Issues with new Cabinet installation

Hi there,

First post on this forum so please bear with me.
I won't go into this problem in all its glory or I will be typing all night.

In a nutshell, my fibre broadband connection with Talktalk dropped from a av. 15mbsec to less than 1mb a sec. over 4 weeks ago.

After 2 engineer visits, they told me the following. A new fibre cabinet (19) just 100 yards away went live a month ago. I was always served by the further away cabinet 4. Over the last month, my phone line was moved to the new cabinet 19, but my fibre connection is still running off cabinet 4!! This was confirmed by the two engineers who said to contact my service provider and request the fibre connection is moved over to the new cabinet also, and I would average 70-80mb speeds.
Sounds easy (although what a bizarre problem to start with). Talk talk have been a disaster ever since. I won't go into it all, but they have been truly woeful, and seemingly unable to address this with Openreach on my behalf.
I am at my wits end, because I cannot speak to Openreach directly, and I am afraid to cancel with TT, as then I have no service provider to fall back on and I fear this could end up never solved. Has anyone come across an issue like this or can suggest anything?

What does the BT DSL checker show for your phone number? Cabinet and expected speeds should be there.

And also the address, since if TalkTalk full LLU it won't understand the telephone number.

Use house number PLUS postcode.

To my mind, if what you have been told is correct, re your line now bing off cab 19, then the easiest solution would be a cease of all current services (line and FTTC) and then a reorder. Harsh, but it'll do the trick, and save you a world of pain trying to deal with TT.

Thanks for the speedy responses guys. Far better than the talk talk forum where I am trying to get a response also. I'll cover all the points above one by one.
Hopefully, I will ultimately get some solution here.

In reply to ripped cotton, BT's DSL checker confirms my phone is connected to Cabinet 19.
I cannot search by number only, as its a talk talk number the checker doesn't recognise it. However, it does allow by postcode and address, and this confirms cabinet 19. (I also have a dedicated business line provided by my employer and its a BT number. When I input that, it also confirms connected to cab 19.)

Now heres the thing, because my fibre connection is coming off cab 4, the DSL checker on my address and postcode is showing I do not have FTTC available from cab 19!
I also checked a neighbours phone number down the road, they are running off cab 19, and showing with FTTC available at 80mb. So reconfirms the problem is because fibre has been left at the older and further away cabinet 4.

Zarjaz, a cease service and reconnect (with talk talk or BT) would at face value seem the obvious thing to do, and may ultimately be all I can try. BUT, Talktalk themselves thought this would work. Their engineer dept advised the manager I was talking to at TT last week, to do a cease and reconnect. IE cancel my talk talk service (phone and fibre) then reconnect with a brand new setup.
So first the operator cancelled my full service. He then went to book a new full connection. Guess what, they do the line checks and because of all the above issues, my check comes back "no fibre service available to this address"!!! We know the reasons for this, but because that is the status my current connection to cabinet 19 is showing, Talktalk cannot book a new fibre connection with Openreach as "the computer says no!"
I got the cancellation reverted in the meantime to try other solutions.

Incidentally, I then called BT on spec, and asked if I could join them for their fibre service as a new customer. They done their checks, and said they cannot offer fibre to me, as the checker says fibre not available. I explained the issue and the girl on the line understood, but says there was nothing she could do, as understandably, I am not a BT customer. There was also no guarantee they could address this mistake if I moved to them as normal adsl customer then raised this issue later.

I am sure you can gauge where my frustration is coming from here.
Ultimately, the only people who can address this is Openreach, and due to the current setup, it seems impossible to get the message through to them via providers.

Can you order fibre on your dedicated business line?

This doesn't make much sense to me, if your line was re-routed to a new cabinet how are you getting an FTTC service? In fact can you confirm you are still on a VDSL service, does the modem/router provide any information? The speed drop you had suggests that you may have reverted to ADSL. For FTTC to work from Cab 4 your line would have to come from the exchange to that cab where it is linked to the FTTC cab then continue to cab19 and on to your location. This seems very unlikely and is probably completely beyond Talk Talk to figure out.

This doesn't make much sense to me, if your line was re-routed to a new cabinet how are you getting an FTTC service?

The OP isn't getting FTTC, he now gets ADSL.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

This doesn't make much sense to me, if your line was re-routed to a new cabinet how are you getting an FTTC service?

The OP isn't getting FTTC, he now gets ADSL.

He seems to think he's still getting FTTC

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

Over the last month, my phone line was moved to the new cabinet 19, but my fibre connection is still running off cabinet 4

Batboy, Cannot order fibre on the business line either, I tried to.
Bear in mind the business line is showing connected to cabinet 19 also, so suffers from the same problem.

Realalemadrid, I was historically getting an FTTC service from talk talk on cabinet 4,(which is where my fibre line is still connected to according to the Openreach engineers who called). I was getting 15mb download (Im a fair distance from that cab). It was the fall in speed a few weeks ago to 1.5mb that triggered my investigation into this whole sorry saga.
The openreach engineer also confirmed it is still a fibre feed I get, it although it is now severely hampered due to the convoluted paths it has to take with my phone line connected to this new cabinet 19!

