Old Landline now 'upgraded'

[Goldenhammerman]

In simple language; In the days of hardwired landlines (mine was 'upgraded' in September '23) I experienced no problems whatsoever. I had a wired extension to an upstairs 'den' and if the phone rang downstairs and I was upstairs my wife would thump on the ceiling and I could pick up the phone upstairs and talk tothe caller and vice versa. NOW with my New Improved 21st Century Upgrade if the pnone rings and someone is upstairs and picks it up and  tells me (downstairs) there's someone on the phone for me when I pick up the other phone all I get is the dialling tone. This on the first occasion made me think I had cut the caller off but in fact the caller is still connected on the other phone which I have to go to to talk to the caller.  What is the point of this, this is a retrograde step, not improvement: plus not being able to make local calls without now using the STD Code and trying to discover what an intermittant dialling tone means!  An explanation please from those 'in the know' would be appreciated and any 'work arounds' welcomed.

Definitely a Confused.com from Devon

[rbz5416]

As you've provided no information & left us to guess, I'll assume that you're talking about a migration to Digital Voice. Again as you've provided no information about what phones your using, I can only refer you to the user manual for the phones & look for Call Transfer.

Intermittent dial tone means you have messages on the 1571 voicemail service.

[VeteranISPUser]

Hi @Goldenhammerman 

It is because you have Multi-call activated (you can call two people at the same time using different phones). You need to change it to Single-call. Easy to do with a DV phone, simply change it in the line settings. It is somewhat different with no DV phones, I'm afraid that I don't know the solution to that.

[jac_95]

@Goldenhammerman 

It sounds like you've moved to digital voice which also allows 2 simulations calls to be made

You can disable this feature

See the FAQs

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-phone-including-Digital/Digital-Voice-FAQs/td-p/2207485

[Goldenhammerman]

You'll have to accept that not everyone is so au fait with modern tech stuff as you are then I presume you have guessed correctly - the change was barely optional. One phone (Handset?) I have is - wait for it a BT Tribune 9802AR REN-1 DFM of uncertain ancestry and the main phone a BT 3440 Digital Cordless Answering Machine and these two handsets have been in situ for years and see no need to replace, but open to suggestions - The option to receive a call on one and make a call on another at the same time serves little purpose - being able to use an extension in the old fashioned way I describe however does.

[Goldenhammerman]

Manythanks for the information. Have posted elsewhere the equipment I have.

[-Richie-]

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@Goldenhammermanwrote:
The option to receive a call on one and make a call on another at the same time serves little purpose

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Multi-call is an optional and free feature, some of us are old enough to remember people saying "Keep the line free, I'm expecting a call" - Multi-call allows you to still use the phone and not miss any important calls, a feature the old PSTN was unable to support, Digital Voice is still new, over time will see many new improvements released.

[Goldenhammerman]

"All lines to Bristol are engaged, please call later" then STD appeared.

[rbz5416]

So which phone is connected where & how?

I would suggest buying an additional handset for the BT3440 to replace the old handset. But that relies on the phones being able to transfer calls between handsets. I would expect that they can but unfortunately, this one has one of the BT "Back of a **bleep** packet" manuals with minimal information & half the online version being upside down.

To see if the option is present, make a call & see if an Options menu appears on the display. If it does, press the button below it & see if Transfer Call is there. Although it's possible that the option is supported but won't display if only one handset is registered. You can call BT on 0800 800 150 for test purposes as there's no chance of that call being answered promptly!

Edit: LOL as the youngsters would say at the forum software censoring the slang name for a cigarette. 🙄

[SRB]

You "should" be able to request multi call is switched off - while it's easy to do this with the BT Digital Voice Handset, little thought appears to have been given to customers who don't have the handsets. (In fairness, these were originally supplied free, so I can sort of understand how this situation has arisen, but it still needs addressed). Likewise the default is "all features active" rather than giving the customer the option to switch them on/off if they want. Might be an idea to contact one of the Mods on here, who are very helpful and much easier to deal with than trying to get through to customer services on the phone.