Considering upgrading to Talk Talk Full Fibre 150

[Xpander43]

We currently have Talk Talk Fibre 35 at home. Full Fibre is being rolled out in our street and immediate area. Once we are out of contract at the end of May 2025 with TalkTalk, I am interested in upgrading to TalkTalk Full Fibre 150. We would still require a landline for calls. The price and extra speed is very appealing. I understand it comes with a new eero 6 router? Can someone tell me how many ethernet ports it has please? Also our current Talk Talk WiFi hub router is situated about 5-6 metres from the main socket and telephone in another room. I use a 10 metre broadband extension cable to connect the router to the ADSL filter connected to the main socket, feeding this cable over the top of a door frame and along a skirting board. Will this cable still be used to connect the new router to the main socket? Finally, what is involved when the engineer visits to carry out the installation please?

Matthew

[Xpander43]

Thank you.

[ferguson]

You can see details of the DVA TalkTalk supply here:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/Digital-Voice-Adapter/ta-p/2815435

[Xpander43]

Ok, I understand. The connections on the grand stream DVA look straightforward. Via a Google search some grand stream dva's have one telephone port, others have two.

Using an old PSTN style doubler as you said would work well if supplied with one with 1 telephone port.

This answers all the questions I had about Full Fibre that I can think of.

Thank you to everyone for your help and advice. Will wait until May and make a decision then. 

[KeithFrench]

I just said that you could not connect any phones to an Ethernet switch, for a start it is a smaller connector RJ11 instead of RJ45. You also MUST use the small adapter cable that comes with the DVA, otherwise the phones will not work. Even if you could physically connect the RJ11 into the Ethernet switch, they will not work as they are just standard PSTN signalling phones and an Ethernet switch is for IP traffic that has an Ethernet MAC address, which ordinary phones do NOT. I Cannot stress this enough, it will not work, you must use the Grandstream DVA.

You could connect an old PSTN style doubler to the stub cable coming out of the DVA. 

[Xpander43]

I watched the video on YouTube that you linked to. Interesting to see how they did what they did but complicated for the average person.

Am I right in thinking that you can plug in two wireless handset corded phones into two digital voice adaptors? Do the digital voice adaptors plug directly into the eero 6 router or can they plug into ethernet switch ports and it works with the ethernet switch connected up to the eero 6 router?

Regarding fixed price deals, that is what we are still in contract with for 2 years finishing in May 2025. We are paying £26 per month fixed for 2 years for std fibre 35 with no price increases each April. 

[KeithFrench]

You cannot connect your phones to an Ethernet switch, only the DVA, follow the advice given in that video.

Normally if you contact the loyalty dept via the normal service centre number, they can quote you for a fixed price deal, avoiding the April increases, but it will cost a bit more each month.

[ferguson]

Nope. Sadly that is standard practice across most providers. 

[Xpander43]

I had a look on the Talk Talk sales page after entering my postcode and choosing my address and I saw that prices go up by £3 each April during your contract, for contracts taken out from August 2024 and onwards. Couldn't see anything in the small print, did I miss some other information about prices on the page?

[Xpander43]

We have two separate corded phones of the same brand. These both have a corded base unit for charging the wireless handsets and one has an answer machine built into the base unit. The base units are corded and plug into a one into two telephone socket adaptor that currently plugs into the ADSL filter on the master socket. If we decide to go for full fibre 150, I was thinking of buying an 8 port ethernet switch for about £20 and connecting this to the eero 6 router, and then connecting all the ethernet devices to the ethernet switch including the two telephones via two digital voice adaptors (as someone mentioned in a previous comment).

[ferguson]

@Xpander43 

On the pricing issue, have a look at the "small print" at the bottom of any of the sales pages and you will see prices for every package detailed there. 

[KeithFrench]

Are these corded phones or two handsets of a cordless phone system?