Also, I use the new Talktalk Superrouter. I have just gone in to the settings, and it confirms I am currently connected by VDSL. (although at 1.5mb, its at adsl speeds! The engineer told me that if left as it is now with my feed from cabinet 4, I would never again see 15mb downloads. He said I needed to get TT to get Openreach to get my fibre sorted and onto the new cab 19 where my phone line is.
Both engineers also told me they would be putting this in their reports, but these do not seem to be picked up within Openreach never mind Talktalk.
You would think this would be an easy issue to sort out, considering Openreach themselves have identified the problem.

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-Jan-15 14:22:29)

Post deleted by Pauli1

I as others have pointed out i think you are connected to cab19 voice and net (but on adsl). I assume cab 19 is further from the exchange than cab4? What was your adsl speeds on cab4 (before you had vdsl)? The only way you could be connected to two different cabs, is if they are next to each other

The order issue sounds like a Database error..

Have you got a spare adsl modem router lying about (not the superrouter)

Edited by Taras (Tue 20-Jan-15 17:05:52)

In reply to a post by Taras:

I as others have pointed out i think you are connected to cab19 voice and net (but on adsl). I assume cab 19 is further from the exchange than cab4? What was your adsl speeds on cab4 (before you had vdsl)? The only way you could be connected to two different cabs, is if they are next to each other

The order issue sounds like a Database error..

Have you got a spare adsl modem router lying about (not the superrouter)

Hi,

Yes Cabinet 19 is further from the exchange, but closer to me and is a new FTTC enabled 80/20 cabinet a stones throw from my front door. My adsl speed on cab 4 was the same as I get now, about 1,5mb.
It was two separate BT Openreach engineers who both visited my house, then checked the cabinets then told me that my internet connection is coming via cab 4, whilst my phone line is on the new cab 19. Both as I indicated before. went as far as to say I needed to get TT to request my broadband connection gets moved to cab 19.

I can understand a provider saying they cannot supply me with a new fibre connection, as they do only basic line checks when you ring and make an enquiry and because of this issue those checks tell them I am not connected to a superfast fibre enabled cabinet, when in fact my phone is. How do I get past this and get Openreach to rectify the problem thats the big question.

My TT Superrouter is showing that I am connected by VDSL. My understanding is that it only displays this when you are actually on a fibre connection.

I could probably hunt around in the attic for an adsl modem. What would I be looking for on connection this up if I could find an old one?

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-Jan-15 17:44:00)

This sounds like a tie cable exists between cabs 4 & 19.

Supposition, but it may have been that no spare E-sides existed to cab 19 (which is where the D-side is from) at the time the line was installed, so it was fed to cab 4, then using a tie cable to cab 19 and on to the premises.

If so, the records are correct - in that cab 4 is where the E-side from the exchange terminates.

The issue is trying to get the pair changed to an E-side direct to cab 19 (if spares exist).
Once the E-side and records have changed, the checker will likely catch up.

how far away is cab 4 and 19? Basically the when the line is provisioned for dsl it is connected to the dslam and then to the voice line card. in the case of vdsl this happens between the two cabs (pcp and its fibre twin).

What exchange are you connected to ? maybe this will start to help with the confusion.

As for the old adsl router, its to see if the sync light comes on

In reply to a post by panda:

This sounds like a tie cable exists between cabs 4 & 19.

Supposition, but it may have been that no spare E-sides existed to cab 19 (which is where the D-side is from) at the time the line was installed, so it was fed to cab 4, then using a tie cable to cab 19 and on to the premises.

If so, the records are correct - in that cab 4 is where the E-side from the exchange terminates.

The issue is trying to get the pair changed to an E-side direct to cab 19 (if spares exist).
Once the E-side and records have changed, the checker will likely catch up.

Thanks, could you explain in layman terms? Is this something that Openreach are likely to fix themselves in due course? Is it something they would have noted with a view to coming back and sorting? Or is it sortable> Or is it something they should have done, missed it and unlikely to be rectified unless I mange somehow to get them notified either via TT or some other way?

With me already being a fibre customer and phone line moving to the new cab when it went live, I thought I would have been at ihefront of the queue to get the fibre link at the new cab 19

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-Jan-15 19:33:45)

In reply to a post by Taras:

how far away is cab 4 and 19? Basically the when the line is provisioned for dsl it is connected to the dslam and then to the voice line card. in the case of vdsl this happens between the two cabs (pcp and its fibre twin).

What exchange are you connected to ? maybe this will start to help with the confusion.

As for the old adsl router, its to see if the sync light comes on

Cab 4 and Cab 19 are on the same road. I would estimate about 1 mile apart.
Cab 4 has been there a few years (when I was first able to get a fibre connection), Cab 19 appeared about September past and went live just before Christmas when obviously my line moved, and everything went belly up.

I am connected to the Crumlin Exchange if that helps.

that would have been done for a number of lines wouldn't it though, as the OP's business line has the same issues so there may not be spares

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

In reply to a post by panda:

This sounds like a tie cable exists between cabs 4 & 19.

Thanks, could you explain in layman terms?

I'll try...
This is only a theory though, but it does fit in with the symptoms.

Typically, a cab is connected to the exchange with one or more cables. These are 'E-side' cables, as (viewed from the cabinet), they connect to the Exchange.

From the cabinet, smaller cables radiate out to Distribution Points. These are the last points before the final connection to the premises and are usually either poles with a block at the top, or joints underground. These are 'D-side' cables, as (viewed from the cabinet), the connect to DPs.

So, for most people the typical topology is:
Exchange -> E-side cable -> Cabinet -> D-side cable -> Distribution Point -> Drop wire -> Premises.

