No ADSL filters seem to work

A few months ago my router was reporting ADSL connection speed of 8Mb downstream and 512Kb upstream

A massive jump from before which I attribute to some shielded cable, removal of all extensions, and disconnecting the bell wire.

I did have a little crackle in voice calls only present when ADSL is connected.

My setup is now really simple - BT faceplate, one spliter and then shielded cable to router (and actually now to the phone as well as an act of desperation).

Recently now my broadband speeds have halved and the crackling on the voice line is terrible - but again only when ADSL is connected.

I can clearly hear what sounds like modem dial up noises executing some kind of connection protocol when the DSL starts up.

I have tried two different routers, numerous ADSL fiters, going direct to the test socket - it all makes no difference.

I reported as a phone fault and the engineer found a problem 80m awsay from the house to fix but it made no difference. He also fitted a mark 3 filter faceplate and checked all connections. Again It made no difference.

In the end he said I would have to log a broadband fault.

I had the usual fight with indian call centre to convince them that its not my router and its not my ADSL filter and finally got them to agree to the broadband engineer that their phone line engineer told me I needed.

So here I am a week later, engineer coming tomorrow, together with the threat of it costing £129 if the problem is found to be within my property.

Does this sort of scenario sound familiar to anyone?

i.e. where the ADSL filters just don't work

If BT fail/refuse to fix it is there any benefit in switching to another provider when it will only use the same line and equipment

(we are rural and the nearest cabinet with optical fibre is a mile away but not scheduled to come our way for years)

Very grateful for any advice

Michael

Edited by michaeldjcox (Tue 29-Mar-16 16:58:19)

It all sounds very much to me as if you have an HR (high resistance) fault on your line somewhere.

Good luck with the visit tomorrow. The engineer should make a 'PQ' test, show a little interest and look over their shoulder, ask them to explain in laymans terms what each of the results mean.

Pay special attention to the leg resistance (should hopefully be pretty balanced and the AC balance which should be over 60db.

So the engineer arrived around noon in the 8-1pm slot and stayed until 4.30

The PQ test returned good balance - near perfect in fact - but the engineer agreed that there was ADSL noise on the voice line and that bandwidth was down.

His information showed that our line was "in the red" - not sure what he was looking at but he explained it meant we were worse off when compared to neighbours.

He tested pretty rigorously and methodically from the master socket, up to the junction at the side of the house and then along the road back toward the exchange.

Happily he identified that the problem was outside my property and said he found a potential issue half a mile away. He said he "recrimped" everywhere and replaced the copper pair over part of the length

He also said he would a log a job to replace some kit at the exchange - but again I'm not sure what.

Work was pressing and he seemed keen to wind up the job so I did not have time to clarify further what was being fixed which I regret now.

The upshot is that the ADSL related crackle has gone.

It has been replaced with a much less intrusive background hiss/crackle that is present whether the ADSL is connected or not. This probably acceptable though I may investigate further. It seems to stop briefly when I rap the master socket with my knuckles.

Currently getting 444/5568. During the fault I was getting between 192/3100 and 256/5560 (approx). Previous to the fault ADSL router was reporting 512/8192 (approx)

I'm hoping that this will climb further over time.

Overall a good experience. The engineer was a great representative for BT. Salt of the earth. Practical. Rigorous. Listened. Spent time explaining.

So very refreshing compared to the Bangalore call centre customer is wrong, computer says no, experience!

Michael

Sigh.

His fix lasted a day and a half and we are now back with noisy line and half-speed broadband.

Now when I try to get an engineer I am hitting a brick wall.

The indian call centre that will not scehdule a visit and the BT call centre that say sorry a lot but also do nothing.

Both promise to cal back and don't.

My wife got cut off 3 times after 30 min waits

I tried the live chat be the rep also gave no information and even tried to persuade me to text a premium rate number for status updates.

I've been a BT customer for 25 years and an employee for 13.

Feel very let down by the 151 experience.

I've been a BT customer for 25 years and an employee for 13.

I have been an employee for 19 years now. The pressure placed on engineering staff to hit targets for dreamed up stats is enormous. All that coupled with an HR fault being a right sod to find any way ....

Good luck with the next visit (eventually) and if the engineer is tall and bald, be nice, it might be me !

If your a current employee then try using actionline

Just to clarify.

Engineering staff have been great for this incident and always in the past.

I'm really letting of steam here about the 151 experience.

I would accept being told someone will come but it will take three weeks for them to appear.

What I'm getting is we are testing, we won't send an engineer out yet, we will call you back (three unfulfilled promises - never happened), being disconnected when finally reaching a person (twice), why not send SMS messages to our premium rate number instead.

I am not an angry person or in anyway difficult or abusive on the phone - cool and measured and persistent that I feel the previous fix was good. That I don't need yet another ADSL filter or a new router - been through all that - just someone coming out to recheck that previous fix.

Instead I'm left feeling that no action is being taken at all and that each person I call is just finding a way of postponing action and not dealing with me.

Done with online ranting now - just wanted to clarify where the service has been poor and where it has been good.

I'd definitely go down the actionline route. It'll get dealt with someone here in the UK who knows what they're about.

Not an employee anymore but as it turns out I got a call today.

An engineer coming on Wednesday.

I've been given a name and number to speak to if the issue continues after that so I don;t need to start over.

Sounds like my issue but I'm on VDSL2.

After several engineer visits and eventual line pair swap, back to normal.