general help

[flotta1967]

hi this might be a weird help question. i live on a remote island that has an oil terminal due to safty every house has a phone connected incase there is a problem and we need to evacuate . now we have just moved in the line is active but incoming calls only . if you dial it says number not recognised sometimes it says number not supported . i called BT to ask how we can find out the number and the young lad started quoting me prices for us to connect but couldnt understand that all we needed was the number as it is connected .we cant use the major compainies as the wifi speed is like pushing a pea up a hill backwards using your nose { 2mb not even garenteed) can anyone give us guidence advice or have come up with wee problem

[gg30340]

Who is the phone provider and who pays the bill?

It may be set up to only accept incoming calls.

EDIT: To clarify the above. It may be that the phone is provided by the oil terminal in the event of an emergency hence you can not make calls on it or use it as a"normal" phone line.

[rbz5416]

I'm confused. How can you be receiving incoming calls if no one knows the number? I also don't understand "can't use the major companies".

That aside, dial 17070 & if it's a BT line it will report the number. Assuming that number still works on an inactive line.

[flotta1967]

hi  no bill present in the 3 months we have been here or one in the mail that was a mountain high behind the door so i have no clue . we understand that every house has a phone for emergency if there is a problem at the terminal each house has a big card at front door with instructions like long blast of siren followed by 6 short blasts then wait by phone for instructions lol . we have a population of 70ish full time islanders . the lad i spoke to said id have to order a package costing almost 200 quid just to find out as they would then give us a number but we must have a number the lne has tone and if you dial you get number not recognised . its a mystery

[flotta1967 · Accepted solution]

that worked thank you very much

[rbz5416]

So my guess is the line was cancelled by the previous occupants, but the nature of the emergency aspect means it must be kept live for incoming calls, or maybe just those from the emergency number.

As you're not paying for the line you would need to place an order with BT to fully activate it. Now you have the number you should be able to do that online.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Its more likely to be a "stopped" line, which will have dial tone on it, but you can only call a very limited number of numbers, like 150, 999 etc. Stopped lines do not normally allow incoming calls.

[Devon_Dave]

The oil company have probably supplied each resident with an outgoing calls barred line, this would stop large bills being run up that they would have to pay.

Suggest either contact them or suspect you would have to go up the route of a new line provide.

What do the other islanders have as their setup?

Edit : The line provided may not even be a direct exchange line, it may be a circuit off their own internal phone system