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Problems with FIOS phone service. Is anyone else having these issues?

Hello All:

I have one of the FIOS bundles, basic SD TV, internet I think it's 15/5, and basic verizon phone, I think they call it "essentials." I've had it about six months.

Recently, admitedly, I did extensive re-wireing downstairs to the telephone wiring when I installed a strcutured wiring panel. I moved all the wires so they terminate inside the cabinet instead of where they were punched down. In theory, I have a fair amount of telephone experience and have some idea what I'm doing. (LOL)

Now, the phone will be good for an hour on the phone, then people tell me I'm cutting in and out or sound far away. This is on all phones, the wired ones too. The weird thing is, when this happens, I can hear them perfectly, but they can't hear me right!

I called Verizon and they ran some line tests over the phone, but the problems persist.

I find it hard to believe it's a wiring thing, since I can hear them perfectly.

Does anyone have any ideas before I try going through the phone wiring all over again, for nothing?

Comments

lasagna

My first troubleshooting step would be to eliminate the house wiring as the source of the issue. Can you plug a phone (or preferably the base station of a wireless phone setup) directly into the phone jack coming from the ONT and disconnect all other wiring (feeding the phone line into the rest of the house)?

Run with the setup for a while and make some calls, etc. to see if you can reproduce the situation. If the problem doesn't come back -- time to start looking at that wiring job.

Are all your phones plugging into separate phone jacks or wireless and perhaps using the same base station? If separate jacks and the test above fails, repeat with a different phone. If everything goes thru one base station, maybe it's the base station? Doe you have another phone you can direct plug into the ONT for the test?

If the problem comes back with you directly plugged into the ONT, then I'm thinking it's time to suspect Verizon equipment.

leeleses

I'm so **bleep**! I never thought of plugging a CORDLESS phone directly into the ONT! I was thinking plug a wired phone into the ONT, but who wants to talk to people from their unfinished basement? LOL

The problem is the same on the cordless phone, and also on the wired old school ATT wall phone in the kitchen. The kitchen phone is on a totally different home run wire that goes to the new structured wiring cabinet.

That does not mean 100% that I didn't botch something in the cabinet. But I've done phone wiring for 30 years. I never saw wiring that worked then didn't work, at least not in this way, where you can hear perfectly but they can't hear you!

Thank you though. I can't believe I didn't think to simplify to one cordless direct to the ONT and see what that does...

Lee

leeleses

Well, I was on the phone last night and after an hour the other person could not hear me.

I called them back, same result.

Then I plugged directly into the ONT jack with a princess phone, same result.

Then I left a two minute voicemail on my cell phone, direct from the ONT, and you can hear the choppy audio clear as day.

Verizon said it could not possibly be them. Unless there is some weird kind of intermittent interference from other equipment in the basement that is about two feel away from the ONT (I doubt it), then it IS them. I hope it's the ONT or they can figure out what the cause is.

I also had no dial tone around 5am, while TV and internet was working.

This is not good!

Anyone know anything about causes for this type of issue that can't be "them" but it is "them." LOL

MrVolvo

I had similar issues except it seems to affect certain phones (Panasonic). It did not affect my Bell South Unit which I purchased 12 years ago. I would try a different phone (I swapped out the panasonic phone for an AT and T model and I got better results). Have you considered shielding some of the phone wires? If you have a wireless router and it is enabled, it could be a possible cause. I would also check terminations on all sides of the lines so that there are no impedance reflections on the phone lines. Use care when cutting wire, as I found a nick in the wrong place can cause a lot of havoc.

BoBraxton1

We are a NEW install.

Our cordless telephone uniden has always worked fine; however, when we keep the Base unit plugged in on the upper level where the WiFi (Verizon FiOS router) is, the telephone does not ring on incoming calls.

When I disconnect it and put it on the main level of the house, the phone does ring.

However, we have our own legacy answering machine, which on land-based copper picked up after three rings (beginning of the fourth ring). At first it would NOT get rings (or at least the phone set (Base) plugged in through it would not ring.

Verizon told me they did SOMETHING (did not specify what) out at the box next to our street.

Today the answering machine picks up BUT after one ring (beginning of the second ring).

So far, too, the answering machine does some LOUD wave type sounds; however, I intend to re-test that part.

AT&T 1715 Digital Answering Machine with 12 Minutes of Recording Time

my "other" question is WHERE to find instructions to set the number of rings to go to our Verizon voice mailbox.

The installation tech indicated that this is through the phone voice mailbox menu; however, the FAQ is clear that it is not possible "Yet" to do that and when I navigate the menu I do not find the option(s). We would like somewhere between six rings and ten rings.

The_McCann

One of the most pernicious and maddening problems you can run into in wiring like all of this is the state of the electrical GROUNDING of everything, and especially whether it all shares the same electrical GROUND. Many professionals and so-called experts in this racket know little or nothing, really, about grounding stuff, because generally it could be (and probably was) safely ignored.

Another complicating factor in the move to fiber optic and cable and all this stuff (as opposed to the old POTS, plain old telephone service over good copper wiring, using good direct-current electricity) is very likely the DC voltage being provided to instruments & so on at line's end. The phone system was originally designed to carry & reliably provide I think 5 volts DC and a lot of the equipment expected and relied on it. I have three intruments that were originally leased out by AT&T: a Model 500 rotary and two of the touch-tone versions of that classic desktop device. (I call it "classic" because there's a Model 500 in that museum of modern design in NYC). Two of these, along with a [ghastly old rotary] Princess phone, work quite well (we've got that bloodsucking FIOS three-fer setup) but one of them, no matter what I do so far, is wierdly faint.

I'm in the middle of investigating the whole thing myself --- I didn't realize until yesterday (looking at the online data) that we have been paying a lot of money for some sort of in-home line maintenance agreement and I intend to cash in on that later in the week.

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