But as with many things, there are exceptions...
What may exist in your situation, is for some reason, your premises couldn't be served like this.
I surmised this may have been a lack of capacity on the E-side cable to cab 19 - but it could be other reasons too.

To overcome this, the line was routed from the exchange to a different cabinet (cab 4), where a cable linking it to cab 19 ( a 'tie' cable) existed.
So your line may actually traverse 2 cabinets, not the usual 1.
e.g.
Exchange -> E-side cable -> Cabinet 4 -> Tie cable -> Cabinet 19 -> D-side cable -> Distribution Point -> Drop wire -> Premises.

If this is the case, the records and availability checker will likely show cab 4 as your serving cabinet, as this is where the E-side cable terminates, not cab 19, which is the more appropriate cabinet for your premises.

All this assumes the theory is correct though - which it may not be - It's supposition.

Assuming it is, if you are able to arrange for the routing of your line to be changed to an E-side cable that connects directly to cab 19 (and so missing out the 'intermediate' cab 4), the records would be amended and so the checker would update.

This isn't something that BT would do without some form of prompt ( such as an order/fault report), as they closed the issue once service was initially provided.

It may be that the simplest way is to order a new line with the hope that it's now possible to provide directly from cab 19, but you may be able to get your existing Service Provider to do what is necessary if the they have the will to do so.

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

Batboy, Cannot order fibre on the business line either, I tried to.
Bear in mind the business line is showing connected to cabinet 19 also, so suffers from the same problem.

What problem? FTTC is available on cab 19.

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Address 30 LOUGH ROAD, BALLINDERRY UPPER, LISBURN, BT28 2LA on Exchange CRUMLIN is served by Cabinet 19

Featured Products


Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)


Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)


Downstream Range(Mbps)


Availability Date
High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 64.4 45.3 18.5 11.9 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 54.8 30.6 18 7.9 -- Available

A reasonable theory, 'cept in all the instances of two cabs and fibre I've come across, the fibre is connected at the 2nd cab,

Weirder still though is that the first cab was already live. He was, (thinks he still is), on VDSL from it though the stats suggest that isn't the case.

Ah! A thought. A crazy one!

The engineers say his phone is on 19, FTTC on 4. What is the only way this can be engineered?

Answer - the phone no longer routes from the exchange to 4, but to 19. Shifting the FTTC provision from 4 to 19 (FTTC cab) was for some reason not done. (I don't remember what broadband service his business line has, if any).

If we have a connection between the two cabinets, his routing could be Exchange >> 19 >> 4, picks up VDSL2 >> 19 >> premises. That would explain the speed drop and continuing VDSL2.

Which brings us back to the possibility that that your earlier suggestion of ceasing both and re-ordering may work. Or may not!

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 20-Jan-15 23:04:13)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

Batboy, Cannot order fibre on the business line either, I tried to.
Bear in mind the business line is showing connected to cabinet 19 also, so suffers from the same problem.

What problem? FTTC is available on cab 19.

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Address 30 LOUGH ROAD, BALLINDERRY UPPER, LISBURN, BT28 2LA on Exchange CRUMLIN is served by Cabinet 19

Featured Products


Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)


Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)


Downstream Range(Mbps)


Availability Date
High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 64.4 45.3 18.5 11.9 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 54.8 30.6 18 7.9 -- Available

I know it available on cabinet 19, I indicated that all along. What I am saying to you is that when I do the above check with my address, it confirms I am connected to cabinet 19, but no FTTC service is listed. That is what I am trying to get to the bottom of.

I hope you can see the images below.

Image 1 shows the details from BTs dsl checker for my address (as you have done above, showing me connected to cabinet19 but wirh no FTTC service!
BTW, that address you done the check on is about 3 times as far from the cabinet as I am.
[IMG]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh242/Pauli363/Sc...[/IMG]


Image 2 shows the same check, but with my friend and neighbours phone number. Shows connected to cabinet 19 with FTTC available at 80mb download. I am virtually right beside the cabinet, he is a few hundred yards further down the road!
[IMG]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh242/Pauli363/Sc...[/IMG]

Image 3. I then ran his phone number through the talktalk availability checker, and it is showing he can get up to 80mb downoad on superfast fibre, so obviously Talktalk have access to cabinet 19
[IMG]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh242/Pauli363/Sc...[/IMG]

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Weirder still though is that the first cab was already live. He was, (thinks he still is), on VDSL from it though the stats suggest that isn't the case.

Ah! A thought. A crazy one!

The engineers say his phone is on 19, FTTC on 4. What is the only way this can be engineered?

Answer - the phone no longer routes from the exchange to 4, but to 19. Shifting the FTTC provision from 4 to 19 (FTTC cab) was for some reason not done. (I don't remember what broadband service his business line has, if any).

If we have a connection between the two cabinets, his routing could be Exchange >> 19 >> 4, picks up VDSL2 >> 19 >> premises. That would explain the speed drop and continuing VDSL2.

Which brings us back to the possibility that that your earlier suggestion of ceasing both and re-ordering may work. Or may not!

Robertos, that is very similar to what the BTOR engineer told me when he called to check this. He said the convoluted path that the broadband signal is now having to traverse is the reason for the poor speed.

Eventually I may have no option but to cancel and try my luck with a brand new connection via BT. I am reluctant to do so, because the only strand of hope I have currently is to cling to TT as at least they have some responsibility to address this issue, not that they have been any use so far.
The minute I cut loose, I am no-ones customer.

