Telus Wireless Home Phone Issues

[NoSmoke]

Hello all, I have just installed the Telus ZTE WF723A wireless home phone and while it mainly works well, it has issues with some of the features.  For instance, I cannot get Conference Call to work.  I can talk to two different callers by switching back and forth via the Flash key (similar to Call Waiting) but cannot talk to both the two callers at once. 

Another issue is Call Forwarding.  I call call forward successfully but cannot un-call forward (the command to un-call forward appears to be accepted by the ZTE as the confirmation tone is heard but the call forwarding remains in effect).  The only way I can un-call forward is to call Telus tech support and get them to do it from their end.

I have been in touch with several Telus Tech Support folks and they cannot figure out what the problem is.  They sent me a replacement ZTE but it functions exactly the same as the original.  I have tried three different phones but with the same results.  Am wondering if anyone here has had similar experience and, if so, how they solved the problem.

BTW, the Telus Mobility system does not seem to be able to differentiate between a wireless home phone and a cell phone.  Calling Telus Mobility always results in the automated answering system trying to send you a text (to try to direct you to self-help on their web site) even though a home phone cannot receive text messages.  Another is that the timeout allowed between keying phone number digits is much shorter than with a landline phone (which is annoying when one forgets the last part of a partially dialed phone number and has to pause to look it up again).

[Fabylous]

Hi @NoSmoke  too bad you're having so much issues with the wireless home phone.  From what I understand there is always a short delay before a command is completed.   When doing a conference call for instance you place the 1st call once it is connected you either press the «flash» or «talk» key, there is a short delay for that command to happen and once you hear the dial tone you can dial the other line then once connected after the short delay press the «flash» or «talk» key to connect everyone. 

For the call forwarding, there are also different types of call forwarding, depending on the one you choose you have to use the same set of commands to activate or deactivate 
To extend the lenght to dial a number try this set of commands *983*238*XX#  the last 2 XX's are for the lenght you want.  For instance if you want 8 seconds, then the command would be *983*238*08#. 
I hope these can work in solving some of the issues you may have.  

[NoSmoke]

Hi Fab, re conference calls, the ZTE user guide sez to press 3, then flash after the 2nd line answers.  We have also tried as you suggest (no 3) and the results are the same - I can talk to either party one at a time by pressing flash to switch back and forth but, cannot talk to both at once. 

Do you happen to know for a fact that conference calling is known to work on the ZTE device?

For the call forwarding issue, I have found that using the cellular command for un-forward (#21#) instead of the (##21#) as shown in the ZTE manual, works.  Both *21*.... and **21*.... work BTW to initiate the call forward.

And thanks for the extend the dial timeout tip - tried it and it works fine!

[Fabylous]

Hi @NoSmoke, I'm happy to hear there were other solutions that worked with your service.  From what I can see the conference calling should be working, I wonder if this could be a configuration that needs to be applied to your service for it work as it should.  

[NoSmoke]

I dunno what can be done about it.  Telus seems to have run out of things to try (they "reset" stuff at their end and the ZTR has been reset, all to no avail).  This is why I'm wondering if the Telus ZTE supported Conference Calling from the get-go.

The only thing left I can think of is to buy a new, more up-to-date hand set to see if it makes a difference.