This topic

Phone line issues.

redboxer850 — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 17:51:41 GMT

Hi,

my elderly relative is having issues with his phone/line.

i was with him this afternoon. I rung him from my mobile, the phone was ringing but when I answered the call his landline stopped ringing but I still had the ringtone on my mobile.

if I tried to ring my mobile from his landline, nothing happened (no ringing)

We bought another phone but still had the same symptoms.

we tried to contact bt, they said (text) they’d tested the line and it was ok.

thanks.

Re: Phone line issues.

WSH — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 21:34:06 GMT

Just so you're aware, this is a customer-to-customer self help forum and you are not talking to BT. The only BT employees on here are the moderators and they don't necessarily read all posts. They also do not have access to customer accounts.

If anyone had an answer I think they would have replied by now. Your best bet is probably to phone BT customer services and report the problem.

Re: Phone line issues.

Peter_W — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 07:36:00 GMT

Good morning, @redboxer850

If the fault checker hasn't highlighted any issues on the line, I'd definitely recommend getting in touch with our team as @WSH has highlighted above, and they can help investigate things further from there.

Also it's worth double checking to make sure they haven't been migrated to Digital Voice - this is our replacement for the traditional copper phone line (PSTN) which is being phased out, and requires the phone to be connected to the Green socket on their BT Hub rather than the traditional wall socket.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

Peter

Re: Phone line issues.

IrememberBuzby — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:36:27 GMT

I have been 'migrated to Digital Voice' but have copper from cabinet to house. If I try to ring someone I have to dial twice as nothing happens the first time. I almost need to wake it up. Progress!!

Does anyone have this issue or know how to fix it?

The fault checker highlights that there is an issue with the line and the engineers that attend investigate and replace kit. The customer complaints team just encourage me to leave my contract free of charge.

I need a landline as our mobile signal here is not great.

Re: Phone line issues.

WSH — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:39:41 GMT

I take it you are aware that with Digital Voice you have to put the whole number in, including the STD code. Local numbers will no longer work.

Re: Phone line issues.

IrememberBuzby — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:43:24 GMT

Yep

Re: Phone line issues.

Kimberlin — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:44:31 GMT

@IrememberBuzby Worth pointing out that if you have a fairly recent mobile phone that is capable of WiFi calling, you don’t need a mobile signal to make calls from your mobile as the calls are routed through the router itself. This is how those of us who haven’t had a landline for years manage perfectly well on a daily basis making calls from home in poor signal areas.

Re: Phone line issues.

IrememberBuzby — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:46:40 GMT

The whole country used to have a landline network that would still work in a power cut. Now if the power goes we are stuffed.

Re: Phone line issues.

IrememberBuzby — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:50:53 GMT

Thank you, maybe I should embrace progress. Do you also have a power back up.

Re: Phone line issues.

Kimberlin — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:52:43 GMT

@IrememberBuzby Well to be fair, I personally haven’t suffered a power cut of any sort in the 5 years I’ve lived in my current property. This isn’t a criticism aimed at yourself, but I’ve read multiple posts on this forum from people who claim that they suffer power cuts all the time when probably the vast majority of households hardly if ever do have power cuts. I think it’s also the case that there are a lot of households with fairly ancient electrical wiring running through even more ancient consumer units that are decades out of date and are more prone to tripping.

Re: Phone line issues.

Kimberlin — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:53:54 GMT

@IrememberBuzby No power back up at our property. Power cuts literally just never happen where I live.

Re: Phone line issues.

iniltous — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 09:28:45 GMT

It always astonishes me that there are people who claim to live in areas plagued by power outages and therefore PSTN is essential in that it maintains the ability to call the emergency services during these frequent power cuts, because there is a high likelihood of two things coinciding, the power cut and the need for emergency assistance, but seemingly have no worry about living rurally (thats the only logical conclusion if they have frequent power cuts and no mobile service and an hour battery backup isn’t enough) that the much longer wait in this location for an ambulance or other emergency response is a manageable risk ( basically they would also need to hold the view ‘I’m not moving to a more urban area just because the wait for an ambulance is longer here where I live ) but the change from PSTN to DV is life endangering and this longer wait for emergency services isn’t , it really beggars belief the mental gymnastics on display , the ‘ I demand a phone service that works during a power cuts because I’m high risk’ while simultaneously maintaining ‘ the ambulance taking 5 times longer to arrive than compared to a rural area isn’t sufficiently risky to warrant moving home from this remote location’ , if the risk is too great for PSTN removal but waiting an hour for an ambulance isn’t a risk at all , then these people ‘risk’ being labelled as nothing more than a Luddite.

If vulnerable and on DV and in a area prone to power outages, get a battery back up , if this isn’t good enough , consider moving to an area , like 99% of the country that doesn’t have a power outages , or are so rare as to be statistically insignificant

Re: Phone line issues.

Kimberlin — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 09:26:11 GMT

This may read as unfair, but I’d guess that the vast majority of complaints are from a more senior age group who are more likely to have a landline than many.

Just about everyone knows that domestic landline use has decreased significantly over the last 20 years with estimates that household landline use is now below 46 percent of all domestic properties and is likely to decrease even further as technology advances. I haven’t had a useable landline for years and my recent new build property, we haven’t even considered having a landline because there’s just no point.

Re: Phone line issues.

WSH — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 09:31:21 GMT

I’m the senior age group myself and not unsympathetic to the situation, but I must say some of us actually grew up in a time when most working-class households didn’t have a phone in the house anyway. The nearest was a public call box the other side of the estate. Yet we survived

It’s a shame people seem to have lost the robustness the country was once noted for.