Independent phone line repair · Not NBN Co, not an ISP
The NBN took the phone and the sockets in the rooms went dead. Phone line repair puts them back.
The handsets in the bedroom and the study have had no dial tone since the NBN went in, and only the one plugged into the router works. One phone line repair visit tests the socket and the line behind it, finds what went quiet, and gets the rooms ringing again. $250 inc. GST service call, first hour on site and travel up to 40 km included.
Book a technicianContact us Play the 2 min SECURE A COM film (opens in a new tab)
Trusted by 1,000+ businesses
-
Tamara Livingstone
★★★★★Amazing experience with Jason. Honest and reliable couldn't have asked for a better person to come out and help us. Highly recommend. Thanks again Jason and the team at secure a com .
Read more Show less
-
Guy Ingleby
★★★★★Great service by Jason. Up and running and he was prompt and on time. Thanks Secure A Com.
-
Lucena
★★★★★Great service, Jason was very professional, explained everything and was very patient. I would recommend him and Secure a com any day of the week!
-
Lawrie Fraser
★★★★★I would recommend secure a com. They were really helpful and efficient. They got all phone ports working with the NBN connection - which telstra wouldn't!
Read more Show less
-
Anthony Cassidy
★★★★★Very happy with the response from Jason, promptly responds to phone calls and emails. Delivery of service was fast and efficient.
-
Ali Beydoun
★★★★★Jason provided a fantastic and friendly service, and was able to visit and resolve the phone socket issue at my residence at very short notice. After searching online, I was glad to stumble on Secure A Com, and wouldn’t hesitate recommending them to others. Thank you!
Read more Show less
-
Gary Schulz
★★★★★Jason of Secure A Com arrived right on time for our appointment. He very quickly found the fault on my mother's phone line, which two Telstra technicians/contractors could not find, and rectified the fault straight away. I have no hesitation in recommending Jason as a very professional technician.
Read more Show less
-
Juan Alvear
★★★★★Had NBN installed, but the other phones in the house didn't. They go all our phones working again. Very very happy.
Sound familiar?
The NBN took the phone, and the sockets in the rooms went with it
The phones in the bedroom, the study and the hall have been dead since the NBN went in. Only the one on the router works.
Nothing broke: the landline moved onto the internet, and the wall sockets were left behind. Putting them back is a cabling job, and it's what we do across Sydney.
Read moreShow less
The hardwired phones in the bedroom, the study and the dining room have been dead since the NBN went in. The house phone only runs off the modem now, and it does not reach the bedroom in a long thin house. The ports are starting to play up, two out of three working and sometimes one out of three. The line is crackly and cuts out. All the phones ring when a call comes in and only one of them connects. Or you renovated, and then realised there is no phone line to plug the NBN modem into.
Almost all of it is one story. The landline moved onto the internet connection, and the wall sockets in the rooms were left behind: still on the wall, still wired to the old copper, with nothing feeding them. Putting them back is a cabling job. The copper faults that are left, noise, crackle, one socket working and three not, are the other half of this page, and a shop, a club or an office whose phone system the NBN has orphaned is the third. A brand new line where there has never been one is phone line installation instead, and if the complaint is really the internet dropping or slow rather than the phone, start at NBN fault repair. We work across Sydney from the Sutherland Shire and take jobs well beyond it; the extra travel is charged, and the rates are in our terms and conditions.
Free advice
Before you book: what to check first
Each of these is something we tell people on the phone, for nothing, most weeks. Do them first and you may not need us at all, which is the point of putting them at the top rather than the bottom.
Keep this list handy
Get all seven checks as a one-page PDF before you book anyone.
Send me the free guide- Plug the NBN box into each phone socket in the house and wait ten minutes at each one. If one of them brings the lights up, the others have simply been disconnected, and you do not need a technician to tell you that.
- Unplug every phone but one and see if that one works. Too many handsets on a line running through the router is a real and common cause, and it costs nothing to rule out.
- Then plug them back one at a time. That finds the one faulty handset, or the one faulty socket, without anybody coming out.
- Look along the skirting boards for an old cream or yellow socket. A house built before the NBN often still has one behind the furniture, and an adapter from a hardware shop is sometimes the whole fix.
- Check the router has a phone port on the back, and that your provider has actually set the phone service up. The landline is a service on the internet connection now, not a wire from the street, and it has to be switched on at their end before any socket in the house can work.
