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Landline phone

Maud24 — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 08:05:19 GMT

My 93yr old mum lives in sheltered housing. Ive bought her a new landlord telephone as she hasn't a clue with digital.

I plugged in but it doesnt work. Is there something I need to buy.

Her telephone what she has now does work still but the new one doesnt.

Any advice please

Re: Landline phone

iniltous — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 08:33:35 GMT

Are BT the provider ? , does she have broadband or just a telephone service ?

TBH , if you have a working old phone , and when you plug this new phone into exactly the same location connected in the same way but the new phone doesn’t work , then when reconnecting the old phone brings the service back on , ‘ Occams Razor’ suggests the simplest reason is the new phone is faulty .

Re: Landline phone

Maud24 — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 08:35:26 GMT

Yes a BT provider
Just a telephone service. The new one didnt work. Plugged the old one back in it did work.
What adapters do I need to purchase so a new phone works. As she keeps ringing by mistake emergency services so need a phone that can pin numbers in

Re: Landline phone

iniltous — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 08:59:31 GMT

What sort of phone have you bought , a corded one or cordless , when you say it doesn’t work , what’s the exact problem, no dialtone , or dialtone remains after the number has been ‘dialed’ , or you get announcements like ‘ the number you have dialed has not been recognised’

TBH, there is no adapter needed , that’s just for broadband users that can’t plug their phone directly into the broadband router (so as you don’t have broadband it’s irrelevant)

Your new corded or cordless phone plugged into the master socket in the same way as the old phone when the old phone works , and the new one doesn’t (assuming it’s no dialtone at all , rather than unable to break dialtone ) suggests it’s simply broken, even new stuff can be faulty, no adapter can fix that .

If you get dialtone , check the signaling settings, LD (loop disconnect, that’s pulses representing the number pressed , DTMF , that’s the tones you hear when pressing the number on a modern phone , normally it needs to be set to MF unless your current phone uses pulses , so if one setting doesn’t work try the other , but this is only if you get dialtone on the new phone …

Re: Landline phone

Maud24 — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 08:54:59 GMT

Its a corded phone. It doesnt work there is nothing.
I did think its the fault on the phone.
Thanks for the advice. Was thinking I need to buy something different so she can use the phone as its her life line being 93 yrs old.