I have just dialled a number from my mobile to a geographical number and I get the engaged signal three times then get cut off and it says on the screen 'call restricted'. I have never heard of that before, does anyone know what it means?

Thanks a lot

Are you sure you aren't out of credit on your mobile phone?

I have at last found out what happened. I eventually found the mobile number of my friend and asked him what is going on. In short he has upped sticks and gone to live in another part of the country, so his old land line number was obviously 'kaput'.

I had never heard of this expression before, so if anyone else gets it, now they know! :)

Thanks anyway NGMsGhost  :)

You would normally expect to get an unobtainable tone or a "the number you have dialled has not been recognised" message for a disconnected line.

I would therefore assume in this case the ability to make both incoming and outgoing calls on the line have been blocked (following your friend's notification of terminating the line) but the number has not yet been marked as permanently no longer in service.  I expect in a few weeks time the message will change to "the number you have dialled has not been recognised"

sherbert wrote on Apr 9^th, 2009 at 2:18pm:

I have just dialled a number from my mobile to a geographical number and I get the engaged signal three times then get cut off and it says on the screen 'call restricted'. I have never heard of that before, does anyone know what it means?

What happens when you call it from your landline?

Dave...........

You just get the engaged signal...I tried that at the time.

NGMsGhost............

Thanks again.

This seems to further suggest that BT engineering staff have not correctly withdrawn the line from customer use and this is creating these various false error conditions when you should just be getting "the number you have dialled is not available" if the line had been correctly withdrawn as a valid customer number.

sherbert wrote on Apr 19^th, 2009 at 4:50pm:

You just get the engaged signal...I tried that at the time.

Perhaps it is not user/line engaged tone but network/equipment busy tone (or reorder tone). If so, then "Call Restricted" is how your mobile network indicates such a condition.

Are the two tones of equal length or is the first longer than the second?

The tones were equal in length and after a couple of times the line was 'reset' to make another call.....if you get what I mean.

Mobile providers normally only play tones such as not recognised, busy, unobtainable for only a few seconds. So it is natural that the "line" is reset - I presume you are referring to when you called from your mobile.

Send me the number by PM and I'll have a listen.

Dave, I have sent you a PM with the number. I have just tried it again from my mobile and the same thing happened as I am sure you will find out.

The number does not receive incoming calls is the message when I dialled just now from my BT line.

I called it from my Orange mobile and it gives me two long tones. This is exactly the same as when I call a busy number (I just tried calling my landline from mobile when the handset was off the hook).

However, the message (wording) on the screen of my phone says "User busy" when it is busy and "Rejected" for the number you provided.

My handset is a Samsung and I suspect that the exact wording is down to the handset manufacturer. The sound of the tone itself obviously comes from the network, apparently the mobile one rather than BT (as it is a BT number).

Just for your interest, my mobile is a Samsung and my provider is O2.

Thanks for the info and for all your trouble :)

I am wrong on two counts:

I have just tried this using a Nokia 3330 and it appears that the tone comes from within the handset itself as it is different to the Samsung.

When I dial a number from my mobile that is "not recognised" (from a BT line), it plays a continuous single tone, a bit like number unobtainable. This does come from the network as it is the same on both Nokia and Samsung. It also does not terminate the call, not within a few seconds at least.


Some of these wordings and tones from mobiles seem unhelpful. They are not a patch on the messages given by BT.

Again. many thanks for your time and trouble Dave [smiley=dankk2.gif]

sherbert wrote on Apr 19^th, 2009 at 7:09pm:

Again. many thanks for your time and trouble Dave [smiley=dankk2.gif]

No problem. I'm happy to be of help.  :)