Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => FTTC and FTTP Issues => Topic started by: Bowdon on July 06, 2017, 12:27:38 AM
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It's been a whole since I had to do one of those. What is the procedure for doing one? I can't remember the number we call for it.
I used cordless phones too. I understand I need to plug a corded phone in to the phone socket and just run the quiet line test and if it fails, then what do I do then? contact bt about a voice fault?
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The number to call is 17070. You will be given a list of options, I think a QLT is option number two.
There should be no noise, no hum, no buzzing, no clicks, no overhearing of "Glenda Gossip" in full-flow . . . you should just be aware that the circuit is electrically live.
If you decide that there is a fault, it should be reported to the entity that supplies your telephony service. You should report it as an audibly noisy telephony circuit and do not make any mention of the broadband service which also shares the circuit.
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The number to call is 17070. You will be given a list of options, I think a QLT is option number two.
There should be no noise, no hum, no buzzing, no clicks, no overhearing of "Glenda Gossip" in full-flow . . . you should just be aware that the circuit is electrically live.
If you decide that there is a fault, it should be reported to the entity that supplies your telephony service. You should report it as an audibly noisy telephony circuit and do not make any mention of the broadband service which also shares the circuit.
Thanks for the advice :)
I'll get on to that tomorrow. My parents had been complaining about there being noise on the line for the last week, and I had noticed my SNR dropping. So looks like I'll turn detective! :) I'm with BT for both Infinity and the landline too.
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17070 'Quiet line' only works on BT classic circuits, just as a reminder. :)
PS .... another tip I use, usually when BB faulting and trying to find that elusive HR fault ..... is to just have the phone plugged in and listening on 'Quiet Line', then plug the router in and whilst it is attempting to 'handshake' with the DSLAM listen for a slight hissing noise. If you can hear one, there is a HR somewhere. :)
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Ok I did the quiet line test with a corded phone. Even just picking the phone up I noticed there was crackling. Then I did the quiet line test and there were plenty of pops and crackles going on.
When booking the engineer via the website I had to laugh when diagnosing the problem. The first question asked me how many telephone sockets I had. I selected 1. Then the next screen asked me did that fix my problem ;D
I'm impressed with the ability to book an engineer now. I booked him for tomorrow. Between 1pm to 6pm. I think last time I got a phone/broadband problem it used to take a couple of days.
I noticed this morning my modem reconnected at a slightly lower sync rate. I've noticed my sync rate dropping slightly on each disconnect. Not sure if its just more crosstalk, or maybe this voice line becoming gradually worse.
I'll report back tomorrow with how everything went on.
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PS .... another tip I use, usually when BB faulting and trying to find that elusive HR fault ..... is to just have the phone plugged in and listening on 'Quiet Line', then plug the router in and whilst it is attempting to 'handshake' with the DSLAM listen for a slight hissing noise. If you can hear one, there is a HR somewhere. :)
That's a useful tip, thank you.
Ok I did the quiet line test with a corded phone. Even just picking the phone up I noticed there was crackling. Then I did the quiet line test and there were plenty of pops and crackles going on.
When booking the engineer via the website I had to laugh when diagnosing the problem. The first question asked me how many telephone sockets I had. I selected 1. Then the next screen asked me did that fix my problem ;D
In all seriousness, did you perform two QLTs? One from the telephony socket on the SSFP and the second from the "test socket" within the NTE5? Obviously it is the result from the latter that would be relevant for the circuit fault investigation.
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Yes I did perform 2 QLT's and both had crackling on them BUT it would stop half way through. It seemed inconsistant. Even when I first noticed the crackling during a regular phone call the crackling wouldnt be there for the entire call. It would come in and out.
Ok BT Engineer turned up.
He couldnt find any problem with the voice side of things. But he replaced the phone socket filter as a precaution and tested the line. All his equipment was showing green. He said its probably an intermittant fault and to keep monitoring it. After we talked about the broadband speed also dropping he said keep monitoring that too. He would write on his report "fault not found", so it keeps the job open for 30 days.
