This topic

Landline only customers

WesthenryA — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:12:42 GMT

Apologies for this rather long missive

I have been trying to help my next door neighbour who is in his 80's and totally analogue to update his landline phone as his existing one does not deal with menu systems. He did get some assistance with nuisance calls at the end of June and Call Protect has been added to his account. Since then we have been trying to get an upgraded phone to connect via his old socket without success. We are on the 3rd phone at the moment which also does not connect in his socket. The fault is not the phone as I have tested it on my line and it works. To be clear he does not have broadband or mobile only his landline, while I am full fibre.

Various external faults have been identified and fixed and an Openreach engineer did try the new phone in the house and said that for some reason the new phone didn't like it! the old phone still works. The phone wiring and socket internally are at least 50 years old and I am now wondering if these need to be upgraded as mine has been. I am becoming increasingly frustrated on his behalf at the inability of BT or Openreach to resolve this.

When I did manage to speak to someone who understood that he didn't have broadband she advised that there was a middle ground for landline only customers and that his would be activated on 20th August. Try as I might I have been unable to find any information on this middle ground.

Any suggestions/assistance would be most welcome. Please do not suggest 69188 as I've been waiting 1 hour for a guide to call me.

Re: Landline only customers

iniltous — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:43:25 GMT

When you say the existing phone doesn’t deal with menu systems are you saying it’s a rotary dial phone , and when a AVR system says something like ‘press1 for menu’ , they can’t because they don’t have ‘push buttons’ , and although you have tried to replace the rotary dial phone with a push button phone and that doesn’t work either ?
Very old rotary dial phones were hard wired (not plug and socket) and if you recon 50 years since it were looked at , 1976 is before plug and sockets , but presumably there is a modern phone socket otherwise how did you try a modern push button phone , can you confirm which it is , and when the new phone is connected can you hear the DTMF (tones) when you press the numbered buttons ?

There is a possibility that if this line is still connected to PSTN , and the line configuration is LD only (loop disconnect pulses ) rather than dual signalling LD/DTMF (tone signalling) if that’s the case then the exchange is only going to respond to LD , not DTMF , so the line card configuration needs changed to dual signalling, however as stated , before long , all standalone PSTN phone services if provided by BT will be moved off PSTN to PDPL (pre digital phone line ) , which is DTMF only , it’s arguably going to be on PDPL before you get a fault report raised to change the line card configuration to dual signalling, but if you can hear tones , that’s what you need to report , a change to dual signalling is needed on the PSTN exchange.

Re: Landline only customers

WesthenryA — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:52:19 GMT

No it is a push button phone but when you press relevant button line just goes blank. When the new phone is plugged in there isn't even a dialling tone although the phone does work on my line. With a previous modern phone the engineer was confused as the old phone had dialling tone and received calls but when the phone was plugged into the socket there was no dialling tone or reaction from it.

I suppose 50 years might be an exaggeration and it would be more like 40?

Having just spoken to the neighbour he is a little confused on timings but technology has never been of interest to him!

He did mention that he had an automated message this morning about the line being upgraded but hasn't received one to say that it has been completed so I will test again on Thursday and hope new phone working. If not you have given me the information needed when reporting fault

Thank you very much for your explanation and assistance . Will report back Thursday!

Re: Landline only customers

iniltous — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:50:41 GMT

If the old phone were push button , then the dual signalling etc is probably not the problem , the assumption was the customer had a rotary dial phone , if it’s a standard push button phone ( preferably corded one , so not a cordless phone system ) , and is plugged into the master socket then lifting the handset should obtain dialtone , and pressing any of the number buttons or the * and # keys , generate and audible ‘tone’ this is the most fundamental check, ….if no dialtone , then a fault needs to be raised as there is a line or exchange fault (and nothing to do with navigation around automated voice response systems ) FWIW , many of these AVR can be ‘steered’ by your voice as well as keyboard entry , the initial description suggested to myself that the call was successful to whatever business or organisation that was called , I assumed by using a rotary dial , but obviously without a phone with ‘buttons’ you can’t make a selection when asked to do so , this is now obviously not the case.

As stated it may ultimately irrelevant if by being moved from PSTN to PDPL ‘fixes’ ( that’s if the problem if it’s an exchange problem ) , if it’s a line problem that will still exist after the change to PDPL .

Re: Landline only customers

WesthenryA — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:22:44 GMT

Hello again. Well the line has supposedly been updated but the new phone still not recognised when plugged in to socket. The old phone still receives and makes calls but does not react when trying to respond to menu options. I obviously need to raise a fault but would like to know if there is a way of avoiding the bots as I have no desire to go through that process again when I need to speak to someone.

Re: Landline only customers

FEDUP2016 — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 18:03:23 GMT

Just ring BT Customer Services technical ask to be put through to Complaints the ask to speak to the duty manager.

There are a couple of gentlemen at Darlington or Middlesbrough who have the necessary wherewithal to make things happen. Don't waste your time with Community technical gurus - customers just require good solutions delivered - we are not interested in technical guff.

HOWEVER There is just one slight important terminal wrinkle some of the younger modern Openreach engineers just don't know about some of our ancient set ups. So you will need to explain to the above that the right expertise needs to be sent.

Don't forget your friend does not have to have broadband. You do not have to buy a standard broadband internet package to keep your phone. Providers are required to offer "landline-only" digital plans. The provider will install a basic internet routing box solely to run the telephone service, meaning you can keep your exact same landline service without paying for web browsing capabilities.

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/moving-to-dv/dv-landline-only

Re: Landline only customers

WesthenryA — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:47:24 GMT

Thank you for your response . I have been convinced for some time that this was an internal issue but no-one was listening to my suggestions. This was highlighted when the engineer couldn't understand why the new phone didn't work.

Just to confirm number to use is 0330 1234 150?

Again many thanks and I will let you know how it goes

Re: Landline only customers

iniltous — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 10:22:50 GMT

Just to clarify (now you state that the line is no longer on PSTN , is now on PDPL, and is still connected to the existing telephone socket ) that the original push button phone (perhaps you can give the manufacturer and model number ) can make calls , thus proving that the ‘tone dialing’ part of that phone works (and the BT telephone system for that matter ) , but when you call a business that has a menu system ( dial 1 for appointments, dial 2 for prescriptions, dial 3 for whatever, that type of thing ) you can’t navigate through the menus , a replacement phone you have obtained, that works fine on a different line (presumably in a different location/house) doesn’t work at all in this address on the now PDPL line .

This doesn’t make much sense, the tone signaling clearly working on the old phone but not the new phone , the tone signaling on the phone that can make calls , stops working on menu systems.

Something to have in mind , some modern phones can ‘mute’ the keypad once a call is established, however this is usually mobile phones , using the old phone that partially works , if on a menu system, where the status waiting for an input (like press 1 for appointments or whatever) when you press the number 1 key , can you hear the tone being generated ?

Lastly is there anything also connected to the line at the address , a fall/panic alarm system, an old Sky TV box , an extension bell ,ann extension sockets , anything at all ?