The phone socket on the wall retires when a digital phone service arrives, and the landline moves into the back of the broadband hub instead. Every major UK provider handles the same job slightly differently. BT and EE put a green phone port on the hub, Sky takes the ordinary UK plug straight into a port marked UK, Virgin Media posts out an adapter for its grey ports, and Vodafone packs an adapter in the router box. This guide names the exact port on each hub, explains the RJ11 and BS6312 plug difference that catches most people out, covers cordless base stations and DECT pairing, and finishes with the reasons a correctly connected phone can still stay silent.
Unplug the phone from the wall socket and plug it into the phone port on the back of the hub. BT and EE hubs use a green port, Sky hubs take the standard UK plug in the UK port, Virgin Media supplies an adapter for the grey port labelled 1, and Vodafone boxes an RJ11 adapter with the hub. Cordless phones only need the base station connected, and the line goes live on switchover day.
Key Takeaways
- The BT Smart Hub 2 and EE Smart Hub Plus both use a green phone port on the back, and on the Smart Hub 2 it often ships hidden under a black Digital Voice sticker.
- Sky Broadband Hubs and the Sky Max Hub take the phone's ordinary cable with the standard UK plug in the port marked UK, so no adapter is needed.
- Virgin Media and Vodafone hubs use small RJ11 phone sockets, and both providers supply an adapter that accepts the wide BS6312 plug found on most UK phones.
- Cordless phones only need the base station plugged into the hub, and every paired handset around the house keeps working through it.
- Nothing works before the provider's switchover date, so a silent line on a correctly connected phone usually means activation rather than wiring.
The phone now plugs into the hub rather than the wall
The UK's analogue phone network is being withdrawn, and calls now travel over broadband instead of the old copper line. BT calls its replacement Digital Voice, EE calls it Digital Home Phone, Sky calls it Internet Calls, and Virgin Media and Vodafone simply describe a phone that plugs into the hub. Whatever the name, the practical change is identical. The wall sockets around the house stop carrying a dial tone, and the phone connects to a port on the back of the router.
Two rules apply to every provider. First, the hub port stays dead until the switchover date the provider confirms by letter, email or text, so plugging in early proves nothing. EE states plainly that a phone connected before the switchover date will not work, and the same applies across BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone. Second, the hub needs mains power for calls, so the phone dies with the electricity, which is covered at the end of this guide. When the phone is connected correctly and the date has passed but calls still fail, the Digital Voice not working guide works through the faults in order.
RJ11 hub ports and the old BS6312 wall plug
Most UK phones end in the wide, flat BS6312 plug that has fitted British wall sockets since the 1980s. Most hub phone ports are the much smaller RJ11 socket used internationally. The two are not compatible, and this single detail causes most failed connections.
There are three ways round it. Virgin Media and Vodafone supply an adapter that accepts the BS6312 plug on one side and fits the hub's RJ11 socket on the other, so the phone's existing cable keeps working. Many phones have a detachable line cord, and swapping it for a plain RJ11 to RJ11 cable removes the adapter entirely. BT, EE and Sky sidestep the problem in hardware, since the green port on BT and EE hubs accepts the common RJ11 end and Sky's UK port takes the BS6312 plug directly.
Two honest caveats before buying anything. Very old phones rely on a ring capacitor inside the old master socket, so a bare adapter can leave them dialling out fine but never ringing, and only adapters that include a ring capacitor fix that. Pulse dialling rotary phones are not supported on digital lines at all, since BT and EE both require tone dialling phones.
BT Smart Hub 2 hides a green phone port behind a sticker
BT's Digital Voice runs through the Smart Hub 2, which has a green phone port on the back. On many units the port ships covered by a black sticker with Digital Voice printed on it, so peel that off first. From switchover day, unplug the phone's cable from the wall socket and push it into the green port. A cordless phone only needs its base station connected, and the handsets keep working around the house as before.
BT's own Digital Voice handsets skip the port completely, because the Smart Hub 2 has a DECT base built in. Holding the WPS button on the hub pairs them wirelessly, and the handsets store contacts and settings on the hub itself. For a phone that has to live in another room, BT supplies a Digital Voice Adapter that plugs into any mains socket and behaves like a wireless extension of the green port. Any tone dialling phone of any age works through the hub or the adapter, according to BT. When the port is connected and the date has passed but the line stays dead, the BT Digital Voice not working guide covers the fixes.
EE Smart Hub Plus uses the same green phone port
EE's Digital Home Phone works with EE and BT smart hubs that have a green phone port on the back, and the current EE Smart Hub Plus fits that description. The connection is identical to BT's. Move the phone's cable, or the cordless base station's cable, from the wall socket to the green port on the hub, and give the service a moment to settle, since EE notes that incoming calls start working about 15 minutes after setup.