- If you rent, this is usually the landlord’s, not yours. A working line is part of the property. Check the agreement and ask the agent before you pay for a technician yourself.
- Send photos and a rough distance. The socket that will not work, the NBN box or modem, and the outside of the house where the line comes in. Most of these are assessed from photos without anybody driving out.
Recognise it?
What a dead phone line looks like from inside the house
The phone stopped when the NBN went in
The handsets in the rooms have had no dial tone since the changeover, and only the one on the router works. Nothing broke: the sockets just aren't connected to anything now.
Usually points to: your side, and not a fault: the sockets need feeding from the router again.
Read moreShow less
The hardwired handsets in the bedroom, the study and the dining room have had no dial tone since the day the connection changed over. One phone works, the one plugged into the back of the router, and it is never in the room you want it in.
Nothing broke. The landline moved onto the internet connection and the wall sockets were left behind, still wired to the old copper with nothing feeding it. It is the commonest call on this page by a wide margin.
What it usually points to. Your side, and not a fault at all: the sockets are simply not connected to anything now. Re-feeding them from the router is a cabling job.
How the rooms get their dial tone back ›A new point where the phone should be ›
I have been told I have a bridge tap
It usually comes up over dropouts, not the phone. A bridge tap is an old phone socket still on the copper line, off the direct run. Being told you have one isn't the same as having one.
Usually points to: your side, on a copper service. Testing settles it.
Read moreShow less
Usually it arrives over dropouts rather than the phone: the internet in the unit keeps going down and somebody mentions a bridge tapping issue. It is a real thing and it has a plain meaning: an old phone socket still connected to the copper line that is not on the direct run from the street.
It matters on the copper services and nowhere else, and it costs speed and steadiness rather than dial tone. Being told you have one is not the same as having one; testing says.
What it usually points to. Your side, on a copper service, where the extra sockets are. Testing before and after they come off is what settles it.
How dropping out is repaired ›What is usually wrong on a phone line ›
There is no socket to plug the NBN box into
You renovated, or the flat is new, and the NBN box has nothing to plug into. Sometimes there's a socket behind the furniture; sometimes the pair was never landed. Either way it's a morning's work.
Usually points to: your side: a socket found and made live, or a new one put in.
Read moreShow less
You renovated, or the flat is new, or the outlet is somewhere nobody can find. On fibre to the curb especially, the box has to plug into a phone socket, and the appointment stops when there is not one.
Sometimes there is one and it is behind the furniture or painted over. Sometimes the pair was never landed on a socket at all, or the floorboards went down over it. Either way the answer is a point in the right place, which is a morning's work rather than a mystery.
What it usually points to. Your side. A socket that exists is found and made live; where there is none, a new point goes in where the box and the router should be.
What we do on the day ›Where the box and the router should be ›
Somebody at home needs a phone that works
A mother who can't use a mobile, a grandmother living alone. The landline runs on the internet now, so it's only as good as the connection and the socket. Tell us when you ring.
Usually points to: whichever part is weakest: the service, the socket, the handset or the connection.
Read moreShow less
A mother who cannot see the buttons on a mobile. A grandmother whose line goes down every fortnight along with the modem, in a house where she lives on her own. A cordless set that is no use because it goes off with the power.
The landline runs on the internet connection now, so when the connection drops the phone goes with it, and the handset in the hall is only as good as the socket feeding it. Say so when you ring: it changes what we check and in what order.
What it usually points to. Which part is the weak one, and it varies: the service, the socket, the handset, or the connection the phone now depends on.
Phones that have to work in a blackout ›What to check before you book ›
The usual suspects
What’s usually wrong
From the diagnoses we give on the phone, the same handful of causes come up on nearly every phone line call.
- The phone was moved onto the router and the wall sockets were left behind.
The service works at the router and nowhere else. The commonest cause on this page, and not a fault.
Read moreShow less
The service works at the router and nowhere else in the house. The commonest single cause on this page, and not a fault in anything.
- Old phone sockets still connected to the copper line.
On copper services, an old socket off the direct run splits the signal. That's a bridge tap.
Read moreShow less
On the copper services, fibre to the node, the curb and the building, a socket that is not on the direct run from the street splits the signal and starts the dropouts. This is what a bridge tap is.
- The socket is wired to nothing.
The pair under the floor was never landed on a socket, or got cut when the floorboards went down.
Read moreShow less
The line comes in under the floor or through the skirting board and the pair was never landed on a socket, or it was landed and then cut during a renovation when the floorboards went down.
