After my recent post about making changes to your phone line to improve broadband performance, I thought I’d mention a helpful test facility that allows you to hear a quiet line (and hence check if there is any interference).

To access…

1. Unplug anything that plugs into your BT master socket.
2. Plug a normal touch tone phone directly into this socket.
3. Dial 17070 (If you have your “Caller ID” withheld, then the test system won’t know who’s calling (it will probably say there is no CLI detected). To temporarily override this, dial 1470 before 17070.), press option 2 (quiet line test).
4. You should hear ‘Quiet Line Test’ and then silence.

Hopefully, there should be no pops, clicks, whistles, buzzing, etc. If there is, though, make sure it’s not your phones connection to the socket (wiggle it about a bit) and that you are using the master socket.

If you are sure it’s the line making the noise then ring BT and report the fault – they should be able to sort it out. Remember that misreporting a fault (e.g. if it turns out to be your phone, extension cord etc.) may be chargeable.