Forum Discussion

kezwald's avatar
kezwald
Joining in
2 days ago

Landline sort of disconnects when receiving Facebook msg on mobile or ipad.

Hi all, quick query on behalf of my mum.

When my mum receives a call or is calling someone on the landline and a Facebook message in particular comes through on her mobile and ipad, the person on the other end of the phone hears the message sound and is then the line goes dead their end. My mum can still hear them speaking, but the person on the can't hear my mum and to them (including me), it sounds like the line as gone dead.

I have noticed this has been happening for a while when I call her, which is no great concern, but when the hospital, GP etc ring and it does this, it becomes a problem.

An engineer has been out this evening and can't find anything wrong; the engineer phoned me off my mum's landline and asked me to send a Facebook message, to see what was happening however the fault did not replicate itself and the engineer said he could see the message coming through, which I assume was on his equipment. Anyway, he then left, my mum then rang me to explain what he had done and whilst on the call I sent a Facebook message and the problem is still there!

I wonder if anyone can throw some light on this or believe the router is at fault, as it's not mum's landline phone, as she has bought new ones hoping it would solve the issue.

I have my mum's account number etc, if that is needed.

Thanks in advance

 

23 Replies

  • Akua_A's avatar
    Akua_A
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    2 days ago

    Hi kezwald 

    Welcome to our forums, and thank you for getting in contact with us regarding this issue. This is a rather unique issue, so we want to do our best to understand and to help. Just to clarify, your mum's landline disconnects every time she gets a Facebook notification on her mobile or iPad? Is your landline connected to your hub as seen here? Does this occur when the devices are connected to the VM Network?

    Thanks,

  • kezwald's avatar
    kezwald
    Joining in
    2 days ago

    Hi thank you for your reply Akua_A

    Yes indeed, every time she is on a landline call with the hospital or anyone else inc myself and a Facebook message comes through, the person at the other end can her the ding of a message and strait after that, the person on the other end of the line, call goes eerily dead, regardless of whether mum called them or someone called her however, my mum can still hear them. If I could explain "dead", the person on the other end (including me) phone just goes totally silent, no hissing noises, just silence. 

    Her landline, is connected to the Hub3 and mobile connected through wifi with her ipad, that is wifi only (no sim).

    My landline is also connected via the Hub3 and I don't have any problems with any other calls however, as it's not just me my mum has a problem with, I expect the problem is her end, possibly the router?

    Thanks again.

     

     

    • Tom_W1's avatar
      Tom_W1
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
      15 hours ago

      Hi kezwald thanks for your reply.

      This is a strange one, as we've never ever heard of encounters where the landline seems to be getting notifications through the broadband, meant for another device (and then causing issues with connection).]

      If the engineer has already been out and tested this and not seen the issue, it's going to be difficult to advise on here unfortunately.

      We need to try and eliminate the cause here, which may take some time, but can you try to test it again with only one device connected to the WiFi? As in disconnect the iPad, and see if it happens when the mobile receives the message and then vice-versa with only the iPad connected? 

      This will help us to see if it is only one device that's causing it and we can try to assist further.

      Many thanks

      • kezwald's avatar
        kezwald
        Joining in
        12 hours ago

        Thanks for the reply, Tom_W1

        Firstly, I don't believe that the landline is trying to receive notifications through broadband, rather the notification data is going to the device/s in question. As the notification data is received by device/s, at the point of the ding being heard on said devices, the line of person on the other end of the call goes dead, yet my mum can still hear them. At the point of the ding of a notification being received on the device/s, there seems to be some kind of glitch, at the hub or exchange line card that cuts the other person from the call, rather than the whole call being terminated.

        Going back to your comment, if both devices are placed in the kitchen, where wifi is non-existent, the issue resolves itself. It's only when the devices are in wifi range regardless of whether one of the devices are removed from wifi. If my mum is on a call with someone using a mobile phone the issue doesn't happen all the time.

