cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

"Bell Not Ringing" after migration to fibre phone

martin91
Joining in

My landline was migrated to fibre phone at the end of June, and since then my phone doesn't ring when someone calls. I understand this is referred to as a "BNR" fault - Bell Not Ringing. I've been round the loop with the helpdesk seven times now; they have done all sorts of remote tests and resets, but with no success 😞

- I can make outgoing calls from the landline.

- When I call the landline from a mobile and then pick up the (silent) landline phone, the call connects.

So the only problem is that the landline phone doesn't ring when someone calls. 

On the last call to the helpdesk they said that I needed a phone with a REN number greater than 1 for the service to work; having checked several phones, I don't think it's possible to buy a phone with REN > 1. To quote one factsheet, “The phone has a REN of 1, and most other telephones have a REN of 1 unless marked otherwise”.

We're close to giving up on this and just abandoning the landline, but having spent £120 a few months ago on a new cordless phone setup, we're reluctant to write that off. Can anyone help?? I've also tried with a BT Converse 2025 plugged in by itself and get the same problem.

Thank you!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Graham_A
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@martin91 As part of the conversation process VM should have sent a technician out to connect the Hub to the master socket which drives the extensions.  The should be no charge for this so this should apply to the visit you have got booked.

________________________________
Graham

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media, I'm a VM customer. There are no guarantees that my advice will work. Please read the FAQs
Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

24 REPLIES 24

nodrogd
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Some people have solved this problem by inserting an ADSL micro-filter. Most of these incorporate a ringing capacitor that sends a voltage down the bell wire on the phone connection. Try it & see if this solves your issue.

http://www.robertos.me.uk/html/ring-bell_wire.html 

 

VM 350BB 2xV6 & Landline. Freeview/Freesat HD, ASDA/Tesco PAYG Mobile. Cable customer since 1993

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Many thanks for the suggestion - I'll give it a try!

Kain_W
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi there martin91,

Welcome to the community.

Apologies for the issues faced regarding the landline, may I ask are the handsets you have DECT powered at all?

Let us know,

Kain

Hi Kain,

Thanks for asking. One (old-fashioned BT Converse 2025) is powered from the phone line, the other (new Panasonic KX-TGJ420E cordless phone) has a mains supply. Does that answer the question?
I have tried both phones separately and together with the same results. The Panasonic is connected through extension wiring; the power supply to the phone comes through the wall, so it's not trivial to move it next to the Hub, and in any case that's not where we want the answerphone to be...

Thanks!
Martin. 

goslow
Alessandro Volta

Not sure from your description if you have already tried this but ...

For the purposes of a test, are you able to plug the base station of the Panasonic cordless system into the phone socket on the back of the hub, rather than the extension wiring? If you can't move the base station/power, can you run a phone extension lead from the Panasonic base station to the hub so the Panasonic base station is the only phone plugged in? Remove any other phone cables e.g. if you are 'backfeeding' the connection from the hub into old extension sockets so you just have the Panasonic base station only connected into the hub's phone socket.

When you have the existing extension reconnected, do you get dial tone and can you ring out when either phone is connected to the extension socket? VM are not the most reliable about connecting up the extension sockets to the hub.

There should no reason the Panasonic system should not work. From a quick online check, the BT Converse seems to be an early 2000s model and may require the ringing capacitor. Also the Converse seems to have a ringer on/off switch on the back (assume you will have checked this but easily knocked off if the phone is being moved about during the switchover process).

Hi Goslow,

Many thanks for the helpful reply. I've checked the Ringer switch on the phone and it is set to "Hi" (but thanks for the tip - I didn't know it was there!).

Your other suggestion will take a little time to re-work the wiring, but I'll give it a try and let you know.

Thanks again!

Martin. 

 

Kath_F
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi Martin, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one and for keeping up to date on the thread. 

I can see that goslow has given some checks for you to run but in the meantime I would like to get an engineer booked so they can check things with the switchover. I just need to confirm the address to ensure we are booking the visit on the correct account. 

I have sent you a private message regarding this. Just click on the little plum envelope at the top right-hand side of the page to access your inbox.

Thanks,

Kath_F
Forum Team

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


Hi Martin, 

Thanks for coming back to me via private message. 

I have booked you in for the next available appointment. To view this please sign in to My Virgin Media here: My VM. Once logged in, scroll down to Orders & appointments then click on View your orders. You can also view this in the My VM app. If you have any issues with accessing your account or unable to see your visit, please do let us know and we’ll pop you another message to pass data protection and then confirm the appointment details.

Just to confirm, there will be no charge for this visit unless:

  • The technician diagnoses the fault as not being caused by our network/equipment
  • The technician discovers that the fault or problem relates to your equipment
  • The technician discovers that the fault or problem relates to any system that we are not responsible for

The technician will confirm during their visit if any of these instances apply, and if so, a £25 charge will be applied to your account.

Please ensure that someone over the age of 18 is at the property for the time the engineer is there. If the appointment is unsuitable or if anyone living at your property has tested positive for Coronavirus, has been asked to self-isolate or has flu-like symptoms then please reschedule the appointment on the same link. If you do miss the appointment for any reason, a £25 missed appointment charge will be applied to your account on the day of the appointment so it is important to reschedule if needed. 

Lets us know how the appointment goes. 

Take care.

Kath_F
Forum Team

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


Hi again Goslow,
I bought a 10m phone extension cable and ran it across the hall, kitchen and dining room to connect the Panasonic base station "directly" to the hub - and it works! Except it's not a solution we can live with... and relocating the Panasonic base station to be next to the Hub is not an option because we wouldn't see if there are any messages on the answerphone. 
So the Hub:

- can't drive my old BT phone when directly connected;
- can't drive my new Panasonic phone through the old extension wiring (which is what I really need).

VM have kindly been in touch to offer an engineer visit - though we have to pay £25 for the visit if they find that the fault is not with their equipment. I guess my next step is to see if VM have some kind of "amplifier" that will enable the hub to drive the old extension wiring (of which there is quite a lot, because the original BT line came through the garage but the NTL line came through the lounge, and there are several telephone sockets upstairs as well as downstairs. Nonetheless, it all worked with the old phone technology...). 
Thanks again for your time in helping.
With very best wishes,
Martin.