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No dial tone after copperswitch off at exchange is this normal

Cannonf — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:08:11 GMT

Recently our old copper landline has been swapped to copperless.

The swap has happened ONLY at the exchange (about 2 miles away) .

The connection from exchange to household remains 'copper' so we are still using the master socket for old landline (fyi we don't have BT internet/router or anything like that - just the old phoneline)

The phone works on both outgoings & incoming calls after the swap, however unlike the old system when you pick up the phone to start dialing, we don't hear a dial tone like before.

The only time we know the phone line is actually working is when we finish dialing & we then hear phone beeps & ringing when waiting for phone on other end to be answered

My question... Is this normal ?

On copper switch off/exchange conversion - old copper landline phones won't hear a dial tone when you pick it up ?

Searching online there's conflicting results, some say you should, other say you don't, other say 'its a feature that needs turning on'

(Incidentally, we had no warning this was going to happen & we were without a phone for at least 4days while waiting for an engineer to turn up to check our line, only then we found out about the exchange swapover... Are we due compensation ?)

Thank in advance

Re: No dial tone after copperswitch off at exchange is this normal

iniltous — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:22:40 GMT

If you had a ‘regular’ phone only service (no broadband at all) and the phone has always been (and still is) connected to a socket on the wall …then a PDPL (pre digital phone line ) is what you get moved onto , to enable you to be taken off the soon to be retired PSTN phone system, the only difference for some is the need to dial the full number including the STD code even for local numbers , many areas had to do this anyway .

This change effectively means nothing is needed from you , no visit to your home , no router etc ,no worries over power outages affecting the phone service, its the same phone in the same socket in the wall , and yes you should have dialtone when lifting the receiver.

As far as not receiving any notification of the date you were to be moved to PDPL , then you should have received something , if you have no broadband then it’s likely there is no email address (clearly an email is pointless if no broadband to access it ) and if a letter were sent by the post , you are at the mercy of the Royal Mail to deliver it .

Are you due compensation ? , for what ? , your service is still available and arguably no different to making a call on a mobile (no dial-tone on mobiles ) ….before you report this as a fault you probably should try an alternative landline handset incase that is the issue

Re: No dial tone after copperswitch off at exchange is this normal

Cannonf — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:18:39 GMT

Ok, firstly - any idea why no dial tone then, despite phone calls in & out work ?

Did BT forget to switch something on at the exchange?

Will I have to contact BT yet again?

Secondly, about compensation - I apologise if I didn't give full details.

On Sunday morning we tried to use landline, after dialing I heard the dialing tones then a weird pulsating buzzing noise - tried calling mobile - same thing. Tried mobile to call landline - nothing, no connection

So I contacted BT same day. Was told there was a network issue & engineers were being sent out. Got msg back later - aim to fix in 2 days.

Sunday/Monday - still no landline.

Called BT again Tuesday. They informed problem still exists & I had to book engineer to come round to check houseline

Engineer was booked for Thursday

Engineer turned up early.. did tests in house, then left - came back about 2 hours later & this is when we were FIRST told about the copper switch off/ conversion at the exchange - then he left

It wasn't until late evening we got a call through landline saying it was now working (although no dial tone when we tried)

We had reported a fault & had no landline for 4 days knearly 5) & despite calling BT twice, at no time did they mention the exchange changeover - all they kept saying is 'theres a problem on the network & we're working on it'

So we reported a fault, had no service for 4days & BT admitted there was a fault & never mentioned the changeover, so I was just asking - would we eligible for compensation for lack of service ?

(Fyi - we were also waiting for a phone call from the hospital so you can understand why we were so concerned for having no landline)

My TV company has to compensate for lack of service if it extends by more than 2 working days so does BT ?

Re: No dial tone after copperswitch off at exchange is this normal

Manatarms84 — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 06:16:55 GMT

For compensation - BT have 2 working days to have Openreach fix the fault from the day after reported. If this does not happen within that time scale, you get a set compensation amount per day (Excluding those first 2 working days and the day it is fixed. This will be automatically applied 30 days after the fault has been fixed.

See the BT site on auto compensation for a delay in repair to your service - this explains it in full and breaks down the compensation

Automatic Compensation | Account and billing | BT Help

Re: No dial tone after copperswitch off at exchange is this normal

iniltous — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:15:46 GMT

I’ve no idea how PDPL ( if that’s what you are on ) delivers dialtone , and TBH , there is no evidence you were transferred onto it apart from the vague comment by the tech , FWIW , I originally suspected you had been moved to PDPL but on reflection I don’t think you have , but who knows , asking the BT representatives is probably pointless, if you speak to the tech again, ask , is this now a PDPL or am I still on the PSTN network , and hopefully the OR tech will know the difference.

TBH , it’s far easier to imagine a PSTN fault where calls are OK , but dialtone is missing , a simple line card fault , fixed by changing the line card or more likely, re provisioning your line onto a different line card and rejumpering your ‘line’ , rather than the somewhat mysterious PDPL , but regardless, if you have no dialtone it’s a fault , so irrespective of which system you are on , PSTN or PDPL , your fault hasn’t been fixed , you should check if the fault is still open , indicating they know it’s not fixed and are still working on it , or closed , in which case you need to re-report it , or more accurately get the original report resurrected.

As far as compensation, you may or may not qualify, with telephony it’s a total loss of service that is compensated for , so your current situation, making and receiving calls but no dialtone may not qualify…., if you did qualify, Sunday doesn’t count as a working day , Monday presumably the report day , 2 days to fix , compensation every day after this , you may arguably be due a day compensation for Wednesday if they accept Sunday as the report day , either way it’s not 4 days compensation.

TBH , because of the lack of notification of being moved onto PDPL , I suspect you simply have a regular PSTN exchange fault , which illustrates to an extent why the move to IP telephony is necessary, the underlying PSTN exchange tech is over 40 years old , and the spare parts and arguably the knowledgable staff who maintained it are no longer unavailable.

Finally you should as indicated previously try a different handset just in case it’s your own telephone handset that’s got the problem , however unlikely that is , it’s a possibility.

Re: No dial tone after copperswitch off at exchange is this normal

garybs29 — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:29:02 GMT

I doubt it's been switched from copper tbh, multiple communications would be sent first & if they're missed there's another problem entirley