My UK internet provider recently moved me from a traditional phone line to full-fibre broadband. They installed a wall-mounted fibre box connected to a router, and the internet connection itself is working normally.
The router has two green ports marked with a phone symbol. I connected my existing landline phone to one of them using the adapter supplied by the provider, but the phone displays "Please check cable connection" and plays an error tone instead of providing a dial tone. The old wall phone socket is no longer active either.
There is a green phone light on the router, which is sometimes steady and sometimes flashes rapidly. I have already restarted the router and reconnected the phone, but nothing changed. Does the phone need to be connected differently, or does the provider need to activate or configure the voice service?
2 Answers
With full-fibre service, the landline usually works as a voice-over-internet service through the router rather than through the old wall socket. Your existing phone should normally work with the supplied adapter, so you probably do not need a special handset. Since the router’s phone light is active but the phone still reports a cable error, the voice service or router configuration may not have been fully activated. The provider will need to check the phone service and may need to reprovision the router or confirm the correct phone port and adapter.
The old wall socket is expected to stop working after the change unless the provider has arranged internal rewiring. Connect the phone directly to the router’s phone port through the supplied adapter, then make sure the adapter is fully inserted at both ends. If you have already tried both phone ports and restarted the router, contact the provider using a mobile or another person’s phone. Tell them the broadband works, the router’s phone indicator is lit, and the handset gives a cable warning with no dial tone. They can test whether your number has been transferred correctly and whether the router has received the voice configuration.
That makes sense. I was unsure whether the old phone itself had become incompatible, but it sounds more like an activation or setup issue than a handset problem.