UPC Phone is it VOIP or actual Landline

CoachTO

Hey guys have an issue with Sky at the moment. Have Sky multiroom for TV and UPC for Broadband and Phone. Are the UPC Phone numbers using actual landline or is it a VOIP line?

jor el

It uses VOIP from the modem, and I believe it won't support Sky boxes which require SMS capability on the line.

CoachTO

Thanks for the reply jor el

ThisRegard

jor el wrote: »

It uses VOIP from the modem, and I believe it won't support Sky boxes which require SMS capability on the line.

I'm pretty sure it does. Hooked ours up a while back to order a movie from the box office and it went through fine if memory serves me correctly. UPC does support SMS don't they ?

edit: You had me wondering if I was mad but there's a thread here about it.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77599875

jor el

So, it may or may not work then, seems to be the way that thread went. If you're having problems with it, then it seems like it's probably not going to work for you.

Solair

It's VoIP based, but it's very much equivalent to a normal landline in almost every respect.

The phone service is delivered via a port on the back of the UPC router, you just plug any phone in and you get a dial tone and it works.

Sky boxes do work over UPC and they do not use SMS, they use a dial-up modem, similar to the old ones we used to use to access the internet in the dark ages.

The only things that rely on SMS over landlines are some types of monitored alarm systems.

fasttalkerchat

I had UPC a year ago and the phone was a normal landline. Worked fine without the router.

Solair

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I had UPC a year ago and the phone was a normal landline. Worked fine without the router.

That's actually impossible. Are you sure you didn't just have an eircom land line & also UPC broadband separately?!

The UPC phone service is a cable VoIP system. You've a router plugged into the UPC cable socket, that has a phone socket on the back of it which is where you connect your phone.

The router provides your broadband / wifi and also your phone.

The only connection to your house from the UPC network is a coaxial cable. There's no phone line that you could connect anything to. So, you'd absolutely have had to have had a router somewhere!

fasttalkerchat

Solair wrote: »

That's actually impossible. Are you sure you didn't just have an eircom land line & also UPC broadband separately?!

The UPC phone service is a cable VoIP system. You've a router plugged into the UPC cable socket, that has a phone socket on the back of it which is where you connect your phone.

The router provides your broadband / wifi and also your phone.

The only connection to your house from the UPC network is a coaxial cable. There's no phone line that you could connect anything to. So, you'd absolutely have had to have had a router somewhere!

Our phone only connected into the standard phone socket. Their was a cable to connect it to the router but the cable wasn't long enough so never used it.

UPC used our normal phone line for the phone.

Solair

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Our phone only connected into the standard phone socket. Their was a cable to connect it to the router but the cable wasn't long enough so never used it.

UPC used our normal phone line for the phone.

Unless the UPC router was connected to your phone sockets and feeding them a dial tone, you were not using UPC's phone service.

They do not provide a phone service over normal phone wiring (i.e. the eircom network) and they do not own a copper wire telephone network.

HattieMcDoogal

Solair wrote: »

They do not provide a phone service over normal phone wiring (i.e. the eircom network) and they do not own a copper wire telephone network.

Chorus actually did provide a telephone service over the Eircom lines 'back in the day' but stopped selling it to new customers 5 or maybe more years ago. They still have a small amount of customers on it. Tiny small I believe.

rebeve

HattieMcDoogal wrote: »

Chorus actually did provide a telephone service over the Eircom lines 'back in the day' but stopped selling it to new customers 5 or maybe more years ago. They still have a small amount of customers on it. Tiny small I believe.

We believe ya.:)

Doylers

Solair wrote: »

That's actually impossible. Are you sure you didn't just have an eircom land line & also UPC broadband separately?!

The UPC phone service is a cable VoIP system. You've a router plugged into the UPC cable socket, that has a phone socket on the back of it which is where you connect your phone.

The router provides your broadband / wifi and also your phone.

The only connection to your house from the UPC network is a coaxial cable. There's no phone line that you could connect anything to. So, you'd absolutely have had to have had a router somewhere!

I have my upc connected to the master socket so all the phone around the house work plus the eircom alarm, might try the sky box tomorrow to see if it connects up

Oracle

I have a quick follow up on this issue. If I get UPC without phone (ie broadband only) can I use a VOIP ATA with the router? Also could I just plug in a phone anyway and get a dial tone? (ie. without paying for the calls package) Thanks

Doylers

Oracle wrote: »

I have a quick follow up on this issue. If I get UPC without phone (ie broadband only) can I use a VOIP ATA with the router? Also could I just plug in a phone anyway and get a dial tone? (ie. without paying for the calls package) Thanks

Why wouldnt you get phone with upc it will cost more if you dont "A standalone charge of €7.88 PM applies to all broadband packs not purchased with or added to our TV or Phone service." Just get the phone package and dont use it

Oracle

Doylers wrote: »

Why wouldnt you get phone with upc it will cost more if you dont "A standalone charge of €7.88 PM applies to all broadband packs not purchased with or added to our TV or Phone service." Just get the phone package and dont use it

Yes you're right they seem to have removed the €25 broadband only deal.

Kensington

The folks have it running fine with three multiroom sky boxes since about 2007-ish.

It is VoIP but it runs internally within UPC's own network so they can manage the network to provide an analogue-line equivalent service.

Solair

HattieMcDoogal wrote: »

Chorus actually did provide a telephone service over the Eircom lines 'back in the day' but stopped selling it to new customers 5 or maybe more years ago. They still have a small amount of customers on it. Tiny small I believe.

That's a possibility alright, but that's not the UPC cable phone service. It's an old Chorus carrier-pre-select service, on which you still pay eircom line rental. That's not a cable phone line at all. It's just the same as Vodafone @ Home, UTV, etc etc.

Pre-UPC, Chorus and NTL both had some roll out of actual cable telephony i.e. using VoIP technology over their cable networks.

It should be noted too that this kind of technology is vastly superior to internet VoIP.
The signal's being carried on UPC's private IP network infrastructure it does not go over the internet. So, they can maintain perfect QoS (Quality of Service). That is not true for other VoIP services that are internet-based SIP systems. You could compare UPC's phone service to VoIP office phone system i.e. it's VoIP, but it's on a closed, private network.

Eircom uses VoIP in its some of its own core networks too btw. So, your voice calls may actually ultimately end up as VoIP traffic over their MPLS network anyway and a lot of international voice traffic goes on carrier-grade VoIP networks these days too.
As more NGN / fibre-to-kerb stuff gets rolled out, all voice will ultimately be VoIP anyway, even if it's being delivered to your house from a traditional digital exchange.

In terms of voice call quality, a cable VoIP phone connection will give a service that is superior to a POTS line. Sound-wise it's comparable to an ISDN phone because it's digital from your living room, rather than relying on analogue signals over long copper lines running to a digital exchange miles away.