He tested my fibre connection at 60Mb, which is lower than my previous connection before he arrived at 64Mb.
One thing I have noticed is my max attainable rate keeps dropping. As of 7th of July I'm currently connected at 61Mb with a max attainable is 71Mb. But 2 months ago in on 6th of May I was connected at 66Mb with an attainable of 78Mb. Interleaving is applied in both cases.
I'm thinking its some kind of HR fault. Would this also effect the max attainable speed?
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I ran the stats graph program just now, here is a few attachments. If you need any of the others let me know.
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When I had my HR joint earlier this year I used the voice recording app on my mobile phone held near the phones earpiece to record the clicks, bangs, pops, crackling, because each time the engineer came it was perfect line with no noise. >:(
Make notes of times when you do the QLT.
Hope you do not have to go to the length I had to and contact the CRO of BT OR.
When you do your QLT do not hang up when the tone comes on, wait, the you can get a lot of time with out her saying QLT every 20 seconds in your ear.
You are still listening to your line.
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When I had my HR joint earlier this year I used the voice recording app on my mobile phone held near the phones earpiece to record the clicks, bangs, pops, crackling, because each time the engineer came it was perfect line with no noise. >:(
Make notes of times when you do the QLT.
Hope you do not have to go to the length I had to and contact the CRO of BT OR.
When your do you QLT do not hang up when the tone comes on, wait, the you can get a lot of time with out her saying QLT every 20 seconds in your ear.
You are still listening to your line.
Thanks for the advice. My dad was just on the phone now and he can still hear the crackling going on.
The only bit that kinda surprised me was the engineer didnt actually try making a call using the phone. I guess there is a tendency by some to just use the technology they have at hand rather than go back to basics.
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Hi all, back again.
I've been recording the phone line with the crackles. I've noticed the crackles on the quiet line test are louder now. Also I have a question.
Why are the crackles and interferance louder on an actual call, rather than just dialing the quiet line test?
On my first quiet line test I did last week the interference was minimal and I thought maybe thats normal. But during phone calls the interference was a lot louder, to the point its difficult to tell what the other people are saying.
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There shouldn't be a difference. In either circumstance, you are setting up a 'both way working' phone call.
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I think when I'm contacting BT again I'm going to call it in as every regular phone call seems to have massive static noise on it so they should be able to hear what I'm complaining about.
It's definately got worse since the last OR guy was here, so hopefully thats a good thing in getting it detected.
I'm trying to arrange for my dad to call the house phone on his friends house phone then we can record it.
It's not the phone I'm using as when using the intercom the line is quiet as a mouse. It's purely when we make calls. It's getting to the point when calling the doctors or pharmacy we can hardly hear whats being said. Also I suspect this is whats lowering my max attainable sync speed too.
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If it's crackling as loud and often as you say it is, it should be a relatively easy fault to identify and measure to ............. what follows in order to repair the HR we won't know at this stage ??
I would DEFINTELY get it raised as a 'Voice fault' as opposed to a 'broadband fault'.
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I had OR out for exactly the same problem some time ago, crackling line, would stop as soon as the OR Van turned up >:D
on the Seventh visit he was putting his tools away in the van while running the QLT, right near the end of the test, it started.
So with his meter connected, it still showed green on all tests but clearly something was wrong..
Persistence pays with this type of fault.
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Took us 6 weeks to fix a voice fault. 4 visits and on the last one the fault was detected at the exchange. Prior to a card being replaced in the exchange we had been told we were being charged for wasted visits. I recall the second visit the engineer was on site for 9 minutes then left as no fault...
We had a consistent crackle but something to do with the cards could change your voice port so at times we would end up on another card and the fault would go.
