BT Phones

C

CCOVICH

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I have recently bought a BT cordless phone in Homebase and cannot seem to get a dial tone (have used 'troubleshooting' section of manual and checked socket). Has anyone else experienced difficulties when trying to use a BT phone in Ireland?
 
Did it include one of [broken link removed]? You usually need one when connecting a UK phone to the Irish network. I know that Argos and perhaps other retailers bundle the adaptor with UK phones at no additional charge.
 
Yeah, but I just used an Irish phone lead to connect the base directly to the socket (and of course didn't keep the UK line). I reckon I probably need to get a UK line, then use the adaptor (thanks for the link) to connect to the socket. Probably have to get this in N.I. somewhere, unless you would know of anywhere?
 
The link above is to Peats in Dublin and many other electrical/phone retailers in the Republic of Ireland sell them. Plugging a UK phone into the Irish system directly will generally (always?) not work without such an adaptor due to wiring and/or electrical differences.
 
A quick, short term, solution, which usually works with UK modems anyway, (havent tried it with phones), is to open the RJ11 junction box on the wall, i.e. the socket where you plug in the cable. In there you usually see 4 terminals with only 2 connected to the phone line/extention. Get 2 pieces of bare wire and connect the 2 on the left together and connect the 2 on the right together. Now either an Irish or UK connection should work. The main reasons the UK and Irish systems are incompatable are (a) the plug and (b) they use the 2 inner wires of the 4 core connecting cable and Irish phones use the 2 outer.

Caution, dont do this with wet hands, or do anything silly like licking the terminals (though this is a handy way to check to see which 2 wires in a bunch carry the phone signal), as you will get a bit of a tickle (48V DC). Wont kill you but will make your nose itch.
 
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