Weird phoneline issue

[s1962a]

We've got a weird problem with our BT line, where our phone doesn't ring when someone calls. Everything else works fine (making calls, broadband etc) but the phone just doesn't ring - weird!

We've tried a couple of other phones and i've tried a different adsl splitter but it still doesn't work. There are no extensions connected to the master socket, and using the test socket doesn't help either.

Any ideas on what it could be?

 

[bernardgreen]

When a person calls your phone do they hear ringing tone or does it go immediately to silence or background noise. ?

If it goes immediatley to silence or background noise then most likely fault is a short between wires 3 and five in your internal wiring. Or a reversal of 2 and 5 between two sockets which both have micro-filters plugged in. This fault makes the exchange think the phone has been answered and it stops ringing the bell. It is called a ring trip.

Remove the internal wiring from the master socket and test with a known good phone in the master socket. If it rings then your internal wiring is faulty.

If it still doesn't ring when the caller is hearing ringing tone then come back for more help.

 

[s1962a]

Thats the weird thing - the caller just hears ringing as normal without any disconnections etc. If I pick up the phone when it's ringing, it connects as normal. I tried it by standing near the phone and calling it with my mobile. Initially I thought it must be the phone but it does the same thing with another one.

 

[bernardgreen]

So there is no ring trip effect, the fault is the bell ( sounder ) in the phones is not getting the ringing voltage.

Has it ever worked ? If so what happen about the time it stopped working ?

Did you change things to get the broadband modem ( hub ) connected to the phone line ?.

What does your master socket ( where the BT cable teminates in the house ) look like. ? Does it have a removable front part that has a plug at the back that plugs into a socket on the part fixed to the wall ?

 

[s1962a]

So there is no ring trip effect, the fault is the bell ( sounder ) in the phones is not getting the ringing voltage.

Has it ever worked ? If so what happen about the time it stopped working ?

Did you change things to get the broadband modem ( hub ) connected to the phone line ?.

What does your master socket ( where the BT cable teminates in the house ) look like. ? Does it have a removable front part that has a plug at the back that plugs into a socket on the part fixed to the wall ?

It's one of the new ones as it was installed last year by BT. We didnt' have a chance to test it out since the whole house was being refurbished, so the issue could have been there from the beginning. On their advice, i've tried connecting the phone directly to the test socket, but that doesn't change anything.

Think I might have to call BT and get them to have a look. Although they've said they'll charge £130 if they find something wrong with my own equipment. I'm not sure what else I can check.

cheers

 

[Paul-man]

if it's not your phone handset, it's likely to be the equipment at the telephone exchange. Particularly if you are on AXE10 equipment (but you're unlikely to know this).

If your phoneline comes straight into a BT or Openreach NTE5 (as pictured on the bt fault reporting site) and you have checked with a known ringing handset, you should be safe from picking up a visit charge.

 

[simonpolly]

It could be a exchange fault,sometimes the relay in the exchange equipment goes faulty and instead of ringing you just hear a clicking sound, a line test would not pick this up,the only way of telling is connecting a butt phone on the line and carrying out a ring back test.

Plug a known working phone into the test socket on the master socket dial 17070 then option 1 for ring back test then hang up, if it does not ring back and your using a KNOWN working phone then there is a fault.

 

[s1962a]

It could be a exchange fault,sometimes the relay in the exchange equipment goes faulty and instead of ringing you just hear a clicking sound, a line test would not pick this up,the only way of telling is connecting a butt phone on the line and carrying out a ring back test.

Plug a known working phone into the test socket on the master socket dial 17070 then option 1 for ring back test then hang up, if it does not ring back and your using a KNOWN working phone then there is a fault.

Just to be sure, I took our phone to my mums and tried it there - it rings no problem. Took it back to the house and tried the 17070 number with ringback. The phone didn't ring at all, and when I picked it up (assuming the ringback was working) I got the 'line test complete' message. I'm putting it down to BT not wiring it correctly when they put the master socket in, or an issue with the exchange like you've suggested.

They're coming around next week, so hopefully will get resolved.

Cheers

 

[bernardgreen]

I agree with Simonpolly that there is very good chance the fault is at the exchange where the supply of ringing voltage to your line card is missing.

It may suddenly start working now the repair process has started and they check the line where it leaves the exchange and realise what the fault is.

 

[s1962a]

Update:-

It was indeed an exchange issue and has been fixed today by BT. They were supposed to come around today to fix the issue, but we got a call in the morning to say it's been fixed at the exchange. My wife was a bit startled when the home phone actually rang and it was BT informing us it had been fixed.

Thanks to all for your advice!