I'm trying to help my friend with his telephone line problem. It only started happening in the last week. I'm hoping someone here can help.

Basically, we can make outgoing calls, and receive incoming calls, but the phones dont ring. ADSL works fine. Caller display works. It simply doesnt ring.

I've called BT, and they say the line test is showing successful. Obviously at this point, im not comfortable to recommend they call BT out in case the £100+ charge is made, and it turns out to be an internal problem.

I've tried unplugging every phone in the house, and only plugging one wired phone into what I believe is the master socket. The problem remains.

Now, the master socket 'issue'. This house doesn't have an NTE5. The phone line comes in from outside and connects into a white BT branded (BT and prancing bloke) box, about the size of a matchbox. There is a wire coming out of that box into a small phone socket, which has a 'T' in a circle to the bottom right. I believe this is what must be the master socket, as its the closest to the BT line. It's obviously old too. This is where it gets messy. This box has two cables coming out of it. One goes upstairs to another 'T' branded socket identical to the 'main' socket. The other goes to a small unbranded junction box, which feeds an unbranded extension downstairs.

I took the front off the 'master' socket, to see if there was anything obviously wrong. I didnt touch anything in there. I couldnt see anything to be worried about, but I did see how it had been wired up. The wire from the BT matchbox, is connected directly to the faceplate. The two extensions are wired together via small transparent clasps, and then to the faceplate.

I hope this has made sense, and I'd really appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

You probably have a fault in the exchange ( linecard not applying ringing current to the line) the person making the call would still hear ringtone but the phone wouldnt ring, if you happened to pick up the phone or knew someone was calling and picked up the call would connect
As you dont have a nte5 type master socket and to (as far as possible) prove there isnt a fault inside the property unplug everthing (sky,broadband filters etc) and with nothing but a known working phone plugged into the master socket try calling the line,
NB...if the person calling only gets 1 burst of ringtone this is a ringtrip and is more likley to be a line fault or even dodgy internal wiring so on the test dont answer straight away
The fault receptionists will not be able to check the exchange line card, they test the cable pair, so if that test ok you will get the usual script about
if an enginner calls and the fault is on customer owned wiring/equipment a charge will be raised etc....you could tell them you suspect a linecard
problem and want the exchange checked first,

as we are preparing the move over to 21CN, they have stopped maintaining the old line cards, and as a result BNR(bell not ringing) faults are becoming more and more common. in my main exchange i used to get 1 every couple of months, now it's about 1 a day(not part of my 5 a day though).
so would have to agree with iniltious, get bt to have the exchange equipment checked out.

if your a little adventurous you could attach a multi meter accross pins 2 and 5, set it to 240VAC and ring your phone, the needle/digi display should twitch like a brides nightie at around the 85Vac mark. if it doesn't then the equipment is knacked.

Thanks both for your help.

openreachpeep, I did as you suggested, and it fluctuates between 85 and 115. Does this mean anything to you?

well that means the ringing current is leaving the exchange so, it should ring o.k. this would tend to suggest then that the master socket has gone faulty(the small square one with a yellow/blue capacitor inside).

do you have b/band on your line? if not see if you can borrow a microfilter off a neighbour for 5mins (as they have a built in capacitor) and plug your phone through that into the socket and give it a ring.

There is broadband on the line, and the socket does have a microfilter attached to it. I've tried both with and without, and it still doesnt ring.

well i'm out of suggestions, only thing i can say now is report the fault and tell them to check at the exchange first. have you suffered from any performance issues on the b/band whilst the fault is present?

Ok, thanks for your help.

Do you think we can get BT/Openreach to come and replace the master socket? I'm told its the same one that's always been here since they moved in about 20-odd years ago.

I will ask BT to check the exchange first, but im just looking for other things to try just in case they say its all fine at the exchange, and we do need an engineer to call out.

Have you visited bt.com and tested your line ( you would have to do this from another line as you cannot test a line while using it).....may give you an idea if the line tests faulty
If you have called the line as per openreachpeeps instruction (lol brides nightie twitching) and measured the ringing voltage it sounds as if the the problems probably not in the exchange
Are you certain its not the phone(s), have you taken one of the phones and tried it in another line just to make sure it
can ring ?? or brought another phone from another line and tried it your socket (s)???

