Hub error and Digital Voice issue

[UkzVortex98]

My  DV issue is back "

I am Having an issue with my Digital Voice where incoming calls we can hear the person on over end but they can’t hear us and it same when we call out. I have tried a cordless phone and still the same and it does it to all four on my digital voice phones i’ve tried contacting EE on X 150 and they don’t care. They don’t want to do anything about the issue or say I will send out open reach out to look at it when it doesn’t have anything to do with open Reach. It happened when the Smart Hub Plus got its last firmware update. 

Firmware version: r1.34.0-R-994210-PROD-83002r 1 . 3 4 . 0 - R - 9 9 4 2 1 0 - P

App version: 1.13.1

I am Having an issue with my Digital Voice where incoming calls we can hear the person on over end but they can’t hear us and it same when we call out. I have tried a cordless phone and still the same and it does it to all four on my digital voice phones i’ve tried contacting EE on X 150 and they don’t care. They don’t want to do anything about the issue or say I will send out an open reach out to look at it when it doesn’t have anything to do with open Reach. It happened when the Smart Hub Plus got its last firmware update. 

Firmware version: r1.34.0-R-994210-PROD-83002r 1 . 3 4 . 0 - R - 9 9 4 2 1 0 - P

App version: 1.13.1" Also when I log in to the hub get this error

[dazfitzg]

After all the supposed help and advice, its happening again. The phone rings, and neither party can hear the other. It doesn't matter if the call is inbound or outbound.

The engineers I had earlier this week also suggested that it may be due to an intermittent fault caused by work being carried out by Open Reach engineers either at my street box or the local exchange. I just called the EE helpline again while the fault was evident. They looked at my line and said that they, too, could see a minor fault on my line. I now have an Open Reach engineer booked to look at this apparent line fault; what are the chances that they can detect the issue when they come on Tuesday?

Now that they are blaming a line fault, they don't think that swapping to a BT-branded hub will resolve the problem. 

Line fault or not, the Digital Voice service on the hub should be capable of handling breaks in service. It seems to be able to restore a partial service in that the phone rings for incoming calls, and I can make a call; it's just that no one can hear anything.

Fed up!

@JimM11 Thanks for the support, I don't feel so alone with this issue. As regards using a non EE/BT mobile, I wish there was signal on other networks where I live, the EE signal is by far the strongest and that is saying something.

[dazfitzg]

Quick update!

The Openreach Engineer came, tested my line, and couldn't find a fault with it.

In fact, he was amazed at how good my line was, given that I am 1.6 km away from the street box as the line runs. He said he had seen lines only 200m away from their street boxes in worse condition. He did, however, change my connection point in the box to a different one to rule out that the fault was between the street box and the exchange.

So now it's a waiting game to see if the change actually fixes the problem, or whether we start the game of blame ping pong between Openreach and EE.

If it happens again I am going to request a BT-branded Smart Hub router. I'll update this post with my results.

[UkzVortex98]

Was that FTTC or FTTP 

Fibre to the premises

Fibre to the Cabinet

[XRaySpeX]

FTTC as he is talking about street boxes / cabs.

[dazfitzg]

Well it's been a month since the Open Reach visit, and to be quite honest, the phone has been relatively quiet. But in the last week or so, we have had several occasions were we were without a working phone. 

We had one occasion were the hub said everything was ok, but the BT HD digital phone, claimed no line available. A few times when one party could hear the other but not the other way around (in both directions). And today when the line connects neither party can hear each other, and dialing out you hear the DTMF tones, but then silence, while the other end rings.

This is not the service level we pay for. The move to digital voice is flawed using the latest generation of EE/BT hubs.  So back the adventure  of the customer support queue I go. Hoping for a replacement hub, given the line is ok, and the service is reportedly up, it has to be hardware (firmware) related. I don't really care what hub I get I just want a working service.

And to answer the question about FTTP or FTTC. I only wish we had full fibre in the village, we still rely on good old copper circuits for the "final mile" (1.2km in my case). But as I said in my previous post, the Open Reach  engineer said my line is one of the most balanced lines he has seen, especially given the distance from our street cabinet.

[JimM11]

@dazfitzg Its a little bit of a tricky one, while and still on fttc myself, did not have digital voice, would not allow it when requested to do so, but every now and again the phones would act up, no line etc, noisy connection, just had to put up with it few times when it got really bad i would call up sky who was ISP at the time, DSL reset normally fixed but was in no way a 100% fix. BT Smarthub2 is the only one that seemed not to have major issue, and if you do have to go down that route, the EE app is not playing fully nicely with that router at present, so keep it in mind. Hope it gets fixed but dropped the landline, so relying on mobile now, which is also not the best way to go.

[dazfitzg]

@JimM11 Thanks for your comment, I keep an eye on the community posts and see more and more people having the same issues. This is obviously a major software/firmware/hardware fault with the EE SmartHub+.

I am currently waiting for a call back from EE Support. Today, I have rebooted the SmartHub+ several times, both soft and power-cycle, and it has come back briefly after each reset. It is currently not working;

• Dial tone - Yes; mostly
• Outbound Call - Sometimes
• Can hear the outbound ringing tones - No
• Inbound Call Rings - it occasionally rings, but my wife has tried several times and hit voicemail immediately.
• Conversation Possible - No; mostly, no one can hear anything; occasionally one party can hear the other but not the other way around
• Internet - Stable no apparent loss of connectivity

So far they have blamed the line (tested), my setup (EE Home Techs visited no issues), but they haven't admitted that the Hub is pure junk, just like the new EE app.

There is a feature where you can have our line diverted to your mobile, but I can't find that option on the EE App or the EE website, and I can't set it from my home phone because, guess what, it's not working.

You might have guessed my frustration and that my patience is running out. I don't see anyone having a successful resolution to this problem on the community forum. I promise if they finally fix the issue I will shout it from the rooftops and also post it here. And as a new post so that everyone else who's going through this can benefit from the wisdom gained. 

[dazfitzg]

By the way, @UkzVortex98, did you ever get a resolution to your issues, or are you still in the same boat?

[Speedbird20]

I'm still having the same issue.

One of the thoughts is that it might have been the BT handsets that were causing the problem so I was sent one of the EE digital handsets to try.

Unfortunately, the same problem has occurred again today even with the EE handset.

Interestingly, 2 of the handsets were showing as out of range and one of the theories is that may cause the issue.

However, new hub is being dispatched to see if that makes any difference. The annoying thing is that the old BT hub and digital phones worked flawlessly and the new EE hub has been problematic from the start.

Firmware : r1.34.1-R-1055417-PROD-83002

GUI  1.13.1

[Luckybob28]

Having the same problem also. Has gone on since migrating from BT. Worked fine with BT. EE hub replaced - problem still there. Engineer came out the other day - looked at the hub logs and checked things out - said everything was fine - disclosed there are issue with Alexa Handsets and are 50/50 if they work. EE have replaced the Alexa Handsets with EE ones - still not working - still have the ringing fault and no one can hear us either dialling out or calling in.