Heres a thought though. (Please keep you ideas coming though, this will only be as a last ditch effort on my part) If I ceased all services with Talktalk, phone and broadband. Give it a week or so, then request a phone service with BT and get a new number. Then follow that up with a request for a broadband connection (even a bread and butter ADSL connection) would it be likely that the new broadband connection would be setup from cab 19, maybe then giving me an option to chase BT to follow up on the fibre issue? Or is it more likely that I will just be reconnected up using the horlicks of a route I have currently?

Also heres another thing I forgot in the midst of this mess. Back round the 20th Dec when this drop in speed occurred, I lost my phone service completely at the same time. It was dead on the TT line for about 10 days due to Christmas, although the slow broadband at 1.5mb remained available. I wasn't overly concerned as I had my mobile. The two issues were definitely at the same time.
The very first BTOR engineer call traced the issue to a BT box in the ground of our neighbours garden. He told me it was a short at a junction. He told me I had 5 lines coming into the house, only 2 used for my private home TT phone and my BT business phone. He told me he just connected the phone up to one of the other cables coming in to the house and that got the phone line working again.

Before he left, I ran a speed check presuming the 15mb connection would be restored. It wasn't, and I showed him, he said it would likely stabilise over the next 10 days which of course it didn't.
Could he have caused this or is there anything plausible he could have done at that terminal box which would cause this?
To be fair, the next 2 engineers checked the lines and said they were clean.
Coincidence or nothing?

What about the DSL checker results for your BT Business phone? It would be interesting to see that especially if it doesn't have a fttc connection.

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Batboy, Cannot order fibre on the business line either, I tried to.
Bear in mind the business line is showing connected to cabinet 19 also, so suffers from the same problem.

What problem? FTTC is available on cab 19.

This is why, as far as I can understand it, this must be an OR database issue. I know I've cut the reply short, but I have read it - if OR think they know which cab your line is fed from, which is the case, then they'll offer you FTTC if your line isn't too long (and we're all assuming at the moment that it isn't).

So to get this fixed, I'd Email somebody high up in OR - I've not got the Email addresses, but I know a while ago lots of people were getting results from explaining directly to people "high up" in OR that their database(s) are in a mess, and/or that something odd has happened with your line and so your ISP can't resolve the issue in a million years.

Maybe the fact that you have multiple lines to the same property has confused things, maybe one engineer messed up and then the others were confused by that, maybe both... or maybe the construction of a new PCP and the timing of your FTTC order coincidentally went horribly wrong. Who knows? Again, I think somebody "high up" in OR needs to know, though, and possibly one of the easiest ways of explaining your predicament is to include a link to this thread at the end of the Email.

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-Jan-15 01:08:11)

I think we can run around in circles as to whats happened...

How to solve it is the issue.

The ideal situation would be for an OR engineer, checking how your line is connected and if it is the double cab route, to see if there is spare e side cables on your closer cab and to move you line to a single cab.

The question is how to get this done, TT i think will make the issue harder than it should be and thats the problem as well.

Bear in mind two things.
You live in a area of about 1 mile radius where 3 telephone exchanges converge, the road up from you "the crewe road" has next door neighbours with telephone numbers on different area codes.
The other end of the Lough road is served by the cabinet beside the water treatment works however due to unfortunate cable routing the glenavy road end of the Lough road can only achieve 15Mbps.
The broadband improvement project is due to install additional cabinets in this area around Dec 2015 with no guarantees that you will get faster service. This will also cause copper rearrangement.
The situation in this area is so dire that I have setup a small private wireless provider in order to help people get faster connections, the majority of lines can't support any kind of vdsl2 service and receive 1.5Mbps or lower adsl service.
Cheers,
Flipdee

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-Jan-15 09:52:55)

If you go down the route of getting a new line do this before you cease your existing setup - otherwise the new line could just just re-use your ceased setup.

After reading this thread in full, I think everyone is coming to more or less the same conclusion, however I believe the root cause of this is the "broadband improvement project" works, which may or may not fall into standard deployment, as what has potentially occurred is a new cabinet has been installed closer to the OP's property solely to improve speeds to him and his neighbours.
Obviously the routing/database should have been updated correctly however because the OP has so many lines (working or not) coming into his property a clean migration may not have taken place.
It could also be a historical problem where some lines are served from different locations due to scarcity of copper when lines were ordered.
cheers,
flipdee

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

What about the DSL checker results for your BT Business phone? It would be interesting to see that especially if it doesn't have a fttc connection.

the DSL checker accepts the number ok as its a BT line, but returns the same result as when I inout my actual address and postcode, i.e. connected to cab 19, but no FTTC availability listed in the services box.

In reply to a post by gazzyk1ns:

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Batboy, Cannot order fibre on the business line either, I tried to.
Bear in mind the business line is showing connected to cabinet 19 also, so suffers from the same problem.

What problem? FTTC is available on cab 19.

This is why, as far as I can understand it, this must be an OR database issue. I know I've cut the reply short, but I have read it - if OR think they know which cab your line is fed from, which is the case, then they'll offer you FTTC if your line isn't too long (and we're all assuming at the moment that it isn't).

So to get this fixed, I'd Email somebody high up in OR - I've not got the Email addresses, but I know a while ago lots of people were getting results from explaining directly to people "high up" in OR that their database(s) are in a mess, and/or that something odd has happened with your line and so your ISP can't resolve the issue in a million years.

