Unable to make certain calls from my landline

[#1]

Euphoria or despair, depending on the outcome, might make me forget to do so - but I will try to remember to post the result.

Since I'm old and bit thick you are right to point out that I very well might not understand a blind word of what's going on; but I'll also try to remember to write the outcome down.  Thank you for your interest Mr_Paul....

[#2]

It could well be a simple problem.

Usually problems are binary, it either works or it does not (or it works less well than usual).  Sometimes it sort of works but also does odd things...

• Drops broadband on inbound calls
• Always reports engaged to callers
• Calls are noisy
• Inbound calls drop on off-hook
• Phantom calls (low digit numbers)

All can have similar simple causes.  I've not seen a fault present in this manner around here before - the symptom is unique, which should NOT be be interpreted as a hard to find issue.  The fact that the line tests faulty (no idea on fault code / diagnosis) raises confidence in a swift fix.  It would help if you can obtain from the engineer the characteristic of the fault.

I note that an ex-BT engineer has read this thread ... and not offered a suggested cause ... therefore your engineer's findings will be of real interest.

Bet you had not expected to be contributing to the collective knowledge of the community!!

You can check what calls are barred (if any) on your line by dialling *#34# (if you can dial this number).  After that we are out of logical answers until the engineer attends.

[#3]

Dear Townman,

You're right - I never expected my phone problem to be so exciting.  As an author it's the closest I've come to being a best-seller.  I'll do my best to relay what the engineer says.  I dialled the number you kindly supplied: unobtainable.  Bah.

Pat

[#4]

Odd telephone faults? When I was with TalkTalk I had one of those - I called it 'Yank on the Line'. 🤣

The phone annunciator kept spontaneously switching Language (actually Region, not Language) from UK to US. Even digit by digit. So if annunciator was speaking numerals "1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." it would go "UK, US, UK, US, UK..." English. Very disconcerting. Obviously must have been a fault with TalkTalk's LLU exchange equipment.

Interestingly, one other person on the TalkTalk forum at the time had the same fault. Neither of us could ever get TalkTalk to fix it - we both gave up. He gave up by deciding to just live with it, I gave up by deciding I would have to change the exchange equipment myself, and the only way I could do that was by changing supplier - hence I have been with Plusnet since.

[#5]

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@pat14 wrote:

...  I never expected my phone problem to be so exciting.

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@pat14 

Exciting ?, You've not seen anything yet !.

Just wait until Plusnet tell you that your landline phone is going obsolete before the end of 2025, and that if you want to keep your landline number then you'll need to 'upgrade' your contract to broadband only, then have just 30 days to migrate your discontinued phone number to a third party VoIP (voice calls over internet) provider, and buy a different phone or get an adaptor to connect your existing handset to your broadband router.

At least once having upgraded to a digital phone, you shouldn't get these curious issues associated with the old analogue system !

.

[#6]

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@outcast wrote:

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@pat14 

Exciting ?, You've not seen anything yet !.

At least once having upgraded to a digital phone, you shouldn't get these curious issues associated with the old analogue system !

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No indeed. My bet would be you could look forward to a whole new set of even more bizarre issues associated with the new digital phone system. ☹️

[#7]

I've been on VOIP for close to 12  months and not seen one issue - so far.

[#8]

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@pvmb wrote:

My bet would be you could look forward to a whole new set of even more bizarre issues ...

I've had VoIP since around 2013 and it just works perfectly, no crackly lines, and I get an mp3 copy of every phone call.

The ONLY downside, is I live where it's not unusual to have power cuts that last many hours, so need to have a battery backup to keep the broadband and DECT base-station powered - which is more than enough time to notify UK Power Networks of the problem.

.

[#9]

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@Townman wrote:

A fault which allows some outgoing calls but not others, whilst inhibiting inbound calls is very unusual ... hence the deep interest in the nature of the fault.

I did have the facetious thought that maybe Plusnet were withdrawing PSTN bit by bit, and were starting with trunk calls (i.e. non-local calls where you used to have to go via the operator before PSTN was introduced)

[#10]

@corringham 😂😂

[#11]

@jab1  This is a puzzling fault which as the OP has tried different handsets with the same outcome, it is hard to see how it could be at the user premises, more likely at the exchange so I am surprised that an engineer visit is deemed necessary. will be interested to see the result of the visit.

Unfortunately we will only get that if @pat14 responds to the request for feedback. Plusnet support are no longer revealing any useful information on faults and hiding behind the opaque wall of tickets on an account . It was so much better in the past when there was a lot more information from staff shared on the forum.

[#12]

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@RealAleMadrid wrote:

Plusnet support are no longer revealing any useful information on faults and hiding behind the opaque wall of tickets on an account . It was so much better in the past when there was a lot more information from staff shared on the forum.

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I agree, @RealAleMadrid , but I am not blaming the support staff on here. They have clearly been 'retrained' in the BT way - to be as obtuse as possible and to follow the management rules, designed to be as unhelpful as possible to EU's, or to the wider forum.

[#13]

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@jab1 wrote:

...I am not blaming the support staff on here.

I can't imagine it's worth anyone's time being trained on diagnosing PSTN phone faults in 2025,  when

Plusnet must be on the verge of emailing all their landline phone customers a 90 day notice of the withdrawal of service,

and worse still, notify all the ADSL broadband customers who will be forced to find an alternative ISP for SOADSL broadband with little chance of keeping their landline phone number functioning after the move !.

.

[#14]

@outcast There are still some  staff at Plusnet who have been around for a long time and would be able to deal with this kind of issue - they have just been assigned other roles. However, 'diagnosis' is  performed by Openreach equipment, as has been demonstrated earlier, as a problem has been found, if you read earlier posts in this topic.

[#15]

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@pat14 wrote:

I dialled 17070 as you suggested but, rather predictably, got the unobtainable signal...

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That adds to the weirdness! I really haven't got a clue what the problem might be, but I'd be very surprised if it was a line fault.