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[yorkie98]

Hi, I have has a 2nd line fitted today so that I can switch to 80Mb FTTC without interruption to my current ADSL service.
Once the new line is all set up and I'm happy, I plan to close down the old line.
I was however a little suprised when the "BT contractor" (as I live in Northern Ireland) we don't have quite the same Openreach arrangement as the rest of the UK) did not install a new line drop from the Distribution Point and instead used the Black/Green spare pair which were inside my original NTE5. He just ran a couple of feet of interior extension 6 core wire to the location I specified for the new NTE and crimped to the spare pair in the old NTE.

Is this normal procedure or should he have run me a new drop from the DP which lives on the fascia board, 2 doors away?
The 2nd line is up and running and the ADSL2+ service is performing to a good standard, on a par with my other line (I had to get this before I could order the "upgrade" to FTTC).

My concern is that the performance might be degraded due to crosstalk between the 2 pairs whereas this potential crosstalk would be minimised by running a second drop from the DP.
The "engineer" assured me that this would not be an issue and that the last few meters will make no difference as there are far more opportunities for crosstalk to occur on the 2 mile journey back to the exchange when it ends up merging with hundreds and thousands of other pairs in the ducts.
Although I realise that the critical part of the journey will be shortened when I get moved to the DSLAM cabinet in 2 days time, I want to ensure that the performance of this line is maximised to within an inch of it's life.

As I have not noticed any degradation on the old line and the new line is performing on a par with the old, initial signs are good but I just wanted to court opinioon about the way the new NTE was installed.

TIA.

Yorkie.

[Black Sheep]

That is normal practice over on the mainland as well, Yorkie.

In an ideal world, we'd all have our own seperate 'feed' from the Exchange to the premises run on different cables, to eliminate crosstalk. Obviously, we dont. As he has said, your new VDSL circuit will travel alongside your existing circuit (and up to 98 other circuits), from the Cabinte to your premises, the last 30mtrs of dropwire aint gonna make a jot of noticeable difference.

HTH

[openreach dude]

As Black Sheep has said, if the lines are to the same property then the engineer will use the green/black.  Its not (meant to be) used if the orange/white pair is faulty though.