We have made significant progress towards migration of our copper-based broadband estate to SOGEA. Over 1300 lines have now been migrated successfully, and although there are a lot more left to do, we now have a bit more confidence in some of the processes.
Our initial news post concerning SOGEA was made a little over a year ago and this is intended as an update to that, without re-covering basics such as definitions "What is SOGEA?" etc. Please refer to that for initial information.
What is this postcard, that I've received from BT, all about?
Some of our customers have kindly sent us copies of communications they've received from BT. These have typically taken the form of a postcard. We feel the communication is not particularly clear and rather wordy; actually muddying the water rather than clarifying anything.
These cards are being sent to some customers using A&A for broadband, but running it over a PSTN line of their own (perhaps for reasons of wishing to use it for calls).
What BT appears to be intending to do, with the best of intentions, is help customers who do not wish to lose their phone number/service, by offering something which uses a data line, with an adaptor, to replicate the original functionality. Customers who go for this option had an old analogue phone socket over an analogue copper line, will still have a phone socket, but it will be part of an interface, plugged into a broadband line, purely for the purpose of providing a voice service digitally.
This is a problem, for A&A customers, because we are already supplying a broadband service over that line, and a takeover by BT would place at risk (probably literally disconnect) the A&A broadband service.
There are a variety of different situations each requiring a different approache to SOGEA migration
Nothing needs to happen at all!
You are already on an Internet service which does not use copper to a cabinet. The service you have is fibre, all the way from your premises to us. This means you can safely ignore all SOGEA related communications, as nothing about your service will change.
We can take care of the migration without any interaction from you!
Because we handle both the copper line, and the broadband, and no telephony has ever been possible via the phone line, this is the simplest situation for you and for us. The only practical change you will notice is a slightly different wording on your monthly invoice. It will change from being two line items, to one single line item with the same price as the original two added together. You won't pay any more or any less. This migration process happens without interrupting the service.
We have already migrated over 1300 customers and this has gone very smoothly. We continue to progress this. At this exact moment in time, we are working on our estate with BT Wholesale, because TalkTalk Business still has not finished testing its SOGEA migration implementation. But once we have the same function with TalkTalk Business, we will follow the same process.
We can take care of the migration without any interaction from you! But, not quite yet.
We are expecting to be able to start doing "SOTAP" (aka SOADSL) very soon. Practically speaking it will happen in the same way case two above happens.
We can take care of the migration without any interaction from you! But, not quite yet.
We are expecting to be able to start doing "SOGFAST" very soon. Again, we anticipate this happening identically to case two above.
Broadband to A&A SOGEA. Telephone number ported to VoIP.
We can convert your third party telephone line and A&A broadband into one A&A SOGEA broadband service. If you still wish to retain your telephone number, we can port this into our voice-over-IP platform (VoIP). If you already have an A&A router with a telephone socket on it, you can plug your existing analogue telephone into that, and we can remotely configure it. Your calls will then be routed over your broadband line. VoIP has other advantages, such as being easily diverted to mobile, call recording, and voicemail-to-email.
If you find you no longer wish to keep your telephone number (e.g. many people say they only receive junk calls via their landline number), then this saves a step, and a tiny amount of ongoing cost.
Broadband to A&A SOTAP (eventually). Telephone number ported to VoIP.
We are expecting to be able to start doing "SOTAP" (aka SOADSL) soon.
Once we have this available to us we will be able to convert your third party telephone line and A&A ADSL into one A&A SOTAP/SOADSL service.
If you still wish to retain your telephone number, we can port this into our voice-over-IP platform (VoIP). If you already have an A&A router with a telephone socket on it, you can plug your existing analogue telephone into that, and we can remotely configure it. Your calls will then be routed over your broadband line. VoIP has other advantages, such as being easily diverted to mobile, call recording, and voicemail-to-email.
If you find you no longer wish to keep your telephone number (e.g. many people say they only receive junk calls via their landline number), then this saves a step, and a tiny amount of ongoing cost.
Broadband to A&A SOGFAST (eventually). Telephone number ported to VoIP.
We are expecting to be able to start doing "SOGFAST" soon.
Once we have this available to us we will be able to convert your third party telephone line and A&A ADSL into one A&A SOGFAST service.
If you still wish to retain your telephone number, we can port this into our voice-over-IP platform (VoIP). If you already have an A&A router with a telephone socket on it, you can plug your existing analogue telephone into that, and we can remotely configure it. Your calls will then be routed over your broadband line. VoIP has other advantages, such as being easily diverted to mobile, call recording, and voicemail-to-email.
If you find you no longer wish to keep your telephone number (e.g. many people say they only receive junk calls via their landline number), then this saves a step, and a tiny amount of ongoing cost.
