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[Maturecheese]

I currently have a Line fault that is affecting my phone and broadband and I have posted on the BT forum about it but got no replys so I have cut and pasted to post on here.


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I called BT today to report that the phone had loud crackling noises so they could pass it on to the engineer who was coming out this afternoon, that took 45 mins.  Anyway the engineer turned up and to his credit did his best and was around for 3 hours.  He first reconnected the wire in the cab then came to the house and waited to see if it dropped out, which it did.  He changed the modem but it wasn't that.  Next he checked the wiring at the pole and although it was poor and he rectified that,still no joy.  He check the connection at the socket in the house, no problem there and so lastly he did a d side swap (I think that's what it is when you swap the wire between the cab and the pole).  After all this I am still left with a intermittently noisy phone and a dropping connection.  To make it re connect I have to phone someone and then it is up for a while.  Also because of the bad line my profile is still 19.36 (in the 20/5 range) instead of 38 (40/10). 

 

He left telling me that he will have to send the local engineers out as he wasn't from around here and did not know the cable runs and so I am waiting to see what happens next.  I must point out that I am happy with the effort that this guy made and he is a credit to BT unlike TPTB in that organisation.  I hope and pray I don't get told that as it seem like the cables between the cab and the pole are naff I will have to revert to ordinary asdl.  The should repair them!


Non paste :     Currently the internet syncs when I use the phone and then after various amounts of time it drops and will sync again if the phone is used again.  The phone line is intermittently crackly and varying in intensity.  The broadband engineer confirmed a noisy line with his own phone pluged into the test socket.

Anyway, as I don't know when or what is going to happen next, i have booked a telephone engineer for the phone fault hoping that he (or she ) will get the line (with I suspect is underground between the cab and the pole) fixed.

Any informed comments welcome.

[asbokid]

I currently have a Line fault that is affecting my phone and broadband and I have posted on the BT forum about it but got no replys so I have cut and pasted to post on here.

I called BT today to report that the phone had loud crackling noises so they could pass it on to the engineer who was coming out this afternoon, that took 45 mins.  Anyway the engineer turned up and to his credit did his best and was around for 3 hours.  He first reconnected the wire in the cab then came to the house and waited to see if it dropped out, which it did.  He changed the modem but it wasn't that.  Next he checked the wiring at the pole and although it was poor and he rectified that,still no joy.  He check the connection at the socket in the house, no problem there and so lastly he did a d side swap (I think that's what it is when you swap the wire between the cab and the pole).  After all this I am still left with an intermittently noisy phone and a dropping connection.  To make it re connect I have to phone someone and then it is up for a while.  Also because of the bad line my profile is still 19.36 (in the 20/5 range) instead of 38 (40/10).

He left telling me that he will have to send the local engineers out as he wasn't from around here and did not know the cable runs and so I am waiting to see what happens next.  I must point out that I am happy with the effort that this guy made and he is a credit to BT unlike TPTB in that organisation.  I hope and pray I don't get told that as it seem like the cables between the cab and the pole are naff I will have to revert to ordinary asdl.  They should repair them!

Non paste :     Currently the internet syncs when I use the phone and then after various amounts of time it drops and will sync again if the phone is used again.  The phone line is intermittently crackly and varying in intensity.  The broadband engineer confirmed a noisy line with his own phone plugged into the test socket.

Anyway, as I don't know when or what is going to happen next, i have booked a telephone engineer for the phone fault hoping that he (or she ) will get the line (with I suspect is underground between the cab and the pole) fixed.

Any informed comments welcome.

BlackSheep is the engineering guru for a definitive answer..

However, a time domain reflectometry (TDR) test should indicate the nature and location of the line fault that is causing the audible noise and DSL connectivity problem.   The recent heavy rain may have caused water ingress into the cable, or there may be high resistance in a splice due to corrosion.  Such faults sometimes manifest only when a pole-strung cable is swayed by the wind.  Hence the intermittency.

Most(?) engineers carry TDR equipment in their vans. Typical equipment supplied to Openreach engineers is the JDSU HST3000 handheld unit which has an in-built TDR function.   Maybe you could suggest a TDR test at the next visit from an engineer?

cheers, a

[burakkucat]

I shall add that when suffering with a noisy phone, you should just report a telephony (voice) fault -- without any mention of the Broadband service.

In my opinion, it reads as if you have a defective joint that is starting to show HR tendencies. By making or receiving a telephone call, the "off hook" loop current is sufficient to cause a tiny arc through the corrosion at the defective joint -- thus temporarily "fixing" the fault. Once the line has been repaired, so that it is totally silent when performing a quiet line test (call 17070, option 2), your Broadband service should recover back to its usual self.