Maybe the fact that you have multiple lines to the same property has confused things, maybe one engineer messed up and then the others were confused by that, maybe both... or maybe the construction of a new PCP and the timing of your FTTC order coincidentally went horribly wrong. Who knows? Again, I think somebody "high up" in OR needs to know, though, and possibly one of the easiest ways of explaining your predicament is to include a link to this thread at the end of the Email.

Thanks.
Yes, contacting someone higher up in OR is definitely in the armoury at the moment. I want to approach this in as logical way as I can so whilst it is still a live ticket with TT (which it is) I will see if they resolve it, but I am really not hopeful. I just (surprisingly ) received a call 5 mins ago from TT technical dept. I thought this might be good, only to be asked do I connect via wired or wireless, have I tried switching the router on and off blah blah. He then said "we are still looking into it, without providing any info on what they are actually doing, which I doubt is very much. So disheartening.

If I have no joy via TT, the next thing will either be to cease contract, and try my luck with a new connection from scratch with BT, or start some high level email writing to whomever I can get to listen higher up the food chain.

In reply to a post by Taras:

I think we can run around in circles as to whats happened...

How to solve it is the issue.

The ideal situation would be for an OR engineer, checking how your line is connected and if it is the double cab route, to see if there is spare e side cables on your closer cab and to move you line to a single cab.

The question is how to get this done, TT i think will make the issue harder than it should be and thats the problem as well.

That is it in a nutshell Taras. If I could just get TT to contact OR and say there is an issue likely due to this new cab install. Send an engineer out and tell them TT authorise any connection work needing done to get the customers service running correctly from his nearest fibre enabled cabinet 19. How hard can that be?

In reply to a post by flipdee:

Bear in mind two things.
You live in a area of about 1 mile radius where 3 telephone exchanges converge, the road up from you "the crewe road" has next door neighbours with telephone numbers on different area codes.
The other end of the Lough road is served by the cabinet beside the water treatment works however due to unfortunate cable routing the glenavy road end of the Lough road can only achieve 15Mbps.
The broadband improvement project is due to install additional cabinets in this area around Dec 2015 with no guarantees that you will get faster service. This will also cause copper rearrangement.
The situation in this area is so dire that I have setup a small private wireless provider in order to help people get faster connections, the majority of lines can't support any kind of vdsl2 service and receive 1.5Mbps or lower adsl service.
Cheers,
Flipdee

Thats very informative Flipdee.
In this case though, I don't think I should be reliant on further cabinet installs. I could throw stones at cabinet 19 from my front garden. I have attached a map showing the route down Lurgan/ Crumlin road from the exchange to clarify.

[IMG]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh242/Pauli363/Sc...[/IMG]

Sadly, probably VERY hard.
In an ideal world it should be pretty easy.
I'm confident it can be resolved one way or another.

In reply to a post by jphilip:

If you go down the route of getting a new line do this before you cease your existing setup - otherwise the new line could just just re-use your ceased setup.

Could you explain further? Do you think in doing it this way, there would be a good chance that this could rectify things?

What concerns me, is that taking all lines out of the equation, an address and postcode check on the dal checker says no fibre to my house at present.

Apologies, the improvement works include additional cabinets in the area, however i believe cabinet 19 has been installed as part of these works and ironically it should have caused a more or less automatic uplift in speeds, the downside of these works is the copper rearrangement required doesn't always happen the way it "should?"
Obviously you have been unlucky in this instance, friends in Sixmilecross in Omagh have recently been connected to a new "intermediate" cabinet, but as they don't live in area of high routing complexity and weren't originally connected to a vDSL service obviously their upgrade went pretty smoothly, their number became available for FTTC service on the 6th of January after cabinet installation around October/November time last year.
They went from 0.75Mbps to 22Mbps. (This is what the improvement works are aiming to do for people)
flipdee

If you cease the line first then the new order will not require an engineer to visit - it will use the deactivated circuit. If you order before the cease then an enginner visit will be required to fit a new master socket and possibly install new cabling from you distribution point or cabinet.No idea how likely this is to rectify the situation.

From the map, it seems they would have put extra E side cabling into the cab 19, as jphilip said, order a new line (not with TT sadly) and then wait for it to appear on the btw database and then order vdsl..

Once it has happened you should be able to cease the "weird/faulty" line. It shouldn't be that way and its something that will cost you money but I can't see TT sorting this mess out, unless you get hold of somebody high up in TT.

OR have massively cocked up on this ..

In reply to a post by Taras:

OR have massively cocked up on this ..

They probably have and it should be easy to sort out. However, it does sound as though TT are not trying to resolve it. TT should be telling OR what the problem is and asking for it to be sorted.

In reply to a post by jphilip:

If you cease the line first then the new order will not require an engineer to visit - it will use the deactivated circuit. If you order before the cease then an enginner visit will be required to fit a new master socket and possibly install new cabling from you distribution point or cabinet.No idea how likely this is to rectify the situation.

Ordering a whole new line seems like a possible solution. I don't care about the cost at the moment, I just want it sorted.
Can anyone suggest if leaving the talk talk account as it is for the time being, and ordering a brand new service from another provider, i.e. new phone line, new number and then a broadband service would work?

Answer - the phone no longer routes from the exchange to 4, but to 19. Shifting the FTTC provision from 4 to 19 (FTTC cab) was for some reason not done.

