This may sound like a stupid question, but I'm referencing the question to the quote below. Do you press the talk button before you attempt to place a call?

Today there was a message on the Panasonic answering machine, but when I picked up the phone to make a call, there was no dial tone. I pressed the "Off" button a couple of times and then pressed the "Talk" button and the dial tone was back. So it doesn't appear to be an issue with the phone (unless both the AT&T and Panasonic phones have the same flaw).