International Calls cuts off

[#1]

A day or two ago we tried dialling a number of a relative in the USA, having the international calls 300 package, it went through but within minutes it went dead, and then there was the dead tone, so we phoned back again and went through and thought it was by accident on their side, however, again the line went dead within minutes and we realized it was on our side as we used the mobile phone instead and we didn't have any issues dialling the same number. Please help?

[#2]

Hi there.

I'm sorry to hear you're having problems calling international numbers.

Line tests aren't finding any obvious issues.

Do you experience the same issue calling a UK number?

[#3]

Hi,

Calling to other UK numbers seem to be perfectly fine with no problem, it's just been that occasion when dialling to the US that it occurred.

[#4]

Thanks for getting back to us.
That's a bit odd. Have you tried a different phone handset?

[#5]

Hi,

Yes we did try another one of our handsets and the same issue did occur unfortunately

[#6]

Thanks for confirming.

Can you try the steps here if you haven't already letting us know how it goes?

Failing that we may need to arrange an engineer to further investigate this.

[#7]

On the limited evidence thus far, you can be pretty certain that there is no problem with the copper pair between the exchange and your premises, but otherwise the problem could have been anywhere.

[#8]

I’ve tried the method you recommended but it still is doing the same thing, furthermore the dial tone when dialling something is off, with the normal tone mixing with a different tone continuously.

[#9]

I'm sorry to hear you're still having issues.

If you can reply to this ticket with your availability for an engineers visit we'll get it booked in for further investigation.

[#10]

I too have been having problems calling a US number.

I tried 3 times on Saturday within 5 minutes and each time, it rang with a US tone and then it sounded like it was being answered but then immediately went dead. It turns out that it was actually not ringing on the US side. Gave up and called on my mobile getting through immediately.

My wife has been having this problem for a couple of months also.

I've logged this problem a couple of times and had the usual, "We can send out an engineer to test the line but it will cost you if no problem is found" rubbish**, it seems that the mystical 'routing department' are not directly contactable, so we can't find out where our calls are actually going.

**Getting out an engineer as the first and required response for every problem is lame.

[#11]

Hi @simmotech

Sorry to hear you are also having issues with your phone relating to international calls. 

Can I please ask, were all the calls you mentioned above to the same number, or different ones? 

Are you also experiencing any issues calling UK numbers? 

Thanks 

MoR

[#12]

Only to a single US number but that's all we really use (Wife's mother).

Whilst I was on the phone (my mobile) to Tech Support, he suggested calling another US number so I tried one in California and got through immediately. No problems with other occasional calls to US to other numbers,
We don't really use the landline other than calling that one US number because we all have unlimited minutes on our mobile phones for national calls.

I came across this forum because I'm thinking the best thing is to go back to one of those international redialler accounts with an 0800 access number. We tried that before from our mobiles but the delay was terrible and that's why we signed up to PlusNet international calls - great quality but not much use if we can't get through!

[#13]

I've just checked with my wife and she says the problem isn't intermittent but stopped working one day months ago and hasn't worked since.

I've confirmed that there is no caller-id block from our landline- I called my mobile from the landline and it knew who was calling.
On the US end, there is a caller ID blocking box and it is conceivable, though unlikely, that our specific number has accidentally got included. If it has, then removing that should solve the problem and I will apologise for wasting your time.

If Plusnet are serious about investigating this, we have a perfect opportunity since my wife happens to be on holiday visiting her mom and will be at that address at 5.30pm tonight (coming home tomorrow so tiny window). So we will have the two landlines and two mobiles available to make a test call and detect whether (a) the call is routing to the correct phone and the ringing heard from the UK end is reflected at the US end and (b) whether routing is not the problem and it is the CID blocking box that is incorrectly configured and stopping the call.

Would Plusnet like to get their routing department involved and monitor that test call or calls  tonight if I provide both numbers and give permission for them to listen in/log access?

[#14]

Hi @simmotech,

Thank you for getting in touch. I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing problems with calling a US number - thank you for trying a different US number and for confirming that this works.

I've checked your account and have tested the line from here and I can't see anything that's stopping you from being able to call this number and tests on your line are coming back clear. It's possible that the number is being blocked by the caller-ID blocking on the other side. Please try calling the number with this removed and let us know if you continue to experience this problem.

[#15]

Apologies to all. Although not yet fixed, we are now confident it Caller ID blocking on the US side that is the problem.