Fritz!box 7530 telephony questions

[Tim+]

Moving to Zen and have got my router which seems to have IP telephony and
DECT phone compatibility. There are no instructions with it that give any
clue as to how these are used though.

I’m guessing that to use the IP telephony side of things I need a VOIP
contract with somebody (Zen?).

Has anyone set up IP telephony though this router? To be honest I don’t
really need VOIP and we don’t use our land line much but I’m just
interested in the possibilities.

Tim


--
Please don't feed the trolls

[Theo]

Is that router supplied by Zen? If so you may be on SOGEA:
https://www.zen.co.uk/blog/posts/zen-blog/2020/03/30/sogea-our-industry's-next-great-shake-up

which supplies VOIP instead of an analogue landline. Zen deploy the
relevant settings to your router, which does VOIP to Zen's network. They
(probably) port your existing phone number to their VOIP system.

At your end, you plug your analogue phones into the router and it works just
like your analogue landline. The only wrinkle is if you have hardwired
extensions - there are NTE faceplates which can inject analogue voice back
into your house wiring, but they aren't supplied by default. It's also messy
if you plug your router into an extension, not the master socket.

Theo

[Malcolm Loades]

On 18/02/2021 10:10, Tim+ wrote:
> Moving to Zen and have got my router which seems to have IP telephony and
> DECT phone compatibility. There are no instructions with it that give any
> clue as to how these are used though.
>

Are manuals ever printed now a days? It's here
https://assets.avm.de/files/docs/fritzbox/fritzbox-7530/fritzbox-7530_man_en_GB.pdf

> I’m guessing that to use the IP telephony side of things I need a VOIP
> contract with somebody (Zen?).
>

You could have a second line by getting a free UK landline number from
sipgate.co.uk Incoming calls to that number would cost nothing.
Outgoing on that line could be via sipgate but lower cost would be one
of the betamax providers such as justvoip, hotvoip and many many more.

> Has anyone set up IP telephony though this router? To be honest I don’t
> really need VOIP and we don’t use our land line much but I’m just
> interested in the possibilities

Too many possibilities/options to try and explain. Read the manual and
try things out. If you get stuck on something specific then ask about that.

Malcolm

[Graham J]

Presumably this is in anticipation of the death of POTS in 2025, see:

<http://blog.sirus-telecom.co.uk/blog/how-will-the-pstn-and-isdn-switch-off-impact-on-your-business>

<https://www.telecomsworld.com/post/bt-to-shut-down-copper-network-by-2025>

The Fritz!box 7530 will mean that you simply plug in your existing POTS
phone to the socket on the router and in theory everything should work
as normal.

Awkward if you have exising extension phone wiring, but a DECT phone is
the simple solution to that.

I think if you already use a VoIP phone with structured wiring, and you
pay your landline rental to Zen, then at present Zen do not plan to move
your landline number to a VoIP service that will work with your VoIP
phone. That may change ...

--
Graham J

[Malcolm Loades]

On 18/02/2021 12:57, Graham J wrote:
> Tim+ wrote:
>> Moving to Zen and have got my router which seems to have IP telephony and
>> DECT phone compatibility. There are no instructions with it that give any
>> clue as to how these are used though.
>>
>> I’m guessing that to use the IP telephony side of things I need a VOIP
>> contract with somebody (Zen?).
>>
>> Has anyone set up IP telephony though this router? To be honest I don’t
>> really need VOIP and we don’t use our land line much but I’m just
>> interested in the possibilities.
>
> Presumably this is in anticipation of the death of POTS in 2025, see:
>
> <http://blog.sirus-telecom.co.uk/blog/how-will-the-pstn-and-isdn-switch-off-impact-on-your-business>
>
> <https://www.telecomsworld.com/post/bt-to-shut-down-copper-network-by-2025>
>
> The Fritz!box 7530 will mean that you simply plug in your existing POTS
> phone to the socket on the router and in theory everything should work
> as normal.
>

Incorrect. The Fritz!box 7530 doesn't even have a socket into which a
phone line can be plugged. It comes with a DSL cable only and
instructions to plug that into the DSL side of a BT splitter or the DSL
port of a two port BT plate, the other end into the DSL socket on the
7530. There is only 1 telephony related socket on the 7530 and that is
to plug in an analogue 'phone, fax, answering machine etc.

The built in DECT base can only handle incoming and outgoing voip calls.
The same applies to anything plugged into the analogue phone socket.

