We lost power for a couple of two week periods here in Florida in 2004 when we had 4 hurricanes come through in less than a 6 week period. No power means no cell towers, no internet, no VOIP. The only reliable communications that we had were my vintage Moss green Western Electric model 500 set from 1959 and my Western Electric 302 from 1939. Both rang and dialed just fine. Still do as a matter of fact. I dread the day when we lose our twisted pair. I suspect I'm probably the only person on my street still clinging to it. It's almost a sin to let one of the 20th centuries greatest engineering feats lay rotting in the ground because it's insufficiently profitable for the telecoms.

Vince, flippin brilliant video! Had a bt engineer round who swore it couldn't be done. All i needed to do was disconnect the old bt copper cables off the extension wiring around the house and plug the output to the hub. That's it. Extremely grateful.

how cool! my mum's got alzheimers, and working modern phones is becoming a problem for her now. This could be a complete game changer -- thank you!

Thank you for another excellent video. I was 62 years old when I learnt that the UK uses a third wire for ringing.

It's always satisfying to see well managed cables. Nice work.

Good to see after all these years you still know your stuff about telephone lines 👌

This is really good and informative.... BT told me just this week that "there was no way" I could have a bell on my new proposed VOIP install!.... Now if I can transfer your excellent "how to" into my own BT install is another matter 😉😂

An easy way to achieve this is to go on an auction site and pick up a small office pbx that accepts pulse dialling. You then set the exchange line output to tone dialling and wire the wall sockets as extensions. Takes care of both the REN and conversion problems. Mine cost me £20.

Hi Vince thank you so much for making this video. It has been very useful as I have an alarm that dials me when it is activated, I’ve rigged it all up and wired it into the alarm system and it works perfect, rings my mobile when the alarm is activated. Many thanks 🙂👍🙏

The enthusiasm in your voice Vince is like nothing I've heard on more recent videos, seems like you really enjoyed going back to your roots on this one. Great video!

Thank you very much for this instructional video Vince. It gave me the information and confidence to successfully reactivate the extension sockets in my house, after switch over to VoIP or Digital Voice. Tremendous video.

Most interesting. When I had fibre installed to the house two engineers told me that it was not possible to connect an old style phone (also the blurb that come from BT says that old analogue phones will not work). However I was not convinced so I did what you did. It works! I.have noticed that strangely the old phone rings slightly before the voip phones! What is important to stress - as you mentioned - no power no phone. So in case of emergencies a charger mobile always needs to be available. Thanks again - I am reassured that I am not the only geek!

Thanks Vince. We just had fttp installed, are researching voip phones, but would still like to keep our lovely old bakelite ringers sweet bell singing! Brilliant description and details of the bits n pieces, cheers!

Thanks Vince, i have a voip problem that i could call but the phone would not ring on incoming calls, this vid was just what i needed to point me in the right direction

Well done Vince ☺️ . I've tried in vain to get information on what phones can/cannot work with fttp So there's a rj11 socket on the VoIP router. Some info vaguely mentioned adapters and warning about incompatible phones . You sound like an old BT man. Many thanks for the home learning course 😉👍

Useful information Vince =D I really worry that if we swap from landlines to VOIP - it's all at risk of denial of service and internet outages.

The MF-T and MF-E settings relate to the workings of the 'recall' (R) button. In MF-T mode, when the recall button was pressed the line was interrupted for a very precisely timed interval to notify the exchange that the recall button had been pressed - the timing had to be precise so that the exchange did not mistake it for a dial pulse. MF-E mode was for use with (many - not all, depended on the manufacturer) switchboards; one of the line pair was briefly earthed which signalled to the switchboard that the recall button had been pressed.

A brilliant. 'how to' theory and practice demo, I've been wondering what to do when I get full fibre, this helps a lot, thanks.

Great to see that you took my suggestion comment and made it a video!

Hi Vince! You're just a tease! I had my landline B&O phones connected to my Vontage device but after a rain stone they all went off but one, Here in Los Angeles I can't find anybody who will restore this set-up and here you provide a video hooking it up grrrrr!

Literally the video I was looking for! Amazing.

Your technical drawing skills are a joy to behold. 😊

how nice to have an experienced brother

Thanks for the video, I've been in the same business and can say this conversion works. The RJ11 socket on the router is just in parallel to the phone socket in most cases so ether can be used. I have a small ebay 10 extn PABX connected to my router and the phones are powered by that acting also as a REN booster and loop to mf converter. Works well, I use a UPS to feed the router and PABX for power fail situations.

