BT8600 won't call out

[kevingrafton]

I have  a BT 8600 Call Guardian phone, which has worked satisfactorily for years. Suddenly outgoing calls don't work. I get either a 'number unobtainable' tone, or a 'number not recognised' message, or silence. Incoming calls seem fine. I've tried the usual switching off and on again. Any better ideas, please/

[rbz5416]

Manually dialled, dialled from contacts or both?

If you have more than one handset, are they all affected?

[verkosh]

Have you been moved to digital voice?

If so you need to plug the phone into the green socket on the back of the Smart Hub 2 or a Digital Voice Adapter

[kevingrafton]

Yes, two handsets, both affected.

[kevingrafton]

No - don't even know what that is!

[licquorice]

How do you know you haven't been transferred to Digital Voice if you don't know what it is?

[licquorice]

Does the home page of the hub manager show your number in the box labelled 'Phone' or 'Not Configured'?

[kevingrafton]

OK, I've looked it up, and now I know that I have not been transferred to it.

[kevingrafton]

It looks like the tech you're talking about is years ahead of what I have. There's no 'hub manager', no home page, just a small (3 cm square) screen on each handset, on which the number is not shown.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@kevingrafton 

Its quite possible that its an exchange fault, where its not decoding the tones properly. The exchange line cards are very old, and its not unusual for them to develop a fault, which is one of the reasons the old PSTN network is closing down.

If you ever re-contract or change your BT package, you will be moved onto BT Digital Voice, which does not use the equipment in the exchange.

You need to prove its not the phone first, before reporting it to BT, to save a possible charge.

If its an exchange fault, then its fairly easy for an Openreach Frames Technician to mode your line to a different equipment number.