        Unfortunately, the engineer appointment was gone 6pm and he was reluctant to test the issue, without his equipment connected, which I understand given the time he arrived.

        I wonder, if it is possible for a community team member to maybe call my mum and we can arrange a notification to be sent, so you can experience the issue yourselves, so you can understand more of what's happening or if there is a way to attach a recording of what happens via community PM or email?

        Many thanks,

         

         

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    12 hours ago

    "the other end of the phone hears the message sound"

    The Facebook notification sound from the speaker of the mobile / iPad is picked up by the microphone on your mothers telephone & it would then easily be heard at the remote end.

    "My mum can still hear them speaking, but the person on the can't hear my mum"

    Do check the telephone your mother is using, is there a mute button that can easily be pressed,
    especially when at the same time fiddling with Facebook on the mobile or iPad.

    • kezwald's avatar
      kezwald
      Joining in
      9 hours ago

      Indeed the notification "ding" is picked up by the landline microphone, the person on the other end of the call hears it and is then effectively gets cut off immediately, though mum can still hear them.

      I highly doubt she is pressing the mute button and fiddling with Facebook on her mobile or iPad, as that would involve multitasking, which she's not good at😂 besides she uses loud speaker, when on calls, so the phone would be on the arm of the chair anyway.

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    9 hours ago

    I suspect the notification sound is a red herring. In addition to Client62's suggestion here's a few more.

    • Unplug the hub, wait 30 seconds and plug it back it.
    • Try another handset.
    • VM should run a line test, why hasn't this been done already?
    • Replace the hub with a more modern hub 5.
    • kezwald's avatar
      kezwald
      Joining in
      8 hours ago

      Hi, a red herring is an understatement! If it only happened to family calls, it could be overlooked, but given it happens with Hospital, GP calls etc, it becomes another story.

      I've just been advised to reboot the hub by a community team member, which of course is the first thing we tried when the issue first manifested and many times after to try and resolve. Anyhow, it's been rebooted again and will see what happens when I call later. 

      She also went out to buy new handsets, which of course didn't cure it!

      No idea why a line test wasn't done or the engineer didn't carry one out.

      Can you tell me how to get a hub 5 for her please?

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    8 hours ago

    Can't offer any explanation for a possible Facebook link to the phone disconnection issue. Bit hard to think what that might be.

    However, when the VM rollout to connect phones via the hub was at its height, we saw very regular topics on here about landline users being cut off altogether mid call or suddenly finding that one of the callers could no longer be heard. Many reported that this was after a predictable/fixed period of time. 

    Landline keeps cutting off after 15 minutes! | Virgin Media Community - 5448775

    VoIP phone continually cuts out | Virgin Media Community - 5617793

    In this topic

    Re: Landline keeps cutting off after 15 minutes! | Virgin Media Community - 5449966

    one user foggy69 found that rebooting the hub cleared the issue.

    Sadly, the other past references I had recorded have been consigned to the dustbin of the forum archive.

    You could try some test calls with the mobile/iPad turned off. If you can make calls uninterrupted with the mobile devices off, the mobile devices notification issue deserves further investigation. If you still find the calls cut out when the mobile devices are off then you may have a similar issue to the ones mentioned above.

    Also see if the cut-offs happen after a particular period of time into the call (as mentioned above).

    • kezwald's avatar
      kezwald
      Joining in
      7 hours ago

      Indeed, if the mobile and iPad are placed in the kitchen where there is no wifi, the problem does not occur (a problem for another day) The problem happens at any time of the day or night and occurs landline to landline. Going from my past work, though happily retired now, I would bet money on the hub or line card at the exchange, though the hub 3 isn't without issues and frequently needs rebooting, but she must of had it for 6+ years.

      Anyhow thanks for your reply

      • Adduxi's avatar
        Adduxi
        Very Insightful Person
        7 hours ago

        Okay, this may sound daft, but what happens if you disable the Facebook "ding" sound?  I'm wondering if the sound being picked up by the phone is being interpreted as a disconnect command? 

