Phone out for 3 days. Dialtone ok but no service in or out

The modem was connected to a jack which was connected to a phone. I disconnected it and tried a direct connection to a phone and no solution. A dial tone but it only gets busy signals when dialing any number.

I did that. It didn't work. I then walked 3 doors down to a neighbor with Cox phone and their phone is out too.  It's as I suspected from the phone message that it's a regional problem that should have been visible when I was on tech support chat yesterday. Regret time lost so far on this as well as the fact that an elderly uses Lifeline which depends on a functioning phone. They should send someone out to check the system before it gets to our area or check their main source instead of the hassle of sending someone to a specific address.

A tech guy tried to fix a relay box somewhere near near but didn't get it working yet. He said he'd try it some more tomorrow.

The phone is still not working. Nor is my neighbors. We were with AT&T for many years and left it because of the unreasonable prices they were charging. However, the phone continued to work and if it went out it was treated almost as an emergency.They would send someone out the same day  or latest the next as I remember. It's not a luxury item like the TV and to a degree the internet. The phone is a basic necessity in these times especially with the elderly.

Update: Phone still out this evening (Friday). Went again on Cox Chat but only step they made was to offer to send someone out to this house on Monday. Neighbors phone is also still out. I told them they should fix the connection to the area first. Waiting until Monday unreasonable.

Also amazing is that on the very day the phone went out we were having a discussion, or at least trying to, through the chat and email about a $65- $70 per month overcharge we feel we discovered on the TV. It would appear suspicious except that the neighbors phone went out (and remains out) too. Phone still out end of 5th day, Jan.16. Not a word out of Cox tech today. Astounding.

Hello kj32,

If you are getting a dial tone and still getting a busy signal when dialing, I suggest trying a different phone if possible and make sure to try multiple numbers. If that does not work, then you will need a tech to come out and help resolve that issue for you. 

Thanks,

Allan - Cox Support Forums Moderator

Try forwarding your number to a cell phone and see if it works. If it is still busy, it isn't a mechanical issue, but something in the phone switch internal to Cox. If it does work, remove the forwarding and see if you can call from your home phone to cell phone. 

"If you are getting a dial tone and still getting a busy signal when dialing, I suggest trying a different phone if possible and make sure to try multiple numbers. "

If you note the 2nd and 3rd reply to this post above that's what I did. No change.

Not sure what you mean on forwarding my number. How would one do that without a working phone? This and the above reply still don't deal with the neighbor three doors down having exactly the same problem with their Cox phone. 3 1/2 days ago the tech guy called my cell phone (which has reception only in town, not in our country area) and said he'd got the home phone working. I asked if someone picked it up and he said no it was an answering machine. I asked if it was a personal greeting and he said no it sounded like a standard one.Someone would have been there and we have a personal greeting so I said let me call my house number and my neighbors to test and it turned out the recording he was referring to was the same one I mentioned in my 1st post above: "sorry due to telephone company facility trouble your call cannot be completed at this time". The initial Cox chat on this had the guy offering a service call in two days when no one would be here. I said they should that same day or the next day but they wouldn't budge. As mentioned before an elderly person here wears a button that alerts Lifeline if he has an emergency. It has been completely non functional with the home phone out. Also our Doctor and Pharmacies rely on the main number to verify appointments and prescriptions.

kj32 said:
How would one do that without a working phone?

Well you said you had dial tone, so trying *72 waiting for a tone, then dialing your cell phone should work. If nothing else, if that doesn't work, it tells you something about the problem. Also, you can use phone tools to forward your number even if *72 does not work. See here for more info.

kj32 said:
This and the above reply still don't deal with the neighbor three doors down having exactly the same problem with their Cox phone

The reason I am seeing if you can forward your line is to isolate the issue. If you get a dial tone, then the modem is online and you are connecting to it. If your neighbors are out too, my guess is the SIP server in the area is having issues. Perhaps getting the phone modem re-provisioned may help, but FYI that will erase your voice mail greeting, resetting it back to default. I think the procedure if the phone has dial tone but can't make/receive calls is for a ticket to be send to their Telephone Test Desk for them to check the switch and other local systems that make the phone work. They are the "telephone facilities" the message is talking about. If Test Desk can't fix it, they they will send it to a field technician. I just don't know what else you can do to troubleshoot. The thing that is broken needs to be fixed, and a technician is the best way to draw attention to it. Good luck.

kj32 said:
It seems from your answer that if *72 doesn't work on a phone that has a dial tone than it is an internal problem at Cox.

That is my hypothesis. We know you have a good connection from phone to modem, and we know the modem is online. If the modem can not activate a feature even though it is connected to the network, either the system it is trying to access is down, or the connection to that system is down. My guess is there was a node split or something that changed some of the info on the backend that allows the modem to communicate with the phone system. 

Could a moderator comment on this? How does the eMTA look? Is the config file correct? Does node and headend in database match to what the modem is connecting to? This seems like a issue that Test Desk needs to look at. Do they still exists since the restructuring?