VoIP How to: Voice reinjection

In BT terminology, Voice Reinjection is the way to route voice signals from a VoIP service onto the existing home telephone wiring. This will become more common as copper pairs are replaced by optical fibre.

In the meantime, if you have a copper pair from A&A (i.e. without telephone service on that copper pair) and use VoIP, you may want to route the voice signals from VoIP onto the existing home telephone wiring.

This page gives some ideas of how this can be achieved without installing extra phone sockets.

NTE5c and VDSL Service Specific FacePlate

A modern Openreach installation will terminate the copper pair on an NTE5c master socket which will have a VDSL SSFP clipped to the front of it.

The VDSL SSFP provides two sockets - an RJ45 to connect to the modem/router, and a telephone socket for a local handset. The VDSL SSFP also feeds the voice signals to the home telephone wiring via the NTE5c.

If one plugs an Analogue Telephone Adaptor into the router via Ethernet, then the ATA provides the voice signals on an RJ11 socket. This is fine to connect, using an RJ11 plug to phone plug lead (with ringing capacitor), to a local handset - but fails to connect to the home telephone wiring.

One can connect the ATA voice signals to the home telephone wiring, but it means some modifications to the VDSL SSFP. It's probably a good idea to buy a spare VDSL SSFP, so one can revert to a standard setup easily.

Modifying the VDSL SSFP

These modifications need some degree of technical know-how, and you might need to consult someone if you feel you don't have that know-how.

The VDSL SSFP doesn't use the bell capacitor in the NTE5c - it provides its own bell capacitor, and so eases the requirement of the RJ11 plug to phone plug lead.