The engineer explained a little about how it's connected at the cabinet and from what you are saying I'm thinking I could request the engineer only allow the fibre down the line from the cabinet. The broadband fault should disappear?

I'm almost at the point where I no longer want to be involved in the fault finding process so a simple solution like that is very appealing!!!

In reply to a post by os1:

It's a MK2 with Home Hub 5 cable plugged in the top and phone cable plugged in the bottom and no extensions.

Keep the phone disconnected for the time being - hopefully the broadband will not drop even if you do get an incoming call without the phone connected.

I had that problem with ADSL: the broadband would drop due to incoming calls with and without the phone connected. A work around was to have BT 1571 answer phone which would cut in before the burst of noise caused the Broadband to drop.

Good luck.

Thanks again! Will try everything you suggested later tonight.

In reply to a post by os1:

The engineer explained a little about how it's connected at the cabinet and from what you are saying I'm thinking I could request the engineer only allow the fibre down the line from the cabinet. The broadband fault should disappear?

I'm almost at the point where I no longer want to be involved in the fault finding process so a simple solution like that is very appealing!!!

I think that would only be possible with FTTP since with FTTC you are still using the copper pair which is carrying vdsl from the cabinet and voice from the exchange. Did the engineer imply that only broadband could be provided on the copper pair without voice?

Yes I think he did imply that.

Not available

In reply to a post by os1:

Yes I think he did imply that.

There may have been a misunderstanding whereby people with a bad line E-Side (exchange side) of a cabinet but a good line D-Side (distribution side) of a cabinet have gained from FTTC since any broadband issues with the E-Side are bypassed by fibre. However that does not seem to be the issue in your case.

I unplugged the phone line cable and it didn't disconnect when I called the line with my mobile.

The noise margin had been dropping for a while though and eventually a resync occured without any phone line activity, last I saw was noise margin of 1.5.

It's now connected at:

5. VDSL uptime:0 days, 00:09:32
6. Data rate:20000 / 38328
7. Maximum data rate:20212 / 37469
8. Noise margin:6.0 / 6.6
9. Line attenuation:0.0 / 20.9
10. Signal attenuation:0.0 / 20.9

Hopefully without the phone cable connected the disconnects will stop.

Strange. The noise margin jumped up to 11.4 from 6.6:

5. VDSL uptime:0 days, 00:26:52
6. Data rate:20000 / 38328
7. Maximum data rate:22347 / 53481
8. Noise margin:7.7 / 11.4
9. Line attenuation:0.0 / 20.9
10. Signal attenuation:0.0 / 20.9

Still have the phone cable disconnected so maybe it's helping?

I understood much of what the engineer told me but not everything however I did get the idea from what he said so perhaps it is possible but not available for obvious reasons.