BT digital phones

[stewamax]

A friend has just upgraded their BT internet account to Halo 3 with Smart Hub2 router, disk extenders and BT’s digital phones. Whereas the disks do extend WiFi moderately well, the phone range is limited by the location of the hub which unfortunately is at one end of their long house. These phones are DECT (not WiFi) and BT do not seem to have twigged that a house needing disk extenders might also need DECT range extenders as part of the package.
I haven’t seen the installation but I know the layout of the house, and my first thoughts are simply to see if there is any house extension wiring and move the hub to a more central location.
Has anyone else run into this problem?

[genou]

A friend has just upgraded their BT internet account to Halo 3 with Smart Hub2 router, disk extenders and BT’s digital phones. Whereas the disks do extend WiFi moderately well, the phone range is limited by the location of the hub which unfortunately is at one end of their long house. These phones are DECT (not WiFi) and BT do not seem to have twigged that a house needing disk extenders might also need DECT range extenders as part of the package.
I haven’t seen the installation but I know the layout of the house, and my first thoughts are simply to see if there is any house extension wiring and move the hub to a more central location.
Has anyone else run into this problem?

Can they not switch to wifi calling and abandon the DECT handsets?

[Alaric]

I haven’t seen the installation but I know the layout of the house, and my first thoughts are simply to see if there is any house extension wiring and move the hub to a more central location.

Routers and extension wiring don't always get along. In other words routers work best when plugged in to the master socket.

[PhaseThree]

I haven’t seen the installation but I know the layout of the house, and my first thoughts are simply to see if there is any house extension wiring and move the hub to a more central location.

Routers and extension wiring don't always get along. In other words routers work best when plugged in to the master socket.

The solution is is leave the router exactly where it is and extend the analogue phone cable that connects to the DECT base station. This allows both the router and DECT systems to be optimally situated.

[Infrasonic]

Dect repeater?
https://www.google.com/search?q=Dect+re ... e&ie=UTF-8

If you want truly long range I saw this the other day...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WGZ8ntsAbA

[Stompa]

I haven’t seen the installation but I know the layout of the house, and my first thoughts are simply to see if there is any house extension wiring and move the hub to a more central location.

Routers and extension wiring don't always get along. In other words routers work best when plugged in to the master socket.

The solution is is leave the router exactly where it is and extend the analogue phone cable that connects to the DECT base station. This allows both the router and DECT systems to be optimally situated.

I think the Smart Hub 2 is the DECT base station (it has DECT antenna built in) when used with the BT digital phones. Though perhaps it can be disabled so that an external one can be used instead?

[stewamax]

I think the Smart Hub 2 is the DECT base station (it has DECT antenna built in) when used with the BT digital phones. Though perhaps it can be disabled so that an external one can be used instead?

Spot on! BT have added DECT to the hub with no obvious thought of how to extend it.
"Reliable wi-fi in every room. We're so confident that our Complete Wi-Fi discs will give you reliable wi-fi in every room that we offer a £100 money-back guarantee."
Yip. But what about the phone service?
If you want to use another make of DECT base station and handsets and have suitable extension wiring to the hub, the hub either needs to accept an analogue input and have an ADA convertor to route calls over the internet (if BT have switched the account's phone plan from analogue to digital) or simply plug the base station into the microfilter or socket for 431a plugs on the NTE5. The latter option is, however, impossible on FTTP services since Openreach withdrew the ONTs that had a suitable analogue voice socket (the FVA) last year.

[Stompa]

Spot on! BT have added DECT to the hub with no obvious thought of how to extend it.
"Reliable wi-fi in every room. We're so confident that our Complete Wi-Fi discs will give you reliable wi-fi in every room that we offer a £100 money-back guarantee."
Yip. But what about the phone service?
If you want to use another make of DECT base station and handsets and have suitable extension wiring to the hub, the hub either needs to accept an analogue input and have an ADA convertor to route calls over the internet (if BT have switched the account's phone plan from analogue to digital) or simply plug the base station into the microfilter or socket for 431a plugs on the NTE5. The latter option is, however, impossible on FTTP services since Openreach withdrew the ONTs that had a suitable analogue voice socket (the FVA) last year.

You appear to be able to plug a 'normal' phone into the back of the hub:

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/digita ... still-work

and there's also the 'Digital Voice Adapter':

https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/ ... rguide.pdf

it also appears that a new faceplate will enable you to use any existing extension wiring:

https://www.draytek.co.uk/information/b ... -lines-pt2

[stewamax]

Yes stompa. Either moving the NTE5 or using existing extension wiring via a new faceplate seems the only way forward. Openreach's new SOGEA faceplate plus an RJ11 male <=> RJ11 male lead into the Smart Hub 2's phone socket would allow an existing DECT base station to be moved somewhere more central in the house - and BT's handsets sent back!
The Digital Voice Adaptor won't help, unfortunately, as it is is also a DECT device talking back to the hub and thus out of range if BT's handsets are out of range.
If BT had developed WiFi versions of their handsets and could guarantee good QoS, their mesh system would fix things until the mesh got too big or out of range.

[stewamax]

... and a pedantic correction to my last post: for RJ11 male <=> RJ11 male read RJ11 male <=> BT 431A male.
Other similar routers use RJ11 male <=> RJ11 male or even RJ11 male <=> RJ45 male

[Stompa]

Just a thought, but I wonder if there are any compatible DECT repeaters available?

[stewamax]

BT sell one, called (surprisingly enough) the BT DECT Repeater- product code 064550. Whether this is compatible with Smart Hub 2 DECT and the associated cordless handsets I haven't yet found documented.