BT Phone Ringing Continually upon connection..

notbritishgas

BertieUK wrote: »

izools Many thanks for your input.

This morning I went into the loft and traced where the BT cables enter the house and found 2 boxes, side by side attatched to the roof rafters. The boxes are almost the same as in the picture originally posted by Gordon Hose. The difference being that these boxes did not have any plug sockets on them at all, only cables going in / out.

One of the boxes I could not see any cables going in / out of it. I took off the cover plate, the lower half of the facia, and found it to be empty. There was the following lettering / nos UK REG DES 1036886

I will as you suggest, give BT a call and ask for them to install an NTE5 master.

kind regards

BobUK

Hello bertie
It looks as if you have an NTE5B in your loft, this is (or used to be ) standard practice where a telephone was not required at the point of entry of the BT cable. I have one in my garage where the underground feed comes in.

The procedure is exactly the same as has been described by others here, the bottom half of the plate can be unscrewed to reveal the test socket. Obviously this will be on the one which has the cables going to it. The phone sockets in the house will then be connected to the face plate you have removed, anything from this point on is your responsibility.

If what I am saying turns out to be the case then you do not need an NTE5A in the house, you can test from the test socket in the one in the loft.

I will try to find a link to show what an NTE5B looks like and append it later.

Bingo, here we are
www.presscomm.co.uk/pdf/DS024-1%20NTE5B.pdf

BertieUK

brewerdave and notbritishgas Many thanks for both of your inputs.

I checked with your picture notbritishgas and yes that is what is fitted inside the loft attatched to the fafters. Not the best of places for the test socket to be. Just my luck I guess on this one.

The telephone has rung normally today, with none of the previous stated sounds, thats not to say that tomorrow it will have another session like before. It reminds me of a member of my household, no names mentioned. lol

regards

BobUK

PS Other than what has been mentioned, what would cause the continual ringing ? On my side of the fence I mean ? Bad connections perhaps.

Also I do realise if the fault lies on my side I would be charged. Could this be a lot of money ?

brewerdave

Standard call out charge is £130 AFAIA; I had a similar ringer fault due to the seal on an external wall junction box failing,allowing water in;it was intermittent for several weeks until it got so bad that I had to call out BT - Could it be condensation in your loft space causing shorting or corrosion of terminals??
Others will be more aware - but I'm not sure what BT Openreach's Elf & Safety policy says about working in a loft nowadays??

BertieUK

brewerdave Many thanks for your input.

Where our Master Box is situated is in a position not far from the entrance to the loft that I floored last year, so access is ok. There is no evidence of moisture in any area of our loft thank goodness, so that rules out one possible cause.

I called the house with my mobile and the call seemed natural for the first ring, then the pause became shorter and shorter until it was a continuous ring. When I picked up the phone there was an audable noise like load crackling and then I put the phone back on the cradle and it continued ringing for about 10 seconds then stopped.

What I think I will do next, as a Forum Member suggested, is to attatch a phone into the Test Box in the loft after removing the secondary BT Box that is in the Meter box.

regards

BobUK

Heinz

I don't know much about the technicalities but that sounds like a fault on the line card at the exchange to me.

BertieUK

Heinz Many thanks for your input.

I will run my test in the morning and then I could be a little more confident of where the fault does lie. I certainly hope that your thoughts are correct.

regards

BobUK

ukcarper

Heinz wrote: »

I don't know much about the technicalities but that sounds like a fault on the line card at the exchange to me.

If it stopped ringing when he picked up the handset I would agree. Bertie I assume you have tried a different phone.

BertieUK

ukcarper Many thanks for your input.

We have three phones in our dwelling and each of them all react in the same way. Each phone stops ringing when you lift it up, but the noise from the headpiece is a loud crackling, put them down and they continue to ring.

I wondered whether or not the answer-phone, that two of the three have, was maybe cutting the connection.

regards

BobUK

ukcarper

The fault could be anywhere you need to test from test point as notbritishgas suggested and I believe you intend to do. If still faulty from there and you are sure the phone you use is ok BT shouldn’t charge you but reading some other post on here they might try.

BertieUK

ukcarper Many thanks for your input and comments.

This morning I disconnected all three telephones in our house, including the Secondary Box in the Electric Meter Box.
I took off the front plate on the BT Box in the attic and connected a house phone to it. I confirmed that there was a dial tone, then with my mobile I called the number.

It rang as normal for the first ring then it did as it did when all phones were connected, got progressively shorter rings then continuously, as befofe. I picked up the receiver and the same loud noise in the handset.

So it would appear 'beyond any reasonable doubt' that the fault lies outside of the house.

How best would it be to contact BT ? By the internet or by land line ?

regards

BobUK