Hiya All,

UK OpenReach To Shut Down DSL Services - VOIP

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As I'm hoping many of you all know by now and for those that may still be in the dark and it seems so are a fair few TP Link support agents who have listened to the below information on live chat and advised they will feed it back to management yet I've heard or seen no changes as of yet.

This would apply and spark the interest of I hope the new TP LINK ISP Director "Kalam" to really look into for the UK Products market and for which I'm willing to help explore this as well.

In 2025 UK Phone Network "OpenReach" will be shutting down the Copper (POTS) Network (Green Cabinets and OverHead Cables in favour of a FULL FIBRE future however this is a very slow rollout at this moment and not all areas have the FULL FIBRE Infrastructure in place and probably won't before this cut off date some exchanges are deemed "Not a priority" which is stupid when everywhere is a priority.

This means losing our DSL Lines and Landline Phone Numbers & Services around that time,So while there's around 2-4 years left before this happens I wanted to get a jump on this so I was ready for the new services by upgrading and keeping my landline phone number to VOIP and also getting a Compatible Multi Functional Router ready to hopefully have a smooth transfer.

So off i go to do my research and I still am researching the tech needed as i write this to make it simple for our home as we still use landlines here at present.

Now I have the providers in place to arrange the full fibre cable build to my property however apart from the service provider options on the Main TP Link page there are currently NO GPON/EPON (FULL FIBRE) Based Products available or Coming Soon yet from TP Link in the UK which is quite shocking seeing as this is the way we are going quite quickly.

Ok I understand that DSL Is still being used so in there eyes it's not a priority at present but what about people like myself that are upgrading there Landline Phone Service to a VOIP Service where is the support and products for the UK To use VoIP on all the new products being offered there isn't any yet I see there is outside the UK with models such as VR600(V)/VR900(V)/XR500(V) etc... Where (V) is the same model that's being currently offered but with VOIP/Telephony ports/service & these should be available here in the UK by default for services such as VOIPTALK/SIPGATE/VONAGE & ISP's Own services (which they are walking away from) etc... And I don't see the logical reason why they are not currently available here.

You would think there would at least be a transitional product being made or at least something customers like me could help test/build to get ready for this deployment to make things easier to transition...I have some awesome ideas about what I would want but it's discussing it one to one with a tp link designer/developer/engineer to make this happen.

Also while releasing the (V) Models I mentioned above to the public would be a stop gap for now to at least protect landline phone numbers with a BT Plug on phones and not a RJ11 PLUG where a convertor or dedicated input port would be needed as most landlines these days are Cordless/DECT enabled just not VOIP enabled I have seen a German TP Link router with something similar on that could be adapted.

Some big providers like BT have been doing this on there HomeHub routers for a while but why is TP Link so Behind in this for The UK Public.

I also started researching options to use my Archer VR400 to supply my VOIP Landline service and started looking for ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter)  products and found a few options including Vonage and Grandstream and Cisco to name a few.

So I thought I know I'll get an ATA in Black From TP Link to match my Archer VR400....so i started looking everywhere and Shock Horror...NO ATA Products.

I searched the web for these and i screamed when I found the product results I wanted were outside the UK Again as a Router/ATA from TP Link but again built into a router and not a Seperate product to bridge the gap and more aimed at service provider and not the public.

While this is probably a lot to take in on a thread I'd like to know people's thoughts on this and even from TP Link agents if they are monitoring the forum as to why they are not supplying the UK public with VOIP Router Options and ATA's to purchase as they have the know-how and tech to make them as I've seen outside of the UK but without releasing these products inside the UK it's surely a loss of money to the company and people will go to Router manufacturers that have these products ready eg...Zyxel/Fritzbox etc that do have VOIP/FXO Ports Services on there products.

I want to buy tech that's going to last a while not change every 5 minutes with one new hardware feature but it's the same product and then creating more tech waste for landfills :-(

For me I didn't realise my new Archer VR400 (V2&V3) wasn't G.fast Compatible which TP Link call "Super VDSL" so I'd have to change this product if I could use this service but the range for this service from my cabinet just misses my property so is no good sadly but not every openreach cabinet in my area is enabled but i'd have thought at least all TP LINK DSL Products would have this "profile 35b" g.fast/SuperVDSL support would be included by default these days to be backwards compatible as a starting point but the only useful feature is the Gigabit Ethernet Ports for the FTTP Connection when it's here,at present it just feels limited every day that I research things but I still love my Archer for now.

So Come on TP Link..What's The Catch ???? I thought you were one of the Great Tech Makers yet the others seem way ahead of you at this point.

What can we do as customers and community members to help you and in turn you show us your passion for help making and testing new products for the future.

Alef Yeung seemed to be on the right track with the Deco X20 Kickstarter that I looked into but even this didn't have VOIP Functions but more things like this will keep my interest.