Renovating a house - still need landline sockets?

[ey143]

I've installed extensive amounts of Cat 6 cables around my house and to all of the bedrooms. We are in the process of slowly closing up ground floor ceilings etc so will be harder to run new cables soon. 1st and 2nd floors are closed up ceiling wise etc.

Should I still be thinking of running (5 core?) telephone cable to most places whilst I can or is this really old hat now since most people have gone cordless and even telephones are now moving to VOIP? Virgin Media are evening trying to migrate their users away from a physical phone socket install to a "connect your landline to the rear port of your Virgin Super Hub 3 router".

I guess landline is still useful for making emergency calls and possibly still used for remote alarms, but aside from that

Also does Ca6 cable do for phone sockets?

 

[motorbiking]

Ive just bought a house with two lines and multiple extension sockets in each bedroom. Ive put 2 cat 6 ports in each room and have removed the extension phone line back to a single master as it made a difference on the noise ratio for the broadband. I’m sure you appreciate the floor void now looks like a data centre. I can’t see the need for lots of telephone sockets anymore given how easy it is to install a wireless phone.

 

[bernardgreen]

I can’t see the need for lots of telephone sockets anymore given how easy it is to install a wireless phone.

In the event of a power failure a normal ( old fashioned ) plug in telephone may be the only way you will be able to contact people

 

[sxturbo]

In the event of a power failure a normal ( old fashioned ) plug in telephone may be the only way you will be able to contact people

Or use your mobile .... Not many places have zero signal these days and at least 1 of the companies will have reception in ones dwelling of choice.

As above no need for telephone sockets and cable.

You can just have the master socket and then send it via the cat 6 cable you've installed no problems

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

In the event of a power failure a normal ( old fashioned ) plug in telephone may be the only way you will be able to contact people

+1 House is wired in most rooms for phone sockets pre-dating wireless phones, but only two are used. One in a bedroom acts as the master for our other four wireless phones, the other is an ordinary phone tucked away, plugged in, in a drawer in the kitchen just for such emergencies.

If the broadband is split / filtered at the master socket, it doesn't usually affect the data rate no matter how many other phone sockets you have. My line comes in at the eaves, then into loft, where the master is located, with my main router next to it. From there I use CAT 5 and wifi to other routers, where I need them.

 

[bernardgreen]

Not many places have zero signal these days

There are still many places with little if any useable signal. The coverage map shows a nearby village has good reliable coverage, but ignores the fact that 30% of the village is in the radio shadow of a hill between the village and the mobile phone mast.

And mobile phone masts can go off the run for many reasons. A leak in a water tower at Milton Earnest flooded the equipment room(s) in the bas of the tower and this knocked out the micro wave links to several mobile phone masts. Several weeks of disruption while a replacement valve was manufactured and installed.

 

[secureiam]

PSTN is being phased out and in some areas you wont get a reconnection once its been disabled if I believe what i have read, so its limited life at best.

As for options for alarms multi path is best, gsm/radio/ip and have an UPS for router, has to be said even a small UPS can run router, modem, CCTV 8 channels and a monitor for 20 minutes, which covers many power cuts in non rural areas.

 

[Diver Fred]

I've installed extensive amounts of Cat 6 cables around my house and to all of the bedrooms.

So Sensible - 2 cables per room I hope. Don't forget to run a cable to your house alarm location.

Should I still be thinking of running (5 core?) telephone cable to most places whilst I can or is this really old hat now since most people have gone cordless and even telephones are now moving to VOIP?
Virgin Media are evening trying to migrate their users away from a physical phone socket install to a "connect your landline to the rear port of your Virgin Super Hub 3 router".

I guess landline is still useful for making emergency calls and possibly still used for remote alarms, but aside from that

Also does Ca6 cable do for phone sockets?

Commercial premises are rarely (never) cabled with (plain old) telephone cable nowadays instead, 2 or 3 CAT5 or 6 cables from a central point to every desk, one for hard wired phone and one for data. VOIP is the way the exchange works although a VOIP call can have the 2-wire origin at your premises.

 

[Diver Fred]

PSTN is being phased out and in some areas you wont get a reconnection once its been disabled if I believe what i have read, so its limited life at best.

As for options for alarms multi path is best, gsm/radio/ip and have an UPS for router, has to be said even a small UPS can run router, modem, CCTV 8 channels and a monitor for 20 minutes, which covers many power cuts in non rural areas.

I understand that the exchanges are moving away from 'Switched' connections across the (old) exchange to new IP 'routed' exchange equipment. The connection (2 wire) from the exchange to the customer can also be changing from the 2 wires originating in the exchange to the origin point being in the street furniture (the green cabinets) or even at the Fibre router in the customers premises.

 

[JohnD]

I guess landline is still useful for making emergency calls and possibly still used for remote alarms

yes, and when it changes to VOIP it will be a connectionless and technically "unreliable" system.

Essential services moved back to PMR because, in a major incident, IP and Mobile are liable to stop working

Bearing in mind that utilities, government departments, power stations and nuclear reasearch labs can be hacked and remotely operated, I don't know what alternative technologies are being put in place as backup.

It is said that Russian intelligence agencies bought up the world's supply of golfball typewriters as they are immune from eavesdropping and hacking

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Or use your mobile .... Not many places have zero signal these days and at least 1 of the companies will have reception in ones dwelling of choice.

As above no need for telephone sockets and cable.

In the past 40+ years here, our landline has failed (that I am aware of) just once. That contrasts with our mobile signal, which whilst almost full strength - access can be very hit and miss. Calls are frequently cut off, or we simply cannot get through to numbers and mobiles phones can go flat - so my go to in an emergency would be landline. We are not out in the sticks, rather it is a suburb village, to a large city.

When mobile companies suggest they have 99% coverage of the UK, what they mean is 99% coverage of the population, where the population lives. Go where there isn't much population and likely there will be no coverage and that is where a landline becomes essential, yet where a mobile service might be even more needed.

 

[JohnD]

that is where a landline becomes essential, yet where a mobile service might be even more needed.

Or satellite. Maybe one dish per village running a local cell hub

I have a BiL in the tech rentals business in Austalia, they rent sat phones to prospectors and others.

You may be surprised that some of the remote and mobile Lottery outlets (county fairs etc) use Sat.

A friend of Boris' got some money for some kind of low-altitude scheme. IIRC it was £400million of taxpayers money to bail out a bankrupt startup.

I wonder what free meals for the children of the poor cost.

 

[bernardgreen]

Not often mentioned but rain fade and fog fade can affect satellite communications

https://www.viasat.com/about/newsroom/blog/weather-impacts/

 

[flameport]

PSTN will be gone in just a few years.
From 2023, you won't be able to get a new PSTN line, which includes taking over an existing one, moving house and any other alterations
All PSTN will be switched off by 2025.

Info:
https://www.openreach.com/upgrading-the-UK-to-digital-phone-lines/for-my-home-or-business

PDF with more:
https://www.openreach.com/content/d...lines/industry/Openreach ALL IP FAQs v1.3.pdf

 

[ey143]

Yeah I have run a few Cat 6 cables to each room including a few to each TV points....you can imagine I have driven my builder potty. I must have ordered a few km of cat 6 cable for a large home renovation.

Sounds like I should be fine to use Cat 6 then for telephone. Just need to install a rack or whatever it is called at some point.