Forum Discussion

peterts's avatar
peterts
Tuning in
2 years ago
Solved

External Bell for Telephone

Since my phone was converted to VoiP the external bell (ex BT) doesn't work. Is it possible for it to be reconnected?

The engineer who came to do the conversion said he'd never seen an external bell before!

I would mention the the phone is connected to the Hub by a 20m cable and the bell was wired into the phone.

  • Your posting history suggests this issue has dragged on since last March! Unfortunately, VM sends out tech's with widely-varying levels of ability and knowledge. Some past topics, about phone rewiring post-switchover, have described multiple visits from different VM tech's being required until the 'right' one turned up to get all items of equipment working for the customer.

    What sort of age is the external bell unit that you want to connect?

    Telephone equipment from the early 2000's, and before and particularly BT equipment, might need a 'ringing capacitor' in the circuit and a bell wire to be connected throughout the telephone cabling in order for the device to ring. Modern equipment does not use these and they are not present in the default arrangement when the VM phone line is provided from the VM hub.

7 Replies

  • Hey peterts, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear this.

    I would confirm with the manufacture of the bell to see if it can work with VOIP as not every 3rd party equipment can do this yet. Cheers 

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    Your posting history suggests this issue has dragged on since last March! Unfortunately, VM sends out tech's with widely-varying levels of ability and knowledge. Some past topics, about phone rewiring post-switchover, have described multiple visits from different VM tech's being required until the 'right' one turned up to get all items of equipment working for the customer.

    What sort of age is the external bell unit that you want to connect?

    Telephone equipment from the early 2000's, and before and particularly BT equipment, might need a 'ringing capacitor' in the circuit and a bell wire to be connected throughout the telephone cabling in order for the device to ring. Modern equipment does not use these and they are not present in the default arrangement when the VM phone line is provided from the VM hub.

    • Matthew_ML's avatar
      Matthew_ML
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team

      Thank you for posting this great advice goslow, I hope this does help? 

    • peterts's avatar
      peterts
      Tuning in

      Hi. Thanks for your input. The bell dates back to around 1970. Therefore I need a modern replacement. Can VM help with this? I’m sure I can’t be the only user with this problem!

      • Arissa_H's avatar
        Arissa_H
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team

        Hi Peterts 👋🏼.

        Thank you for coming back to us 😊.

        I can certainly take a look into this for you and see what I can do. 

        So I can further investigate 🧐, I will have to private message you. 

        Please watch out for the envelope ✉.