I got the call back from the UK Faults Priority Team. The agent said he will contact the UK Orders Priority Team to ask them to place an order for broadband on my land line. He stressed that according to the computer systems I do not have broadband and while he mentioned about a crossed line similar to what BT's offshore support team had suggested I could tell he meant what he said. He also promised that should the noise fault still exist after my land line broadband order is complete it will be dealt with by his team.

He also explained why the renumbering orders placed by the offshore team were rejected. They were rejected because that facility can only be used when a customer changes their land line telephone number and they need to change the broadband number to match the new land line telephone number.

Overall it was a very constructive phone call and I look forward to an update from him or the UK Orders Priority Team as he said they will likely take ownership of it.

Good luck . Progress at least.

Fuming after today. Stayed in all morning for an 8am to 1pm appointment only to be called at 12.55pm to say the guy would be another 30 minutes. By this stage I was suited and booted and heading to the office to meet with a new member of staff who had been left hanging around for over two hours for an induction meeting, waiting for my appearance.

I was not impressed to say the least, as he could have called an hour earlier to give me the option of cancelling if it was obvious he wasn't going to make it in the timeslot.

Anyway what followed took the biscuit. Despite the fact I had told BT it was an intermittent fault, and had been assured that they would send an engineer equipped to detect the problem (by which I would expect a TDR) this guy said that all he would have done would be to listen to the line, and if there was no noise he wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. So he could have called me at 8am and I could have told him that the line was having a good day, avoiding the whole issue (Infinity went back up 10Mbps this morning so clearly on the up at present).

He did seem to understand the nature of the fault (bad joint, affected by changes in temperature & moisture), but then said that I should wait until the line was crackling ALL THE TIME to be certain that when the engineer turned up they could confirm the problem. This fault has been going on for two years - am I really to expect that a line that goes noisy such that you can't have a conversation and borks my broadband every three days just isn't bad enough to merit being fixed?!

Finally he said that he might go and 'fiddle around' with the cabling by the pole (that's the 'D' pole that can't be climbed as it has been leaning precariously for 8 years and they won't replace because it is in someones back garden) and leave a message for me afterwards. Of course, no message afterwards.

So as you may expect I lodged a complaint this evening. Call centre lady was very apologetic & called Openreach whilst I was on the phone. Was assured that OR would monitor the line for 24 hours (I think 24 days would be better) and that they would give me an update tomorrow afternoon. We shall see.....

Could it be the leaning of that pole is the source of the fault?

-----------------------

Possibly the neighbour should get the local Environmental Health Department to put pressure on OR.


Try to get a measure of how much from vertical.

Assuming that your line goes overhead to the pole, is your line being tightened or slackened by the slant, compared to if the pole were vertical?

My line is probably about right - certainly not taught.

But the problem is no-one can climb the pole to service the lines - there is a good chance that the DP box at the top is where the problem is because it is rather weather beaten and perished. The pole is also now surrounded by a tree that has grown around it giving the appearance that the tree is emanating telephone cables!

It's too much trouble to investigate faults up there - they would need to arrange a cherry picker, and that's not going to happen without a fight.

The annoying thing is that all the other poles in the street have been renewed within the last five years because they are on the council pavement. They all also get tested and labelled up every year to show when they pass. Our old pole, inaccessible behind a garden fence, has not been replaced or tested despite the fact it's getting pushed over by the tree. How can they let a pole remain 'do not climb' for over eight years whilst customers circuits rot away?

Spoke to the person whose garden it is in? Wayleave may be the issue

It may well be, but frankly it's not my job to sort out Openreaches legal problems! I can only complain to BT about my crackly line.

If they wanted to they could install a new pole on the council pavement.

My broadband is now showing up as activated on my land line number and the disconnections miraculously stopped around 18 hours ago. The erratic noise margin has all but disappeared too. The downstream speed is still banded at 5199 but I've to expect a call soon and all going well a DLM reset will be requested.

Screenshot showing the much improved noise margin over the last 18 hours and no disconnections:

http://s2.postimg.org/6ei2hkd2x/RSHub_Noise_Margin_2...

And the sync:

3. Firmware version: Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.173.1.6 (Type A) Last updated 08/05/14
4. Board version: BT Hub 5A
5. VDSL uptime: 0 days, 18:52:56
6. Data rate: 17000 / 5199
7. Maximum data rate: 23220 / 82803
8. Noise margin: 6.6 / 33.0
9. Line attenuation: 0.0 / 17.0
10. Signal attenuation: 0.0 / 17.0
11. Data sent/received: 569.9 MB / 2.2 GB

I'm amazed at the turnaround.

Two years! You must have the patience of a saint!

That's great news - it really did look like a job for a SFI but it does seem that the problem was somehow caused by a crossed line? Obviously your persistence with BT Retail support paid off