Docsis Emergency Backup line

[Snowy43]

My father in law has been given an emergency backup line after being converted over from a normal phone line to a Docsis line. He has an emergency lifeline button in case of falls which does not work on the backup line, he gets recorded message stating this line only allows emergency calls.

Surely his lifeline button number should be classed as an emergency number ?

How do i get this resolved ?

Mike

[DJ_Shadow1966]

Hello

I am afraid that the Emergency Backup Line will only allow 999 calls, you are going to have to contact the lifeline company to come up with a solution for him, basically the EBUL uses the mobile network to make the call this is what OFCOM have defined.

Regards Mike

[nodrogd]

All landlines will eventually be hub based as the analogue telephone exchanges have now reached the end of their useful lives. So no matter who you get your landline from, you will be in the same situation shortly. There are alternatives out there, & if your current lifeline provider does not have a solution there are several others to choose from.

Example:

https://www.lifeline24.co.uk/buy-now/gsm/ 

[Sofia_B]

Hi @Snowy43. 

Thanks for your post 🙂

I'm sorry to hear this, as so helpfully advised by @DJ_Shadow166 the emergency back up line will only allow 999 calls. I appreciate this is frustrating and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Please get in touch with the lifeline company as advised. 

Thanks, 

[Snowy43]

I realise the SIM card only allows 999 calls, but if I top up the supplied virgin SIM card would that then allow other numbers to be callled ?

Snowy43

[Sofia_B]

Thanks for getting back to us @Snowy43. 

What sim card are you referring to? Do you also have mobile services with us? 

Thanks, 

[Snowy43]

I'm referring to the SIM card in the emergency line backup unit , it appears to be a normal Virgin SIM, is it because it has no credit on it that it is restricted to emergency 999 only ?

I.E Would it allow other numbers to be called such as my father in law's emergency button if it had credit on it ?

Snowy43

[goslow]

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@Snowy43 wrote:

I'm referring to the SIM card in the emergency line backup unit , it appears to be a normal Virgin SIM, is it because it has no credit on it that it is restricted to emergency 999 only ?

I.E Would it allow other numbers to be called such as my father in law's emergency button if it had credit on it ?

Snowy43

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A similar query was raised a couple of weeks ago. See if this past topic helps any. This is not a 'tried-and-tested' solution AFAIK but might work if you have a suitable SIM card to experiment with so use at your own risk.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/How-can-I-add-an-extension/m-p/4775838#M155783

I think the problem you might find is that each of these emergency devices will probably want to have control of the line i.e., an emergency device plugs into the line and then all other devices go through it. If you have a careline device plus the EBUL, you would have to work out the sequence to connect these so that they both worked correctly.

I believe that some careline products can also act as a speaker phone device, as well as a simple alarm signal, which may influence how it connects to a particular home setup.

As has already been suggested, the onus is on the careline providers to start coming up with solutions to this issue but, from the increasing number of topics on here, they do seem to be a bit behind the curve on this.

[Snowy43]

A Virgin engineer arrived this morning and connected the main phone line, the emergency backup line and the emergency button together.

We tested the main phone line and the emergency button together they worked fine.

We failed the main line, then tested the emergency button to the backup line, it failed with the voice message the line would only accept emergency calls.

If I top up the SIM card installed in the emergency back up line with credit will it accept dialled numbers as well as emergency numbers ?

Snowy43  

[Sofia_B]

Thanks for expanding @Snowy43. 

Apologies, we're unable to add credit to the sim as the the back up/EBUL is purely for emergencies to dial 999. 

Thanks,