Great video Vince. I guess the bell would normally be on a wall which might make it louder as some sound would bounce off the wall. So it may have been quieter than you’re used to hearing as it was in your hand.

i learnt a *LOTTTTTTTTTT* of my tech knowledge from you, Vince! thank you for making me more tech-savvy than literally anyone i know (i'm 12 lol)!

Vince, thanks for the informative video. I'm in the US, so I've had only minimal experience with BT phone system specifics. I was glad to learn the term "MFT" ("Multiple Frequency Tone"?) which I equate to the US Dual Tone Multi-Frequency ("DTMF", aka _Touch-Tone_ trademarked name). I've worked with phone lines since the 1970s, first as an electronics hobbyist and then professional. It's been years but recall seeing option settings for dial-up modems to configure them for different phone technologies internationally.

hi, im an fiber installer myself.. and convert the in home analoge lines to the modem (voip)... great job ;)

Interesting video Vince! We recently got changed to VOIP by Virgin Media. Their communications said that "any existing extensions will no longer work/cannot work". Chatting to the installation technician, I said it was a pity that my existing extensions will no longer work. "Oh, i can do that for you" he said. He simply connected the VOIP cable from the router into the existing Virgin Media master socket and - Bob's your uncle - it worked fine, including my extensions! So much for Virgin Media's website and other info. Maybe you just have to talk nicely to the technician so he spends an extra 60 seconds to connect up appropriately!

The area where i live is FTTC and full fibre to the premise is a long way off. Having just renewed with BT the voip phone was part of the new Broadband contract. This vid is the best i have found explaining what you need to do to connect your existing hard wired sockets to the router. I have found nothing from BT covering this. As a former comms engineer this has confirmed what i thought needed to be done. From memory the max reccomended number of phones that a copper line would support was 4 so no change really. Neat existing wiring, not the usual birds nest bodge job a lot of people are going to be greeted with.

I’m in the US. I just switched from land line to cell and bought Xlink BTHD. Works perfect. Now all my phone service is over my cell. So far I have my old 35 year old touch tone, a large bell/light flasher, and a cordless phone hooked up. All work as they did before. Expensive but totally worth the price. Don’t know if they have a model for UK.

A VERY useful video. Thank you for sharing it. 👍😊

Great stuff Vince as always. Hoping the next Video will be about "Home Alarms" ADT, Verisure etc and connecting them with the fibre network

This video is fascinating, but it did give me a flashback to working for BT.

Hi Vince. Interesting video. I'm a security system engineer (in Ireland so it's the 2 wire system) and what we normally do is take the incoming line to the alarm first and then to the sockets. In the event of an alarm the panel seizes the phone line and kills the sockets. Thre reasoning as far as I know is so that a burglar can't just leave a phone off the hook . You could do the same thing there before your new socket if an alarm was fitted.

Useful video, started to pay attention as the exchange in the market town I live in was added to the Openreach fibre upgrade program last year. Could be up to 4 years away, but good to see what can and cannot work.

Brilliant video, really clear and helpful.

Howdy Vince - I'm not sure about in the UK but here in the US some analog dialers that are part of security alarm systems can work with VOIP systems that are from internet cable routers - they will loose the line monitoring feature (which tells the central monitoring station that a line has been cut) but it hasn't been often used in recent years in favor of IP based or cellular based monitoring anyhow. Most recent security systems either come with cellular connectivity or have an option for it as a backup to wired IP or wifi. Awesome video (as always) telco systems content is interesting and still relevant and being used if for no other reason than for emergencies where you do not have access to your mobile phone.

I've not even seen a landline in years, everyone I know uses cell phones. Also I could definitely hear that dial tone when you said No. I love watching your videos Vince, they're always fascinating and I have even gone on to successfully repair my toaster oven, I wouldn't have ever tried that without watching you and getting some confidence, thanks for that.

Fantastic video and fantastic news! I am due to be transferred to FTTP in a couple of weeks. I'm not with BT but the router supplied has two RJ11 VOIP ports and one RJ11 to BT adapter supplied to allow connection of one standard 'phone. I had hoped that this would work to reconnect my various vintage 'phones and the BT Extension bell in the garden and based on this I am happily hopeful!

Brillant, but I cannot do this, some of us need Vince to do it for us, a good little side job for you Vince. thank you for sharing.

I've got hyperoptic, and pulse dialing works! It's a ZTE H298A router. I've got the VOIP socket patched into the BT master socket so all extensions can make and receive calls. Works great.

Just brilliant mate, very useful.