[Bald_Eagle1]

@Maturecheese,

My ongoing issue is similar. i.e. using the phone sometimes causes large drops in downstream SNRM levels & an immediate connection drop.

However, no crackling or other noise is detected when running the quiet line test.

Strangely, this issue is more evident following a few days of warm & dry weather.
Tomorrow or Tuesday may cause the issue to rear its ugly head in a big way again.

The trouble is though, that our good old British weather is so unpredictable that it has usually turned wet & cold again by the time an engineer visit is arranged, so everything appears OK again 
 
My connection really does appear far more stable during cold & wet weather.
It was quite stable for most of April (the coldest & wettest on record, apparently).

[Maturecheese]

I am still getting constant drop outs and the only way to get it back up for a short time is use the bloody phone   I cancelled the telephone engineer as I was afraid they will sting me £100 as I couldn't hear any noise yesterday on the line and the internet stayed up most of the day albeit at a profile of 7.64.  Today it's back to dropping out and a noisy line ever with the internet modem cable disconnected.  The telephone issue is still showing on BT website as ongoing so hopefully the guy will turn up tomorrow anyway, fingers crossed as I can't face another 10 phone calls in one day to India

In my opinion, it reads as if you have a defective joint that is starting to show HR tendencies. By making or receiving a telephone call, the "off hook" loop current is sufficient to cause a tiny arc through the corrosion at the defective joint -- thus temporarily "fixing" the fault.

I pretty much though the same thing but not quite with the same technical knowledge of yourself.  What I find odd is that the bloody engineer who took three hours not fixing the fault, hasn't come to the same conclusion and instigated action to remedy it.  Incidentally, India informed me that the said engineer was actually a ptsn (is that right?) engineer

I have had to use the phone twice just writing this to reconnect

[burakkucat]

Incidentally, India informed me that the said engineer was actually a ptsn (is that right?) engineer

Answering the question, first: Almost! It's actually PSTN (public switch telephone (or telephony) network). 

BT India's comment is a bit odd. For a straightforward fault affecting the telephone service you do need a network (i.e. PSTN) engineer. 

[Maturecheese]

I have just left the phone off the hook now and put it in a drawer so I can't here the alarm, seems to be keeping my connection this way.  I thought if you reported a Telephony problem the PSTN guys were the ones that turned up and BT charged you if there was no network fault. 

[burakkucat]

If you have a audibly noisy line, then the telephone service is not operating within its specifications. There should not be any charge raised to correct a telephony fault. The "type" of Openreach engineer required for a basic telephony fault is a PSTN or network engineer (i.e. a traditional telephone engineer).

Indeed, as there is a specification for a telephone service, you can insist that the provider of that service fixes it without any charge to yourself. 

[Maturecheese]

Well i will have to see what tomorrow brings as both the broadband and telephone fault are still active on BT's fault reporting page even though I verbally cancelled  with the Indians and the Infinity Indian guy said Openreach will ring me within 48 hours (that's up tomorrow and I won't hold my breath)

[Maturecheese]

Wayhay!!   I think the fault has been rectified.  An engineer came today and narrowed it down to the drop wire which he then replaced and hey presto a quiet line.   I just have to wait for my I P Profile to go back up now.  After all the negativity I've experienced over the years with BT, today I am impressed.  I will say though that they still have a long way to go with communicating with their customers, ditch the offshore call centres.

[burakkucat]

   Result! 

I agree with your comments. When one obtains the services of the correct person, the BT Group cannot be bettered. Unfortunately it suffers from endemic communications failure (quite ironic for a Communications Provider) both with the public at large and also within in own internal departments/divisions.

You could try to ask for your line to be reset back into training mode (just as if it was a new service provision) but you will no doubt feel like 
Personally, I would suggest you take the patient route and just wait. Of course if you do receive a curtsey call inquiring if everything is now satisfactory, you could use that as an opportunity to request a full line reset/reinitialisation.     

[Maturecheese]

I think you are pretty much on the mark re Communications Providers but the good service continued.  I was contacted by a broadband engineer that remembered me previously and I assume he was scheduled to attend the broadband fault flagged along with the telephone one.  He got my I P Profile straight back up to 38 within half an hour so again a good result.  i must also point out that BTcare via twitter were on the mark as well even though in the end they weren't needed.  BT need to dump the offshore call centres as that is where all of the frustration manifests

[burakkucat]

I think a celebration is in order.