what makes a phone ring ?

hi - what makes a phone ring ?

this is UK landline specific question - and not a silly or joke question

with no telephone handsets connected to the line - my BT landline still has the ring tone audible to a caller when the number is dialled

why ? why does the bt exchange generate a phantom ring tone ???????

I would have expected the ringtone heard by a caller to be generated by handset

I do not have BT 1571 [ a offsite answers / message service ] or any other call diverts

I discovered this whiler attempting to test a feature of my new cellphone [ as it was 05:30 and I didn't want to disturb anyone on my contacts list ]

I do not have a phone in my house - I only keep the line to facilitate broadband internet

and am now puzzled - any ATS telecom engineers ??

Some things are added to the "Signal" to enhance the user experience, I don't know about land lines but I worked Cellular and that takes place on the switch.

Also, cell phones can sound much better than they do, they purposely degrade the quality of the voice signal because its partially a bandwidth thing and its what people "expect".

So in cellular that ring is on the switch and its for User "experience"

I would imagine the same for land line.

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Benri has the correct answer.

You may have noticed yourself that if you call a phone that's nearby, you hear the ring in your earpiece slightly before the actual phone rings.

reply to post by ignorant_ape

Even neater (i don't know if still true) any phone that still works (even if service is terminated) can still dial 911.

I saw a crime show where a serial killer was using a cell to report where he left the next body. So we tried it and it worked. Dialing 911 on an old phone, not killing people.

Is the phone line still active (in that BT are being paid)? if so its probably BT's way of saying we're trying to connect you and everything is fine our end but someone needs to plug a phone in

Trying to remember my PoTS with and how the signalling works

reply to post by benrl


Wait, are you telling us that our mobile network providers could theoretically get higher sound quality out of our infrastructure than they do at the moment? I have been saying for YEARS that what would be much better than the trend amongst mobile phone operators,and designers,constant fiddling with apps and mad gadgets, would be a cleaner signal, better voice reproduction from our phones and/or the systems which carry the signals in the first place!

I will tell you this for nothing, the idea of a phone that tells you when you are out of milk is all very well, but it would be nice if they could make one which reproduces the callers voices in Dolby quality!