Good old days Vince, just wish we could bring them back. Mick 👍🍻

Hi Vince Great Video! May I make a Suggestion for your next video, "Backup Power" as everyone are moved over to Fiber, Power cuts will become a Real Problem (Safety Issue) 999 especially in the Countryside like Remote Homes / Farms need for Backup Power for the Router and Phone that need phone that neads power maybe for days as we have seen lately in the news.

It's interesting that the router has enough ringing voltage to drive the bells in the old phones. It would be interesting to see just high that voltage is. You need about 40 volts minimum for a decent ring. On the old copper line exchanges the ringing voltage was usually anywhere from 75 to 90 volts.

In so many ways it's so much easier to keep your existing equipment. Where I am in Ontario Canada we are slowly switching over from copper to digita, if your still on the Bell Canada system, in my household for example we would definitely not want to get all wew equipment. It seems like the new installers may not be trained as good as they should be.

Thanks for the instructions, very useful indeed, have been have issues since moving to digital ❤

That was a fascinating and well explained video. Wonder how many may get caught out with the power cut? Most always taken it for granted phone works during power cut, so, upgrade the line and service diminishes.

The Sky engineer said it couldn’t be done, wouldn’t ring he said, my mate Vince said differently. It is now done, all house extensions are going through the VOIP port of the fibre hub. Well done Vince. However, I now have the distraction of your poorly Rolls Royce. I have a project car of my own which is suffering as I’m fixated with My Mate Vince.

Great video Vince, thanks!

Great to not miss any of these commercial phone calls...

For years the advice has been to keep a landline phone in case of emergency. During a power failure could well be the time when a call to the emergency services, or for other help, is needed. I'm sticking with "traditional" broadband over a proper phone line for as long as possible!

Hi Vince. Excellent video. I'm an IT technician in Cornwall. I had a customer in the same situation last year. (The whole voip thing was a mystery to him!) I connected the BT voice port as you have to his fairly new build internal extensions with jelly crimps behind the master socket. Looks very neat. I did not connect the ringer line and it all seems to work. PS I see BT sell some sort of UPS for battery backup. But from what I can tell its only to the router. I wonder about the Fibre ONT, and say if you had DECT base station. Then if they loose power the old phones stop working. At mine I'm kind of in a good situation as everything is in my office in which I have a UPS so the DECT base station router and ONT (when I can get FTTP!) would be kept running for a period of time.

Here in Sweden it's very easy. Just connect a rj11 with cable to router and attach the other plug to the first socket (MS), usually you will get it from provider. If it doesn't work just check that all the sockets are serial connected and maybe disconnect incomming old PSTN (copper).

amazing finally you have a phone again that you really "hang up" ;-)

Epic work, love it :)

Super helpful - thank you

Love it. Who had phones all over the house these day?

Thanks Lovely video, make understand very easy and simple.

Fascinating. I wish I hadn't forgotten so much from when I set up the original wired network, but based on everything I've been told I was expecting to junk it all until I saw this. The best Plusnet could suggest was a proper VOIP system with all the worst of that. I am still angry that the copper has been ditched to make BT richer off the backs of investment from the country as they harvest the cables and sell the land, etc. Disgusting that we will have no resilience or communication in a crisis. Still, back to this, I already separated the internal network to a junction box when they installed a previous master socket, but the new fibre will need to be in a different part of the house given that they won't bring them in far now and it'll likely be where the router was moved anyway (using a very long ADSL cable) to go upstairs. I will need to connect the BT style junction to the old plugs to that and it will mean a very long cable. I looked elsewhere and saw someone used a male to male cable. I may have missed it, but is that the best way or should I use the male end for the router and hard wire the other end into the junction box? Or a female? I need to look at your film again, but I can't get that clear at the moment. Mind you, like old times using your advice as I used to do that a very long time ago now.

Esoteric but utterly enjoyable.

Look up 'Dial Gizmo' LD-DTMF converter. I have one on my old rotary dial phones in SIP adaptors. You pulse dial and the dial-gizmo will insert a dtmf tone afterwards. Great fun to hear loop disconnect and carbon mics on a digigal service.

As a 'Murican with a landline, (quite recently acquired) this is all very fascinating! I think I'll give you a Sub!

Another super vlog nice one Vince

Very informative, and a very neat installation. I'm really hoping that TalkTalk offer a free solution for connecting an old phone. Tandy used to sell a REN booster. That was back in 98 or 99, and I've not found one since.

Great video and you not once needed the Panasonic tough book cf-25+ to do anything.

