HELLO & WELCOME

[mpmc]

Hi all,

This is a bit of random one and BT Live chat are basically saying it's a handset feature which I highly doubt.

So is it possible for the Obi110 to randomly call timeline?

Heres the chat with BT.

Code: Select all

 Sparsh: Hello. I'm Sparsh.Thanks for that information, I'll check it and get back to you in a moment.
 Sparsh: hi Mark
 Me: Hi :)
 Sparsh: I will check this for you
 Me: This issue has occurred before, there have been other random calls to 123 on our line, I've read online that it is caused by Engineers checking for an active line. 
 Sparsh: is it a business account?
 Me: No.
 Me: Its a personal/private account.
 Sparsh: Okay! 
 Sparsh: Thanks for wating
 Me: No problem.
 Sparsh: I have just shared a page on my@email.co.uk Please check your email 
 Me: That doesn't answer my issue, the problem is the charge to the speaking clock, no one here has the need to call this service, apparently its pretty common.
 Sparsh: I am sorry this was not charged from our side, this is a your hand set function
 Me: So random calls to 123 are caused by our handset? A handset that randomly likes to dial the speaking clock?
 Me: I don't believe that, if it was the handset it would happen more often not once in a few months.
 Sparsh: Find the precise time by dialling 123 to hear the BT speaking clock (Timeline). The time is announced every ten seconds.

It costs 38.9p a minute from BT landlines any time of day or night.

 Me: Yes I understand what the time line is, the problem is the charge for call that we did not make.
 Sparsh: I need to connect you to the phone team
 Me: It's fine, I'll call tomorrow, it's pretty late.
 Me: Thanks for your help, have a nice evening.
 Sparsh: You too

Laughable.

[gsmlnx]

No, it is an engineer in the roadside box doing a test so they use 123 as it is easy to remember. They do it all the time. This comes up on Plusnet's forums all to regularly and a complaint always gets the charges written off.

[gsmlnx]

Check your Obi100's call history if you want to be really sure.

You can only see this by logging into your local internal OBi router page. dial ***1 from the phone attached to the OBi110 to get the ip address. Default username / password are both "admin". When you access the page got to Status > Call History.

[WelshPaul]

I would agree that it's most likely an engineer up a pole or in a cab dialing 123 in order to test the line. Seems to be a common thing now, why they don't use 17070 though I don't know?

I guess it generates them revenue by dialing 123!

That being said do as gsmlnx instructed and check your obi logs just to be certain.

[mpmc]

OK guys it looks like I might be to blame for the charge this time, I think.

I recently attached a mobile dongle to my Pi and was planning on routing calls through that, I'd setup a test number to dial through the dongle as 123456<number>.

Looks like I made a configuration error at one point as the whole number went through to the line instead of the dongle. I would have thought BT would wait for the complete number to be entered before deciding where to route the call, it seems they don't - they see the 123 number and blindly connect to timeline.

That still doesn't explain why it happened a few months ago though, I didn't even have the dongle then!