Why is a friend barred from calling me?

[David100]

With valued help from the forum, my problem with Caller Display  has been solved. However, another issue has emerged. Unwanted call-barring.

The fault is that a friend who called me regularly from his BT landline, suddenly could not be connected. A message suggested that, “The person you are calling has chosen not receive anonymous calls ...” or words to that effect.

The caller’s number is in my ‘Phonebook’. I have not barred that number. What I have barred are callers who have withheld their number; and No Caller ID. I questioned my friend and he told me that his number is ‘ex-directory’. What can I do to enable the friend to continue using his home landline number when calling me? Is No Caller ID the culprit?

[iniltous]

Ex Directory and withholding Caller ID are not the same but some may not be familiar with the difference, Ex Directory is something of a throwback, selecting it ( in the past ) meant that your name and address would not be included in the paper directory and chances are , if someone rang the operator and asked to be connected they would decline to connect the call as well, .withholding CLI means that he calling party’s number isn’t forwarded when they make an outgoing call, so ( obviously ) if the party they call has ‘anonymous call rejection’ the call won’t connect as the call is the very definition of an anonymous call ( no CLI ) , inputting 1470  before the number to be called , on a line that has permanent withholding of CLI , removes the anonymity for that call.

Anyone can ask their provider to permanently withhold CLI , or it can be selected on a call by call basis, if you have the suspect number in your own phone directory it makes no difference if the CLI is withheld , as the phone will never get to compare what is in its own directory with the CLI information, if the CLI information isn’t present in the first place

[David100]

Thank you for your informative advice. That made sense, and I removed the No Caller ID filter. Next, I asked my friend to try again. This is the message he received.

“Welcome to 1572. The person you have called has chosen not to receive anonymous calls. Please dial again without with-holding your number, or leave a message after the tone”.

Needless to say, I did not receive either the call or the message.

I understand that BT has recently introduced this measure (1572), to reduce scams penetrating our telephones. But how can one deal with a case, such as I have described above, so that my friend can call me by landline, like he used to do?

Is the problem at my end, or his?

Thank you,

David A.

[iniltous]

There isn’t a problem as such , but for calls to get through from him to you, the simplest thing would be for him to prefix your phone number with 1470, this allows his CLI info to be forwarded, the settings at your end will not block this call ( as it now has calling line info ) , or your friend could ask his provider to remove permanent withholding CLI, and they prefix calls they want to be anonymous with 141

[Keith_Beddoe]

The problem is at his end, as he is withholding his number. If he prefixes your number with 1470, then that will allow him to get through.

So if he dials1470xxxxxxxxxxx     where xxxxxxxxxxx is your number, it will release his number for you.

[David100]

Thank you for this useful information.  So it is safe for me to reinstate blocking calls lacking Caller ID?

David

[David100]

Thank you for this useful information. I have advised the sender, and I am awaiting a test call to prove the remedy works.

David

[David100]

Keith, I have a further question based in your reply. My friend added the prefix, dialled me and was asked whether he wished the number to be added to his Black List. Is this a normal response? He became suspicious and didn't continue.

When adding the given prefix, should he drop the initial zero of my area code?

David