Phone rang, went to try 1471, no dial tone

[#1]

The phone rang, the answer machine outgoing message got activated, no message left, went to try 1471, no dial tone.

At first there was an alarm sound instead of dial tone.  Now, (after unpluggings and trying both phones here), nothing.  Silence on the corded phone, and a hiss on the wireless handset.

What next?

(PS, I cannot use mobile phones, and do not have one, nor another line from which to call the support.)

[#2]

And the website support is driving me barmy, sending me around in unhelpful loops.

A chat window came up at one point.  No idea how.  "Joe" asked me some questions, and as soon as I'd explained the situation, said "Great! You know where to find me if you have more questions." and up came another questionaire of how satisfied I was, and the chat got closed.  Needless to say, VERY dissatisfied.  No, I have no idea where to find you "Joe", not how that chat window came up, nor how to get it to come up again, nor why the conversation was abruptly ended as soon as it began.

[#3]

Are the telephone handsets and the answering machine one and the same DECT telephone system?

You need to eliminate the possibility that the problem is connected to the answer phone / DECT system.

If you have a separate (ideally corded) handset, have you tried plugging it into the the test socket?

Do you have a friendly neighbour who can kick off the phone faults BOT?  See the link below.

Other than that, you will need to wait for a staff member to pick up here.

Are you connecting here on the home broadband service?  Does it appear slower than usual or about the same?  If the same, I would look to a problem with your telephone handsets / DECT base station.  Can you borrow a telephone handset?

EDIT: Chat is now only for sales enquiries.

[#4]

Are the telephone handsets and the answering machine one and the same DECT telephone system?

Without prior knowledge of what a "DECT" telephone system is, 

The wireless handset that rests in the base with the answering machine is connected through an ADSL filter to the main phone socket.

The corded phone was connected through an ADSL filter elsewhere in the house, until bringing it to try on the main phone socket (upon which it got the same silence, instead of dial tone, as it did in its original socket).

Does that answer that question?

Do you have a friendly neighbour who can kick off the phone faults BOT?

No.

Other than that, you will need to wait for a staff member to pick up here.

Okay.

Are you connecting here on the home broadband service?

Yes.  Broadband on this line still working.

Does it appear slower than usual or about the same?

Nothing noticeably slowed, but then nothing significant done to test it... 

... speedtest.net says:  DOWNLOAD Mbps 13.60, UPLOAD Mbps 0.74.

Download actually a little faster than expected.

If the same, I would look to a problem with your telephone handsets / DECT base station.

Been through as much of the guide as I dare... not wanting to risk losing my only life-line internet connection.  Precariat life.

Can you borrow a telephone handset?

Nope.

Only got the two.  The wireless bt telephone, and the corded bendross mock-vintage telephone.

Thanks for the reply.  At least feels like getting nearer to an answer.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Quotes fixed.

[#5]

DECT - Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications - a term describing modern wireless (one of more) handsets used in conjunction with a base station, which might or might not also have an answering facility.  Typically calls can be placed between / transferred between any of the connected handsets.

There are some more tests / test clarifications you can do...

• Re-test with just the corded phone connected (disconnect the DECT phone in case that is the cause of the issue)
• Test from the test socket behind the master socket faceplate ... though I can understand your reluctance to touch this

13mbps - I take it that you are on FTTC?

This sounds like a one-leg-dis fault - one side of the phone line pair is disconnected - strange as it might seam, broadband can limp along with only one side of the circuit connected.

This needs a staff member to poke this along - the whole automated, self help space is now predicated on the presumption that everyone has a mobile phone.

@csmith94 / @willcutforth  / @SammyM

[#6]

Hi @siljrath, thanks for reaching out and I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with your line. I've ran a line test and found a battery contact fault that needs to be fixed by Openreach. Initially, they will attempt to fix this issue externally so no appointment is yet needed but if they're unable to do this then we'll be in touch to organise an appointment. 

You're marked down on the account as a priority fault  repair so I'd really like to raise this to Openreach as well. Is there any reason why you would need the phone? Do you have a lifeline, need constant contact with Doctors/Carers etc. If you don't feel comfortable sending this across publicly, then just PM me so it's private. 

Once I've got this info, I'll raise it to Openreach and come back to you with estimated fix dates.  

[#7]

I currently have the corded phone plugged in, and it has been dinging, little sporadic dings, I guess perhaps from some intervention going on.  

Instead of the dial done, there's a louder more angry growly electric parp tone.

And yes, "life line" may be fair to say.  It has perhaps saved my life a couple times being able to push past my severe phone anxiety to call emergency services.  [Edit: and, is my only phone line ~ no mobile phone, nor access to any other.]

I'm not expecting any such use in the immediate near future, but then, such use is rarely expected.

No "constant contact" though.  Emergencies only.  Which with my many ailments (all stress worsened, some currently flared up), could be any time.  

Because of this outage, I've arranged with another company to have the 2nd line to the house reconnected, which will hopefully happen in the latter third of the month.

Thanks for looking into this, and getting its mending a priority.

[#8]

That's expected on battery contact, best way to explain it is there's essentially a wire loose that's giving you some intermittent connection to the phone line so it'll start making weird sounds as it's trying to work. 

I've escalated this to Openreach so once I've got a response from them, I'll let you know.