@BarrierReef Ignite Home Phone is still a landline service. You continue to use the same telephones and the Ignite Home Phone service can also be connected to your in-home telephone wiring.
The primary difference is that the Ignite Home Phone service is delivered through the Ignite Internet modem rather then using a separate modem.
For more information about Ignite Home Phone, please go to:
https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/how-to-setup-ignite-home-phone
https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/ignite-home-phone-faqs
@BarrierReef when you switch over to the Ignite system, if you choose to keep your landline, it will become an internet connected landline. That is to say, that the Home Phone modem that you currently have will be replaced in part by the modem. The XB6 and XB7 modems provide telephone capability in addition to ethernet and wifi capabilities. Essentially, an all in one box.
The bigger problem is the placement of the XB6 or XB7 modem. Traditionally the Home phone modem resides in or near the structured wiring cabinet in the basement, where all of the house telephone cables start or terminate, depending on your point of view. In addition, if you have a home alarm system, that system is connected to the telephone system so that its the first device that is connected to the home phone modem. From there, the alarm system connects to the rest of the house telephone system. Its done that way so that the alarm system can capture the line at any moment to place a call to the alarm company, regardless of any call that is in progress. So, the presence of an alarm system can complicate the Ignite TV system installation.
In order to see the best wifi performance from the XB6 or XB7 modem, the best place for it to reside is probably on the main floor of your home. That depends of course on how much use you see from your basement and upper floors and how much of that use depends on good wifi. In any event parking the modem on the main floor presents challenges connecting it to the telephone system and to any existing alarm system. In theory you can simply disconnect the current Home Phone modem from the house telephone system, which leaves the house telephone cabling in an open, available state, and then connect the modems telephone port to any existing telephone port in the house. In theory that should work ok. Ideally the source for any telephone system would connect to the telephone 66 block which is in the structured wiring cabinet in the basement, as your current Home Phone modem is probably connected today.
The complication is whether or not you have an alarm system, which should be visible in or near the structured wiring cabinet in the basement. The decision at this point is whether or not to adopt one of following possible paths:
1. Park the modem in the basement so that the telephone port connects to the existing telephone system and alarm system. This will require the placement of pods upstairs to see reasonable wifi performance which the set top boxes rely on.
2. Park the modem upstairs and connect the modem to any existing wallplate telephone port. This would require a telephone cable splitter mounted on the modem to connect an upstairs phone at the modem's location and all connect the modem to the house telephone system. If you don't need a telephone at the upstairs location, then you would simply connect the modem to the wallplate telephone port. This would also require a slight wiring change to the house telephone wiring if you happen to have an alarm system running. The telephone cable running downstairs would have to be connected to the alarm system instead of the rest of the house telephone wiring. The alarm system then connects to the rest of the house telephone wiring as it is now. This remains unchanged from its current connection to the house wiring system. Rogers will not do this. You would have to call in an alarm system tech or a telephone/internet installer company to make this change. Its actually pretty simple to do.
So, yes, the home phone is still a home phone, provided thru the modem, but, the location of the modem is complicated by the fact that the house telephone cable system starts or ends in the basement, not upstairs near any possible modem location. I think houses have been built this way for, well, forever. Comcast seems to have decided to throw out the existing construction and building practices and gone its own way. And don't forget, throw in the added complication of an alarm system. This is food for thought for anyone considering switching over to the Ignite system. Once its done, you probably wouldn't look at it for several years, if ever, depending on what future modems might bring in terms of internet, tv and phone capabilities.
Technically your home phone is already on a digital platform when its on Rogers home Phone, its just moving to a DIFFERENT digital platform when you switch to the Ignite package which is better, so its easier for Rogers to give ONE Box with ALL your services instead of having separate Box for internet, separate Box for home phone, separate box for TV, etc. hope this makes sense?
Technically I don't know if Internet connected landline is the correct word to use to describe it, as I'm sure the phone traffic is not travelling thru the public internet, its probably thru a private segment, so i feel much better knowing this. but yes its always been thru a private network segment and never the public internet.
Technically I don't know if Internet connected landline is the correct word to use to describe it, as I'm sure the phone traffic is not travelling thru the public internet, its probably thru a private segment, so i feel much better knowing this. but yes its always been thru a private network segment and never the public internet.
Just to add to Datalink's comment, if you have one of the First Generations of home alarm systems, those alarm systems were usually monitored thru a phone line and the Phone connection needs to be wired up a certain way so the alarm will seize the line when it communicates with the central monitoring station.
However times have changed and Most people who have had an alarm system installed in the Last Decade likely have a newer system that does NOT rely on landlines OR has optional modules to add to your system to monitor it over different networks instead of a traditional land line.
Using a traditional landline for your alarm monitoring in 2021 is kind of outdated now and its a good idea to look into ways to monitor it via other methods like thru your LAN connection, thru your Wi-Fi connection, thru a separate 4G/5G Cellular connection, or heck, even smoke signals lmao just kidding but you get the point but if you really still insist on using a landline (Such as Rogers Home Phone or Rogers IGNITE Home Phone) to monitor your alarm system in 2021, it *will* still work, however you MAY require a more complex wiring job to get it to work and it may limit where you want to place your modem gateway.
