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BT Broadband VOIP Problem

Penybanc

Casual Member
Has anyone had a problem with their VOIP installation. We were part of a 71 household BT community fibre scheme completed in September 2020 and have an FTTP connection. Our VOIP service works fine when making calls but will only ring when receiving calls from digital devices. No calls are received from analogue phones. Those in our scheme also taking the VOIP package have an identical problem. When we plug in our old analogue phones to the green socket on the back of the Home Hub 2 the analogue calls come though Ok. BT have been working on the problem since September but have not been able to identify the problem. Our FTTP installation has been checked and otherwise found to be fault free. Anyone had similar issues and if so have they been resolved? Incidentally the installation engineer advised that our connection from our DP was via a hybrid fibre optic cable also containing a copper line connection. BT FTTP help department were not aware that this was possible – but maybe I misheard?
 
Has anyone tried to signup with Sipgate or one of the other providers who have a free basic service with a new local number where incoming calls are free and tested that. If it works you can then port your BT number to them.
 
Thanks for your response. The scheme was funded by the Gigabit Voucher Scheme which required us to enter into a minimum 100Mbps 12 month contract with the ISP of our choice. So for the moment we are stuck in that 12 month contract with BT Broadband. There are several businesses affected so they wouldn’t. want to end up with a new number. The VOIP was an interesting free add-on, allowing better quality calls. The most irritating thing is BT seem unable to commission their own installation. Thanks for your suggestion however, I’ll investigate.
 
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You will need to clarify what you mean by "Our VOIP service works fine when making calls but will only ring when receiving calls from digital devices. No calls are received from analogue phones".

Are you saying other people cannot ring you or only the new Cordless phones work in your homes?

My view is that you appear to have been moved to BT Digital Voice. Your old telephone circuit nor the FVA socket on the ONT are now in use.

The BT Smart Hub provides both a DECT base for the new cordless handsets and an ATA socket for corded phones. If you want your existing internal wiring/corded phones to work then they need to be connected to the ATA socket (GREEN). Yes BT information on this is very poor probably as they do not want to support the legacy phones.

The easiest way to connect internal wiring to the hub is to disconnect the incoming telephone pair (pull out of main NTE socket and tape) and use a BT 4 Wire 431A Plug to Male Plug Telephone Cable Lead (standard telephone plug on both ends) between an NTE/Extension socket and the hub. The cables are available for around £3 each. Or a DIY telephone extension kit.

However this isn't something a customer should be expected to do. Openreach will follow their standard install which is to either leave the copper line in situ or connect it to the FVA socket on the ONT (they don't know what ISP you will have or how the voice will be provided) so its not really their fault.

If it is technically beyond the users I suggest this is taken back up with your ISP BT. The alternative is to engage a local telephony expert.

If you private message me I am happy to support with detailed instructions.

1608732640466.png
 
You will need to clarify what you mean by "Our VOIP service works fine when making calls but will only ring when receiving calls from digital devices. No calls are received from analogue phones".

Are you saying other people cannot ring you or only the new Cordless phones work in your homes?

My view is that you appear to have been moved to BT Digital Voice. Your old telephone circuit nor the FVA socket on the ONT are now in use.

The BT Smart Hub provides both a DECT base for the new cordless handsets and an ATA socket for corded phones. If you want your existing internal wiring/corded phones to work then they need to be connected to the ATA socket (GREEN). Yes BT information on this is very poor probably as they do not want to support the legacy phones.

The easiest way to connect internal wiring to the hub is to disconnect the incoming telephone pair (pull out of main NTE socket and tape) and use a BT 4 Wire 431A Plug to Male Plug Telephone Cable Lead (standard telephone plug on both ends) between an NTE/Extension socket and the hub. The cables are available for around £3 each. Or a DIY telephone extension kit.

However this isn't something a customer should be expected to do. Openreach will follow their standard install which is to either leave the copper line in situ or connect it to the FVA socket on the ONT (they don't know what ISP you will have or how the voice will be provided) so its not really their fault.

If it is technically beyond the users I suggest this is taken back up with your ISP BT. The alternative is to engage a local telephony expert.

If you private message me I am happy to support with detailed instructions.

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Hi
A bit more background. On installing FTTP Openreach removed our original copper line and master socket. An ONT was provided plus a new analogue master socket (fed from the ONT) for our old cordless phone - although a subsequent special engineer from Cube advised this wasn’t necessary. As far as I know we are on BT Digital Voice.

VOIP phone and old cordless phones can dial out and connect. Old cordless phones still receive all incoming calls. VOIP phone receives calls but only from digital devices. If the old cordless phones are unplugged calls that would have previously been received by the cordless phones do not go through to the VOIP phone. The caller hears the ringing sound but the call is not received by the VOIP phone. The VOIP phone will still receive calls from mobiles and digital devices but not from analogue (which most people still use).

To conclude if unplug our old cordless phones then we will not receive calls from anyone other than if they are using a digital/mobile phone.