- Star or daisy chain, and one leg is broken.
When a chain of sockets breaks, everything after the break goes quiet. That's why two work and three don't.
Read moreShow less
Sockets run either back to a central point or one to the next. When the chain breaks, everything downstream of the break goes quiet and everything before it is fine, which is why two work and three do not.
- Too many handsets on a line running through the router.
All the phones ring and only one connects. Not a cabling fault, which is why it's on the checklist.
Read moreShow less
All the phones ring and only one of them connects. Not a cabling fault at all, which is exactly why it is on the checklist above rather than in a quote.
- In a unit, the run between the apartment and the MDF.
In a unit: nothing connected at the frame, poor records, or a damaged pair. That's MDF work.
Read moreShow less
No connection made at the frame, poor records, or a damaged pair. That is where this page hands over to MDF jumpering.
- A damaged or wet pair.
Moisture from the pit, corrosion near the coast, a nail through the cable, ants in an aerial line.
Read moreShow less
Moisture in the lead-in from the pit, corrosion near the coast, a cable a roofer or a contractor put a nail or a blade through, ants and vermin in an aerial line.
- A commercial phone system the NBN has orphaned.
An analogue phone system can't run on the NBN. There's nothing to repair; we explain the options without selling one.
Read moreShow less
An analogue system cannot work on the NBN, because the service it needed no longer exists. What replaces it is your choice, and we say what the options are without selling one.
At the office?
The phone system at work that the NBN has orphaned
A shop, club or surgery whose phone system worked for fifteen years and stopped when the line behind it was switched off. There's nothing in it to repair. We tell you the options, and which wiring stays useful, without selling you one.
Read moreShow less
A fifth of the calls on this page are commercial, which is a higher share than any other page in this rebuild, and most of them are the same shape: a shop, a club, a surgery or a small office where the system worked for fifteen years and stopped when the service behind it was switched off. An analogue system needs a kind of line that no longer exists, so there is nothing in it to repair.
What replaces it is a decision about the business, not about the cabling, and the options differ enormously in cost. We will tell you what they are, what each one means for the cable already in your walls and your frame, and which parts of the existing wiring stay useful whichever way you go. We do not sell any of them, and we do not quote somebody else’s monthly price at you. Where the building has its own frame, the wiring between the frame and the rooms is usually the part worth keeping, and that is MDF jumpering work.
Living in a unit?
In a unit: the run between your apartment and the MDF
In a unit, a pair never connected, a pair on the wrong flat and a pair pulled out next door all look the same: a dead socket. We test at the frame and at your socket, and your cable pair details from the provider save an hour.
Read moreShow less
A unit has one more place for the fault to hide. The building’s cable lands on a main distribution frame, the MDF, in a basement or a fire cupboard, and a jumper wire connects your pair across to your apartment. From inside the flat a pair that was never connected, a pair connected to the wrong apartment, and a pair somebody pulled out while working on a neighbour’s line all look the same: a socket with nothing on it.
So in a unit the testing runs both ways, at the frame and at your socket, and the first useful thing you can do is ask your provider for your cable pair details before anyone comes. It saves an hour at the frame. Once the fault is shown to sit between the apartment and the frame, the work itself is on the MDF jumpering page, and a building on a fibre to the building service starts at fibre to the building.
How it works
What we actually do
One visit, four steps, cheapest first, and a written result whichever side the fault turns out to be on. We test to the boundary and not inside NBN’s network, because we are not NBN, and that boundary is the point of an independent technician rather than a gap in the service. Every version of this job ends with a handset that works in the room you want it in.
-
Test at the socket and at the boundary.
Dial tone, noise and continuity at the socket that does not work, then at the point where the line comes into the property. Two measurements, and the fault has a side before anything is opened up.
-
Isolate.
Disconnect everything that is not on the direct run and test again. Old sockets still connected to the copper come off here, and on a service running through the router the handsets come off one at a time. A good number of jobs end at this step.
-
Find it and fix it.
Re-land the pair on a socket, move to the second pair where the first is damaged, replace the run or the socket, or run a new point where the house needs one. Where it turns into a cable run, that is data cabling and it is quoted before anything starts.
-
Report what it is.
If it's on the network side or at the frame, you get it in writing for your provider.
Read moreShow less
If the fault is on the network side, or between the apartment and the building's frame, you get it in writing with what was measured, so your provider has something to act on. We cannot make them fix their side; if you want us with you all the way, we do everything in our power to get you a result.