@BarrierReef I didn't want to overcomplicate the response to a simple question. If you provide us with more information about what services you currently have, how things are set up, and any concerns that you have with a potential switch to Ignite for any of your services, we will be more than happy to provide you with guidance and information that is specific to your situation.
Hi I am planning to convert to an ignite phone as part of my bundle and have a similar situation as described above.
Will I be able to park the modem on the main floor and connect a cordless phone and the modem to a wallplate phone jack using a phone cable splitter?
I have an old alarm system which I believe is already separately connected to the phone cable running downstairs. I also see a separate phone connection to the phonejacks in the rest of the house. See attached photos showing the current rogers phone equipment (photo1), the alarm system in the grey box with its own phonejack(photo 2/3), the jack for the rest of the phones in the house (photo4), the demarcation point of the phone line is not connected.(photo5/6)
The alarm has its own backup power - a battery.
Do I need to connect a UPS to the modem to ensure it works during power outages?
Any input on this would be appreciated.
Thanks
Hello, @NATHAN55.
Welcome to our Community. Thank you for your detailed post and the images; they help us understand the situation better.
Will I be able to park the modem on the main floor and connect a cordless phone and the modem to a wallplate phone jack using a phone cable splitter?
- This is likely possible.
Do I need to connect a UPS to the modem to ensure it works during power outages?
- In most scenarios, it will not work.
Tagging our Resident Experts to share their input:
Cheers,
RogersMoin
@NATHAN55 wrote: 1. Will I be able to park the modem on the main floor and connect a cordless phone and the modem to a wallplate phone jack using a phone cable splitter?2. I have an old alarm system ...
3. Do I need to connect a UPS to the modem to ensure it works during power outages?
I have the following comments.
1. This "backfeed" to the home's phone jacks, should work. I did it when I did my Ignite installation. However, I now have a new cordless home phone system with the base plugged into the Gateway on its own without the need to "backfeed" other jacks since I don't use any of those jacks in the home any more. My new cordless system has 4 handsets, which is more than enough for us in our small home. You need to decide how many you need.
2. I'm not an alarm system expert, but depending on how it's wired, it may or may not work in the current configuration. Others will need to comment, but you may require a "rewiring" by an expert in the field. As mentioned earlier in this thread you may wish to consider other alarm options, like WiFi, or Cell phone, etc.
3. The Ignite-based home phone will likely be down in the event of a power failure in your area. This is because the node feeding the various homes in the area will likely be down because most of these nodes no longer have battery backup or the backup is minimal. The home phone is not something you can rely on in the event of a power failure. Most people have cell phones as "backup" or as their primary phones. If there was a power failure in my area, my Internet and home phone went down already many years ago during a power failure, even before I switched to IgniteTV two years ago. I had UPS on all the appropriate equipment. The node batteries are extremely expensive and no service providers are replacing them since most people have cell phones for backup. Bell Fibe is the same for example.
When you switch to Ignite, you will no longer have separate internet and phone modem, you will replace it with ONE Unified Ignite Gateway modem.
This modem will provide home phone (if subscribed), TV (if subscribed) and obviously internet signals to your house.
Some people have the phone modem in a different location than their internet modem, and they like it this way, maybe they configured their house a certain way and wanted this, however once you switch to ignite, this is no longer possible.
The good news is if your house has existing coax and/or telephone jacks, you can still have a fairly flexible and convenient installation.
I suggest NOT to install the ignite modem gateway in the basement near your Hydro unless absolutely necessary. Remember, this is where your wifi signals will be broadcast from, so it should be in a central place in your home, if your putting it in your basement and you use the phone on the upper level, imagine the signals have to travel thru all the house material, by the time it gets to your upstairs, it may not be as strong as you want it.
Another thing, if you have a home alarm system THAT IS MONITORED, then that complicates your setup. A lot of rogers techs will simply put the modem in the basement if you advise them this, but hey guess what? it CAN be installed elsewhere, but you would have to hire a professional to do a more complex installation, as rogers techs are not responsible to touch ot tinker with your monitored alarm. The good news is lots of other private techs will do this in a heartbeat. You can also consider seeing if wireless monitoring is available thru your alarm provider, as monitoring via a phone line is becoming less and less common.
Once the output of your ignite modem is connected to ANY jack in your house, it automatically activates ALL the other jacks with a dialtone, so you are free to plug in a phone set or cordless phone base station into any available jack. the only thing you must be aware of is its complicated because if you have a monitored alarm system, those must be the first device on your phone because it is designed to "siezure" the phone line so it can call out even if you left a phone off the hook in another room. this type of setup will not allow you to backfeed the phone connection from the ignite gateway modem into your existing wall jacks unless some serious re-wiring is done.
Unlike Bell's modem, the Rogers ignite does not have a back up battery, so if you want it to work, you would have to plug it into a UPS. The modem will continue to work when the hydro goes out, however if some Rogers networking equipment on your street or neighbourhood stop working during a hydro outage, then its possible your services will be down even though you may have a UPS. not all rogers infrastructure works during a hydro outage.
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