There is one phone port on the back of the Grandstream DVA, you can think of that as being the same as your old master socket. The cordless phone systems are by far the easiest, but depending on your skill level you can wire up the two corded phones.

EDIT: for corded phones see this video:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id_KGXMcJHk 

[Xpander43]

Thank you for providing that link. When I put in my postcode and choose our address it shows Full Fibre 150 at £28, and Full Fibre 65 also at £28 like you said. Std fibre (FTTC) 35 and 65 are not shown on the results currently. I note that the page said flash sale with 1 day remaining at the moment. £3 increase each April for both shown packages.  Will weigh up available options next May.

One other thing. We have two landline telephones at home currently. If we went the full fibre route next May and had a digital landline, could we plug in the two phones via two digital voice adaptors into an ethernet switch that connects to the eero 6 router and then reside one landline phone in the room where the router and ONT box is and run a relevant cable for the second landline telephone up through the ceiling of the room from where the router resides like with an existing ethernet cable for a desktop computer so that the second phone could be put in the same room as this desktop computer. Would this be possible and would both phones ring together when receiving a telephone call over the digital landline? I am not sure whether it works this way, so I am just checking.

[ferguson]

Prices do vary, but currently Fibre 35, Fibre 65, Full Fibre 65 and Full Fibre 150 are all being offered at £28 a month. So really nothing in it on a cost basis.

https://www.talktalk.co.uk/broadband/fttp

[Xpander43]

Thank you for all your further responses. To clarify, yes originally I was considering upgrading to full fibre 150, when posting the topic, then as the discussion developed I was considering FTTC 65 where I could keep existing landline (for now at least) with no other changes to hardware. I am still weighing things up until the contract finishes in May next year. I know roughly that there is very little difference in price between fibre 35, 65 and full fibre 150 (at the moment), we are paying £26 per month for fibre 35 currently, and although it may all change by next May, can anyone tell me the current prices of all three as a new contract please? Then I can compare this to in May the current prices and make a decision then. Be interesting to know for now.

[ferguson]

Yeah, but just to be clear, if you opt for Full Fibre 65 you will get the Sagemcom 5464 with voice port, for Full Fibre 150 you will get the eero with DVA. 

[KeithFrench]

Hi @Xpander43 

Whichever package of the two, 65 or 150, the Sagemcom will still do, although with Digital Voice you will need it swapped out for the 5464, which is identical to the 5364, except that it has a phone port in the rear. You just plug an ordinary landline phone in there and you have Digital Voice (providing that you have requested it at the time of order).

[ferguson]

Ah, I preferred it before the edit.  🙂

But OK. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

Yes, they'd had a satisfactory answer, and the thread then moved on to other possibilities. 

No I was not commenting on Fibre65 over Fibre150. I made no mention of Fibre 150 and was merely responding to the customer's comment:

@Xpander43 wrote:

"One other question, does fibre 65 and fibre 35 run with the same Talk Talk WiFi Hub Router? Ours is a Sagemcom navy blue TalkTalk WiFi hub router and has one light on the front for showing the connection status and comes with four ethernet ports. If so, I think maybe fibre 65 is the better upgrade for us at the moment, when out of contract."

Surely that was deserving of a thoughtful response?

[ferguson]

Ah, OK, so you are suggesting Full Fibre 65 over Full Fibre 150, currently at the same price, because the poster made a point about the number of ethernet ports, which as far as I can see they got a satisfactory answer to? 

[Gliwmaeden2]

@ferguson, I was mentioning both forms of Fibre65, as the OP didn't mention which one they intended to upgrade to, but all they need to know is that the Sagemcom Hub2 will work either way.

Hope that's clear for you, @Xpander43. If you go for FTTC Fibre65 you simply plug your phone in as usual and continue with the BT mastersocket. Any Sagemcom will work.

If you go for FTTP Fibre65 you ask to keep your phone number and plug the phone jack into the phone socket at the back of the Sagemcom Hub2.