Call-forwarding when FiOS digital voice is out

From 8:30 pm until about 10:10 pm this evening, my FiOS digital voice service (both lines) and FiOS Internet service went out (my FiOS TV service was unaffected). I tried power cycling the router (twice) but it did not correct the problem. The service just returned on its own after being out for nearly 2 hours.

While the service was out, I discovered that when either of my two home telephone numbers were dialed (by people outside my house) (I have a phone line and my mother has a phone line), a corresponding cell phone rang and we received the call (when somebody called my home number, my cell phone rang and when somebody called my mother’s home number, her cell phone rang). Once the service outage was over, calls rang in at the home phones again.

I have had Verizon FiOS service for about 3 months. I have no recollection of setting a call-forwarding when service is out for calls to ring at these alternate numbers. I logged into MyVerizon account and went to the “Home Phone” page but could not find where this forwarding is setup.

Where is this “out-of-service” call-forwarding setup (so I can change the forwarding number or turn it off or on)?

Thanks to anyone who can answer this.

Accepted answers

bkoopers

I called technical support and was told that when my telephone service was initially setup, the “backup number call forward not reachable” feature was enabled so when telephone service is down, calls to each home number are forwarded to the corresponding cell phone (which I must have selected at that time). In order to change the number each phone is forwwarded to during an outtage (or to turn off this feature), I would need to call support and ask them to change it (it cannot be changed via the MyVerizon website).

All comments

bkoopers

slp1202

The information provided by the customer service rep (indicating that you must call customer service in order to change the back-up number) appears to be incorrect. I found the following instructions for changing the back-up number on the website:

Back-Up Phone Number - FiOS Digital Voice

You can use FiOS® Digital Voice to set up a secondary contact phone number where your calls can be forwarded automatically in the event your FiOS Digital Voice service is not working.

This back-up will be invoked whenever an outage occurs. This would generally be due to two unique outages:

Power has been lost to the house and the battery* back-up power has been depleted.
There is a Network-wide outage in your area.

To Set Up a Back-up Phone Number:

Open the Account Manager
Click Administration.
Click Settings.
Click Backup Numbers and enter the backup number for your FiOS Digital Voice telephone lines.
Click Save to ensure the backup numbers are stored.

Hubrisnxs

it can't be done in my verizon, but it can be changed in the account manager.

www.verizon.com/fiosvoice