"JW" wrote in message
...

the dial tone is accompanied by an annoying hum. Calls can go out and
be received, but it is extremely difficult for parties at either end to
hear.

Sounds exactly like the problem we had at a house we used to live in. We had
overhead lines and lots of squirrels, the squirrels would chew through the
cables and when it rained it shorted across the circuits, at times we could
even hear neighbors conversations (WOW!).
The phone company (Southwestern Bell) was pretty good at replacing the
chewed line when it happened which was quite regularly. RM ~