  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    Very Insightful Person
    6 hours ago

    kezwald​ "When my mum receives a call or is calling someone on the landline and a Facebook message in particular comes through on her mobile and ipad, the person on the other end of the phone hears the message sound and is then the line goes dead their end. My mum can still hear them speaking, but the person on the can't hear my mum 

    I find this really intriguing but sadly I cannot offer a solution.

    However,  I have found a report from someone who had exactly the same experience with their VOIP landline and Facebook Messenger. They were getting their broadband and phone line service from the US cable company Spectrum so a similar setup to your Mum but in the USA.

    Like you, they also report that the problem does not arise when they receive Facebook messages on their mobile phone when it's connected via 4G rather than their wifi.  

    Sadly, it's on Reddit which I am not a fan of so I'm not going to post the actual link here.

     However,if you are interested you can Google "Facebook Messenger notifications causes interference with land line telephone connection".  including the quotation marks. Interestingly it does not come up when I do the same search using my usual search engine - DuckDuckGo.

    I'm not sure it will get you any further to a solution but at least it proves it's not unique to your Mum and that it is a technical issue rather than something as simple as your Mum hitting the mute button.

    Coenoby

    By the way, the poster on Reddit does not mention the "ding" sound of the message arriving. Personally I think the sound itself is a red herring, it's the arrival of the Facebook message via wifi that's trigging the mute effect.

     

    • newapollo's avatar
      newapollo
      Very Insightful Person
      6 hours ago

      kezwald​  and coenoby​ 

      I've googled and signed in on reddit, and am copy/pasting an abbreviated version of the replies.

      "Facetime's do NOT cut the landline out. Only written messenger messages being received by my phone. Only recently does it seem to be happening with every message (hence my reddit post) but I also realized that I don't receive a lot of messenger messages during business hours when I'm using the landline. 
      If my cell phone is off, it doesn't interfere.
      Today I kept the cell phone wifi off, 4g only and had no interference with land line calls.
      Your theory about the cable line might be it! The 'wiring' from outside into the router box has been here a LONG time. Although other things have been changed out and replaced, that main line into the box has never changed since it was installed decades ago"

      So if the mobile is off then the landline doesn't misbehave.

      If wifi is turned off on the mobile then there was no interference with the ladline calls (although the poster omits to say if any there were any facebook messages received)

      No further posts since the above and that one was a year ago.

      A possible workaround might be to try using whatsapp instead of messenger?

      • coenoby's avatar
        coenoby
        Very Insightful Person
        3 hours ago

        newapollo​ kezwald​ 

        As I said, that Reddit thread does not offer any real explanation or solution. 

        The reason I posted was I was amazed just how similar the two cases were, to the point of being basically identical. Even down to the issue- it seems, being related to Facebook Messages.

        Testing using another messaging service might well be useful.

        Coenoby

         

    • kezwald's avatar
      kezwald
      Joining in
      6 hours ago

      That is very interesting and have just had a quick glance over it thank you. However, you can imagine trying to explain, that a customer of Spectrum in the US, is experiencing the same issues to VM!

      At least my mum is not alone and is one of the chosen few with this issue😂

      Thanks though for pointing me in the direct of Reddit.

  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Community elder
    6 hours ago

    Thinking laterally could the Facebook account notification settings be set to alert via sms but the sms phone number provided to Facebook for this purpose is actually the landline number? 

    • kezwald's avatar
      kezwald
      Joining in
      6 hours ago

      Facebook was initially setup with email and not with a phone number on PC, so her account already exists when logged into the mobile browser, if that makes sense

      I have set alerts to sms previously to try and resolve the issue, but nothing I do works unless her devices are switched of or placed in the kitchen where wifi is non existent.

      • newapollo's avatar
        newapollo
        Very Insightful Person
        5 hours ago

        Hi again kezwald​ 

        Are there any problems when mum receives a notification tone/sound for a normal sms message?

        Have you tried changing the actual facebook messenger notification tone/sound?