I don't have a landline but it still rings

When I got WIFI my internet service provider also gave me a landline number. I've never owned or plugged a landline into the socket, only the router. But if I call the landline number from my mobile, my mobile still connects and rings. It rings and rings but there's no phone connected and never has been. What exactly is my mobile calling? Is this normal because it doesn't feel normal.

Voting Results
80% Normal
Based on 10 votes (8 yes)
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Comments ( 20 )
  • Meowypowers

    If someone calls and there is no phone to hear it, does it make a sound?

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  • JustAHuman

    When I was a kid, I visited the real estate office where my mom worked at the time. The phones there made a buzzing noise instead of ringing. Then I later called that office, and I heard a ringing on the phone. I was confused. How could I hear ringing when their phones buzzed?

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  • Ellenna

    It's not ringing, you're receiving a ringing SIGNAL ON the phone you're calling from: the telephone connection wires are still functional even when there's no actual phone connected to them.

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    • SwickDinging

      I'm glad that you explained this, but I feel sad that you have to.

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      • Ellenna

        Me too, it seemed so obvious to me I had trouble not making my post patronising

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  • Boojum

    As others have said, this is totally normal.

    The landline telephone system routes your call to your house, but the system is dumber than mobile telephone systems, so it doesn't know there's no phone connected. The ringing tones you hear when you call your number just mean that the system is sending the proper signals down the line that would make a phone ring if one was connected.

    If someone answered when you knew there was no phone connected to the line, _then_ you'd have good cause to be concerned.

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  • IrishPotato

    It's ringing nothing because the number isn't connected to a phone.

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    • Then shouldn't it not ring at all?

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      • IrishPotato

        I'll try this right now.

        I'll disconnect my home phone and ring it afterwards.

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      • IrishPotato

        Yep still rang.

        I wouldn't worry about it.

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        • That's so strange! Thanks though, that's reassuring.

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          • IrishPotato

            Haha yeah, it should just not do anything if you ask me.

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  • JustAHuman

    My friend has the song "Who Are You" by The Who as his ringtone. When his phone rings, that song is played. But when I call his phone, I hear a phone ringing on my end. I don't hear his ring tone. What sorcery is this?

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    • Boojum

      Imagine the potential for hilarious japes if phone service providers offered that option.

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  • brutus

    Yes it will ring as long as your landline number is still operational.

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  • nikkiclaire

    If you dropped your cell phone in the toilet would you expect the number would be disconnected?

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    • Boojum

      Excellent analogy for the kids of today who view landline telephones as being as antiquated as the horse and buggy.

      I bet many would have huge problems getting their heads around the concept of a party line.

      "Wait, what? Your phone rang when somebody was calling someone else? And if you picked up your phone, you could hear other people having a conversation? Had someone hacked your phone?"

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  • RoseIsabella

    You DO have a landline, you just don't have a phone hooked up to it, Einstein.

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  • Thanks for your answers everybody!

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  • RoseIsabella

    We have that too, because we haven't bothered to hook up a regular phone to the landline; we have that because we have a service bundle of cable, internet, and a landline. No big whoop. I have a DVR so sometimes when I'm watching TV the caller ID for our landline pops up, and annoys me, because I know it's some asshole trying to sell something.

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