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Digital Voice and Call Waiting

HamishW — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 08:57:32 GMT

We recently transferred to BT Digital Voice and are very pleased with it. For our own reasons we have chosen to remain using our existing answering machine which works perfectly. However when we answer a call and another person rings our number he is diverted to BT Voicemail which we never use and thus never receive the message. Can this be corrected. Thank you.

Re: Digital Voice and Call Waiting

imjolly — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 09:12:06 GMT

try suggestion from previous post

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/Digital-Voice-How-to-disable-voicemail-function/td-p/2211207

Re: Digital Voice and Call Waiting

VeteranISPUser — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 09:51:32 GMT

Hi @HamishW Is it because you have multi call (default) activated so the second call is not getting an engaged tone. You need to change it to single call. It is very easy to change using a DV HD handset, not sure how you do it without.

Re: Digital Voice and Call Waiting

HamishW — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 10:39:00 GMT

I am currently using Panasonic Dect phones which may work with similar instructions. What instructions are required when using a BT Digital phone?

Many thanks.

Re: Digital Voice and Call Waiting

licquorice — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 10:42:42 GMT

No, your Panasonic DECT phones can't be used to turn off multi call, it needs to be DV handset.

Re: Digital Voice and Call Waiting

chrisjp — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:06:03 GMT

"However when we answer a call and another person rings our number he is diverted to BT Voicemail which we never use and thus never receive the message."
If the second caller leaves a message on BT voicemail you'll know about it because your normal dialtone will change to an interrupted one. It's then a simple matter to key in 1571 to listen to the message.
This seems to me to a be a useful feature rather than a problem. When you're on a call your own answer machine won't record a message from a second caller, but BT voicemail will.

Re: Digital Voice and Call Waiting

VeteranISPUser — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 12:16:02 GMT

Hi @HamishW

It is really worth having a DV HD Handset for situations like this. If you look on eBay they are very cheap. Just search for "bt hd phone". If only to change settings.

On a DV HD Handset you will find it in Settings under Line settings.

Re: Digital Voice and Call Waiting

HamishW — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 13:34:17 GMT

It is a useful feature if you wish to use BT, but I have used trueCall for years and have had all of the advantages and more before BT thought of it..