Panasonic Telephone Compatibility with Plusnet

[#1]

I have recently bought a set of Panasonic KX-TGE720 phones. Caller ID is enabled on Plus Net. When I type in *#234# it says caller I’d is working but when I receive calls all I get is “incoming call” no caller I’d or caller number.

I thought it was the phone so took it to my neighbour who is on BT not Plusnet and the phone worked correctly.

I have an Openreach engineer coming tomorrow but have spoken to him tonight on the phone and he doesn’t think he will be able to help.

ive noticed there are some threads on here from other people talking about the same issue. Is the problem a Plusnet issue or a Panasonic issue. They obviously don’t appear to be compatible. Hopefully the Engineer will be able to help tomorrow but I’m not holding out much help.

Any advice would be helpful.

[#2]

Welcome to the forms, @Annplumb . I can't guarantee this will work, but did for me when I updated my phones a while back: try leaving the phone base station and other handsets on charge, but disconnect from the master socket overnight.

[#3]

Sorry I’m not very techy. What do you mean by master socket?

Panasonic did tell me to take out all of the batteries and unplug everything including the actual phone socket and allow the charge for everything to run out And then start again. I did do this but it still doesn’t work

[#4]

OK - unplug the cable that goes from the phone to wherever your router is plugged in -that is the master socket. The cable is usually a black one with an oblong connector.

[#5]

Thank you for that. I’ll give it a go. Many thanks ..

[#6]

If that fails, give Plusnet a ring and ask them to re-apply the feature. FWIW - all phones work with any ISP.

[#7]

Plus net have already de activated and then re activated the caller I’d feature but that didn’t solve the issue. They passed it on to BT who have now passed the problem to Openreach who are coming out tomorrow but are not optimistic about resolving this issue.

[#8]

OK - but try my suggestion tonight, though.

[#9]

Did you check the status of the feature on your account? https://www.plus.net/member-centre/phone/call-features

Looks like maybe you did re. 1st post.

[#10]

@Annplumb 

We have a set of Panasonic phones but not the same ones you have. Ours are the KX-TG 6724E series.

I am with Plusnet and Caller ID works on those phones and there is no menu option to enable /disable it - I cannot find the #234  command code you mention either in the manual for my phones (or indeed when I looked up the manual online for yours) so I am not aware that it can be selected or deselected at the phone itself, Caller ID on the phone supposedly works "out of the box" as long as that feature is provide and enabled by the service provider ( Plusnet via Openreach in your case). I certainly did not need to do anything with the phone settings to get it to work.

Plusnet and BT Retail both use the BT Wholesale network which is maintained by Openreach. Therefore if the phone works on your neighbours's BTservice that eliminates an issue with the phone.

It must be something at Plusnet's or Openreach's end that is causing the problem on your specific line. You say you have tried your phone on a neighbour's line who are with BT and the Caller ID works. Have you tried their phone on your line? If Caller ID does not work then, it is nothing to do with the phone or its compatability with Plusnet but something is not set right with the Plusnet or Openreach systems (I suspect the latter).

Good luck with your forthcoming engineer visit. I hope you get it fixed.

[#11]

The de activating and then re activating caller ID was carried out by PlusNet on instruction from Panasonic.
Panasonic said sometimes if the provider deactivates and then reactivates the service it sorts it out. 

I haven’t tried my neighbours phone over here because her phone is also a Panasonic and we have already proved it isn’t the phone. We all believe it’s something wrong with the Plusnet line but the Openreach engineer who is coming tomorrow has no idea what he can do to rectify it.

the *#234# is the code that Plusnet gave me to type into my phone. When I did this the phone confirmed caller ID would be displayed. It appears that the phone is not receiving the callers number from the Plusnet line otherwise I’m sure it would be displayed as the numbers have been entered into the telephone book of the phone.

[#12]

@Annplumb The phone line is BT/Openreach's responsibility - nothing to do with Plusnet, but it could be a glitch in PNs internal network set-up. See if my suggestion works - my phone isn't a Panasonic, but displayed the same symptoms as yours when I first connected it, and I was given the advice by an ex-BT employee who is a friend of mine.

[#13]

@Annplumb Ask the engineer to check the ‘tie pairs’ at the exchange. If you’re on fibre broadband, these can safely be removed, but if you’re on standard broadband, see if the engineer can replace them.

Tie pairs are the standard broadband equipment at the exchange and if faulty they can stop caller display from working even though your broadband may be fine. 

[#14]

We’re on super fast fibre and we live in a country area and our exchange is 8n a small wooden shed own the road so your suggestion may well be the answer. He’s coming at 8am in the morning so I’ll show him your comments.

Many thanks,

[#15]

Fingers crossed! 

Reading the fix on the topic here https://community.plus.net/t5/Home-Phone/Caller-display-not-working/m-p/1342981/highlight/true#M2152... suggests the problem was resolved by checking the tie pairs. A lift and shift likely wouldn’t be relevant on fibre for this issue though.

The fix on this topic https://community.plus.net/t5/Home-Phone/Is-there-a-list-of-compatible-phones-for-caller-display/m-p... though isn’t so promising as that suggests there may had been an incompatibility with a Panasonic phone and the exchange. But hopefully the issue’s the former.