Why offered Fibre 150 not Full Fibre 150 when I upgraded?

[EdHaddon]

Hi, Yesterday I ran TalkTalk to request my broadband be upgraded from Fiber 35 to Fiber 150. The person that upgraded me to a Fiber 150 contract asked me if I needed a phone line, and I told them I still required one for the incoming phone line number for calls from the hospital, etc.

Because I said I still needed a phone line, she set me up for Fiber 150 and sent me a Sagemcom F@ST 4370 UK Modem which cost me £9.99 shipping, even though I told her I already owned a Segemcom F@ST 5364 Wi-Fi Hub which I had previously bought from TalkTalk as an upgrade to my network which is already Fiber enabled. She also informed me I needed an engineer visit on 27th April to install it even though I am a retired systems engineer who worked on Routers, switches, hubs, and modems for 40 years.

She informed me I needed an engineer to fit the equipment, I do not see why this is the case, as My F@st 5364 is already working at Fiber 35 so I only need the connection at the switch to be switched over from 35Mbs to 150Mbs and it would have been up and running today not after the engineer has been on the 27th April.

But my main issue is that after checking TalkTalk's site I find that I could have been offered Full Fiber 150 with an Amazon eero mess Wi-Fi 6 router and a Voice Over I.P. (VOIP) digital voice adapter to plug my phone into so that I still had a phone number the hospital and doctors etc could still contact me. 

Given that copper to the house, phone lines have to be phased out by 2025 and all houses will then use fiber to the home with VOIP.

Why did TalkTalk not offer me this solution, as you will need to do it anyway in the coming months?

Can someone from support tell me why Full Fiber with VOIP adapter, is not being offered to me? And yes my home is fiber-ready Openreach laid the fiber outside our houses a few months back and it says on your website that I am Fiber ready.

I could

 understand having an Openreach engineer coming to my home to install Fiber to the home but not to fit a silly little modem.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Apologies no sarcasm intended, merely advising that you will need to speak to the sales team to arrange FTTP setup, we do have a VIOP adaptor available on Openreach networks and City Fiber network's will include VIOP adaptors shortly.

[EdHaddon]

So support thanks so much for so clearly answer my question NOT, (see we can all do sarcy replies 😊).

I will stay with copper until someone decides to start providing VOIP phone adapters like the ones they had been testing when they sent out invitations to customers to switch to Full Fiber.

All I ever asked was why Fast Fiber was not offered with a VOIP phone adapter and we went down a rabbit hole of being told Full Fiber was not available on my account when it clearly was and that I was asking for something they had never heard of FTTD when door and property can clearly be inferred to mean the same thing and the final reply telling me to go back to sales and start again when Full Fiber is no good to me without a VOIP phone adapter.

Ever feel you are going round in circles.

I am leaving this discussion now as I have had enough and will stick with copper to the door, sorry property 🙂.

But with an unpleasant taste in my mouth about how this conversation went 😣

[EdHaddon]

So I get this reply from Support but by email it does not appear in the community, so I expect that was so the community would not see it.

But guess what I am posting it here for all to see the Sarcy reply to me.

please remember I was asking why I was not offered fiber to the door (FTTD) and I printed Fiber To The Door but my mistake it's Fiber to the Property. So I get the sarcy reply making a point of pointing that mistake out to me. Also he again states that there is no Full Fiber availability showing on my account, but I have shown them the screen shot of the Full Fiber 150 package that was being offered to me if I did not need a phone.

My question is and always was why I was not offered Full Fiber with a voice over IP phone adapter VOIP hope I did not miss spell that 😒 but instead of getting a reason, I get told to contact sales to get my connection disconnect and a new Full Fiber one supplied.

That would still not supply a VOIP phone adapter which stops me choosing Full Fiber.

Hi EdHaddon,

Arne-TalkTalk (Support Team) posted a new reply in Future Fibre on 27-04-2023 11:50 AM :

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Re: Why offered Fibre 150 not Full Fibre 150 when I upgraded?

