BT phone line

tosca5

Hi, i'm really confused. Yesterday my friend called BT to get a line connection, she has the phone point in her house. BT did a line test and said an engineer needs to come out and connect her to a mast, costing £124.99.
Today she bought a phone while we were in Argos, she plugged it in when she got home and 'hey presto' a dial tone. She rang BT from the phone but they are insisting she needs connected to a mast. This has confused us both, it's a new build house, no-one has been in it before.

A while ago i went on-line to Tiscali to see if she could get Broadband for her, the reply came back as 'A check on your line shows for technical reasons we are unable to provide a service. Line quality or distance from an exchange could affect your ability.

Strange thing is her neighbour recently moved in and got a line connection from BT costing her nothing. No connection to a mast for her:rolleyes:
And there is around 14 houses there, not one has a phone cable running from it, yet they are all connected to BT. Is this new, is it like a wireless signal to a mast?
Please help, it's doing our head in, been trying BT again for some answers the last half hour.

BritBrat

Strange one that, maybe they mean because no one has ever paid the cost of connection you have to as you are the first.

Normally when an existing line has a dial tone reconnection is free but you are having a new connection.

May be that is how they do it now, installed and working nearly but not paid for in advance.

As for the cable it is most likely underground.

tosca5

BritBrat wrote: »

Strange one that, maybe they mean because no one has ever paid the cost of connection you have to as you are the first.

Normally when an existing line has a dial tone reconnection is free but you are having a new connection.

May be that is how they do it now, installed and working nearly but not paid for in advance.

As for the cable it is most likely underground.

Hi, it is strange!
The whole cul-de-sac is a new build, i find it strange her neighbour didn't have to pay anything. Everyone there is new tenants.
She is able to make calls and recieve them!
Yes after thinking about it, silly me, Underground:rotfl:
It was suggested to me that she should wait until the engineer comes and explain it to him.

Ladygrim

In a new-build the developers put the internal wiring in place as they build so that BT dont have to drill holes through new walls to put in cabling/main socket.

Previously, when the developers had done this, the connection to the external network was left until someome applied for telephone service at that address. When an order was placed by the first time user, they would incur the INSTALLATION charge.

However, recently it was decided to do a partial connection to the external network so the new tenant/owner could call BT from the actual address and request the installation, rather than having to go to a public callbox, or family/neighbours house. This made sense as it made it easier for the tenant/owner to get a telephone service (especially if they dont have a mobile.)

This is called a 'soft-dial' line, and it does not allow any chargeable calls. The full cost of installation still has to be paid by the first time user. Currently this is £124.99, (with BT).

HTH

LG

A_Nice_Englishman

That's interesting. Ladygrim. Thanks. I'd not heard of that being dine before but it's a good idea. Here's what I understood a soft dial tone to be (from the Openreach website)
Temporary Out Of Service

When a CP applies Temporary Out of Service (TOS) on an End User's line a 'soft' dial tone is used and they can only call 999. All other incoming, outgoing (including via CPS) and emergency calls will be barred irrespective of the method of dialling.


Going back to the OP, how did she manage to check on the Tiscali website and get that response without having a number? How come the neighbour didn't pay a connection fee? Something doesn't feel quite right here.

PasturesNew

If I could make and receive calls, I'd cancel the engineer.... and just wait for the bills to start arriving

Ypaymore

Ladygrim wrote: »

The full cost of installation still has to be paid by the first time user. Currently this is £124.99, (with BT).

HTH

LG

Yes indeed !!! But you can get half price connection if you push them.

See: http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/history/09-11-2007/FrameworkImpl10126/FrameworkImpl133605.htm#FrameworkImpl133605

tosca5

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

Going back to the OP, how did she manage to check on the Tiscali website and get that response without having a number? How come the neighbour didn't pay a connection fee? Something doesn't feel quite right here.

When she called BT to get a line connection they gave her a telephone number, that's how i managed to check tiscali for her.
Bt said it would cost 'nothing' unless they found a fault in the line, then it would cost £124.99. They checked the line and said she needs connected to the mast, booked the engineer and will bill her.
It's strange as she is able to use the phone, i called her today and she called me earlier at tea-time, infact she called her mum down south and was on the phone for nearly 2 hours. So if she isn't connected then i expect it's 'free calls'.
The neighbour didn't pay, she asked another neighbour and they didn't pay a penny either.
It's going to be interesting to see what the engineer says on Tuesday.

tosca5

PasturesNew wrote: »

If I could make and receive calls, I'd cancel the engineer.... and just wait for the bills to start arriving

:rotfl: That's what i'd do, but she needs the internet on.

kkpolobear

whats it saying when you dial 17070 it may come up with a number then you have got a number so it should be free

A_Nice_Englishman

Just out of interest, what happens if you put her phone number into
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Is it a rented property? If so, I suppose the landlord could have had the phone connected?