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bprim's avatar
bprim
New Contributor
6 years ago

Busy Signal on wireless phone and TEL 1 light blinking

Today I received the modem from Cox and began installing the digital phone service.  I've had a lot of trouble with it.  

Presently, the modem Tel1 light is blinking with everything connected.  When I remove the phone cord, the Tel1 light turns on solid.  I am getting a busy signal with the cord plugged in.  At one point I was able to make a call to my cell phone to capture the number.  When I hung up, the cell phone kept ringing and proceeded to leave a 23 second voicemail of nothing.  I've texted support twice and was told I needed to pay $55 for a technician to come over to my house.  I tried calling from my cell phone to my new house phone but it says that the number is busy.  It didn't even ring.  I've spent about 5 hours trying to figure this out and other than buying a new wireless phone I'm out of ideas.  I've reset modems, unplugged cables, and restarted phones more times than I can count.

1 Reply

  • Hi Bprim, your symptoms indicate your phone line is stuck in an "in-use" state. This can occur when a wireless handset doesn't disconnect a call properly and holds the phone line hostage. With some cordless phones, this will happen if the "off" button is not pressed before the phone is placed back in its cradle. Disconnect the cordless phone from the Tel 1 port of the digital phone modem as well as from power. If you have more than one cordless handset, make sure all handsets are disconnected from power. Plug the main handset power back in, and then connect the phone cord from the main handset into the Tel 1 port on the back of your phone modem. Use the reset button on the back of the digital phone modem to reset the device. Wait for the device to reboot to see if the Tel 1 light stops blinking. If it continues to blink, borrow a different phone or pick up a cheap corded phone. Connect it to the Tel 1 port on the phone modem and reset the modem again. If this restores your dial tone, the issue is with your wireless handset. -Becky, Cox Support Forums Moderator