home phone not receiving incoming calls

[jred]

HELP NEEDED

I'm on a traditional phone line and not been able to receive calls for nearly 3weeks now

Can make calls out fine, had numerous calls to BT, 2 Openreach engineers sent out, have been told problem is fixed but remains the same.

no ringtone heard by caller, either white noise or just cuts off. BT BROADBAND working fine

Bt want to sent another Openreach engineer next week but not sure what else they can do. Feeling disappointed

[infinitywaiter]

---

You have posted in the category 'Home Phone including Digital Voice'.

Have you actually got Digital Voice on your BT account?

If so, you should have either your own phone or an essentials or advanced Digital Voice phone plugged into the back of your BT Smart Hub.

The landline number you have now will be your Digital Voice number, even if you have kept your original landline number, and therefore, you need the phone connected through the hub to be receiving your incoming calls, as your line will now be digital.

You will still be able to make outgoing calls via landline as the pstn won't get turned off until Dec 2025 and you still pay for a landline.

However as you have Digital Voice, all incoming will be through hub as BT own Voip system, unless you go for their Cloud setup.

Taken from BT site:

Digital Voice equipment 

When you switch to a digital phone line you can still use your current home phone by plugging it into the back of your hub. If you need an adaptor, you can order one for free. Or, to get the benefits of HD calling, you could choose one of these discounted Digital Home Phones:

• Essential Digital Home Phone
• Advanced Digital Home Phone with Alexa built in

Finally, make sure all incoming callers are using the full number including area code, just to check it isn't just because you're only using last numbers, ie local call etc

Double check your own phone or BT account to see that you haven't mistakenly put on divert all calls or call diversion for example.

Check your landline phone used in the master socket and not any other points in your property, if master works then issue between that and your extension point.

Otherwise, if master socket not working and you don't have Digital Voice, then unfortunately it is a issue only BT/Openreach can fix.

[infinitywaiter]

Also, if you do have a BT engineer come around to fix this, then whilst they are there, get them to call the landline to test it.

And if possible, get other family members or friends or your own mobile etc to test it before the BT engineer goes.

[iniltous]

Your ‘traditional phone line’  presumably  means you are not in DV ( digital voice ) and your phone isn’t plugged into the router but still is connected in the master socket or an extension socket off the master .

If callers to your number don’t hear ringtone ,calls  just cut off or return nothing but ‘noise’ it suggests the line is ‘ring trip’ .

Try making a call to your landline number from your mobile whilst you can monitor the landline line , ( or ask someone else to make a call to your landline at a specific time whilst you are in contact with them and able to answer the landline phone )  , while the other person is making the call , or yourself if calling from your own mobile, and there is no ringtone to the caller , and your landline phone isn’t ‘ringing’ , pick up the handset anyway, ( this is better with a regular corded phone rather than a DECT cordless phone )  , if you can speak to the caller ( so the call connects ) , even if the phone never rang , then it’s the condition called ‘ring trip’ , and you need to re-report it as such .

Ring Trip , often is caused by a line fault ( like a battery contact ) or the phone itself could be faulty , if it’s a line fault it seems odd that Openreach didn’t detect the line fault while testing your line , it’s usually pretty obvious on a line test , and is  often is worse in bad weather.

Just to be confident it’s not your own equipment or wiring ( if you have extension sockets , even if nothing is plugged into them ) have  you tried an alternative handset plugged into the master socket test port , or taken your phone to another location and tried it  connected to known non faulty line ?