Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[davidc]

Hi, i moved to a new property and have ordered BT's FTTC product and it is connected to a telegraph pole outside which has a street light attached to it. I had noticed that every night my service would stop as soon as it get's dark, i was puzzled for the first week as i had no idea what could cause it. It wasn't until i was making a VOIP call whilst looking out of the window and noticed the streetlight turn on then connection was lost. I have tested it again over the following days and the connection drops as soon as it turns on. When i try to use the landline there is a distinctive and very loud mains 50Hz buzz which makes the line inaudible when said streetlight turns on. I tried to ring BT up and raise a fault but they basically laughed and said that it was coincidental, and that my line might by intermittent during the first two weeks of service which i don't quite believe. What should i do??

[NEXUS2345]

50Hz buzz is a grounding issue looking from what others have said, possibly in the DP on the pole or along it. It could be that your line is becoming earthed once the light switches on. I would say it warrants an Openreach engineer callout asap. Informing them it is a telephone fault may get them out faster as you said there is line noise.

[4candles]

Welcome to the forum davidc.   

Not so sure it's an earthing problem, but patently it's caused by the street light.

If it's affecting voice calls, that's the route to follow when reporting it, without mentioning broadband/VOIP.

The main problem is that in normal working hours the fault will not be apparent to a visiting Openreach technician.   

So, not sure of the best approach - but our resident sheep may have some suggestions.

[ryan2390]

Welcome David.

I agree with 4candles that it should be reported as a phone fault. You should also contact your local council to see if they can liase with Openreach to turn on the light when Openreach are present.

It's also not beyond the realm of possibility that the light is somehow transmitting RF. If you have a portable MW/LW radio I'd suggest finding out where the antenna is inside and then pointing it to the light when it's off and on. It's by no means definitive but if it's the light emitting RF then, IIRC, it would be down to the local council to fix.

If you know a local radio amateur it might be worth speaking to them too. If they operate on HF chances are they might be hearing the lamp or lamps. Worth asking around anyway

Ryan

[NewtronStar]

Have never noticed any openreach distribution poles where a street light is also placed on the same pole not around here anyway, the street lights should have there own independent poles.

[Starman]

Not unusual to have shared utilities poles in more rural areas. Example being electricity overhead lines at the top with BT lines at a lower level and then a "swan" neck type street light mounted to the pole itself.

[davidc]

Had a couple more calls to BT this time contacting regarding a phone fault. They did the usual, questions.etc But said they can't find anything wrong with my line, the issue isn't during the day and they are closed when it happens which was quite annoying. They said that they'll send a engineer for a home visit, but it'll will cost me £129 if they find an issue in my home. Ill try to explain it to them, and hopefully wont get charged

[Black Sheep]

Only just seen this thread, I don't know how I missed it earlier ??

For clarification purposes, there should be NO illicit attachments to Openreach telegraph poles, especially 240v furniture !!! As Starman has pointed out, we do have shared services in certain circumstances, but this will only ever be OR using the local electric board poles, not the other way round.

Back to your issue davidc ................ you need to contact your ISP and have an initial Broadband SFI fault raised. You need to ask for the ISP's tier 2 technical support to view your DSL logs, to confirm and build a picture up that it is indeed REIN causing the problem.
 
As 4candles has mentioned, the problem is always going to be the timings, with it being out of OR's working patterns, but from the initial visit at the very least you will have your circuits wiring tested and hopefully verified it is within quality parameters ?? From here, the same visiting engineer should then have a separate REIN task raised which will allow us to then try and arrange an out-of-hours visit and confirm it is the street-light causing the problem. We will then take it up with the local Council.

As far as charging is concerned, that it purely down to your ISP whether they pass the charge on from OR ?? I tend to find some do, some don't. But you need to keep mentioning the word 'REIN' when dealing with your ISP and insist it is put on their logs when raising a task, this should hopefully prevent any cost being incurred by yourself ??

[Starman]

Might also be worth emailing your local council and ask for the column to be checked. May require a slight white lie stating that its flickering which should cause them to respond and confirm that installation is in good condition.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Might also be worth emailing your local council and ask for the column to be checked. May require a slight white lie stating that its flickering which should cause them to respond and confirm that installation is in good condition.

Second that.

Pre dating DSL by a decade I once had a problem with mains-bourne interference.   Every time the street lights came on my washing machine stopped working, and a bedside digital clock started running fast.   Took me a few days to identify the association between these and street lighting  but once I'd twigged, the evidence was compelling.

I reported it to the electricity supply company who installed a voltage monitor which, unsurprisingly and frustratingly, showed supply voltage all normal.

So I reported a flickering street light (which was true) to the local council, emphasising that it was a safety hazard... Fixed the next day, washing m/c and clock back to normal.

I have, of course, no idea what was actually 'fixed'.

[Starman]

Seven, I can probably state that the column supply was jointed to your service and it was causing your voltage to drop when it switched on during the evening. Did you lose supply when your electric board fixed it?

[sevenlayermuddle]

Seven, I can probably state that the column supply was jointed to your service and it was causing your voltage to drop when it switched on during the evening. Did you lose supply when your electric board fixed it?

Not sure, it was fixed during the day when I was out.

I'd checked the voltage myself, and there was no change to measured RMS when interference was present.   My theory, especially considering the fast-running clock, was there that the line was being modulated by some higher frequencies, maybe harmonics of the normal 50 Hz.   I'd have loved to attach an oscilloscope rather than a voltmeter, but I didn't have one.

While the investigations were ongoing I actually modded the bedside clock by shunting its 50Hz pickup by a larger capacitor than the one already present, and that made it 'immune' to the problem.  But I chose not to interfere with the nearly-new washing machine's electronics.

One maybe interesting factor was, it was a rapidly evolving new-build estate, increasing in size by several hundred households in the months before I moved n? Beyond that, I've no ideas.

[MaximusPrime]

I'm having disconnections during the night.

I believe it is a broken street light near the cabinet emitting a SHINE burst when it goes off.

The light is on for a while then it flickers off, the rest stay on.

Do broken street lights emit SHINE bursts in this scenario & why?

[freelander]

I have a post on here

http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,16108.0.html

I had trouble with a street lamp causing disconnects,  I monitored it and contacted the local council and presented them with the information,  I managed to get them to change the light fitting and had no more trouble, I was on adsl at the time but changed to fiber towards the end of the monitoring and still had the problems,  since the lamp was changed  I have had no disconnects when the light comes on.,

Hope this may help you

[MaximusPrime]

Thanks @freelander