BT didn’t believe me at first but the independent engineer they sent out has confirmed that the issue exists.
 
Clearly BT has not implemented BT Digital Voice properly or should never have offered it to you at your location if the PSTN number cannot be correctly ported.

Either BT need to correct the number porting or revert it to FVA if the local exchanges will not support the number porting.

Does it correctly route if the full telephone number is used?
Is it only appearing on the legacy phones if people use the local number only?
 
Clearly BT has not implemented BT Digital Voice properly or should never have offered it to you at your location if the PSTN number cannot be correctly ported.

Either BT need to correct the number porting or revert it to FVA if the local exchanges will not support the number porting.

Does it correctly route if the full telephone number is used?
Is it only appearing on the legacy phones if people use the local number only?
Have experimented and using the full STD number makes no difference. The basic problem seems to be that calls coming down the old copper line fail to make it to the VOIP phone if that is the only phone plugged in.

Having read around a bit more we may have been provided with a Transition Product as (apparently) the fibre optic cable includes a copper pair to serve our analogue phones. However, I’m confused since the incoming analogue calls are making it as far as the ONT since if I plug the old analogue phones directly into the ONT or into the green socket on the back of the Home Hub 2 then the calls are received (but only by the analogue phones). I assume it must be a software issue somewhere. BT have said that it is a problem that they have experienced elsewhere but have not managed to resolve ‘as Digital Voice is a new product’ I’m happy to do away with the old analogue phones but then wouldn’t receive most of our calls......Thanks for your help.
 
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You can port your number to another VOIP provider and not lose the FTTP or need to cancel the current contract, needs a bit of extra work but as BT have failed to provide the full VOIP service then you cannot be penalised by using another VOIP service whose service does work.

Give BT a target date to get the service running 100%, in parallel test a free Sipgate or similar account so if BT fail you are ready to move.
 
Do you know how many of the 71 homes are affected by adopting BT DV?

If you go for another VoIP provider you will have to do one of the following:
- Change the router
- Get a VoIP supplier that provides ATA interface
- or purchase a VoIP phone
A modest cost but why should you and others have to scrap existing.

There is also the issue that if the number cannot be ported from the exchange/PSTN properly then my question would it be the same issue moving to a VoIP provider. If moving to a VoIP provider would solve it then clearly BT should be able to do the same.

I would keep persevering with BT as this cannot be isolated to just your scheme. Simplest option would be for BT to revert you to FVA (Fibre Voice Access on the ONT) until they resolve their PSTN/BT DV issue.

The routing from BT IP Exchange appears to be OK. So it has to be a PSTN setting that has not been, or can't be, completed.
 
Do you know how many of the 71 homes are affected by adopting BT DV?

If you go for another VoIP provider you will have to do one of the following:
- Change the router
- Get a VoIP supplier that provides ATA interface
- or purchase a VoIP phone
A modest cost but why should you and others have to scrap existing.

There is also the issue that if the number cannot be ported from the exchange/PSTN properly then my question would it be the same issue moving to a VoIP provider. If moving to a VoIP provider would solve it then clearly BT should be able to do the same.

I would keep persevering with BT as this cannot be isolated to just your scheme. Simplest option would be for BT to revert you to FVA (Fibre Voice Access on the ONT) until they resolve their PSTN/BT DV issue.

The routing from BT IP Exchange appears to be OK. So it has to be a PSTN setting that has not been, or can't be, completed.
71 households were provided with the ability to take FTTP. 41 actually took a 100Mbps service and of those, as far as I know, 7 took VOIP service and have the same problem as me. There may be others but I’m guessing most decided to stick with their old analogue phones.

The easiest option for me is to do away with the landline service altogether and just use my mobile phone using wifi calling (we are very remote and have no mobile signal).

Frankly there isn’t a problem if we keep the old phones connected but this seems to defeat the object/benefit of moving to VOIP. Thanks for your reply - much appreciated.
 
We moved to BT FTTP and people calling us from landlines can’t reach us. Just doesn’t ring. This was tested with family on Virgin, and other family on Sky. If I call my house from my EE phone it rings. Yet if I call my house from my o2 mobile sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t....

Raised fault with BT they did the usual follow the script process and said see how you get on. My 82 year old mother in law can’t reach us, and I can’t risk this, so I called them back (BT) to raise it again (Xmas eve) and am yet to hear back.

BT themselves rang me and they got through ok. We have an old corded phone plugged straight into the router. As well as a cordless that uses some sort of BT power line adapter meaning I can plug the phone base in anywhere.

So all our phones are analogue (not voip digital) so old corded phone and a dect cordless.
 
