interferance on phone line

Hi was wondering if anybody would be able to help me. I am having trouble with interferance on my phone line when i have the micro filter plugged in, it is so bad i cant hear the other person. I have had numerous conversations with my provider and tried all their solutions to which none of them have worked, they sent an engineer out and he just said there was no problem with the line and there was nothing wrong with it, he was totally uninterested in helping fix the problem and has left us with a phone we cant use and a bill for £160. I feel like im banging my head against a wall trying to get it fixed, all I want is a line I can use. Thanks for any help

Unplug your router and as much other kit as you have. If you have a test socket within your BT master socket plug a phone in there. Try the BT quiet line test (17070 option 2). If you hear noise complain to your voice line provider (don't mention broadband).

I see no reason why you should pay a bill for £160 if you did everything your provider asked you to and it was they who sent the engineer. I assume you tried a different microfilter - from your description of the problem, that would have been the first thing to try!

Edited by kasg (Sat 04-Jun-11 11:09:37)

Hi kevin, yeah i tried about 4 or 5 differnet microfilters you just get the same problem, it is a bit harsh the £160 bill, to be honest i wouldnt have minded paying it if they had fixed the problem

Hi john, i just tried the line test you provided unfortunately she said there was no problem as well. Thanks for your reply thats the sort of thing that might be able to help me.

I'm a bit confused about your original post. When you say you get interference when the microfilter is plugged in do you mean literally just the microfilter, or the microfilter with the router attached? If it's just the microfilter then I really don't get it, if it's the router as well then does the interference stop when the router is switched off?

Its the microfilter with the router attached, you will have to bear with me im a bit of a novice when it comes to using computers. I just tried turning off the router and the interference is still there but very minimal but that could be because i have one of those walk around phones

the line is hr dis somewhere.

are you fed from a pole or underground?

you might have to dumb that down a bit for me i dont understand "hr dis" its from a pole. Thanks for your reply

Walk around phone? As in cordless?

If so have you tried a regular corded phone, with filter and router connected as normal?

Only reason I ask is because sometimes the power bricks on routers (but more usally cordless phones) are electrically quite noisey.
Some cheapo cordless phones can have a noticable mains hum when you use the handset close to it base/power supply.

High resistance disconnection on one or both of the copper (or aluminium) wires which carry dial tone and adsl to your premises from the exchange. Usually caused by corrosion in a joint somewhere.

As i havent had much luck with the open reach should i get a differnet phone engineer to try to fix the problem or do they not have permission to look at bt phone line. Thanks

But before that if you answer my question dude

yeah i meant cordless, i have tried a normal phone but still have the same terrible noise. thanks

Good, well not good but at least it eliminates that possibility.

yep it pretty much has to be openreach that look into suspected faults in the network... since they own it.

You can have your own 'engineer' check everything in your property back to the NTE5a or master socket, if you hire someone try and make sure their actually qualified, not just a sparky that dabbles in telecom...

A word of advice when you report this fault (again)...

Someone said it's hr dis on the line. This is one possibility but not the only one. Another possible cause of this is a faulty line card or dslam port in the exchange.

Whatever the cause OR will need to look at it, the only problem is if you report it as a pstn (voice) fault then the engineer is only going to investigate the the line from a "voice" perspective i.e. basic checks and line test WITHOUT your router plugged in. The engineer will not have the time or authority to investigate beyond that remit. A hr dis will only be detected with an end-to-end test, such as a pair quality test, which may or MAY NOT be done by the voice engineer, depending on what kit he has.

I you report the problem as broadband at least you will be guaranteed a pqt and the engineer will have time to investigat properly and also will be allowed to change dslam ports if this is found to be the problem.

By the way, what did you report the fault as the 1st time round?

Edited by polemonkey (Sat 04-Jun-11 23:18:10)

In reply to a post by draveneo:

i just tried the line test you provided unfortunately she said there was no problem as well.

Eh She said what? She's just a menu system. She's says nothing but just lets you to listen to silence hopefully.

Unless she's called Zoey.

Hi thanks for your reply, i reported it as a phone problem not broadband. The next step that sky have told me is too buy a new micro filter as the ones i have tried are from sky and apparently they are of poor quality. If the problem is still there after that i will take your advice and report it as a broadband fault. Thanks again

yeah it was automated i was just joking

Zoe ? You mean Tinkerbell's vocal twin ? How irritating is that !

I dunno, she kinda turns me on...


...is that wrong?

In reply to a post by draveneo:

The next step that sky have told me is too buy a new micro filter as the ones i have tried are from sky and apparently they are of poor quality

So Sky provide a cr*p product then expect you to pay for something better? This is getting more and more implausible.

Edit: Poundland sell them for ... £1

Edited by kasg (Sun 05-Jun-11 13:29:55)

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by draveneo:

The next step that sky have told me is too buy a new micro filter as the ones i have tried are from sky and apparently they are of poor quality

So Sky provide a cr*p product then expect you to pay for something better? This is getting more and more implausible.

Edit: Poundland sell them for ... £1

Poundland £1 filters are probably the same ****

In reply to a post by FRS_Plunderer:

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by draveneo:

The next step that sky have told me is too buy a new micro filter as the ones i have tried are from sky and apparently they are of poor quality

So Sky provide a cr*p product then expect you to pay for something better? This is getting more and more implausible.

Edit: Poundland sell them for ... £1

Poundland £1 filters are probably the same ****

Quite possibly but I see no evidence that it is the filters that are the problem. I have never had a problem with a filter, however cheap and nasty it was.

I've seem plenty of bad filters - all types, all brands but the good ones at least work well out of the box and go bad if their misused or abused. But the small ones that look like small double adapters are the worst - if you have more then one socket or a dect phone that needs filtering you might as well not bother.

Hairy assed jointer you.....................................

and errr no

In reply to a post by draveneo:

Hi john, i just tried the line test you provided unfortunately she said there was no problem as well. Thanks for your reply thats the sort of thing that might be able to help me.

Uh uh!

Which LLU supplier is your phone with? That isn't a BT Wholesale (WLR) connection. I've a feeling it's TalkTalk, but may be Sky?

First off i was with bt but i thiught their attitude was really bad towards my problem so i changed to sky talk, their customer service has been pretty good to be honest they seem like they are trying

In reply to a post by draveneo:

First off i was with bt but i thiught their attitude was really bad towards my problem so i changed to sky talk, their customer service has been pretty good to be honest they seem like they are trying

Sky Talk and Sky Rental I think? Plus Sky LLU broadband?

Messy .

Not something I can help you with, but being clear on the products in question, and thus who is responsible, may make it easier for the others to do so.

As an aside, it probably doesn't matter due to the type of people around here, but with the product mix I just suggested it is nothing at all to do with BT Wholesale DSL Implementation. In fact simply having Sky LLU broadband makes that so, Sky Rental just makes it more complex.