So what did you previously have? Guessing FTTC, as hardly anyone has ADSL (broadband over copper/ali lines, all the way from the Exchange).
Sounds like you are continuing to have FTTC, although the fibre might be parented off another exchange, rather than your local one, in readiness for the exchange closure.
So, if those assumptions are true, it sounds like you are just being moved from a traditional POTS landline - copper/metal all the way from the exchange, with limited power being provided over that line - to a DV (Digital Voice, aka VoIP) setup. DV setups need some kind of adapter in the house to work with non IP phones, this can be a separate "ATA" or mostly likely with most providers now, built into modern routers. This adapter converts analogue to IP, which is then transmitted over the broadband line to your providers "exchange".
If you have a new router with DV capability built in, then that needs installing (as you would any other router), and the phone plugging into the router's Phone port. Hopefully your service provider will auto configure the router with technology like TR069, so you should have nothing else to do.
Obviously, things are never that simple.
If you have multiple non-cordless phones, connecting them all to the router can get tedious and messy quickly. Not usually an issue for most people, as most have multiple cordless handsets connected to one base unit, so in that case just the base unit needs to plug into the router.
Power cuts is a common complaint I hear, but it's not hugely relevant TBH. Most users have cordless phones which won't work in a power cut anyway. Many of the phones for vulnerable people with alarm pendants also need power, so wouldn't work in a power cut. Some ISPs are offering free UPS units to power the router in power cuts, but not all. To power phones that also need mains power would require the user to purchase a suitable UPS.
DV has a fair number of advantages over the old system (features, call clarity, cost (not all providers pass on the savings though!), reliability, but the old system has been around for so long, and people generally don't like change.
All UK remaining POTS exchanges are either System X (GEC/Plessey/STC, designed under the guidance of Post Office Telephones) or System Y (Ericsson, and procured do to System X supplier merges, and British telecom didn't want to be held to ransom by a single supplier). These were mostly all deployed in the mid 80s to mid 90s, and at the time had a 20yr life. Most of them are now 30-40yrs old, spares harder to come by, and they are not as energy efficient as modern solutions, and due to age, reliability isn't what it should be.
BT has been trying to move from these exchanges to DV solutions really since about the turn of the century, and now is the drop dead date, hence the huge acceleration in migrations. Hardly any other provider has their own (traditional) exchanges (ignoring Hull/Kingston), but most DV providers do run their own "exchanges" for DV.
Hope that clarifies where we are in the telecom industry, and why its happening.
As a further thing, Openreach wants all "copper" (I use that phrase lightly, because a lot of it is still aluminium and even lead) gone, and everything fibre. That also has a number of advantages to both ISPs and consumers. Again, more electricity is needed, as customers have to power the ONT that converts light to electricity.
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Topic: Fibre switchover BS. Guidance required. (Read 319 times)