Problem with Caller ID / phone line
Happy_Chappy
Posts: 1,719 Forum Member
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Not really sure if this belongs in landline or mobile forum as involves both, but here goes...
For the last few weeks, when my mum calls my landline, the caller ID says "OPERATOR" while the phone is ringing and then "UNAVAILABLE" in the phone's call log and answerphone. I thought it might be something wrong with my phone handset (quite a few years old), so I rang 1471 to check and the number is not available there either, so it's not registering on the BT line.
The landline caller ID works fine otherwise, for calls from other people. I even tried my mobile as it's on the Vodafone network, just like my mum's is.
If my mum rings my mobile, the caller ID works fine, so it's just her mobile to my landline, for all other scenarios it works fine.
No-one else has mentioned this problem to her when she's rang their landlines, but she's going to check with them, just in case.
Any idea what's wrong and how to fix? Not a major problem, but just curious as to why it's happening, especially since it seems to have started out of the blue, after years of no problems!
For the last few weeks, when my mum calls my landline, the caller ID says "OPERATOR" while the phone is ringing and then "UNAVAILABLE" in the phone's call log and answerphone. I thought it might be something wrong with my phone handset (quite a few years old), so I rang 1471 to check and the number is not available there either, so it's not registering on the BT line.
The landline caller ID works fine otherwise, for calls from other people. I even tried my mobile as it's on the Vodafone network, just like my mum's is.
If my mum rings my mobile, the caller ID works fine, so it's just her mobile to my landline, for all other scenarios it works fine.
No-one else has mentioned this problem to her when she's rang their landlines, but she's going to check with them, just in case.
Any idea what's wrong and how to fix? Not a major problem, but just curious as to why it's happening, especially since it seems to have started out of the blue, after years of no problems!
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The caller could use the prefix 1470 to make sure the CLI is being sent. This code can be used on a per-call basis to release the CLI on lines where the CLI is normally withheld.
Does 1471 say 'The caller withheld their number' or 'We do not have the number to return the call' ? The former applies when the system does know the number, but the caller has asked that it should not be released to the called party. The latter applies when the CLI is not available, e.g. the call was delivered by an overseas network (although the call could have originated in the UK).
My mum isn't using a pre-fix or indirect operator and she makes all her phone calls in exactly the same way, and using the free minutes on her Vodafone contract.
The 1471 from my landline says they do not have the number, so the latter applies, but I still don't understand why it only happens from her mobile to my landline, but not any other way.
When ringing, my landline displays "unavailable" for (presumably? Just guessing here) unavailable UK numbers and "International" for unavailable overseas numbers, but from my mum's mobile it's "operator" which has never appeared for any other caller (and we know both someone with an automatically withheld landline number for business purposes, who comes up as "unavailable" and someone who uses 18185 whose number/name is displayed as normal).
So I'm still confused! Apologies if I've mis-understood your reply in any way though
And does she always call you from the same location or doesn't it matter where she is calling from?
If it has only stopped working recently and previously did and she only calls you from the same place each time then I wonder if it could be the cell tower her phone is using? maybe some glitch with that?
Yes, have always got CLI for years, it's only been the last few weeks that this has started happening.
I can't remember every time, so I'm not sure, but the majority of the time, at least, she would have called when out shopping, so roughly in the same area. However, she's also called me, from that same area, on my mobile and her number/name has displayed as normal. When it first happened, I didn't answer my landline when it said "operator", so my mum called my mobile straight away afterwards (so would've been in the exact same location) and her name/number displayed as normal.
Mum said she rang a friend's landline while visiting them and had the same problem there. Although, her friend's landline shows "external" rather than "operator", but 1471 still says they do not have the number.
Curiously though, it transpires that her friend's phone displays "external" for every phone call she gets (her handset is the same as my Mum's). She had another call while my Mum was visiting and the 1471 said the number that called was 00000000000 (literally all 0s, I'm not using an example). Could have just been a one off, but I've no idea why all her calls come through as "external" - she is signed up for caller ID and has numbers/names saved in her directory.
I'm curious about both of their problems now!
Any ideas?
If that is not a possibility she needs to contact Vodafone.
Vodafone often changed to France when I had them being so close.