Since last Friday my phone has been down, with no dialling tone etc., whilst curiously my broadband still functions fine.

Assuming in this case that there had to be a problem with my phone, I bought a new one and tried it, with no change. I even connected the phone directly without broadband filters, which made no difference.

I've reported the problem online to BT and was told that it wouldn't be actioned until this Friday - speedy eh!

Anyone any ideas as to what the problem could be?

Exchange equipment at a rough guess. The fact that broadband works tends to indicate the actual line is OK. Though I have known instances where broadband works (albeit less reliably) when one of the two wires in the line is broken. That would stop the phone working as well.

But most likely is the exchange end has gone faulty. At the exchange your line is split into two parts, one goes off to the broadband equipment and the other to the phone system. So it is quite possible to have an exchange fault on one or other of these two services that does not affect the other. If your line was broken however then you are more likely to loose both.

Have you tried a different filter, as sometimes you get no dial tone but you still get broadband or vice versa.

Saying that I think your phone line is faulty. The dial tone is provided from the exchange to house by 2 wires any the broadband only uses one of the wires to get to the modem, so your line could be 1 leg dis (1 wire disconnected) so you get broadband and no dial tone.
Last edited by brownboyjnr : 09-01-2007 at 20:12

I had the same thing last year. Reported the line fault online via BT's website and it was fixed in 4 days. Broadband worked fine throughout amazingly.

Not true at all.

Broadband uses a high frequency carrier mixed in with the voice band signal that carries the phone call. There is also a DC voltage on the line. All three need both wires to be intact to provide a complete electrical circuit between exchange and home.

The only reason broadband can keep on working if one wire of the pair is broken is due to induction across the break. The two ends of the cable break behave like a capacitor or transformer, albeit very inefficiently. But obviously the DC voltage on the line cannot easily bridge the gap so the phone ceases to work. But even so a break in one wire of the pair will still degrade broadband performance even if it does manage to struggle through.

Fair enough, so its High resistance.. it still shows it as a dis when I test (engineer)

I cancelled by BT line last June, but didn't cancel my broadband with Demon, and it still works!

Its purely a policy matter that you have to have a 'connected' phone line.
In America companies have started offering broadband only connections.

Now I would be interested in that ! lets face it people with voip don't want or need a conventional phone.