Call-screening landline phone not working on Digital Voice

[organisedjim]

We have a BT 8600 cordless phone which has built-in Call Guardian / trueCall feature.  We were moved to Digital Voice and FTTP a couple of weeks ago with a new hub, and after that we noticed the call blocking isn't letting some calls through at all.

When we try calling our landline from a mobile, we get the Call Guardian message ("please say your name and press hash") but pressing hash doesn't do anything, the message just repeats.  It seems that the keypress isn't getting through to the BT 8600.  Calling from another landline works fine though.   The cordless phone is plugged directly into the green port on the hub, and I've tried changing that cable.

I've read that mobile phones send keypresses digitally rather than as audio tones, and that the EE hub is meant to convert it to tones.  If I call our landline number from my mobile and press a number key, I don't hear the tone.

I don't see any settings in the hub admin page for this - does anyone have any advice on this?

[JimM11]

@organisedjim Hopefully you are aware that call blocking with call guardian no longer functions when you have a DV Digital Voice connection, you may just have to use all the features that DV has instead the system off key press is where it mostly falls down service wise, you will not be able to get as reliable operation as previous before DV....

Set up your Digital Home Phone service | Home Phone Help | EE

[XRaySpeX]

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@JimM11 wrote:

call blocking with call guardian no longer functions when you have a DV Digital Voice connection

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Where is that stated? Or is just another glitch in EE BB like many others that could well be fixable?

[organisedjim]

EE support have told me that the Call Guardian phone definitely should work - so if it's a known issue, even their support team aren't aware.  Presumably there's many more people with Call Guardian phones, some of whom would have been moved to DV by now and I haven't found any other posts on this specific problem - so my intuition is that this issue is specific to our EE hub rather than more general?

[JimM11]

@organisedjim You may just wish to have a look also on the BT Forum just search Call Guardian not to may post's to go look at but some are ranging back few years, and they will NOT be using your specific EE hub but will be Having DV through the BT one, yes it should work as you have posted and been told, it's just not as good when it was on the PSTN connection.

Document as much as you can the what/why's and raise it as a formal complaint, have it logged and someone may just possibly get back to you.

[YorkshireMidge]

@organisedjim  I'm seeing the same issue as you but with different kit.  I came across to EE from PlusNet just a few weeks back and hadn't actually tested Truecall from an unknown mobile until I saw your post.  

I have a Home phone adapter, connected to a standalone Truecall unit, with a cordless phone system hung off the back. 

If I call my landline from a mobile which is not on my Star List, and hit the breakthrough key (configured to be a 5 on my Truecall unit rather than the # a caller had to press on the BT Truecall phones) in response to the challenge, it isn't being picked up, so it just hangs up on me after a couple of attempts. 

If I call from my normal mobile which is on my Star List and is therefore put straight through to my cordless system, hitting any key on my mobile can't be heard on the cordless handset.  

So it looks like DV isn't passing ANY key presses through from mobiles. I imagine this issue won't just affect Truecall. Anyone with a traditional answering machine which they can access remotely with keystrokes and a PIN will be similarly affected if they call in from a mobile.  

[JimM11]

@YorkshireMidge Apart from mobile issues. it is also reported but was a while back now so it may have been fixed someone needs to try and test, the DVA when connected for landline, would also not respond to key press options ie press 1234 to get to wxyz, solution was to always use the connected phone to the Back off the EE Hub.

If something is not working unless someone reports it to EE CS then it is never fixable when not known. It is also very common on wifi calling, when asked to select options they just do not work, then drop back to mobile and dial out that way, eventually you get to know what works and does not....

The DVA does go back years now so can be hard to find post wise.

[YorkshireMidge]

Just a quick update.  I've been onto EE CS and the lady I spoke to told me there was a discrepancy between Call Protect settings on the account and on the network.  She has corrected it but tells me it can take up to 24hrs to come into effect. 

I was quite sceptical about this being anything to do with Call Protect as the call is self-evidently getting through - but I thought I'd try it as soon as I got off the phone from them, and you can imagine my surprise when it worked at the first attempt.   i.e. the same "unknown" test mobile that hasn't been able to break through TrueCall all morning was suddenly able to when I pressed the 5 key and I was at the next stage of providing my name for screening.   However, my euphoria was short lived as it then failed the second time, and has continued to fail ever since (around a dozen attempts).  So, I'm going to leave it 24 hours and re-test. 

I guess an interesting test in the meantime would be a few people with DV simply making a call from their mobile to their landline and seeing if key presses on the mobile keypad translate to tones on their landline handset.  If it does, then at least we know this is something a bit weird/unusual. 

[YorkshireMidge]

@JimM11   I've just unplugged my DVA from the mains (which obviously takes the TrueCall and cordless system out of the equation too), so it can't be interfering in any way.  I plugged a bog standard phone (a Converse 1300 I happened to have spare) direct into the back of the hub, phoned my landline from my test mobile, and keys pressed from it aren't heard on the Converse phone handset.   So I think we can now rule out the DVA +  @organisedjim said he was connected directly into the hub in his case anyway.  

You remember a few weeks back I had to factory reset my hub to clear out all the port forwarding entries in order to be able to put my CCTV forwarding rule in first - and that factory reset also had the effect of clearing out an odd nslookup issue I put on here at the same time?   Obviously that factory reset was successful on both counts but the thought has just crossed my mind that it might have mucked something else up if the key presses normally get transmitted through from a mobile OK for other EE users.  @organisedjim you haven't had to factory reset your hub by any chance have you? 

[JimM11]

@YorkshireMidge If you can hold off, new round off FW updates was posted to day, and the 6+ is on the list again....

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