Chorus FAQ for ITSS and administrators
These FAQs are suitable for ITSS and administrators
Notice: Telephony replacement project
In response to BT switching off analogue lines between January 2026 and January 2027, the Telephony Replacement project is currently advising on and coordinating the replacement of centrally managed analogue and critical phone lines as well as managing the transition of Chorus VoIP (digital) lines to Microsoft Teams Phone (also referred to as Telephony over Teams at the University). For more information see the Telephony replacement project webpage.
You should purchase phones listed on the Supported Devices page as they are the only ones supported.
Five. The second and subsequent phones deployed will display an RA2 error, which you can fix in phoneman. All the phones will ring at once - it isn't possible to have a time delay between the phones ringing.
Please see the these instructions.
Please see the error codes page.
Very occasionally, phones in the process of applying a firmware upgrade will get stuck in boot mode. This usually happens if the phone is disconnected when the display shows a 'do not touch' symbol: a finger with a cross through it.
These can be rectified by the Chorus team or by local ITSS if they have the available equipment.
Chorus Team
Please raise a support call with the Chorus team and at the same time, send the phone back with the incident number on the box to:
Chorus Team
Dartington House
University Offices,
Wellington Square,
Oxford
OX1 2JD
In the support call please specify:
- A return address
- Whether an extension number needs to be programmed onto the device before return.
- Whether a divert to another extension (please specify extension number) is required while the issue is being resolved.
Local ITSS
If the IT department in your unit has access to an unmanaged switch* that can be set up distinct from the Chorus network, please follow the instructions for phones stuck in boot.
Faults can be reported by using the Chorus IT self service. Please provide the faulty extension, any error codes which appear on your phone's screen, and the nature of the fault.
To use a fax machine you will need to order a Mediatrix ATA via the supported devices page.
PDQ terminals which send data over the University network and use end-to-end encryption technology, or those which use the mobile telephone network to communicate, are unaffected by Chorus and can continue to be used exactly as they are now.
Analogue PDQ terminals do not comply with PCI-DSS rules if their calls are routed over VoIP networks. You will not be PCI-DSS compliant if you use analogue devices that will send data across the Chorus network. This includes using analogue convertors (Mediatrix) or Chorus analogue lines on branches (OSBs). Please refer to the Finance Division's buying goods and services for guidance.
Colleges should contact their banks with regard to changing equipment while departments should contact cashiers@admin.ox.ac.uk
Where payments are taken by phone you must let the Chorus team know so that they can encrypt calls to and from that extension. This only encrypts the parts of the call which traverse the University’s networks – not where they cross any part of the public internet – but it will ensure that the transaction has improved security.
You will also need to adhere to data-protection rules regarding customers’ card details. This would include, for example, not recording any part of a call that includes reading out a card number, by either party.
Yes, this is called a hot dial number. If you want the call to go to a number if the caller does not call a number in a specified time, this is a warm dial number. Please contact the Chorus team to make a request.
You can find Frodo and subnet information here, and network configuration information here. Note - the Frodo pages are behind SSO. If you have trouble accessing these, please contact the Service Desk.
Emergency calls (to 999 and 112) from a Chorus desk telephone send a special caller-ID telephone number, instead of the normal one. One such emergencies-only number is allocated to each building, selected based on the site-specific IP address allocated to the telephones. The emergency services have been told which emergency-only caller ID number corresponds to which building. This allows them to arrive at the correct place even if the call is cut off or the caller is incapacitated.
Therefore the Chorus network should not be trunked across the backbone or taken between separate buildings over fibre or copper connections: to do so would mean that telephones’ locations would be misreported, sending emergency crews to the wrong place.
It is the responsibility of the owner of each network to comply with this recommendation.
There have also been phone faults where DHCP packets have not been sent back to the correct phone due to the Chorus network being trunked to an annex.
Leavers will automatically be removed from the system after their account expires. If you need their number to be reused before this happens, you can edit the user in Phoneman
It depends on whether you are happy for them to take their number with them. If you do, then the billing will need to be changed. You can request this via this service request. The administrator of the unit taking over the extension will need to request the number using the same service request. If you don't, they will need to be given a different number, which can be edited in Phoneman.
Please see the Chorus billing pages.
Yes. See the call reporting page for information about the reports that are available. Please submit a Chorus Call Reporting Service Request for access.
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