Digital Phone Compatible with Existing Wiring?

Soldie

Hi guys,

At present I'm an Eircom phone & DSL customer but, for a number of reasons, I wish to change provider. I'm drawn to UPC as they offer high download speeds, as well as a digital phone service that doesn't require line rental. I'm not very familiar with how their phone service works, though. I currently have four phones spread over three floors. Is any (or much) rewiring necessary in switching over to their service, or is my existing internal phone network (and phones) compatible? Due to the layout of my home, wireless coverage is poor, so any setup dependent on that would be unsuitable. I've already tried phoning their customer service, but after spending what seemed like an eternity on hold I got through to someone who had no idea what he was talking about, so I thought I'd try here instead.

Many thanks.

BOZG

Soldie wrote: »

Hi guys,

At present I'm an Eircom phone & DSL customer but, for a number of reasons, I wish to change provider. I'm drawn to UPC as they offer high download speeds, as well as a digital phone service that doesn't require line rental. I'm not very familiar with how their phone service works, though. I currently have four phones spread over three floors. Is any (or much) rewiring necessary in switching over to their service, or is my existing internal phone network (and phones) compatible? Due to the layout of my home, wireless coverage is poor, so any setup dependent on that would be unsuitable. I've already tried phoning their customer service, but after spending what seemed like an eternity on hold I got through to someone who had no idea what he was talking about, so I thought I'd try here instead.

Many thanks.

As far as I'm aware, their only phone service is wireless. One unit is plugged directly into the cable modem and the rest wirelessly connect to that.

_Sidhe_

There's no problem with using your internal wiring.
It's a fairly simple job, but you'll have to do it yourself.
As soon as your Eircom account is closed (I assume that you'll be porting over your telephone number, if so it closes automatically during the port) you just connect the UPC service to your internal wiring, and remove the Eircom line.
Once that's done it'll work the exact same way as your Eircom line through the internal wires.
The only issue would be that you'd have to make sure they install your modem close to one of your existing phone lines.

They also supply you with a DECT phone, so if you don't want to do the rewiring, you can just use that system, and buy 3 additional DECT phones.

Soldie

Thanks sidbhe. I called UPC today to confirm what you told me, but the person I got through to said that their phone service is incompatible with conventional phone wiring. He said that their phone service operates through the same cable they supply their cable TV with, and that their phones are digital cordless phones. He didn't sound very convincing, though. I pointed out that I'd heard it was possible to tinker with the wiring and hook it up to the conventional phone network, but he said that this was not possible. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Ranicand

Soldie wrote: »

Thanks sidbhe. I called UPC today to confirm what you told me, but the person I got through to said that their phone service is incompatible with conventional phone wiring. He said that their phone service operates through the same cable they supply their cable TV with, and that their phones are digital cordless phones. He didn't sound very convincing, though. I pointed out that I'd heard it was possible to tinker with the wiring and hook it up to the conventional phone network, but he said that this was not possible. Can anyone shed any light on this?

The modem has a regular phone socket.

UPC provide a wireless phone if you want wires around your house that is your job not theirs.

The TV cable goes into the modem with the signal but the output is a regular phone socket so from that point on you can do what you like with it.