Its actually FTTP fiber To The Property , (never heard of  FTTD) please feel free to contact the sales team again and discuss this with them, there is no process to upgrade from Gfast to FTTP which is why FTTP packages were not showing in your account when I checked , so the current service will have to be ceased then re-provided. 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Its actually FTTP fibre To The Property , (never heard of  FTTD) please feel free to contact the sales team again and discuss this with them, there is no process to upgrade from Gfast to FTTP which is why FTTP packages were not showing in your account when I checked , so the current service will have to be ceased then re-provided. 

[EdHaddon]

Hi Arne please read my reply to you on this subject as unfortunately you are not correct about this, and need to check up about the difference between Full Fiber FTTD and Future Fiber.

People are clicking the like button for your reply thinking you are correct and going away with an incorrect idea about Full Fiber, when the screen shot I sent you, clearly shows TalkTalk is quite clearly offering Full Fiber FTTD at my address.

Regards Edward.

[EdHaddon]

I think your staff may be getting Full Fiber mixed up with Future Fiber when they are replying to me.

Full Fiber is Fiber to the door FTTD and is just a replacement of the copper cable with a Fiber optic cable, but needs the Fiber to have been laid from the cabinet to your street before it can be offered to individual customers, (Openreach laid the fiber from the cabinet to the streets on my estate a few months back), that is why on your site I am offered Full Fiber (FTTD) when I check my upgrades, but am not being offered a VOIP fiber to copper phone adapter, so could not therefore take up the offer, and why I asked why not at the start of this conversation and still not had a descent answer to!

Future Fiber which I think the staff is confusing Full Fiber with, is Gbps and above Fiber, which I know is not available yet and I was not looking for anyway.

It would be nice if someone from support who knows about Full Fiber 150 and VOIP telephone adapters joined the conversation and answered why I was not offered Full (FTTD) 150 with a VOIP telephone adapter.

Regards Edward.

[EdHaddon]

I think you have not checked the packages TalkTalk is actually supplying recently, as when I look at the upgrade offers available to me at my address, it clearly states that I can have at my address, Full Fiber 150, 250, 500 and 900 with no landline, please see attached screen shot.

If I then check about keeping your landline phone number with Full Fiber on the community, I find that TalkTalk have been offering VOIP adapters to connect your phone too.

This is the problem TalkTalk is offering the services but the staff do not have a clue what is available to the customers.

Can you get someone in support who knows about this to answer my question as I seem to know more than TalkTalk staff about what is available.

Regards Edward Haddon.

 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi EdHaddon

Full fibre is not currently available through TalkTalk which is why the offer of Gfast package was made, when FTTP is available we will let you know as all providers are pushing the move FTTP as soon as available. 

[EdHaddon]

Thanks for that Ferguson I have found the video https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/Set-up-your-Wi-Fi-Hub-for-Fibre-150-250/ta-p/2202637 which shows the F@ST 4370 UK modem being plugged in, between the phone line and the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub F@ST 5364 :).

[EdHaddon]

I would like to understand, that given the push to end copper to the door by 2025 and the fact not very long ago TalkTalk was offering people free upgrades to Fiber to the door (Future Fiber) with a VOIP adapter supplied, why this solution is not being actively offered and the upgrade sales made technically aware of this option.

I found it difficult with the language barriers and the technical skill, to understand why I needed a modem (they called it router not modem) was required when I had a TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub already.

So I would not hold out much hope in ringing back and asking for Fiber to the door and a VOIP adapter for my phone 😞

[ferguson]

An upgrade to FTTC G.fast, which you appear to have got, does require a separate modem installed by Openreach, your existing router alone will not suffice. If you would prefer FTTP with VoIP why not just get back to customer services and explain all this? The support team here won't be able to organise an order for you. 

[ferguson]

An upgrade to FTTC G.fast, which you appear to have got, does require a separate modem installed by Openreach, your existing router alone will not suffice. If you would prefer FTTP with VoIP why not just get back to customer services and explain all this? The support team here won't be able to organise an order for you.