topic Valid number is "not recognised" in Home Phone

Valid number is "not recognised"

bravoecho75 — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:10:32 GMT

Trying to dial a particular Sheffield city council direct number. Number connects on a mobile, but is "The number you have dialled has not been recognised" on my landline (not in Sheffield), and similarly on a PN landline in Sheffield, the latter with and without 0114 prefix.

Other council numbers are OK.

Any ideas.

Re: Valid number is "not recognised"

markhawkin — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:56:16 GMT

This sounds like a "routing table" issue but to be honest I wouldn't expect it with a phone service from Plusnet.

Large organisations have complex phone systems and something about the Sheffield council services have probably changed.

It's possible to "trace" a call and see where it fails but that's something that Plusnet would need to get Openreach to do.

You might get the best response from the council who can tell their supplier of the problem. It will (most likely) be an exchange specific issue.

Re: Valid number is "not recognised"

bravoecho75 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:09:35 GMT

Thanks. The trick will be finding someone at the council a) who understands and b) can do something about it.

Re: Valid number is "not recognised"

Townman — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:36:43 GMT

You could try the old fashioned way of dealing with such issues - call “the operator” on 100 and report you’re have difficulty connecting to the number. They used to be able to test the number and report a fault if there was one.

Re: Valid number is "not recognised"

bravoecho75 — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:24:16 GMT

Good idea - I'll try that in the future. I rang the council general switchboard (to be routed to the department) this morning and told the operator about the problem. He took the details and must have talked to the right people as it's now working!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Re: Valid number is "not recognised"

markhawkin — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 07:55:52 GMT

I did think of suggesting that but I couldn't find confirmation that a) the operator service was 100 on Plusnet and b) it was free to call (or if not the cost with Plusnet).

I strongly suspect that both are "yes" but as the council fixed it quite quickly, my best guess is that it was a problem within their systems.