Phone Line Troubleshooting

Resolving issues with your home phone

Introduction

This document will help you identify issues with your home phone. It can be used to figure out if the issue is internal (within your home) or external (outside your property) and work through a few common resolutions.

We strongly recommend that you print this out and fill it in as you work through it. If you need to call our support team, this means you can provide us with information that will help us resolve your issue faster.

Line history and possible causes

Before we test your phone, let’s start by reviewing any previous issues or environmental factors that may be causing problems

When did the issue start?

When did you first notice this issue?

Has a similar issue happened before?

Has this happened before? If so, can you remember what you did to resolve it? Re-try those steps, and if it doesn’t work, list what you did.

Has there been bad weather in the area recently?

If there’s been heavy rain, high winds or thunderstorms in the past few days, they could damage phone lines and disrupt your phone service

Has there been maintenance work in the area recently?

Have you noticed any maintenance work (electrical, phone lines, excavation) recently? It’s possible that this has disrupted your service.

Isolation test

Next, let’s perform an “Isolation Test”. By removing all devices and then reconnecting each device one by one, we may find potential interference within your household.

Disconnect all equipment from all phone sockets in your house. This includes phones (corded and cordless), line filters, modems and routers, computers, alarm systems or set top boxes.

Find the closest phone line socket to the front of your house and connect a line filter, phone cord and a corded phone to the wall.

If the problem is still present it could be a problem with the line filter, cord or phone. Try connecting different combinations of lines, cords and phones to isolate any faulty pieces of equipment.

Slowly reintroduce each item that you disconnected, testing each time, until the issue reappears. What device(s) caused the issue to reappear?

If the device causing the problem has a manual, you can use that to try and fix the issue. If this doesn’t resolve the issue then call customer support on 13 22 88.

If the Isolation Test failed to find the source of the problem, it’s time to move onto the Handset Test.

Handset test

Let’s verify all your handsets are working correctly. Start by unplugging all phones connected to a telephone line socket, as we need to test each individually.

For each of the telephones that you have, perform the following steps:

1. Reconnect the telephone to its a line socket
2. Listen for a dial tone. If none is present, repeat this step with a different phone.
3. Listen for any static interference on the line. If static noise is present, try the following:
   • Move the white phone cable away from any large electrical devices (such as TV’s/fridges), which can generate electromagnetic fields that interfere with your phone line.
   • Ensure a line filter is fitted. This should be connected between your phone and the line socket in your wall.

Use the checklist below to record the results of each test:

Socket test

The Socket Test is used to check if all the phone line sockets within your household have the same issue, or if it’s isolated to a single one. To perform this test, you will need a corded phone, a cable and a line filter. Start by finding all the phone line sockets in your house and disconnecting any attached devices. A phone line socket looks like this:

Once all sockets are confirmed to be unplugged connect a corded handset to one and test your handset. Repeat this process in each socket to confirm whether the problem is due to internal cabling or a faulty socket.

Note down your results for each socket below:

Is the issue only on one/a few sockets or are all affected?
If only a few phone sockets are experiencing issues, it’s most likely an internal line fault. We recommended shifting your services to a working socket temporarily and contacting us for assistance on 13 22 88.
If all phone sockets have the same issue, it is possibly an external line fault.
Contact support for assistance on 13 22 88

Caller line ID test

The final step before calling support is to perform a Caller Line ID test to check your phone line’s incoming and out going calls are working.

First, check you have a dial tone on your phone. If there is none then you cannot perform the test and should call customer support on 13 22 88 with an alternate phone (such as a mobile).

There are a few different numbers you can call depending on your phone line bundle and your phone line settings.

Private phone line

If your phone line service is a private or silent number, call below to verify your number:

Private or Silent: 1832 127 221 23
It is important to use this number if your line is private, as other Caller Line ID Tests can’t identify your line number.

Non-private phone line

If you don’t have a silent phone number, you should use the Optus or Telstra service. If your service is an ADSL2 home phone line bundle, you will need to use the Optus Caller Line ID Test, otherwise use the Telstra number. If unsure, call both numbers and note down the result for each.

Optus: 1800 652 456
Telstra: 127 221 23

Call the appropriate number and note down the number that is spoken back to you.

If the number is not your number, then call customer support on 13 22 88 as this indicates a phone line error.