What does it mean when you pick up the phone and hear a busy signal?

Question

When I pick up my phone, I hear a busy signal without dialing, and dialing has no effect (i cannot call out or receive calls) both of my lines do this, on all phones connected. Today, though, 10 inches of snow fell. could something be damaged or is it something else?

Answer 1

unplug your phones one at a time and check for dial tone...



if possible (with all the snow) go to the NID on the side of your house with a corded phone and plug in directly here, if you have dial tone the problem is inside - if there is no dial tone at the NID then the problem is on the outside and you need to call the local telephone company to make repairs on your line...



i just had finished a repair about 2 hours ago where the line was testing V.6 (busy speech) but the trouble was in the drop wire outside... with the same symptoms you describe, when you took the phone off hook you would hear a busy signal... so it is highly likely it is an outside trouble, even tho a line test will probably say otherwise...

Answer 2

It's probably a reorder tone and not a busy signal (they sound very similar, a reorder is often referred to as a fast busy signal). The difference is that the reorder means the call has been terminated or there is a general failure which is preventing the call from going through.



If you have an analog phone line from your local telephone company, the problem is on their end somewhere (the tone could only be generated on the remote end such as the telephone exchange). You need to contact the telephone company about the problem and it's likely affecting other customers.



If you have a digital phone line from your cable or VoIP company, the problem could be anywhere inside or outside the house or at the telephone exchange. That's because digital lines have a modem or VoIP adapter installed in your home that generates all the calling tones/signals locally. If the modem cannot make a connection to the server for any reason, it will simply play a reorder tone on the phone line in the house.



There could be any number of reasons for this, but it's possible the problem is very local (e.g. just outside your home). If you have neighbors with the same phone company who are having no problem, you need to get someone out to your house to try and figure out what the issue is.