Can’t add Caller ID

[Tsewell70]

I recently took out a new broadband and landline deal for my elderly Grandparents.  Since this switched over they have lost caller ID.  I have tried adding it via My BT but it fails every time.  It either says there’s a technical error, the order request has timed out (I’ve selected add and continue as soon as the option becomes available) or that my details don’t match, despite already being logged in.  Can anyone help please?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Tsewell70 

Welcome to this user forum for BT Residential phone and broadband customers.

I assume they are now on BT Digital Voice, and their phone is plugged into the phone socket on the back of the BT Smart hub 2?

BT Digital Voice features are managed on a separate part of MyBT, that includes Caller Display, which is not enabled by default.

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/digital-voice--how-do-i-use-my-calling-features-

[Tsewell70]

Hi Keith

Thanks for your response.  No, their phone is still plugged into the phone port in the wall and I cannot see Digital Voice on MyBT.

Kind Regards 

Toni

[Tsewell70]

Hi, is anyone able to suggest how I can resolve this please?

Kind Regards 

Toni

[iniltous]

You say you recently took the service , and the phone is still connected to the master socket ( not the router ) so that would make the telephone via PSTN not Digital voice , but the PSTN WLR stop sell , ( making PSTN service unavailable to new customers )  was around September 2023 , more than a year ago ,  so how recent is recent ? 

[Tsewell70]

Hi

i changed their broadband and telephone package only a few weeks ago.  I did read somewhere that BT aren’t migrating those over 70 automatically and they probably don’t have an up to date router either.

[Tsewell70]

They were existing BT customers, apologies I didn’t make that clear in the first message.

[iniltous]

Unless you made a point of advising the age of the customer ( and even if you did ) the over 70 age ‘issue’ only really applies to existing customers that are not renewing but are being migrated to DV ( so that’s customers converted to DV without any real say in the matter ) a recontract in effect , the customer is accepting the new terms and conditions which include DV irrespective of the customers age , don’t want to accept the new T&C’s , don’t recontract or move to another provider , any new or re-contracting  customers by default accept DV as part of the new contract even if they are over 70  , I would be amazed if this re-contracting event didn’t come with compulsory migration to DV .

In my case , when I re-contracted  ( more than a year ago ) I was sent a new router as the old one didn’t have the appropriate socket , it sat in the packaging for quite a while , I was in no hurry to swap over , the phone continued to work in the master socket as before , obviously some BT system monitors this as I received a few email reminders to connect the new router and connect the phone to it , I did ( probably a week or so after the new contract started ) if I ignored the reminders who knows how long the PSTN telephone would  have continued, but as soon as I connected the new SH2 router the phone  service transferred to DV so are you sure that DV wasn’t part of the recontract and you basically are delaying the DV implementation by not connecting in the phone correct way it , the phone still working in the master socket isn’t a great indicator of if DV is now the correct system for you , what’s more , if the back end system in effect has you as a DV customer that hasn’t actually connected correctly , any online interrogation of a facility like caller display will error as you are effectively half way between the old and new systems.

Finally, if the on line tools don’t work and you are convinced that you are not being moved to DV as part of the recontracting order , call BT and enquire why caller display isn’t working

[Tsewell70]

Ok Thanks, that’s my next step but was trying to avoid calling as it’s never quick and easy.  I don’t have Digital Voice as an option on MyBT and they have definitely not been sent a new router.  The emails come to me and I’ve never received anything to say they are being migrated.  I’m not with BT personally (with Sky which I believe also uses the Openreach network) and we’ve not been advised we need to migrate either and live in the same area as my Grandparents.  Googling it, it suggests our area (South West) should have migrated in summer 2024 and I wonder if there’s been a delay.

[iniltous]

If you are a Sky customer, then BT DV ( which is a proprietary BT system, only for BT and EE customers ) won’t affect you as a Sky customer, the fact you as a Sky customer and BT customers are on Openreach infrastructure is irrelevant, Openreach have nothing to do with telephony, they only handle the network between the providers equipment ( like BT or Sky ) and your home …confusingly some other providers also call their IP telephony systems Digital Voice , when it’s nothing to do with BT , however Sky call their proprietary IP telephone service something like ‘Internet Calls’ so at least they shouldn’t confuse their customers , in essence though it’s the same in that the phone plugs into the router directly or via a separate ATA and not the wall socket , if you don’t already connect to your Sky router , you eventually will , but they will chose their own timescales, and it’s nothing to to do with BT or Openreach 

All BT legacy telephony will be moved DV by January 2027 at the latest , but that’s for problem lines ( fall alarm lines for example ) but it’s not just an area by area rollout , every new BT customer or re-contracting  BT customer has no choice but to join DV , that’s alongside with the rollout of DV to customers based on areas of the country.

If you have re-contracted your grandparents recently then DV should have been part of the deal unless they have a marker on the line regarding ‘Telecare’  or some other alarm type device , as you didn’t mention it , I didn’t offer it as a reason for not being migrated, do they have anything like this on the line  ?

Assuming they were re-contracted without DV , and caller display isn’t working , try entering *#234# this should confirm if caller display is active or not , but if the recontract was nothing more than a billing change ( that’s really the only way the migration to DV can be avoided ) then nothing has really changed regarding the way  the line is set up , therefore the caller display not working must be a coincidence and not a result of a recontract event , therefore , as unlikely as it may seem , a different phone needs to be tried , to eliminate the phone as the fault rather than the service being faulty or not set up .

If another phone doesn’t display calling line identification ( CLI ) then it’s pointless wondering why the online tools won’t allow you to check if caller display is setup , simply report it as a fault