In the end after raising several complaints, it was like pulling teeth as remote tests should no fault. The thing that helped the most was I recorded the crackles which the engineeer acknowledged on the last visit was clearly something somewhere so well worth doing. I should have done it the first time round. Internet was not affected regardless how crackly it got.
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I'm still trying to sort this voice line fault out.
I'm in the process of testing all my internal setup.
I have 3 main internal devices that I'm testing and/or replacing. The modem (hg612), the router (asus rt-n66u), and a power strip.
My phone setup isn't using that part of the network. The only time the 2 "networks" meet is at the phone socket.
I was under the impression that the broadband part is now filtered off inside the phone socket. So my question to you guys is.. if one of the internal devices is malfunctioning in some way, can it actually cause problems for the telephone line? Or would the in-built socket filtering always keep them apart?
The noise on the line is happening all the time, even during the initial ringing part.
I thought I'd ask you guys about the filtering of the socket as my last check before I call BT.
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My phone setup isn't using that part of the network. The only time the 2 "networks" meet is at the phone socket.
Yes, that is correct.
I was under the impression that the broadband part is now filtered off inside the phone socket.
No, that is incorrect. The only filtering is a low-pass filter on the telephony circuit. The xDSL (high) frequencies are blocked from reaching the telephony side by that low-pass filter. All modems (or modem/routers) have a high-pass filter in their input circuit before the AFE (analogue front-end).
So my question to you guys is.. if one of the internal devices is malfunctioning in some way, can it actually cause problems for the telephone line?
Yes, that is a possibility.
Or would the in-built socket filtering always keep them apart?
No, as (briefly) explained above. The simplest check would be to power-down all of the active devices on the xDSL side, disconnect them from the circuit and then make another quiet line test call.
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Ok I changed my regular phone and plugged in a corded phone in to the test plug in the socket and dialed the bt quiet line test. Crackling was still there. I've noticed the crackling starts at the dial tone, before the ringing starts.
At that point I unplugged the modem from the phone socket and was expecting the crackling to disappear. It didn't.
So booked an OR enginner for Thursday morning.
The crackling happens on every call so I was thinking if his device says the line is fault free to get him to use the phone to dial the bt quiet line test.
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If the line has audible crackling noises on it, there's no way the technicians 'Pair Quality Test' will have a 'Green pass' result. The leg-balances will be significantly different, indicating a HR fault. *
* There could also be another scenario that is a pure contact fault, whereby there is no 'High resistance' fault as such, just bare wire from one circuit touching bare wire from another circuit. But the likelihood is it WILL be a HR.
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So booked an OR enginner for Thursday morning.
The crackling happens on every call so I was thinking if his device says the line is fault free to get him to use the phone to dial the bt quiet line test.
If you have reported it as an audible, noisy, telephony service you should be getting a visit from a network technician.
I'm not sure if Black Sheep's area covers your part of Lancashire . . . but who knows? ;)
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Something strange as happened.
I noticed yesterday the crackling as gone from the line!
I've made multiple calls, just to test the line and so far its perfect quality. If it keeps like this today I'm going to have to cancel the appointment.
When a fault is reported is it possible an OR engineer at the exchange as been taking a general look around and maybe have fixed the problem? or is this really a coincidence?
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Unless you ring and ask your CP if any work has been carried out on your circuit recently, we can never know .... only speculate ??
For example ..... the remote line test all CP's perform before raising an engineering task may have identified an issue at the Exchange, or at the Cabinet .... etc etc ..... which would mean the fault could be cleared without need for access to the premises ??
Similarly if the issue had been a contact fault, as described above, then the other party may have reported their own circuit and as a result of that being repaired, yours has to ???
All pure guess work.
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Well I thought the problem had been fixed. But today its returned. Just picking up the phone listening to the dial tone you can hear crackling.
I had cancelled the engineer visit before because I thought the problem had gone.
I have noticed something between then and now. It had been raining before and now its back to dry weather.
I'll give it a couple of days to see if it disappears, if not Ill make the arrangements again.