couldn't do that. But given our financial uncertainty, that may never be an issue.
Our biggest issue now is how long will our small UPS last. Suddenly not having a POTS this is more of an issue, although as long as my transplant lasts, not as big as it was.

Bananabob

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#1723802 21-Feb-2017 15:03

May I ask why one would need a UPS?

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trig42

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#1723811 21-Feb-2017 15:15

Bananabob:

May I ask why one would need a UPS?

So that the phone goes in a power outage.

PhilANZ

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#1723813 21-Feb-2017 15:17

The old phones would work without power (assuming you had one of the old phones available). VOIP phones don't work unless we have the internet working. So not only the router, but also the new fibre connector.

Bananabob

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#1723833 21-Feb-2017 15:38

So if you had cell phones - no power is no problem unless you want a landline

PhilANZ

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#1723841 21-Feb-2017 15:55

Was going to say I'd never thought of that - but I'm learning to avoid my sarcasm. Had, could rely on, and could afford the cost of calls / call plans.

Cell reception is dicey at times (even only 2km from CBD) and we want people (including clients) to be able to call at minimal cost (and can't afford to use cell phones much yourself), so "landlines" are important.

Plus we get the added bonus as people abandon traditional phones of getting plenty of cold calls from sales people 😄.

Bananabob

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#1723844 21-Feb-2017 16:01

PhilANZ: Was going to say I'd never thought of that - but I'm learning to avoid my sarcasm.

No problem - it was just me getting to grips with what the UFB will offer me if/whenever it gets installed in my street.

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PhilANZ

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#1723872 21-Feb-2017 16:22

To me the big bonus is cost saving. Might sound weird - and the faster speed is nice - but we held off changing to VDSL because they wanted a two year contract and fibre was coming (last month). By dropping our second VOIP business line, and moving the home phone to VOIP (don't ask - there were reasons it wasn't practical earlier) we save money - even though we didn't go for the cheapest deal.