Ring-trip (pre-trip) on with Panasonic cordless

Bridgeofsize · 30-12-2009, 18:35

Have just had fixed line switched from BT to Virgin. No problems calling out but callers-in get ringing tone with no ring from telephones, or just one or two rings. Handset shows "in use" but will give no dial tone or connection until ringer terminates call. Telephones are four cordless Panasonic DECT only 14 months old, which worked perfectly on BT until 10 days ago. Even stranger the problem is intermittent, and I have twice got Virgin fault people to test it and apparently get it working, but it then later reverts. Technician has been back twice, and reported a) failure to transfer number from BT (untrue) b) that line had no faault with simple handset (which I believe). Also switch to D-Link N router at same time and have put that on both channels 1, 6, 11 & 13 to test for interference in 2.4GHz band, with no change.

Panasonic faults said that a third line was needed for a ringer capacitor but Virgin had never heard of this, and only the blue/white and white/blue pair are connected, with c48V between them (BT was a solid 50V).

Any ideas?

calmpitbull · 22-01-2010, 23:58

A third wire is not needed for a master socket, only for an extension socket. Plus in my experience the dect cordless phones don't even use the third (bell) wire as they have a built in capacitor which fakes a master socket.

When you say the phone only rings twice, does the callers ring tone also stop or does it carry on?

I suspect the phone, first try a cheap corded phone before you do anything else.

If the phones intermittently rings then it cannot be a failed number port, if it was a failed port then the phone would never ring.

If the second tech told you that his test phone was ok, I suspect the phone even more. Change it for a cheap corded one for a few days, if the fault disappears, get your cordless ones replaced.

Bridgeofsize · 15-02-2010, 00:33

Thanks for the input. Yes, the caller heard ring tone as normal.

Substituting corded phones made no difference. Virgin came back - 3rd visit in four weeks - and this time the technician discovered that Virgin had miswired the phone where the copper wires that come into the house interface with the fibre optic main distribution in a box at the end of the street.

Why they couldn't have identified this earlier, and why they didn't recognize the symptons, I can't imagine. How many fault permutations with two cables can there possibly be?

In any case, all fixed now.