That's kinda what I'd figured all along [smug] The OP said as much in his first post.

My guess is the D-side cable which originally fed from cab 4 has some major issues, and the cheapest option to fix these is to reroute via cab 19. (maybe a major road crossing on the original route meaning huge costs to replace cable)

In doing this Openreach have still got an FTTC port provisioned for this line in cab 4 ..... records clearly haven't been updated, and the chances of the FTTC being made live on cab 19 to clear this issue as a fault seem slim to none.

I stick with my original diagnosis. Cease both existing line and FTTC, then have reprovided ......

On the plus side, once complete, the OP is going to have much faster FTTC speeds !

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I stick with my original diagnosis. Cease both existing line and FTTC, then have reprovided ......

On the plus side, once complete, the OP is going to have much faster FTTC speeds !

Order new line & FTTC and then cease TT line and FTTC just to negate any chance of the existing Frankenstein line being reused

Can anyone confirm if an fttc ip profile can have an upstream rate of 0.45 Mbps?

It cannot.

The downstream IP Profile on FTTC is the sync x 0.9679. The upstream IP Profile on FTTC is always exactly 20Mbps, 10Mbps or 2Mbps depending on the Openreach product in use, and quite independent of the sync speed.

0.45 will be the 448kbps upstream of ADSLx. Either ADSL Max (G.DMT) or ADSL2+ with a cap which some ISPs impose.

Ok, thanks for that.
I have a theory, I believe the OP was the only line meeting both the following-
Receiving a fttc service from cab 4 AND is now being served by cab 19.

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-Jan-15 19:50:41)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Answer - the phone no longer routes from the exchange to 4, but to 19. Shifting the FTTC provision from 4 to 19 (FTTC cab) was for some reason not done.

That's kinda what I'd figured all along [smug] The OP said as much in his first post.

My guess is the D-side cable which originally fed from cab 4 has some major issues, and the cheapest option to fix these is to reroute via cab 19. (maybe a major road crossing on the original route meaning huge costs to replace cable)

In doing this Openreach have still got an FTTC port provisioned for this line in cab 4 ..... records clearly haven't been updated, and the chances of the FTTC being made live on cab 19 to clear this issue as a fault seem slim to none.

I stick with my original diagnosis. Cease both existing line and FTTC, then have reprovided ......

On the plus side, once complete, the OP is going to have much faster FTTC speeds !

Yes, if it works! Theres always the possibility that the cabling path already used will be used again, but it is certainly an option to be explored if and when I have exhausted the TT channels. I will push with them still until they say they are at a stalemate, at least then I can request a deadlock letter, and escalate the complaint thought the ADR scheme and onto the Communications Ombudsman Service which TT have signed up to. That will be at the same time as a complaint being channelled into Openreach and possibly up the food chain in BT as well.
I think a structured approach may be best, although may string thing out for a while yet.

It sounds like you have more stamina than I, by the sounds of it, I might have given up on TT by this stage.
Although the "problematic" cable route may be re-used, I find it highly unlikely a fttc engineer will connect a new provisioned line to the "incorrect" cabinet.
On that note, make sure you order a 76Mbps FTTC service which requires an engineer visit!

You certainly seem to be between a rock and a hard place.

Whilst your problem should be dealt with by TT but they have failed, before you either cancel and re-order, or order a new line then cancel, why not try contacting the CEO of Openreach.

I know that you have no contract with OR, but nothing to loose.

His email is [email protected]

Keep your email concise and explain the problem as you have done in your posts here and hopefully you will get a result.

Good luck.

Cheers!

Edit: ^ that is the sort of Email address I was thinking of in my previous post. My opinion is: Do that.

What I wrote, pre-edit:

If you're comfortable with the financial side of things, I suppose you could take both routes - order a new 80/20 service right now, AND don't give up on the existing problem. I wouldn't do it, but if you've got the money and patience, then maybe it couldn't do any harm? Also, the non-ceasing of your TT line would ensure that the "Frankenstein line" wouldn't physically be touched (i.e., used as your new line). So then once you have a new, working FTTC service you can decide exactly what to do with the horrible existing mess.

I want a photo of the 6 lines into your house, from the outside, if you go for that, though

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-Jan-15 22:26:41)

Looking at this more closely highlights just how rubbish fttc is and potentially how much of a waste of money the broadband improvement project is.
There are really not many houses which will benefit from this cabinet 19, because of the rural spread of houses, literally 2 digits difference further down your road are barely estimating 18Mbps from the new cabinet.

you fibre cabinet will still be off cab 4 there is no ability to move from one cabinet to another

The broadband improvement project in Northern Ireland involves extending the current coverage by installing additional cabinets at locations to fill in the gaps in coverage.
By design this should have brought the op's line onto the new cabinet.

I would place bets on cabinet 19 being a combo pcp/dslam.

In reply to a post by gazzyk1ns:

Edit: ^ that is the sort of Email address I was thinking of in my previous post. My opinion is: Do that.

What I wrote, pre-edit:

If you're comfortable with the financial side of things, I suppose you could take both routes - order a new 80/20 service right now, AND don't give up on the existing problem. I wouldn't do it, but if you've got the money and patience, then maybe it couldn't do any harm? Also, the non-ceasing of your TT line would ensure that the "Frankenstein line" wouldn't physically be touched (i.e., used as your new line). So then once you have a new, working FTTC service you can decide exactly what to do with the horrible existing mess.

