@witewulf

Ironically, as I mentioned before, where the SIP, and the VoIP, are on the Hub is on the Ethernet side. One can just plug a VoIP 'phone in, although VM itself won't talk SIP to residential customers.

There's yet another bloody ALG, of course; which is one of the several reasons that I never followed through and set myself up with a domestic SIP 'phone years ago.

I have, because of #VirginMedia's move, just revisited that decision for the first time in years.

#LandlineDowngrade

@witewulf Well you haven't been explaining. You've been _asserting_, just like all the other people around the WWW that I mentioned.

There is no actual evidence, either from what #VirginMedia actually says or from anywhere else other than people on WWW discussion fora making assertions, that there's any IP involved. What the signalling is, I haven't been able to turn up from an authoritative source. Hell, Virgin is pretty coy even about its "special adapter".

#LandlineDowngrade

@witewulf You're a telecoms engineer who clearly isn't up to date with #VirginMedia.

You should know that it's turning this stuff on and getting rid of the dedicated lines for telephone service. It's my part of the country's turn. It's being sold to subscribers as an upgrade, but it's actually a #LandlineDowngrade, a cost-cutting measure.

@witewulf

Not true. The "over IP" part is lacking, so it is _not_ in fact VoIP. Voice is not in the IP traffic on the wire, and from what I've been able to discover it's not using IP in its own little band either. As I said, there's no actual VoIP involved anywhere here.

The irony is that the "VoIP capable" part of a #VirginMedia Hub is the Ethernet bit, not the "TEL" bit, and has been all along. One's been able to connect a VoIP 'phone that way for years.

#LandlineDowngrade

@bytebro

The irony is that anyone who had ISDN in the 1980s/1990s will know the situation well.

You will have to provide the power at your end, and either a UPS or an auxiliary cell 'phone for emergency calls when the power is out.

That said, I discovered as a child that our exchange had tone dialling. We just didn't know because we had a pulse-dial 'phone. I quickly made use of it when I got my first #modem. So it was even an anachronism back then.

#VirginMedia #LandlineDowngrade

@witewulf

#VirginMedia itself says that isn't VoIP in the hubs either. Its doco explains that it's a separate frequency band down the cable, not transmitted in the IP traffic at all. There's no actual VoIP to the customer in any of this, nor any prospect of it.

That hasn't stopped people for the past ~2 years excitedly posting that switching from BS plug with LD to an RJ11 plug with LD somehow portends VoIP in the future.

This is solely a cost-cutting measure.

#LandlineDowngrade

Interestingly, whilst I have loads of cables with RJ11 at one end and BS telephone plug at the other, I don't have one with RJ11 at both ends in my big box of telephone stuff. Oh well. £3.50 at ScrewFix.

ScrewFix thinks that it's an "Ethernet cable".

The big problems are that I will no longer have an always-powered landline, and it's on the opposite side of the house.

#VirginMedia #LandlineDowngrade

It's rather saddening to learn that:

(a) The TEL ports on the back of the Virgin Hub are just 6P2C RJ11 ports.

(b) I've owned an adapter for connecting a BS telephone plug to these for 30 years. So much for this "special adapter".

(c) Ironically, my landline 'phone has RJ11 at its end anyway, so I just need to swap in a plain RJ11-to-RJ11 cable.

(d) As it's still LD, this is clearly in no way a precursor to VoIP, as people have speculated all over the WWW.

#VirginMedia #LandlineDowngrade