Digital Voice

Although I have a smart phone which I carry everywhere with me and find most useful for texting and looking up stuff on the internet, I still have a landline phone in the house. I hear better with it and it comes as an added extra with my broadband. I know a lot of people no longer have landlines, particularly the younger generation, but if their mobiles get stolen or lost then they are rather up the creek without a paddle until they can replace it, so I keep my landline going.

My landline is connected to three handsets on the same circuit. The main handset also has an answer machine which flashes, if I have messages to pick up. That is situated in my lounge. For those of you who don't already know, I live in a house with 6 half levels (SEE HERE), so it is convenient to have handsets dotted about that I can get to in a hurry, so I have another one in the kitchen, one in the study and one in the bedroom. The bedroom one was bought separately so is on a different circuit to the other three. For example, if I change the settings on the main/lounge handset, it will automatically correct the ones in the kitchen and study, but not the one in the bedroom. That one I have to do separately.

The UK, along with other European countries are now changing their phone networks from analogue to digital. British Telecom call it Digital Voice and have been gradually changing the connection to people's landlines over recent months. It was now my turn this week. I first received emails and texts that it would happen and then finally given the date of 5 November for my switchover from analogue to digital.

I woke that morning to find my phones were completely dead, which was the signal to start the switchover. According to the instructions previously sent to me, I was to plug my main phone handset into the router (which unfortunately is situated in my bedroom - not my choice as the main telephone cable comes in through there). The router and telephone would then communicate with one another and the switch would be complete. If, as was the case with me, you did not want your main phone plugged into the router permanently, you could send off for an adapter which you would plug into the router first to communicate with the router and then move the adapter to a room of your choice, where you would then plug in your main phone. I did not want my main handset and answer machine in the bedroom, but in the lounge, so opted to have the adapter sent to me, so I could set the main handset with its answer machine up in the lounge, as it had always been.

Given that I am not the best technology-gifted, I was a little apprehensive about all of this, but set to dismantling and reconnecting all the bits of equipment. To my delight, it seemed to work. The main phone reconnected to the adapter in the lounge and I rang my mobile to make sure I could still make calls. I then rang my best friend to make sure I could connect with other BT numbers. What I didn't know was if someone could still leave a message on the landline answer machine, so my friend promised to ring me back and leave a message. She did also say, that the answer machine might not work if my phone was set to answer with more than three rings (which it does after eight rings) so I had to fiddle about with that until I got the answer machine to work.

When I picked up the handsets in the kitchen and the study, the dialing tone sounded strange - like a throbbing rather than its usual continuous tone. In frustration what to do next, I contacted BT on my mobile and asked for help. A lovely patient man on the other end listened to my concerns and talked me through what to do. It seemed, having the message on the answer machine was affecting the dialing tone, effectively alerting me to the fact I had message. If I deleted the message, the dialing tone would return to its normal sound. Problem sorted. 

Once off the phone to BT, I checked my internet was working by turning on my laptop and TV package. No problems there. Then I went to connect the separate circuit handset in the bedroom. Of course I couldn't plug it back into the phone socket on the wall, as that was the analogue connection, so assumed I had to plug it into the router.  But it did not give off a dialing tone, so it looks like I won't be able to have that in the bedroom after all. No great problem, unless someone decides to ring me when I am in bed, as I shall now have to hare up or down a flight of stairs to get to the lounge or study handsets in time.

BT's promotional leaflets say the transition is simple. They should try living in a 6-storey house with 4 phones. By the time I had heaved furniture about in several rooms to access the various sockets and plug points, I was shattered.  Simple it most certainly wasn't.

To add to my misery, I had the second part of my shingles vaccination (Shingrix) four days ago. The first part was in May and I had no problem with it, apart from a slight ache in my upper arm where the needle went in. I had been warned the second dose to be done six months later was far worse and it did not disappoint a few days ago. On the second day my arm was so painful to touch, I had an area about two inches square around the injection site  that was swollen, bright red and covered in blisters. I felt overwhelmingly tired and cold, when everyone was telling me how mild the weather was (and I'm someone who never feels the cold). Finally my arm is beginning to resort to its usual colour and the pain and blisters are reducing somewhat. Thank goodness there isn't a third dose, but hopefully now I am protected against shingles, which can be very painful indeed.