Written by customers on Google. None are paid for, and every word here is theirs.
Read all reviews on Google › (opens in a new tab) Leave a review (opens in a new tab)
Reviews
What people say after the job.
“As Jason said, telephone noise faults can pose a challenge. Jason thoroughly tested our system, settled our noise fault and provided options for future solutions if required.”
A real job from the field
Kingsgrove, NSW · HFC · Filmed on site, 1 min
About twelve phones around the house, and not one worked after the switch.
An elderly couple in Kingsgrove had just moved onto the NBN. The home's phone wiring was rewired, and the old lead-in was disconnected, because it was still carrying line voltage in from the street. All the phones were working when we left, and the customer says so herself at the end of the video.
Read moreShow less
Kingsgrove, a home just moved onto the NBN. An elderly couple had about twelve phones around the house, and after the switch not one of them worked.
The home’s phone wiring was rewired, and the old lead-in was disconnected, because it was still carrying line voltage in from the street.
All the phones were working when we left, which the customer says herself at the end of the video.
Price
What does phone line repair cost?
$250 inc. GST
What's included
- First hour on site
- Travel up to 40 km
- Testing and diagnosis
- Free basic report by email
- Free speed test on the day
- 90-day warranty on the fix
Free Spaces account with every job, if you want one. What's Spaces?
Extra, only if you need it: more time on site, travel past 40 km, parts, and the $55 and $185 reports.
You're paying for the testing and the answer: which socket, which run, which side. A new socket or run is quoted on the day, before it starts.
Read moreShow less
Past the first hour, our hourly rate applies, and you are told before it starts.
We are a specialised service, so we may not be local to you. If you are outside Sydney or more than 40 km from our office, we can still come to you, but the extra travel means an extra travel charge. All travel charges are set out in our terms and conditions.
Fault work is diagnostic. You are paying for the testing and the answer, not for a repair that may not be needed, so the fee is payable whether the fault is inside the premises or on the network side.
What you get in writing
| Report | Price | What it contains |
|---|---|---|
| Basic report | Free | A short written summary by email: what we tested, what we found, and whose side of the boundary it is on. |
| Standard report | $55 | A detailed PDF with the findings, the test results and our recommendations. No photos or video. |
| Escalation report | $185 | Everything in the standard report, plus photos and video of the testing. The report for proving the fault is on NBN's side: written for escalation to your provider or the carrier, a refund claim, or a TIO complaint. |
Trusted on site by
Commercial fault and cabling work, done by the same technician who comes to your house.
Your options
Who handles which part of a phone line, and where each one stops
| What your provider usually does | What an electrician can do | What we do | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The phone service itself | Sets the landline up against your account and switches it on at their end. Since the phone moved onto the internet connection, no socket in the house can work until that has been done. | Nothing. The service lives with the provider, not in the building, and no cabling work brings it on. | Ask you to check it with them before anybody drives out. It is on the checklist above, it costs nothing, and it ends a fair number of these calls. |
| The wall sockets in the rooms | Out of scope. Their part ends at the connection they supply, and the cabling in the rooms belongs to the property. | Only with a cabling registration as well. The electrical licence on its own is not the one this work needs. | Re-fed from the router so the handsets in the bedroom, the study and the hall ring again, then tested socket by socket before we leave. |
| A socket wired to nothing | A remote line test tells them about the service, not about the socket on your wall, so this one usually comes back as no fault found. | With a cabling registration, yes: the pair is landed on the socket, or the socket is replaced. | Trace the pair from the socket back to where the line comes into the property, land it, and prove it with a handset on that socket. |
| Old sockets still connected to the copper | May raise a fault ticket where the line tests poorly, but the sockets sit inside the property and are not theirs to disconnect. | With a cabling registration, yes. It is ordinary cabling work once the run has been identified. | Test the line, find which sockets sit off the direct run from the street, take them off, and test again so the difference is measured rather than assumed. |
| Between the apartment and the building frame | Handles the part that arrives at the building, and asks the owner or the strata to deal with the run past the frame. | Only with a cabling registration, and the pair still has to be identified before anything is changed. | Test at the frame and at your socket, identify the pair, and re-jumper or re-run it. The detail is on the MDF jumpering page. |
| A phone system the NBN has orphaned | Sells the replacement service. What it costs and what it does varies a great deal between them, which is worth comparing before you commit to one. | Not their work. A phone system is neither electrical work nor, on its own, cabling work. | Say what the options are and what each one means for the cabling already in the building, without selling you one of them. |
SourcesHide sources
Sources: our own phone line jobs across Sydney (the rows are the calls we take), and the cabling registration rules that decide who may work on cabling connected to the phone network. What any one provider decides in your case is theirs, so the first column says what usually happens, never what will. Our own fees and reports are in our terms and conditions.
