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Number unobtainable when ringing specific area in Republic of Ireland

ml2022
Joining in

Hi,

This has been driving me mad for about 5-6 weeks.

For the last 17+ years I have been able to ring close family members in midlands area of Republic of Ireland. Both on 00353 44 922 xxxx numbers. Last 4 digits redacted for privacy purposes.

Now, when dialling these numbers we get an English sounding female voice "The number you have dialled has not been recognised, please check and try again".

We pay for an international add on so have enjoyed "free" calls to Ireland for a long time.

Reported this through 150 and been through to 2nd line on several occasions. Details painstakingly repeated. However, no feedback has been forthcoming or progress reported. I just get annoyed after 2 weeks when nobody has been in touch and then go round the support loop yet again.

The folks in Ireland can call our landline without issue. But it is much more expensive for them to do so. They can also make and receive calls to anyone else including other UK based relatives on different providers e.g. BT/EE.

We can make calls to other international numbers e.g Germany and even other areas of Ireland. 

The folks in Ireland are elderly, do not have smartphones, wifi or mobile reception. Landline is their only lifeline. 

It's got to the stage where we may have to switch provider as this has been so frustrating. The complication is that there is no Openreach cable from the telegraph pole to our property (never has been since we moved in). 

6 REPLIES 6

Akua_A
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi @ml2022,

 

Welcome to our community forum and thank you for your first post.

 

Sorry to hear you have been unable to contact close family in Ireland via your Landline. We can understand your concern and we want to best help. Are you able to pin point when the change took place with calling these numbers? Did you make any changes to your phone package? Also does this occur with other numbers with that area code?

 

Thanks,

Akua_A
Forum Team

New around here? Check out the do's and don'ts, in our Community FAQs


Thanks for replying to my message,

The last change on my account was 8 August 2021 when I added Sky Sports and upgraded fibre from M200 to M350. I did not make any changes to the landline services at that time.

It's hard to remember the exact date this problem started but it was around the same time (early August) - either shortly before or shortly after this change.

----"Also does this occur with other numbers with that area code?" ---

Yes, other numbers in that area also give the same "unobtainable" message when we dial from our Virgin landline. We have tried calling businesses in that locality and they fail. We can ring them from our mobiles and we have tested from non-virgin landline and they also work. The problem seems to be confined to any number in the +353 44 922 (xxxx) area. That's quite a small geographic area ~ miles radius.

People in that area have no other issues (as far as we aware) in making/receiving calls from any other landline/mobile network - just from Virgin landlines. 

 

Thank you for letting me know @ml2022

 

Just to clarify, what landline handset are you using and have you changed it during this time? Have you also been able to call the landline from a mobile during this time? This will help us identify were the problem may lay.

 

Thanks,

Akua_A
Forum Team

New around here? Check out the do's and don'ts, in our Community FAQs


We have a cordless phone. We've had it for years with no problem.

In order to rule out cordless phone being issue I have plugged an analog phone straight into the wall socket. Exactly same unobtainable message.

Yes, ringing the desination numbers from mobiles is no problem. Even from my virgin SIM mobile!

 

Thank you for investigating @Akua_A

Zak_M
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Good morning @ml2022

 

This is a rather strange one,  We are going to need to arrange to get this investigated further. 

 

I am going to pop you over a PM so that I can get some account information.

 

Kind regards,

Zak_M

Zak_M
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Thank you for providing me with that information via PM @ml2022

 

I have raised this with our landline team, they will run some further tests and reach out to you if needed.

 

Kind regards,

Zak_M