Why doesn’t my landline phone have a dial tone?
How to check your devices and find the reason your landline doesn't have a dial tone
Common causes of no dial tone
Interference can originate from inside or outside of your home. Common causes of no dial tone on your landline include:
- The line
- Filters
- Wall jacks
- Defective handsets
Only one of my landline connected devices does not work
Before you begin
- Verify there are no service outages in your area via the service status page
- Make sure your telephone isn't off the hook (If you have multiple phones, check that all the handsets are hung up and that their cables are firmly engaged)
- If you're using a cordless telephone, make sure the battery is charged and the base is plugged in
- If you have an answering machine, fax, computer modem, alarm system or another landline device, make sure it's plugged in correctly
- If there has been any recent changes in your home that may affect the phone line, try to undo them. Rearranging your furniture, installing a new fax machine or setting up a new satellite receiver are possible triggers
If your phone or other device is connected directly to the jack and you don't hear a dial tone, follow these steps:
- Make sure the phone cord is plugged into the correct port on your phone or device
- Unplug the phone or device from the wall jack
- Plug your phone or device into another wall jack that you know is working. If the dial tone returns it means the previous wall jack is damaged or defective
- Plug a different device that you know is working into the original wall jack. If the dial tone returns it means your phone or device is damaged or defective
- If these steps don't solve the problem, you may need to replace your phone cord
More than one of my landline connected devices doesn't work
Before you begin
- Verify there are no service outages in your area via the service status page
- Make sure your telephone isn’t off the hook (If you have multiple phones, check that their cables are firmly engaged and that all the handsets are hung up.)
- If you're using a cordless telephone, make sure the battery is charged and the base is plugged in
- If you have an answering machine, fax, computer modem, alarm system or another device, make sure it's plugged in correctly
- If there has been any recent changes in the home that may affect the phone line, try to undo them. Rearranging your furniture, installing a new fax machine or setting up a new satellite receiver are potential triggers
If you don't hear a dial tone on more than one of your devices, follow these steps:
- Unplug all equipment from every phone jack (including fax machines, modems, splitters, etc.).
- Leave everything unplugged for a minimum of 60 seconds
- Plug in your most basic telephone, preferably not a cordless phone
- Check for the dial tone. If the dial tone returns , begin adding equipment one piece at a time, continuing to check for a dial tone after each addition
- If you lose your dial tone again after an addition, remove the device in question from the jack. The device is probably causing the problem and you may want to have a professional to examine it
None of my landline devices work
Interference can originate from outside of your home. If all the devices connected to your home landline don't have a dial tone, it may be because the copper wires connecting your home to the phone network have degraded. These wires may need to be replaced.
Home phone copper line is a live wire, for safety reasons, it is not recommended to personally test the lines. Instead, please contact us for assistance.