How to connect a landline for Virgin?

Blisterman

Signed up to Virgin broadband and phone to a new house build. There are CAT6 sockets throughout linking back to a server cabinet. We've none of the old fashioned landline sockets, as I'd heard they're basically obsolete.

The virgin site is a little unclear as to what I need to do to get the landline working.

I assume I need to buy a phone that uses a CAT6 cable, not one of the old fashioned landline jacks. Even then I'm not sure what specfically to look for. None of the landline phones on Amazon indicate what type of connector they use.

What happens then. Do I Just plug the other end of the CAT6 into the virgin supplied modem and away we go?

Malcomex

Are they obsolete?

The modem/router will have a phone jack anyhow?

colm_mcm

Router has a regular phone jack.

Most people use DECT cordless handsets where one base is plugged into the Virgin modem. The rest only need power for their charging bases.

Blisterman

I know in most offices I've worked, the landline phones are connected by CAT6 to the Network rather than phone jacks.

Can I buy one of them, and connect it to the modem via a CAT6 switch and get phone service? Or is there more I need to do?

I haven't had a landline in about 20 years, so I'm a bit lost with this.

KildareP

No.

Most modern office phones are VoIP and use Cat5/Cat6 via an RJ-45 jack.

They use the network/internet to carry phone calls in digital form.

The Virgin Media phoneline is VoIP to the router but the router presents the service to you via an RJ-11 phone jack in analogue form. You need to plug an analogue phone into here. Virgin will not give you the SIP credentials to input into an IP phone even if you went and bought one.

Multipack DECT phones can be bought for under €100 and you only need to plug the main base station into the router to run all the phones. No need to run your phone cable anywhere else within the house.

ednwireland

phones have an RJ11 connecter (like a small cat 6 but on 4 wires) this can plug into a regular cat six socket so you could patch (with a cable with an rj11 on each end) the phone socket from the router into a patch panel then plug a phone into the cat 6 socket at other end.
but you cant go through a switch as its not the right kind of signal

you'll find most office phones are IPphones which dont work with a standard home phone line.

NeuralNetwork

The Virgin phone service is (and always has been) provided through an analogue RJ11 port on the back of the router. You just plug any basic phone or DECT cordless phone into the socket on the back of their hub and that's it.

It's also not just Virgin. Eir, Digiweb, Sky and plenty of other companies also nowadays provide you with a phone service that's delivered using "VoBB" (Voice over Broadband) - which is basically just private, managed VoIP across their networks with delivery of the service using an ATA in the router (hub/gateway device), rather than over a traditional line from an exchange.

Digiweb for example uses a FritzBox router/gateway that contains a sophisticated VoIP module that can host DECT cordless phones directly itself as well as providing a normal RJ11 analogue interface for phones. It actually acts like a little PBX and can allow you to call between handsets, hosts its own voicemail services, even supports fax and you can configure multiple VoIP services. The DECT phones connected to it will all work independently of each other e.g. if you're on a phone call and an incoming call rings, the other DECT phones will all ring or if someone's on a call, you can still use another handset entirely separately. It's a fantastic service and a huge upgrade from a traditional landline.

The traditional PSTN / ISDN is digital but it's 1970s/80s technology and is at the end of its lifespan. OpenEir actually applied to ComReg outlining their intention to shut down primary rate ISDN services in 2024 - basically because the technology is life expired at this stage.

They will continue to offer POTS type services, mostly over VoIP as described above, but they will retain the ability to support landlines using IP-based MSAN technology either in the cabinets or exchanges for the small % of customers who want PSTN only.

Businesses have already largely moved over to VoIP. You can't really buy an analogue or ISDN based PBX anymore and I don't really see many businesses wanting them as landline services are really not very relevant anymore. They are also expensive to operate, run on dedicated now no longer supported hardware and wiring and far, far less flexible. Even with VoIP, a lot of office desk phones probably sit gathering dust these days as most communication is by instant messenger services, PC/Mac/Mobile based VoIP services and email. The days of phoning extensions are kinda fading fast.

I'd say in a few years time landline service may still exist in the sense of landline numbers, but the technology will be entirely IP based.