I want a photo of the 6 lines into your house, from the outside, if you go for that, though

Was thinking about that last night myself. Ill just tell BTOR Im setting up my own call centre at home!
Your thoughts above have crossed my mind, and Flipdee pmed me a way to do it that wouldn't cost a lot.
I think I might go ahead and order a brand new line from a new provider and keep the talk talk connection as it is for now.
If all goes well, this will connect correctly to cab 19 and I will see an FTTC facility available to me to allow me to then order a fit for purpose fibre install. THEN Talktalk can be cancelled.

Does anyone think this new connection wouldn't work, or is the consensus that it is likely too? I just have a fear that the new line works, but this cab 4 muddle still affects things.

Do you have a single drop wire into your house or multiple ?

In reply to a post by Fastman2:

you fibre cabinet will still be off cab 4 there is no ability to move from one cabinet to another

Can you elaborate? This seems to fly in the face of plenty of other posts. Surely the whole point of these new cabinets is moving existing customer lines to the new cabs for FTTC if the new cab is closer to the customer?

Apologies if i'm mistaken but as I see it I believe the cable from the DP is underground.

I believe what Fastman2 is saying is under normal circumstances you just can't get moved from one cabinet to another, this is normally a copper re-arrangement which would cost a substantial amount of money if you had instigated it yourself.
Edit: I'm not sure about the rest of the UK but Northern Ireland's additional cabinets basically extend FTTC coverage beyond what the existing deployment can provide, there obviously will be overlap from original deployment (usually based around the PCP - passive connection point which the smaller BT green cabinet paired with a larger powered "Fibre Twin") and in Northern Ireland instead of installing a new PCP closer the the disadvantaged properties they are using combo cabinets which fulfill both roles.

Edited by deleted (Thu 22-Jan-15 11:33:13)

In reply to a post by flipdee:

Looking at this more closely highlights just how rubbish fttc is and potentially how much of a waste of money the broadband improvement project is.
There are really not many houses which will benefit from this cabinet 19, because of the rural spread of houses, literally 2 digits difference further down your road are barely estimating 18Mbps from the new cabinet.

Hard to know Flipdee. I was getting a rock solid 15mbps from cab 4 for years, and I am at least 1.5 miles away from it. They have activated a right few around here recently. The other cabinet that went live is near the railway bridge at Glenavy, and it is less than a mile from cab 19 so they seem to be branching out in the area at maybe 1 mile intervals where there are houses?
A half mile circumference from cab 19 would encompass a lot of properties.

In reply to a post by Taras:

Do you have a single drop wire into your house or multiple ?

One of the recent BTOR engineers told me I had 5 wires coming into or available to me. One is knackered (because he was there in the first place due to my phone line failing), two are used for my current private and business lines, which leaves 2 free.
They are underground, coming from a BT box sunk in the neighbours garden

If original poster is still here and reading then email me [email protected] will need the full address and the telephone numbers (less useful as is TalkTalk I believe, but can be helpful) and will pursue with Openreach.

Projects are doing various bits of copper re-arrangement and very likely a large ISP will not understand the nuances this creates and it can take time for databases to reflect the reality on the ground and vice versa.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

If original poster is still here and reading then email me [email protected] will need the full address and the telephone numbers (less useful as is TalkTalk I believe, but can be helpful) and will pursue with Openreach.

Projects are doing various bits of copper re-arrangement and very likely a large ISP will not understand the nuances this creates and it can take time for databases to reflect the reality on the ground and vice versa.

Thanks Andrew I appreciate that. I will send details now.

how did you manage to get your line moved, as this is uncommon with openreach.

It seems to be happening as standard...

Missing from the earliest posts is the fact that this is in NI, and part of their broadband improvement project, which is really a second phase of subsidised FTTC deployment.

Demographics in NI makes for a higher proportion of rural properties, and a higher proportion of longer lines... so this second phase has to support properties that turned out to be too far from the original cabs done in the first phase.

The solution seems to be a second layer of FTTC cabinets, but installed as an "all-in-one" combined PCP and DSLAM (although maybe better termed "combined SCP and DSLAM").

I guess it is similar to the FTTRN node we have heard about over here.

ok thanks

In some ways it makes sense as it increases superfast bb availability and yet not fully FTTRN which would be at a further stage.. I suspect other areas will ge the same treatment.

I suspect where i am, they will end up with an onsie as it will solve quite a few problems despite having a cab enabled (in the wrong place).

I think the main problem, for small deployments at the outer fringes of existing PCPs, is the provision of power.

If each new box, whether an all-in-one, or an FTTRN node, needs a separate power supply, then the provisioning cost for power will make things less economic.

It'll be interesting to see how many lines end up being supported by these new nodes in the NI project.

i think the cost vs number of installs on that cab will be interesting but i doubt that will ever come out publicly.

Hopefully there will be some take up statistics at some point, however the cost of this cabinet alone, i dread to think just how much it's cost the Northern Irish government (who have no money at the best of times.)

Edited by deleted (Fri 23-Jan-15 20:47:27)

the cabs are cheap to stand and install, its the cabling both copper and fibre

I take it they are less than 45k per cab? Yeah, i''d say the civil works is always the killer.
Any confirmation on capacity of the onesie cabs?

Any confirmation on capacity of the onesie cabs?

I think it is 96.

Physical metal box with its electronics current accepted ball park estimates are £5 to £10k each.

