Today, unprompted by me, a technician from Fairpoint Communications (formerly known in these parts as Verizon) showed up, saying we had a “crossed pair” on our line.
I asked him if this could have anything to do with some issues we’ve been having on our line for quite some time, including
- Incoming calls not being answered (because we never heard them ring)
- Dropped calls
- Outgoing calls hanging up after one ring
- Noise on the line
- Incoming calls not rolling over to our second line on busy/no answer
He looked, nodded sagely, and said that all of those things could be caused by the crossed pair, which did not surprise me.
I’m glad to know that this was a) not our fault, b) not a problem with my Asterisk box, and c) something that he was able to fix. As he was leaving, he commented that he hadn’t worked in Bethel in many years, and that everything is “all messed up.” Again, this did not surprise me.
Now, the only remaining question I have is what have the other parties who’ve been getting my calls been doing with them? Thank goodness it wasn’t a competitor. 🙂