Spark RBI Wireless - generally great, but phone doesn't ring

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark RBI Wireless - generally great, but phone doesn't ring

SteveC

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#207563 2-Jan-2017 17:17

Summer visit to my son and his partner on a farm in South Taranaki. Speedtest claims Internet is about 100 times faster than last year! I kid you not - was typically about 400 kbs on ADSL, now of the order of 40 Mbs on RBI 4G Wireless!
Phone works much better too - used to have constant electric fence interferance, now clear as a bell on VoIP!
But - on 30 December they found that their home phone is not ringing. If they know someone is calling, they can answer it, and outbound calls are fine.
As much as I have reservations about Vodafone customer service at home, at least I can ring and listen to their (quite nice, IMHO) hold music for an hour, any time. Spark, on the other hand, apparently think their customers don't need help on weekends or public holidays. Will try again on the 4th.

In the meantime, has anyone else had this sort of problem? Any Spark people out there who might have a solution please? We don't know who we might be missing.

Cheers!

Steve

johny99

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#1697720 2-Jan-2017 17:32

Does the phone ring after an outbound call Or a router reboot? Sound's like on the info given that the sip timers are out or the network is not doing a who is ( not sure the exact name of the feature)command to find the required end point.

johny99

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#1697725 2-Jan-2017 17:48

OK so just realized on rereading the OP, you mean the phone's ringer is not audible on an incoming call, have you tried a different cable or phone?

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#1697737 2-Jan-2017 18:46

Assuming you mean it's just a case of the phone not ringing what sort of phone is it?

If it's something really old my first pick would be it's an old 3 wire phone that isn't going to work in a modern 2 wire system without a master adapter.

richms

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#1697742 2-Jan-2017 19:16

I had an ATA decide ages ago to stop providing ringing voltage. Still did caller ID so was clocking up the missed calls on the phone without ever actually ringing. Was broken. Needed replacing.

Richard rich.ms

SteveC

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#1697746 2-Jan-2017 19:43

Thanks for suggestions.
Yes - we tried another phone (not easy to find in the middle of the country).
The phone was working till the 30th.

Given that it seems to be an unusual problem, I'll bet on faulty ATA. Maybe a factory reset is in order?

BarTender

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#1697747 2-Jan-2017 19:48

Reboot and/or factory reset should fix it.
Also do you have a single phone plugged directly into the ATA or do you have integrated wiring so every outlet in your house is connected into the ATA.

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SteveC

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#1697907 3-Jan-2017 16:24

Only one phone - plugged into the ATA port.

There doesn't seem to be a way to backup the configuration, so don't want to do a factory reset. We will leave it till the official Spark Internet Faults permitted time - tomorrow morning - and give them a call.
We can managed one more day without receiving phone calls.

johny99

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#1697929 3-Jan-2017 17:30

One would hope the device would auto provision on a reset.

BarTender

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#1697985 3-Jan-2017 19:22

A factory reset will put all the configuration back on. Trust me I know a little about it.
Do a factory reset and see if that sorts it.

SteveC

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#1698187 4-Jan-2017 09:25

BarTender: A factory reset will put all the configuration back on. Trust me I know a little about it.
Do a factory reset and see if that sorts it.

Did a "Restore Defaults". Internet was back after a minute or two, but now the phone doesn't work at all! The handset gives a constant long beep - like an engaged tone. Pushing any number of buttons makes no difference.

Apparently some cows managed to upset the farm manager last night, so might be a while before the account holder can ring Spark!

Steve

SteveC

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#1698898 5-Jan-2017 15:31

All fixed!
My understanding is that when Spark provisioned this service mid-way through last year, some documentation was missed, and they still had it recorded somewhere that the number was for a copper line. It appears that last month something happened that lead to the number being reset to match their records - it was assigned to a copper line that no one was using. This also explains why a CSR said they would send out a (Chorus, one assumes) tech to look at a line no one really wanted working.
Now it has been correctly provisioned, and all is working well. :-)
Big thanks to the two Spark staff who helped move things along for us!

Cheers!

Steve

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hio77

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#1698901 5-Jan-2017 15:36

SteveC: All fixed!
My understanding is that when Spark provisioned this service mid-way through last year, some documentation was missed, and they still had it recorded somewhere that the number was for a copper line. It appears that last month something happened that lead to the number being reset to match their records - it was assigned to a copper line that no one was using. This also explains why a CSR said they would send out a (Chorus, one assumes) tech to look at a line no one really wanted working.
Now it has been correctly provisioned, and all is working well. :-)
Big thanks to the two Spark staff who helped move things along for us!

Cheers!

Steve

Glad to here its fixed!

happens sometimes, no system is perfect, unfortunately..

just need the right eye to notice the error in your account on sparks side.

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SteveC

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#1699615 6-Jan-2017 22:05

An interesting ramification today - looking at the November bill, the account has continued to be charged at ADSL rates.
Good news: Rural Wireless includes nation toll calls (good on Spark for the language, 'includes' rather than 'free'), and 'wiring maintenance (what wiring?) will need to be refunded.
Bad News: Rural Wireless costs $10 per month more.
For them, it seems to work out about the same cost.
Was impressed with the Spark text chat on their public web site. I asked a question that Luke, the CSR, had to ask someone else about. I forgot to check the answer, and later shut down the laptop.
I went back later, still anonymous, explained the situation to another CSR, and apologised. Next thing I get a chat msg "Your answer from Luke was .... " :-)