What you quoted is VOIP most likely.
Long version below but any phone service over fibre is VOIP.
Telephone over copper is the one we are all used to. POTS (or PSTN) is what it was referred to. Works in a power cut and was used fordata on ADSL. The fibre is at the telephone exchange where your copper phone line meets a DSLAM with fibre connected to it and the outside world for data.
When they decided to get fibre for data closer to the houses there are different ways to deliver the data. FTTC (to the cabinet over there) repurposes the existing copper landline. They lay fibre up to a cabinet (node) somewhere near a number of houses and then connect a new bit of copper from the node (the DSLAMs are in the node) to the existing copper phone lines at a convenient join - usually a “pillar” or pit or similar existing phone line join.the copper phone line all the way from there to the exchange is left connected so the old phone service works.
Then they turn on the fibre and the data flows through the DSLAM in the node to the existing copper line and your house.
For a while they would leave the phone line copper to the telephone exchange connected so your PSTN phone will work if plugged in to the telephone socket. However they will eventually disconnect the old copper phone connection leaving a fibre data connection to the node. The copper to the house has no phone connection and only carries the data from/to the node and the fibre.
In FTTP (FTTH) they take that fibre to each house - as they are doing for you. The original copper phone line is left as it is. A fibre data Near Termination device (NTD or basically the modem) will be installed where you plug in the a router or a device (it doesn’t look like a modem in the normal sense usually). It is a box with a number of ethernet data sockets and sometimes one or more Ethernet sockets marked for VOIP. For data you connect an Ethernet cable from a data socket there to a router or straight to a device. It depends on the type of connection your data provider uses to some degree.
(Not sure if the UK is using a seperate NTD to the wall mounted socket. If so that device is the “modem” and may still be combined with a router. Sockets marked for TEL may be Ethernet so are VOIP on the NTD as above, or old phone sockets and are VOIP from the built in ATA as below)
For the VOIP sockets on the NTD (if fitted at all) to work, the service providers have to offer the service over them. Here only one uses them - they are a different and more expensive traffic class here so most are happy to use the alternatives.
For phone over a data connectionit will be VOIl and you have a choice - use your old phones or use a VOIP (IP) phone.
A VOIP Phone has an Ethernet type jack and plugs into any data socket - the router or anywhere in you wired network. It has a log in and settings which your VOIP service provider gives you or feeds in to a phone they provide or sell you.
To use your old phones you need an Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA). The router will have VOIP telephone sockets if it has an ATA in it. These are the old phone sockets and the VOIP provider will give you the VOIP settings or they will be your internet provider as well and maybe give you the router with the VOIP settings locked in. Or you can buy an ATA and plug it in to any data socket. It has the phone sockets and again needs the settings fed in. You plug the old phone into the phone sockets on the ATA.
Some modems/routers with a built in ATA have a old type phone socket to connect to the original PSTN phone socket. That acts as a failover so if the VOIP service goes down the original phone service passes through the ATA to your original PSTN phone plugged in. You could force calls over PSTN as well.
The original phone socket will still be there for FTTP. A PSTN phone (or failover for ATA/VOIP)plugged in there will work until the decision is made to disconnect it at the exchange.
Sorry for long post - hope it explains a bit better for you @tom 2000.
Interesting, thanks.
What equipment will I get with Fibre to the Home or Fibre Home Phone? | BT help
So what is best course of action?Switch to fibre telephony or stick with copper for calls and push for replacement of my 23 year old cable that lies buried in the dirt?
This is all over the Internet when you start looking.
“BT is shutting its traditional telephone network in the UK, according to an email seen by The Register. The public switched telephone network (PSTN) closure is part of the company's plans to move in a fibre network direction in terms of its infrastructure. All phone calls will eventually be made over broadband using VoIP systems, which means the company's existing wholesale line rental products, which are reliant on the PSTN, will need to be removed. BT Openreach runs the network used by all but one of the telecoms providers in the UK.”
That’s what I meant by the POTS phone line will only work until they switch it off. They will do that after a time they decide from when FTTx (or HFC, fixed wireless or satellite which they are using to deliver “super fast broadband” to our nation here in Australia) is connected to your house/area. So here it is 18 months after the ‘new’ technology is ready for service to an area. There they are clearly not decided - but I can pretty much guarantee it will happen. Miles and miles of copper phone lines needing maintenance aren’t necessary so they disconnect them.
Here there have been “solutions” for those with back to base alarms, medical alerts etc that “need” a traditional phone line. Most based on 4G so still not as reliable as a proper landline.....
Our installer of the National Broadband Network (NBN) bought all the existing phone line copper and all existing HFC cables form the current owners years ago so they control the switch off after they install the ‘new’ internet delivery technology they have selected for you.....
That “modem” that they call the ONT is the NTD for the fibre connection. (The phone sockets are VOIP. BT are offering the phone service over those ports over there. Edit - as far as I can tell the fibre modem has a built in ATA and the telephone sockets are for a standard phone. They will provision TEL1 for a VOIP service with number.) The Homehub is the router I mentioned. (Edit- At the router you can use a seperate VOIP provider if you have those over there. An ATA or VOIP Phone as I described before and away you go)
You get a backup battery for the ONT so I suggest you use the ONT phone ports. Those and the data port on the ONT will work if you have a power outage in the house. You can add a battery backup to your router and other equipment if you like too of course but the ONT phone service will work on the provided battery backup.
I haven’t explored the BT homehub or battery backup to see if the backup can provide power for eh hub as well - normally it wouldn’t as it is designed as a backup for the ONT only. (Edit - the fibre modem has the BBU port so the battery backup powers the fibre modem. If not using the modem TEL ports you will lose the modem VOIP phone service in a power outage)
Bottom line - forget your old copper phone line. If you have something that uses it outbound that isn’t a phone, talk to BT about what to do with the new fangled VOIP service for things. Be aware fax usually works over VOIP but it depends on things out of your control. If you still must have proper fax you need to talk to your VOIP service provider to see if it works on their service. Even then it might not!! (Edit - proper fax needs the ATA provided phone line as well as the VOIP fax standard being present/supported. Presumably you can ask BT to provision a Second phone line in TEL2 on the fibre modem if you need the two lines.)
@outoftheknow Thanks. It’s all coming together in my head. One of the reasons I have been pushing to do this is to get my old copper cable made redundant as I had visions of it failing some day and costing a fortune to replace in a hurry. I’ve been at this nearly three months now and the bottom line is very satisfactory which would not have been the case if the proverbial gun had been to my head.
With mobile phones the argument for emergency calls has been weakened.
I know some cannot get mobile service so there is still an argument for PSTN.
I think the in built battery back up PS is reassuring.
FTTP with the battery backup is as good as it gets in the brave new world I reckon. POTS is as good as dead so it is just a matter of getting what is best for you for backup. It is a nightmare if there is no mobile coverage though - I see BT offer that back up too over there.
Here we have some rural places (the cattle ranches of a few thousand acres) where they won’t get the spot beams from the dedicated broadband satellite and no mobile coverage. Most like that here have satellite phones anyway (different satellites with 100% coverage).
Maybe there they will allow some to keep the POTS lines for voice. I think they do that here. No internet but they can’t get ADSL now anyway.