We havent done a line test from BT.com, but when I called BT on saturday, they said they did a line test from there.

The house has 2 wired phones, a homehub and a DECT answerphone (with 2 handsets). None of the phones ring in any of the sockets, and the answerphone doesnt pick up.

No new phones have been added since the homehub several years ago, so nothing has recently changed. They just stopped ringing last weekend.

I wonder if although you can measure the ringing voltage there isnt enough oomph (current) to make the phone(s) ring...time to (if you havent already) report your line to BT as BNR (bell not ringing) try asking for the fault to go to BT Operate to check the exchange line card first

Thanks for the advice. We're still trying to get this sorted.

BT refuse to check anything at the exchange, other than the standard line test they do. "The line test is a test from the exchange, and that is showing as fine". All they will offer is an engineer visit.

If you take your phone to another address and it rings or you borrow a phone from a friend/neighbour thats known to work but it doesnt 'ring' in your address ( checking with only the 1 phone and nothing else plugged in at the master socket) then report your line faulty 'bell not ringing' you can do this on line and there is place to enter notes, if you enter that you think the problem is in the exchange then there is a good chance that the fault will be sent to someone capable of moving you onto another line circuit in the exchange so you may not be required to make an appointment, even if the fault goes to an openreach engineer first, then he will either move you onto another line circuit in the exchange or pass the fault to BT Operate for them
to do it......you shouldnt have anything to worry about as far as charges are concerned, BNR is a very common problem and the 'engineers' who allocate
the work to the field force should spot the problem even if the non engineering fault receptionists dont
You must have the patience of a saint to let this go on as long as it has

Dear RobTuck, I suffered from this same problem on two occasions last year, and it was a right pain in the arse to get resolved.
The problem is that one set of engineers do work in the exchange and another set do the line from the exchange to your house, and they are not allowed to step on each others turf. So I kept getting passed back and forwards between them.
I decided that I would keep this up and eventually on both occasions a senior manager noticed how many thousands of pounds this particular fault was costing and intervened.

In my situation the basic line test done said everything was okay, and when an engineer came to my house and plugged in their blue tester telephone it got a signal and would ring. They then said it must be my phones, but luckily I had taken them downstairs to a neighbour and checked that they were functioning correctly.

I went a bought a very cheap phone from argos i.e.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5524488/c_1/1|cat_12108629|Telephones|12108730/Trail/searchtext%3ETELEPHONE.htm
(Argos Value Range B100 Telephone) its got to be a non-plug powered phone and i found that this DID work.

I would advise this as your first step, and if want anymore info then post or send a PM.

Just don't let them get on your nerves, kept ontop of them and eventually my problem was fixed by totally rerouting my line inside the exchange (so maybe some other poor other sod has no ringing tone now!)

They did at one point suggest that i should live with the very cheap phone as they only have to provide a signal to the master socket that an engineers blue tester phone will pickup. I said that i would be happy to do this if they would reimburse me for all the BT branded phones i had bought and now would not work, they didn't agree!

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I was doing a Google search to try and identify a problem I am having.

Basically, if you are trying to ring into the property, you either get 1 or 2 rings heard their end, and then a 3 tone fault message, or the fault tone straight away and none of the phones ring at all.

I have removed the faceplate of the master socket, but the same thing happens with everything disconnected. I am slightly worried about giving the go-ahead for the work, as there appears to be some 'chewed' wires going into the master socket. They've been there since we moved in but they haven't caused an issue before. On the other hand, I understand it's not my responsibility for the wire before the master socket?

Any help appreciated.

Hi, PM me your BT Account details I can look into this for you.

Anne Louise
Bt Support

Thanks for the offer of help Anne. However the engineer has been today, and it was a problem with the connections up the pole. All fixed now.

I take it I wont hear from Sky as there will be no cost to them? I have Sky line rental.