Great video, it answered a few questions I had. Fortunately I have a spare master socket I can use as a junction box to connect to the extensions and disconnect the extension system to the original master socket. I have a UPS so power failures may not be a problem if not too long. I have GPO type 332 and 706 phones, a bell set and a 746 Trimphone, so I'm very pleased the bells and ringer will work (probably not if plugged in all at the same time!) One question: Does Caller ID work via the Router on old phones so equippped?

Fantastic video but from my experience most ISP providers have disabled BT connector on their routers as default. Also please do video about ATA boxes. Will be so helpful for many people. 👍

Hi, that was interesting. We used to have wired extensions in our old home, one of which went to the router which was upstairs. We also purchased a BT answerphone with additional cordless handsets. On moving to a bungalow, I didn't bother with wired extensions. When the full fibre was installed to the bungalow, Openreach removed the old copper line as the ducting was restricted and the technician had quite a job drawing the fibre cable through. I believe it costs extra to retain a copper wired phone service, but they are going to be discontinued soon anyway.. The DECT phone supplied works well and with the answerphone also plugged into the hub, we have an additional 3 extensions. What we did not expect was that we now have effectively two incoming lines- I can be using the DECT phone and incoming calls can still be taken on the cordless extensions. I haven't tried making 2 outgoing calls. Anyway, the phones and internet connections are working fine and we are quite pleased with it.

Nice trip down memory lane.

Hi Vince & thank you for making the video. I had been wondering how well wired telephones might work on FTTP systems as I believe the old copper network is due to be closed down at the end of December 2025. The outdoor bell did sound a tad weak - Were you able to measure the AC ringing voltage? I seem to recall measuring it to be around 80 volts?

Now throw in an extra 2 fax machines, a landline pay terminal, a person emergency alarm, an alarm system and an external gong and have yourself a great headscratching afternoon.

Thank you for this video. We were recently switched to Digital Voice, we dont have cordless phones and the adapeter which connects to the router, that BT offer, was not a viable option. We followed the instructions in the video and all our wired phones work great, still plugged into their existing sockets, with the phone that was plugged into the master socket now plugged into a new socket close by to the master socket. We were having some difficulty when stripping the stranded wire in the telephone extension cable, either not enough wire exposed and or difficulty twisting the copper strands in order to terminate in the screw terminals of a BT84A Junction box, I did wonder if maybe jelly crimps would have worked to connect wires together and was planning to do so if the connections did not work.

Openreach was going to launch a voice reinjection faceplate that you connected your router that sent the DT across the extensions etc, but not back to the pole and beyond.

Some (if not all) Fritz Boxes with the analogue RJ11 port support pulse dialling. I tested our 7530 and older 7360 Fritz Box model with a corded phone set to Pulse and after the popping sounds finished, the call went through. However, I don't have an old bell telephone to test whether it handles the ring wire. The built-in DECT on the Fritz has an interesting feature in that operates each handset like a PBX extension, e.g. if someone is on a call on one handset, another call can come in and likewise a 3rd call can be made or come in on the analogue port, at least with the VoIP provider we're using. Our internet connection is 4G based (no FTTP available in our area here in Ireland), so we moved to VoIP a few years ago to get rid of the expensive landline rental. I made my own battery backup using to provide power from a small LiFePO4 battery during power cuts. It's also the most likely time we get a call, usually from neighbours asking if our power is out. 😁

Great description. One thing you did not mention is the quality of copper versus fibre and also quality of copper versus mobile phones. I noticed that the quality of mobile phone is definitely poorer compared to that of copper lines, probably because of bit rate reduction whilst copper to copper is analogue.

nice work! I think you might be able to purchase a pulse to DTMF adapters in order to get those older rotary phones to work.

You can keep the phone working for a while when power goes out if you run the router and VOIP from an uninterrupted power supply. If you have a separate modem you need a ups for it too. I have a VOIP phone and have mine set up that way. Most efficient way is to get a ups for the proper voltage and polarity for your devices without using the power supply that came with the router and VOIP. It is more efficient than having an UPS that provides line power then reducing the voltage and converting it with the power supply that comes with the router.

Hi Vince, nice work with the explanation, I work for virgin media as a technician we have a similar thing with our routers starting from the hub 3 you can plug in the rg11 to bt we call it 21cv (21st century voice) we can use an adapter I forget what its called which uses the rg11 to rg11 cable to a pass through adapter that we can plug into either the master socket or extension which will use the existing sockets again for any extensions, making sure that the external Telco cables are disconnected to ensure no interference from existing Telco network

Great video 📹 👍 mate 👍....so enjoy your videos 📹 😊 please keep them coming 🙏 👍 and here to help get your videos 📹 😉 out to everyone 😀 😊....cheers 🍻 mate 👍 😀 👌

Vince - That was a wonderful vid. I think I want to marry you! I too have 3 phones on one number - at Main Socket, kitchen, bedroom and it's essential that all can continue to be used for in/out calls once I am forced to have VOIP. BT Tech says it cannot be done, but you hv shown that it can.