> Awkward if you have exising extension phone wiring, but a DECT phone is
> the simple solution to that.
>
> I think if you already use a VoIP phone with structured wiring, and you
> pay your landline rental to Zen, then at present Zen do not plan to move
> your landline number to a VoIP service that will work with your VoIP
> phone. That may change ...
>

Malcolm

[Tim+]

Malcolm Loades <dev...@loades.net> wrote:
> On 18/02/2021 12:57, Graham J wrote:
>> Tim+ wrote:
>>> Moving to Zen and have got my router which seems to have IP telephony and
>>> DECT phone compatibility. There are no instructions with it that give any
>>> clue as to how these are used though.
>>>
>>> I’m guessing that to use the IP telephony side of things I need a VOIP
>>> contract with somebody (Zen?).
>>>
>>> Has anyone set up IP telephony though this router? To be honest I don’t
>>> really need VOIP and we don’t use our land line much but I’m just
>>> interested in the possibilities.
>>
>> Presumably this is in anticipation of the death of POTS in 2025, see:
>>
>> <http://blog.sirus-telecom.co.uk/blog/how-will-the-pstn-and-isdn-switch-off-impact-on-your-business>
>>
>> <https://www.telecomsworld.com/post/bt-to-shut-down-copper-network-by-2025>
>>
>> The Fritz!box 7530 will mean that you simply plug in your existing POTS
>> phone to the socket on the router and in theory everything should work
>> as normal.
>>
> Incorrect. The Fritz!box 7530 doesn't even have a socket into which a
> phone line can be plugged. It comes with a DSL cable only and
> instructions to plug that into the DSL side of a BT splitter or the DSL
> port of a two port BT plate, the other end into the DSL socket on the
> 7530. There is only 1 telephony related socket on the 7530 and that is
> to plug in an analogue 'phone, fax, answering machine etc.

Just out of interest I plugged an old handset into this socket and I get a
dialling tone. Dialling a number results in a engaged tone.

I guess this is because there’s no associated VOIP service set up at
present.

[Graham J]

Tim+ wrote:

[snip]

>>> The Fritz!box 7530 will mean that you simply plug in your existing POTS
>>> phone to the socket on the router and in theory everything should work
>>> as normal.
>>>
>> Incorrect. The Fritz!box 7530 doesn't even have a socket into which a
>> phone line can be plugged. It comes with a DSL cable only and
>> instructions to plug that into the DSL side of a BT splitter or the DSL
>> port of a two port BT plate, the other end into the DSL socket on the
>> 7530. There is only 1 telephony related socket on the 7530 and that is
>> to plug in an analogue 'phone, fax, answering machine etc.
>
> Just out of interest I plugged an old handset into this socket and I get a
> dialling tone. Dialling a number results in a engaged tone.
>

So if there's no socket on the Fritz!box 7530 into which a phone line
can be plugged what did you plug your phone into? Maybe there are
several versions of Fritz!box 7530 ??


--
Graham J

[Tweed]

https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/broadband-router

This explains it all. The inbuilt DECT basestation and the analogue phone
socket require an active VOIP setup.

“Telephony
Connect a VoIP account to the FRITZ!Box to control your broadband and voice
from a single interface. Up to six cordless telephones can be added to the
DECT base station, reducing the clutter of a separate telephone base
station and telephone wires around your house.

The built-in answering machine stores voice messages and sends them to you
by email, giving you the opportunity to call back if necessary.

The FRITZ!Box synchronises with your Google contacts so your home phone and
mobile contacts always match and are always up to date.”

Please note: To support VoIP through your FRITZ!Box you will need a
supported IP voice service.

[Tim+]

There is a socket to connect a phone to the router.
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/cmsdata/reviews/3691196/avm_fritz_box_7530_ports.jpg

Labelled “Fon”.

[Malcolm Loades]

The 7530 is just like the vast majority of other routers in only having
a DSL input.

Some other Fritz!box models have the ability to integrate a landline
into them so landline calls can be routed, rules followed, internal
answering machines used etc. Such integration is not possible with the
7530.

Malcolm

[Brian Gregory]

On 18/02/2021 10:10, Tim+ wrote:

In case you haven't found these yet:
https://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7530/
https://en.avm.de/service/manuals/fritzbox/

I found the manual to be a difficult read since it seems to be
translated from, presumably German, and uses some weird language.
For instance I think port forwarding is called Port sharing in the manual.

Note: while the Fritz!box looks like it's probably pretty good to me I
decided to use something else so I could have multiple separate LANs, so
I don't actually know very much about it at all.