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I’ve been in discussion with BT Executive Customer Relations Team for a month or so now. BT confess they are baffled. My FTTP installation has been checked out by an independent engineer who couldn’t find a fault. Calls from digital and analogue phones reach us, but analogue calls are only received if the old cordless phone is plugged in to the back of the Home Hub 2. In our case the analogue call must be reaching our ONT but other than that I have no idea what our problem is. Your problem seems more fundamental but very similar. A recorded delivery letter to BT Registered Office stating that you will not be paying for a defective service is merited.The complaint should then be escalated which might help.
 
@davidmbell
It would appear BT have a very serious process issue porting numbers to BT Digital Voice. It is as if that the new routing is not cascading to the PSTN and if it now includes other orgs its a real failure.

To prove it is the same issue as Penybanc has above could you temporarily move your corded phone to the telephone socket on the ONT and see if it is working or not and get relatives to call again. Worth a try and it may help decide whether it is a PSTN issue or a number porting issue.

BT may not have an obligation for broadband but they certainly do for telephony. If they cannot resolve then they should allow you to withdraw from your contract. A change of ISP and a revised porting of the number again may clear the issue.

This really should be a priority within BT as it fundamentally undermines the BT Digital Voice product and its initial reputation.
 
Whilst this may not help the issue does sound very familiar to me from the mobile side.

Sometimes when number porting doesn't complete successfully it's sort of half active. For example the receiving provider thinks the port is successful, so the number is active, anyone calling from the same provider or anyone using their infrastructure gets through fine but other networks can't get through as calls are being incorrectly routed.

I don't know how this gets resolved as it just gets sent off to a higher level porting team who perhaps refresh certain databases and reset call routing which resolves it.

It sounds like something similar has happened when BT have transferred your number. I wonder if there's a specialist team who can deal with this.
 
Thanks for your input. I’ll relay on this info to BT to try and resolve the issue. In case it is of interest to anyone BT sometimes check if the customer is vulnerable - has health issues - in that case they will expedite their investigation but presumably with the same head-scratching outcome
 
@TTJJ Yes it is exactly that. Somehow on the conversion to FTTP it appears a transfer to both FVA and BT DV have been activated. So the PSTN side (and any orgs connecting via it) are routing to the FVA instead across from the BT TDM Voice platform via the BT IP EX to the IP Voice side. The process is used all the time but in this case BT is both the current Range Holder and the Recipient Network.

There is a specific Number Porting Team within BT Wholesale but this is for providers (who have access to the BT Wholesale portal) and it is this team the BT Help Desk Teams should be contacting.
 
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Thanks for your input. I’ll relay on this info to BT to try and resolve the issue. In case it is of interest to anyone BT sometimes check if the customer is vulnerable - has health issues - in that case they will expedite their investigation but presumably with the same head-scratching outcomeou
Out of interest who did you port your number FROM? Trying to identify a pattern. We were with sky.
 
It was from when I worked at a MNO plus my own experience in two cases, one from Virgin Mobile to Three then again from Three to AAISP’s voice platform. I don’t think what I experienced was an operator specific issue it’s just the off chance that it happened to me. In the AAISP case it was actually Three’s porting team that had resolved it because they had somehow not released the number from their end and all Three network originating calls would fail.

I was often told it’s to do with databases which I suppose makes sense as there needs to be a central register somewhere that controls the routing of calls.
 
@davidmbell
It would appear BT have a very serious process issue porting numbers to BT Digital Voice. It is as if that the new routing is not cascading to the PSTN and if it now includes other orgs its a real failure.

To prove it is the same issue as Penybanc has above could you temporarily move your corded phone to the telephone socket on the ONT and see if it is working or not and get relatives to call again. Worth a try and it may help decide whether it is a PSTN issue or a number porting issue.

BT may not have an obligation for broadband but they certainly do for telephony. If they cannot resolve then they should allow you to withdraw from your contract. A change of ISP and a revised porting of the number again may clear the issue.

This really should be a priority within BT as it fundamentally undermines the BT Digital Voice product and its initial reputation.

So went to see if the old corded phone will plug in to the ONT (I had to google what that was) and there’s no socket to allow me to try that...
 

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My ONT provided in September by Openreach does have a Tel 1 socket. Tried the following calls from my Three Mobile

1. Call from mobile via wifi calling (no mobile signal here) call received on cordless phone plugged into Openreach Master Socket fitted below the ONT. I assume therefore that I have a hybrid fibre optic cable. Old analogue phone received the call. Digital phone silent.
2. Unplugged old analogue phone leaving just the new VOIP phone. Call from mobile does not reach the VOIP phone. Whilst making the mobile call to the VOIP phone a dialling tone can still be heard on the VOIP Phone. I conclude the call is not reaching the VOIP phone
3. Calls made from VOIP phone to Three mobile are received even when analogue cordless phone disconnected.

To conclude the VOIP phone will not receive analogue calls nor calls from Three Mobile phones. Some mobile phones do get through plus an 0800 number. All other calls received on the old analogue cordless phone. Outgoing calls can be made normally from VOIP phone - iirespective of whether cordless phones plugged in or not.

Very strange. Very confusing.
 

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