EE's own digital handsets pair wirelessly instead, by pressing and holding the WPS button on the hub for two seconds during handset setup. For other rooms, the EE Digital Home Phone Adapter syncs to the hub and acts as an extension socket wherever there is a mains plug, though EE warns that phones bought before 2015 may not ring while connected through the adapter. As with BT, connecting before the confirmed switchover date does nothing. Persistent silence after the date is covered in the EE Digital Home Phone not working guide.
Sky hubs take the standard UK phone plug with no adapter
Sky is the easy one. The Sky Broadband Hub and the newer Sky Max Hub both carry a phone socket on the rear marked UK, and it accepts the standard BS6312 plug already fitted to the phone's own cable. Sky's setup guide says simply to plug the home phone into the UK port using the cable that came with the phone, so no adapter or new lead is needed.
The hub contains the analogue telephone adapter that turns the phone's signal into Internet Calls, which is why the phone must be in the hub and not the wall. Sky's guide is explicit that a phone left connected to a phone socket will not work once Internet Calls is active. Cordless phones follow the usual rule, base station into the UK port, handsets paired to the base as normal. A line that stays silent after full fibre goes live is usually activation or a hub restart away from working, and the Sky Internet Calls not working guide runs through the sequence.
Virgin Media hubs need the supplied adapter in grey port 1
Virgin Media posts an adapter to customers ahead of the landline switchover, because its hubs use RJ11 phone sockets and most UK phones carry the wide BS6312 plug. On the back of the Hub 3, Hub 4 and Hub 5 sit two grey phone ports, and Virgin's instruction is to use the top grey port labelled 1.
On switchover day, plug the adapter into grey port 1, unplug the phone's line cable from the wall socket, and push that cable into the adapter. Wait a couple of minutes for the dial tone to appear, then make a test call. A cordless system only needs the base station moved, and a separate call blocking box moves across the same way, its cable into the adapter rather than the wall.
Lost or missing adapters can be reordered from Virgin, and third party BS6312 to RJ11 adapters are widely sold, with ring capacitor versions available for older phones that dial out but never ring. Once the adapter is seated and the wait has passed, remaining faults belong to the Virgin Media phone not working guide.
Vodafone hubs include an RJ11 adapter in the box
Vodafone's digital landline follows the same pattern on the Vodafone WiFi Hub, the THG3000, and the newer Ultra Hub. Both carry small RJ11 phone sockets on the back, labelled with a phone symbol or TEL, and where two ports are present the first one is the one to use. Vodafone includes an adapter with the router that accepts the standard UK phone plug, so the phone's existing cable connects through it, or a plain RJ11 to RJ11 cable does the same job on phones with a detachable cord.
After the switch, only the hub carries the line. Vodafone is clear that any extra telephone wall sockets in the home stop working, so extension phones either move next to the hub, join a cordless base station plugged into it, or wait for a DECT multi handset setup. Vodafone also notes that devices wired to the old copper line, such as some older alarms, may not work on the digital service. A dead line after connection and activation is picked apart in the complete digital voice fix guide, which covers Vodafone alongside every other provider.
DECT bases pair once and cover the whole house
Cordless phones make digital landlines far simpler than they first appear, because only the base station touches the hub. Plug the base into the hub's phone port, keep it on mains power, and every handset already paired to that base keeps ringing wherever it charges. Nothing about the switchover breaks the pairing between a DECT base and its handsets.
Provider handsets are the exception to the cable rule. BT Digital Voice handsets and EE's digital handsets pair by DECT directly to the hub's built in base using the WPS button, with no cable at all. That built in DECT base is designed for the providers' own handsets, so the dependable route for any other cordless phone remains the base station into the phone port.
Range planning matters more than before, since the base or the hub now anchors the phone system. BT and EE sell their adapters as wireless extensions for distant rooms, Virgin Media and Vodafone do not offer an equivalent, and a multi handset DECT pack with the base at the hub is the tidy answer for phones upstairs on any provider.
A silent line after connecting usually means activation, not wiring
When the phone sits in the right port and the line stays dead, run the checks in this order. Confirm the switchover date has actually arrived, since the port carries no dial tone before it. Restart the hub with the phone still connected, because the hub often needs a reboot to pick up its new phone settings, and allow that activation can lag by a day or more after the confirmed date. Reseat both ends of the cable and any adapter, and confirm the correct port, green on BT and EE, UK on Sky, grey port 1 on Virgin Media, the first phone port on Vodafone. Test with a plain corded phone if one is available, which separates a line problem from a dead handset, and remember that a phone that dials out but never rings points at an adapter without a ring capacitor or a pre 2015 phone on a wireless adapter.
One permanent change deserves planning rather than troubleshooting. A digital landline needs the hub powered, so calls, including 999, stop in a power cut. Ofcom requires providers to protect landline dependent customers, and the digital landline power cut rules guide explains the one hour rule, free battery back up units and how to qualify.