Thanks for this, I just got switched over to fiber and my old landline phones would not work. They cut my copper lines out I did not know they were going to do it. I was a bit miffed because nothing beats the reliability of the old landlines or POTs system, our electric is dicey so we could always use the pots phones in an emergency. Now we are stuck without a phone in a catastrophe. Just to clarify what i mean is a few years back the power went out, and the cell towers were also down because of a bomb and fire. Viola the phone on the pots system worked our cells did not. So sometimes new tech isnt the best after all

Cool video Vince man, you can get pulse to tone dial converters or you could build one yourself and build it into phone, would be a good project, keep up the great content ✌👍

Very interesting!

Hi Vince really helpful video only problem i have is on my router i have a rj11 connector how would i work out witch wire is witch to connect to the copper wired boxes i have round the house?

Will the bell also ring whenever you pick up one of the phones? Great video, and very interesting vince!

Yeah! Mr. Telephone 💪🏻

Brilliant exactly my situation at present. I try to explain to the guys what i want and they cant understand. No i can show them this clip. (am from South Africa)

The German telephone socket TAE has 6 contacts, but not all of them are used. Contacts A and B are the inputs for the telephone. Then come R for ringing and E for a button. These contacts have not been connected for a long time. Then B2 and A2. If there is no plug in the socket then A is connected to A2 and B to B2. Telephone sockets after this are also connected to B2 and A2. But if a plug is inserted then B2 and A2 are disconnected, the telephone sockets behind are switched off. However, a modem or fax can connect A to A2 and B to B2, enabling a telephone behind it. Today, however, the cables are only laid in a star shape and connected to A and B. The contact for the bell and button are always free, further telephone sockets behind them have become unusual. The best-selling router Fritzbox in Germany usually has one analogue connection. It used to be three or four. There are DECT wireless telephones or LAN telephones for this. DECT is digital and has its own frequency band. This range is used for cell phones outside of Europe, but cell phones do not understand DECT.

A really useful video, thanks. I was thinking, for power cut situations... A lot, if not most routers are 12v DC so rather than buy an expensive uninterruptable power supply, (UPS) to power the modem during a power cut, why not just connect it to a 12v battery? It's what caravaner's do quite a lot to power their 4/5G routers. Obviously one needs to check the router voltage, get a suitable connection cable and wire the positive to the correct terminal, preferably with an inline fuse. It doesn't have to be a large car battery a 6Ah would keep it going for an hour or two.

You can use pulse dialing if you put a Dialgizmo or similar pulse-to-tone converter in between the phone and the line

Only thing worth mentioning is in the UK, once you've ported your number to Voip, many of the control codes and emergency numbers are no longer recognised. But you can take your ported number abroad and call (and receive) any UK number as if you were in the UK 👍🏻🇬🇧

Not in Canada. The 'old' copper line fed 'landlines' were/are powered. They are always on whether the power to your house is off or on.

Great video. I have on antique rotary I can now use. I tried via a bluetooth router and my mobile phone but could not get the ringer to work on incoming calls because there is no 50v available.

Hi Vince. Any idea if it is possible to renew the batteries on the BT digital voice phones? We have them here, just wondered if it can be done and what batteries go in them as the instructions do not mention the batteries. Good video and shows how to get arround using old phones on digital voice. Thanks Derrick.

Good video, would have liked to have some details on external master sockets on new houses as these are a massive source of confusion.

I still have an AT&T POTS / Landline. When there is a power outage, the cell towers and the internet can be down. The only thing that works is my POTS line and Generac generator. Thanks for the video, because eventually we will be forced to VOIP.

Several years ago, I installed a UPS to protect both my current router and DECT base station. This generally works fine, but the fly in the ointment is that the fibre system, (which has not yet been imposed on us, may well be delivered to the house by wet string or copper), relies on mains power with a, (usually stolen) battery back-up in the cabinet. So, use a mobile you say, great idea, the mobile service relies on the broadband Wi-Fi as the over air mobile service is too tired to make it into the house. I will hope to wire the house alarm into the socket in the modem, when service disruption/obliteration day arrives.

Wow, that is nice video. We Shenzhen EAST LINE are the professsional mnaufacturer of corded and cordless phones. Hope to be your partner.