Telephone line service problems

Over the last several days our telephones have alternately worked and not worked.
We have 4 phone jacks with a phone plugged into each one.
Two days ago I tried to make a call and there wasn't any dial tone for any of the phones. A few minutes later everything was fine.
The next day the lines were "dead" again. We unplugged every phone except the one closest to the main terminal but still did not have a dial tone.
This morning, just before I called the phone company to set up an appointment for repair, I called home from my cell phone and the phone call went through.
Can anyone tell me how to check if this is a problem inside or outside the house? The phone co. will charge us $97 if it is not outside the house.

 

Next time you have problems, take a corded phone to the phone box on the outside of the house. Open it up. Unplug the plug from the jack and plug in the phone. If it works reliably from there, then the problem is likely inside the house. If it is unreliable from there, then the problem likely belongs to the phone company.

 

Thank you John. Yes, that would be the logical next move. Unfortunately, our telephone box is located on the telephone pole about 20' off the ground.
Is there another option?
Could a volt meter be used to see if any current is coming through the wire at the point that it enters the basement?

 

You have a certain number of "interior" cable-pairs that connect to one "exterior" line-pair from the telephone central-office . This is the Service-connection which is located at the point where the exterior cable from the utility pole terminates, possibly on an interior connection-block.

If there are 4 interior cables, one jack connected to one cable, you have a " 1 pair-to-4 pair" Service connection. If you have 2 interior cables,with 2 jacks connected to 1 cable, it's a "1 pair-to-2 pair" Service connection.

Locate the Service-connection point and dis-connect the interior cable-pairs from the Service-pair, being careful to note how the existing connections were made. The "basic" interior cable-pair consists of a Red wire and a Green wire but it's quite possible to have cables with a different color-code.

After the interior cables are disconnected, connect 2 wires to the Red and Green terminals of a "test-jack", connect the 2 wires to the Service-pair, and plug a phone into the jack. The phone won't operate if there's a problem in the Service-pair.--------------Good Luck and Enjoy the Experience!!!

 

The box I am talking about will not be 20 feet off the ground.

 

John, my guess is that what she observed was the TelCo's terminal box on the pole where the Service-drop cable from the house connects to the central office pair.

 

Not all homes have the demarcation box where you can do the test John has asked for. You should start by unplugging all faxes, computers, answering machine, cordless phone base stations and leaving only one standard phone plugged in. Try that for several days and see if the problem goes away. If it does then one of your phone devices has a problem.

 

Thanks to everyone that replied to my query.

Actually John, our phone box is located about 20' up the pole. In fact, our house is the only one that even has a phone box. I checked all around the immediate neighborhood and everyone elses phone wires go directly from a black cylinder attached to the overhead wires near the pole to each house and through a hole in the side of the house. No one has a phone box attached to the outside of their house.

PATTBAA is correct. There are 4 wires that come into the house. 2 of these are connected to a metal plate with 2 large screw heads clamping down the wires. The other 2 are connected to another, identical metal plate. Then there is a set of jumper wires from the 1st plate to the second plate. It is the second one that is used to connect all of our phone wires.

I am not really sure why there are 2 unless it has something to do with our house having once been divided into 2 apartments.

Anyway, we have not had any problems since I initially posted my query. The neighbor made the first call to the phone company when my husband called her from work when he was unable to get a call through to me. They told her that they would check into it. So, maybe the problem was on their end all along.

If it should go out again I will try PATTBA's suggestion and see what happens.