Any phone engineers on here?

[Bellasmummy]

Our land lines packed up and sky only want keyworks or vulnerable contacting them. Whilst I’m a keyworker my land line isn’t an urgent issue.

I just wondered if anybody could point me in the right direction.

Our phone has no dial tone and if you phone our number it’s engaged.

I’ve disconnected everything and reconnected but still the same.

The phone cable goes into a sky splitter and broadband etc is all working as normal.

When I unplug the phone line a message pops up on the handset saying line error. This disappears after a while when I put the line back in.

I’m thinking that if everything else is working then it can’t be a fault on the line. Does that sound right?

I can get a replacement lead from Amazon to see if that works. We don’t have another phone to try.

The sky service checker says there’s no problem in the area.

Any ideas?

[shauney]

Go to your master socket and see if it has a removable bottom half on it. If it has take that plate off and behind it you'll find another BT socket - try plugging a known working handset in to that.

That's the engineers socket and disconnects (or at least it should) all of your internal wiring. If the line comes back to life it's a problem with internal wiring or a device that's plugged in to an extension.

Edited to say: re-reading your post - pull the plate and try ringing your landline from a mobile without a handset plugged and see if the engaged signal goes.

[Bellasmummy]

Originally Posted by shauney

Go to your master socket and see if it has a removable bottom half on it. If it has take that plate off and behind it you'll find another BT socket - try plugging a known working handset in to that.

That's the engineers socket and disconnects (or at least it should) all of your internal wiring. If the line comes back to life it's a problem with internal wiring or a device that's plugged in to an extension.

Edited to say: re-reading your post - pull the plate and try ringing your landline from a mobile without a handset plugged and see if the engaged signal goes.

See more...

I’m a bit confused 😐

This is my socket, it’s the only phone socket in the house.

[shauney]

Scrub that then - different type of socket.

Is there any chance that somebody has called you and not hung up? That would block your line like you're describing. With an old style phone there was a way to unblock by flashing the line but it's not usually possible with a cordless handset

[duchy]

Actually the message says you will have a much longer wait rather than not get through . (Or it did on Friday when I last worked)
If your broadband is still working it’s likely to be an external fault ... especially if you have fibre .

[Bellasmummy]

Originally Posted by duchy

Actually the message says you will have a much longer wait rather than not get through . (Or it did on Friday when I last worked)
If your broadband is still working it’s likely to be an external fault ... especially if you have fibre .

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Thanks. I didn’t try phoning, it was the website that said not to contact unless keyworker or vulnerable so I didn’t want to add to the wait times for those people as my need isn’t urgent.

I’ll try phoning tomorrow though as I was using the land line for work last week if they couldn’t get through on my mobile (dd keeps tying that up chatting to her friends &#128561 and they may need to get me in an emergency.

[Bellasmummy]

Originally Posted by shauney

Scrub that then - different type of socket.

Is there any chance that somebody has called you and not hung up? That would block your line like you're describing. With an old style phone there was a way to unblock by flashing the line but it's not usually possible with a cordless handset

See more...

Thanks.

I think I can get to an Argos collection point in a local Sainsbury’s tomorrow and get a corded phone. I’ll see if I can get through to sky first before venturing out though.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by Bellasmummy

Thanks.

I think I can get to an Argos collection point in a local Sainsbury’s tomorrow and get a corded phone. I’ll see if I can get through to sky first before venturing out though.

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Try what I suggested in PM first before going out .

[Bellasmummy]

Originally Posted by duchy

Try what I suggested in PM first before going out .

See more...

I contacted sky this morning, they did a line check and said there is a fault, something about copper cable touching the ground. They’re sending an engineer sometime this week to repair.

Thanks for your advice, hope your dh is ok. Take care xxx

[BucksBugsy]

Only read first page of posts but it is possible to have the phone line not working but the broadband OK- this has happened to me. In this case BT redirected all incoming calls to a mobile at no extra cost to us.

I would rather be without a house phone than broadband any day