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marcmoss820
May 15, 2012, 04:43 PM
Hello! I've been a Verizon High-Speed Internet Customer for several years now and up until recently I subscribed to their Dry-Loop-Only Internet service. Thanks to my cell phone, I have never needed landline telephone service.

Circumstances with my employer have recently required that I subscribe to a very basic, local-only landline service. I called Verizon, and they quickly added the service to my account and scheduled it to begin yesterday, May 14. I connected a telephone to a phone jack in my home and heard no dial tone whatsoever. I then remembered that when I had moved into my apartment I could only get a DSL connection on one phone jack (the house I live in is pretty old, split into four apartments) so I proceeded to disconnect the internet jack to test my phone line... no dial tone there either! Calling the landline telephone number from my cell phone led to a busy signal.

After spending several hours on my cell phone with Verizon's technical support hearing that the service was working just fine on their end, they suggested that I find the grey box attached to the outside of my home labeled "customer" and plug a phone in there. I have no such box anywhere on the outside of my home or in the basement and I looked VERY thoroughly. Needless to say, I'm pretty frustrated over what should be just a simple phone line.

Last night, I made another attempt at troubleshooting, which brings me to the current symptoms:
-Calling the landline number from my cell phone does ring now, but the telephone I have connected doesn't ring or actually receive a call

-As soon as you pick up the landline telephone it starts to ring as though it's dialing out. After a couple of rings, "Your call cannot be completed as dialed" plays

Verizon suggested they could send a technician to my home to "make sure I connected everything properly," but this is a huge inconvenience for me. They want to come inside of my home sometime between 8am and 5pm on a weekday. I can honestly say there will not be a day when I'm home on a weekday for that entire timeframe until Christmas. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm small-electrical savvy and I'm not afraid to do some rewiring if need be. I just want to fix this without having to deal with a technician doing something I could have most likely taken care of myself.

Any help is appreciated!

cdad
May 15, 2012, 06:32 PM
Have you tried a different phone? Also did they install a dsl filter when they set you up for dsl ?

marcmoss820
May 15, 2012, 06:39 PM
Have you tried a different phone? Also did they install a dsl filter when they set you up for dsl ?

I've tried two phones, one of which I bought brand new today. And there is a DSL filter on the phone line, and of course no DSL filter on the internet line.

Stratmando
May 16, 2012, 05:21 AM
Do you know if when they added landline, if they combined with the same pair as your DSL?
If a Phone line rings busy, it is shorted, phone off hook, or load on the line.
If it rings and rings, a phone is hung up and ringer off, or the line is cut or open.
If you have a Meter, you could look for 48 volts DC, if it just rings and rings, and look for about 6-9 volts DC.
If it is ringing look for about 90 volts AC.
Call your phone and look for the Ringing voltage start at the first connection from Telco.

I recently saw Verizon with Wireless Landline for about $10 a month?