--
Brian Gregory (in England).

[notya...@gmail.com]

Just set up a trial [free] account on Voipfone. I think you get five minutes free and then top up (min £5, which gives over 400 minutes of landline calls).

I have not used a Fritzbox, but the chances are it will be fairly simple to set up.

[Cliff Frisby]

Tim+ wrote:

<snip>

> Has anyone set up IP telephony though this router?

<snip>

Yes. I use it to associate a Sipgate account with a set of Panasonic DECT
(non-VOIP) phones, and it seems to work well (at least as far as I know!).

After my service with Zen had been provisioned on a new physical line, I
moved my BT number from an extant physical line to Sipgate (which had the
convenient side effect of terminating the BT service).

In fact, telephony is the only function of the Fritz!box 7530 I'm using -- I
use something else as a modem, and something else again for routing. At some
point I'd like to try replacing the Fritz altogether with an Asterisk
installation on my router.

Regarding the built-in answerphone, there is no way, as far as I know, to
configure an audible 'new message' indication, although you can configure it
to flash an LED and/or dispatch an email. (I use the email function to
implement a periodic beep by other means.)

It's quite handy to be able to log in occasionally to the 7520 and add
numbers on the call history to the phonebook -- by some magic the meaningful
names then become available on my DECT handsets' 'phonebook', as well as
showing up on the display when those numbers call me. (That may not sound
particularly exciting, but I never even had Caller ID when I was with BT.)

The call-blocking feature is also useful.

There is a socket for a POTS phone, which of course just connects that phone
to the VOIP service, same as any DECT handsets.

Cliff

[Tim+]

Well I’m now set up with Voipfone. It wasn’t straightforward but the
customer support is brilliant, especially as I haven’t paid them a penny
yet!

This is with a POTS phone plugged into the router. I successfully
registered a DECT handset to the router but I’m not having much luck
configuring the settings for this. Handset says “line in use” if I try to
use it.

I’m sure it’s something stupid I’ve done but I think a call to Zen and/or
voipfone should sort it out.

[Cliff Frisby]

Tim+ wrote:

<snip>

>
> Well I’m now set up with Voipfone. It wasn’t straightforward but the
> customer support is brilliant, especially as I haven’t paid them a penny
> yet!
>
> This is with a POTS phone plugged into the router.

Should we take it that this wired handset is working okay i.e. callable from
elsewhere using whatever number you have with Voipfone, and outgoing calls
possible (showing the same number at the other end)?

Probably best to be happy with that aspect before worrying too much about
the DECT leg.

<snip>

[notya...@gmail.com]

Glad my suggestion worked. I use Siemen's Gigaset boxes for VOIP and DECT.

[Phil]

I’ve got a Sipgate account set up with my FritzBox, as per instructions here

https://basichelp.sipgate.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/206981409-AVM-FRITZ-Box-All-models

Works great.

[Tim+]

I’ll need to have another go at this. I had it working for one evening. By
the next day it had died for some reason. :-(

[Tim+]

Well, prompted by you message (and an email from voipfone asking why I
wasn’t using their account) AND another firmware update on Fritzbox I
phoned up voipfone again and after some remote twiddling it seems to be
working properly! What’s more my DECT phones are working linked direct to
the router.

I have to say I’ve been very impressed by voipfone and the support I’ve had
considering that this all happened before I’d paid them a penny.

[Phil]

Excellent. Sounds like they’ve done a good job getting you up and running. The FritzBox seems to do a good job with VOIP. Been using it with my Sipgate account for over a year without any problems.

[Tim+]

Well I think it’s got better with the firmware updates. Voipfone did the
“teeth sucking” thing when the words Fritz box were first uttered but
they’ve persevered and made it work now.

[Phil]

Just checked and I’m a bit behind on firmware. 07.21, offering me an upgrade to 07.25. I’m always a bit reluctant to upgrade when everything is working fine already.

Have you tried the FritzBox Fon app? A good way of making/receiving calls on your smartphone/tablet with the VOIP account set up on your FritzBox. Works well on my iPad.

[Tim+]

No I haven’t. To be honest with so many inclusive minutes on my mobile
contract I wouldn’t bother with a chargeable system unless I specifically
wanted better sound quality for a call. I presume using the Fon app and
your VoIP account your normal VoIP charges will apply?

[Phil]

Correct. Your FritzBox just treats your smartphone/tablet as another handset and calls are made/received using the same VOIP account details you inputted.