sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information circuit is busy

Our phones aren't taking calls most of the time; every once in a while someone can dial in and out; but we can't figure out what's causing this.

When you try to dial in and the phone isn't working, it'll say "Circuit is busy"...Is this something that our phone carrier AT&T would deal with? Thanks in advance.

Are these LD or Local calls? Also what is the trailer on it?

do you have Voice Mail on your system? It may not be releasing calls properly..........

I've had this from time to time... check with the local phone company.. it's probably their issue. Same thing happens when you can to another state and get "all circuits are busy." It's almost always an area CO issue.

Information would be helpful.

What is the brand name of your phone system?

How many dial tones do you have on it?

Can you always go to any phone and press any dial tone button that is not lit up (being used) and get a dial tone.

Who supplies your dial tones?

Do you have a voicemail on your system and if so, is it a stand alone box or a circuit card that plugs into your control unit.

If you don't know what kind of system you have, the phones should say something on the top or bottom of them to indicate a model.

The more information you can give, the easier it is for someone to narrow down the problem.

Thanks, Bunnie

The "all circuits are busy" message (or a fast busy signal) is coming from an overloaded CO or is due to cut lines between CO's. If it was your equipment, the caller would get a busy signal.

"All circuits busy" recordings or a fast busy signal on inbound calls is also indicative of a PRI outage. ISDN-PRI service is a package of trunks and if they lose communication with the local central office, this recording or signal is likely.

Does your system have ISDN-PRI service or is it at least being used to deliver your phone lines? If you do and it's coming and going, that would definitely be causing this problem and likely a problem to discuss with your dial tone provider.

I've never seen a local switch give an all circuits busy announcement. That's why I asked if LD or local, I'm betting LD. You can usually tell by the recording if LD or local. I've seen some pretty major local cables cut that only gave busy signal or RNA. Of course that doesn't mean the local company couldn't put out the announcement.

Just wanted to add. Most failure announcements I've seen come from switch to switch problems

Bill, when using a PRI to a customer's site, it becomes a switch-to-switch scenario. 5ESS and DMS offices, regardless of LEC or CLEC-owned will give an "all circuits busy" recording when a PRI fails because the office treats those trunks the same way as inter-office trunks, which is where these issues usually occur.

I can demostrate this to you if you like. Our PRI does this, as in sending the recording or fast busy to callers when it fails. End offices are different, but PRI's usually come from "combo" (DMS250 or 500) or toll offices where connections to the customer are handled the same as inter-office trunking.

Don't you have a service provider????
The time wasted getting e mail opinions while you get no calls cost more that you save. Unless you get no business from your phone lines!