Landline dead

[Datewatson]

Hi, our landline has gone dead and we have no dialling tone. This means we have no internet and are trying to work from home during this lockdown! We’ve logged the fault with BT but it says 5 days until we hear. We need to try and sort it before Monday! Any ideas?

[imjolly]

if you have tried using the test socket and line is still dead with no dial tone then as you have already reported the fault there is nothing more you can do until phone engineer arrives

[Keith_Beddoe]

Openreach do tend to look at landline faults fairly quickly, however they have to deal with fault reports from other providers as well, so the five day timescale could be about right.

If you need Internet access urgently, and if you cannot tether your mobile phone, then a 3G or 4G mifi unit may be a a help, if you have good mobile broadband coverage.

If you have BT Halo, then BT would normally send a 4G mini hub to cover the outage. 

[Datewatson]

Yes we’ve tried the test socket and it’s dead 

[Datewatson]

Not sure if we can tether a mobile phone as never tried. Our sim provider is BT but we don’t have that much monthly data. Will research how to do it thanks 

[-Richie-]

Although it doesn't help you now, It might be worth seeing how much an upgrade to Halo would cost, you'd get double data on your mobiles, more importantly you would have a 4G hub provided for a total loss fault and unlimited data on your BT mobiles until the fault is fixed.

With Covid more and more are working from home, BB is becoming a necessity.

[Datewatson]

We are about to come to end of contract so might consider it but would want the 4g box here as back up not have to wait for a problem then wait for them to post it to us!

[imjolly]

even if you had the 4g box you would still need to phone up an get it activated and it is only activated on total  loss of service and not if service just reduced

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Datewatson wrote:

We are about to come to end of contract so might consider it but would want the 4g box here as back up not have to wait for a problem then wait for them to post it to us!

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Once they send it the first time, you then keep it, but they still have to activate the SIM if you have another fault.

[-Richie-]

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@Datewatsonwrote:

We are about to come to end of contract so might consider it but would want the 4g box here as back up not have to wait for a problem then wait for them to post it to us!

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If the fault is reported before 7pm, you get next day delivery, so it's pretty quickly sent, unlimited data is switched on your BT mobile within an hourof the fault reported though, that applies to all BT mobile numbers on your account.
Once the fault is fixed the mifi is switched off and so is the unlimited BT mobile data, you keep it somewhere safe, it's activated again if you have another fault in the future.