Whoever your provider is, the answer is the same.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Something not covered? Call 02 9188 1577 and ask, or send it through the contact form and you get the answer in writing.
My phone stopped working when the NBN was connected. Why?
The landline moved onto the internet connection, and the old wall sockets are not part of it any more. One handset plugged into the router works and the rest do not, because nothing is feeding them. Nothing in the house is broken. Getting the rooms working again is a cabling job, and it is this one.
Can I still have phones in more than one room?
Yes. The sockets are re-fed from the router so the handsets in the bedroom, the study and the hall ring again, or the handsets are replaced with a cordless set with extra bases, which needs no cabling at all. We price both once we have seen the house, and you choose which one you want.
There is no dial tone anywhere. Where do I start?
With the checklist above, before you book. Carry the NBN box to each phone socket in turn, and check with your provider that the phone service is actually switched on at their end. Both cost nothing, both take an evening, and between them they end a fair number of these calls without a technician.
What is a bridge tap, and have I got one?
An old phone socket still connected to your copper line that is not on the direct run from the street, left over from when every socket in the house was wired off the first one. It splits the signal, so it costs speed and steadiness on the copper services. Testing says whether you have one; being told you have one is not the same thing.
My provider says the fault is inside my house. Are they right?
On a phone line they often are, which is not what we say on the NBN pages and is the honest answer here. The cabling in the rooms belongs to the property, and that is usually where a dead socket lives. Testing settles it either way, and if it turns out to be on their side of the boundary you get that in writing.
I rent. Who pays?
Usually the landlord, because a working line is part of the property, the same as a working power point. Check the agreement and ask the agent before you pay anyone. If they want it done and you are the contact at the property, we deal with whoever is paying and the report goes to them.
Can an electrician do this?
Only with a cabling registration as well; the electrical licence on its own is not the one this work needs. Our technician is an Open Registered Cabler, registered through ASIAL, an ACMA-accredited cabling registrar. Plenty of electricians hold both, and plenty do not, so it is worth asking before anyone starts.
We have a phone system at work and the NBN has broken it.
An analogue system cannot run on the NBN, because the service it was built for has been switched off. It is not a fault and there is nothing to repair in it. There are a few ways forward, they differ a great deal in cost, and we will tell you what they are without selling you one of them.
Somebody at home needs a phone that works in a blackout.
Say so when you ring, before anything is booked. The answer depends on which service you are on and on what the handset is actually for, and those two change the recommendation completely. It is worth getting right rather than guessing, and it is one of the few things on this page we would rather discuss than write down.
How much is it?
The service call is stated on the card at the top of this page and again where the costs are set out, and it covers attending, testing and diagnosing whichever side the fault turns out to be on. A new socket, a new run or a second point is installation work and is quoted on the day, once the line has been tested.
Dig deeper
Guides for this fault
5 guides
- 17Dec
Guide
What Is a Bridge Tap? Meaning, NBN Dropouts and the Fix
A bridge tap is an old phone socket still connected to your internet line. What it means, what it does to NBN on FTTC, FTTN and FTTB, and how it is fixed.
Read the guide › - 16Dec
Guide
Does Weather Affect Your Internet? Rain, Wind and Heat
Why your internet drops out when it rains, how wind, heat and lightning affect each type of NBN, and what to do about a fault that follows the weather.
Read the guide › - 20Aug
Guide
NBN Box Lights Explained: Flashing Blue, Red or Clicking
What the lights on your NBN box mean on fibre, HFC and fibre to the curb: why it clicks, flashes blue or shows red, and what to do before you ring anyone.
Read the guide › - 16Oct
Guide
What Is an Internet Technician, and Who Tests What?
What an internet technician does, the cabling registration they need, and what your provider, NBN's technician and an electrician each test.
Read the guide › - 16Oct
Guide
What Is MDF Jumpering? A Guide From an MDF Technician
MDF jumpering joins your provider's line to your unit's own cable at the building's main frame. What the MDF room is, what goes wrong there, and how to prepare.
Read the guide ›
Phone Line Repair
Trusted by 1,000+ businesses