The cost is really in the labour of installing, hooking up power, fixing blocked duct so fibre tubing can be installed. Connecting the cabinet to the existing copper cabinet, Blowing the fibre itself and the time to fuse the runs of fibre together.

So the figures of £30k, 45k and a max of 100k tend to refer to the full suite of costs, e.g. a cabinet that needs the fibre running 12km is going cost more than one that only needs a few 100 metres.

Quite alot of those costs won't come down with Fibre to the kerb/dp

It looks like this cabinet could be capable of serving around 180 properties (subject to capacity of course)

Talk talk still faffing about.

5 weeks now from this happened. 4 weeks from it was reported. I got a call from TT "fault management" dept at 12pm. Asked if the problem was sorted yet!!!!! They must be sitting with their fingers crossed or waiting for a car to reverse in to the cabinet to maybe kickstart the connection, because they sure as hell can't tell me what action is in hand that makes them thin the issue might be resolved.
Laughable, if it wasn't so serious. This is having a huge impact on me. Working from home I rely on a decent broadband link. I cannot even keep my company laptop locked in to the company servers as I have to run a secure link over the broadband and it keeps disconnecting, only from this issue started, and likely because the connection is so feeble.

I'm sorry to hear that your still suffering from the Talk Talk Brick Wall department, as Andrew pointed out, perhaps wouldn't be much different with any of the other "big isp's".

Have you had any chinks of light from the other avenues?

Cheers,
flipdee

Not yet Flipdee.

I have a course of escalation and action that I have set myself. From an affordability issue, I want to exhaust all avenues with TT first.
Then I will look at some of the other options we discussed.

Andrew from on here also indicated he might be able to pursue with Openreach for me, so may be some chink of light from that avenue.

Yeah,that's totally understandable.
Sounds good. Good luck with TT.
Fingers crossed someone can give things a magic nudge in the right direction.
I suspect at least one of your neighbours is in the same boat (if they had fibre before the change that is).

Edited by deleted (Mon 26-Jan-15 13:54:39)

Just got an email from the CEO's office as apparently the complaint has been escalated to there.
The case has been assigned to a "manager" in the CEO's office, and I am to get a call over the next few days.
I have been given a name and a direct phone number, so maybe I will see some movement. I have been kicking up merry hell over what will be a 6 week period of navel gazing by TT.

On the other hand, it shows that TT are really lost with this one, which indicates the total lack of understanding between a major service provider and Openreach, if there isn't some line of communication to address this or any other problematic issue.

Just as long as this "manager" doesn't come on and start telling me to unplug my router for 5 minutes etc!!!

Nightmare, well the CEO"s office are usually a fairly good route, hell, if they can't sort it, WHO CAN?

They've rang twice now on consecutive days now. Having allowed me to vent my anger in no uncertain words, I then listened to what he had to say.
They are leasing directly with OR. They are attempting to get the fibre from cab 19 by an unconventional route (can't remember the detail now) but it involved downgrading my connection to ADSL, which was done today. On Feb 10th, they are to do some work on the cabinet, and the following day setting up a full fibre connection from cab 19.

Poorly explained I know, but thats the gist of it. The manager assigned to me seems to have done a bit of work on it, he was able to tell me line tests show I am12km from the box!!, so as he agreed, its been a monumental b@@@sup!
Ill let them do their stuff for the next week or two, though Im not getting my hopes up. Then I will be demanding some form of redress for this whole sorry saga.

Well, here we are again. A further 6 weeks on to reach yet another milestone.

The Chief Executives Office have also proven to be as much use as a chocolate tea pot.
They have been "personally" dealing with this since January.
I was assigned a manager who kept in touch, but usually just for the sake of keeping in touch, with little progress week on week.

First, they advised cancelling the Fibre package and downgrading to ADSL. This would allow them to "reinstigate" the steps necessary to get full Fibre service from Cab19.
TBH, at this point, I suspected they were actually moving to slowly manage me and my issue out the door.
I agreed, and an engineer came out over a month ago. I managed to catch him up at the cabinet, and once again had a lengthy chat. He really just rolled his eyes at the mess, but told me "off the record" that this is what actually happened:

I had full service for phone and 15mb fibre at Cab 4.
Several new FTTC cabs had been rolled out in the general area, with Cab19 nearest to me.
When Cab19 went live, BTOR moved my phone service to it, BUT because I already had fibre at Cab 4, they left my connection at Cab4!! He confirmed that actual work had been done on my cabling outside the box via a manhole cover and my connection was "patched" in some way. I am presuming BTOR did not anticipate that I would lose Fibre completely with their action, but I am exasperated that even via the Talktalk Chief Executives office, they refuse to act on their mistake.
Anyway, last week I was told BT had to amend their records to allow progress to be made. They were not "obliged" to do this, but TT would ask apparently.
I got a call from the CEO office 3 days ago to confirm if I wanted to go ahead with a fibre switch again. When he went to start the process, the line went quiet, then "Oh, let me get back to you on this there seems to be a problem"\I then got a curt call just this morning saying they cannot help me.
I asked again, what justification is being given not only for what has happened re the service I should have been connected to, but why I have ultimately ended up having a fully working 15mbsec Fibre service that I had for years suddenly stopped. I was not given a credible answer.
BTOR are not prepared to do anything and TT cannot action anything else.
They offered 4 months fibre charges as a refund "in full and final settlement"
I have told them to stick it, and I am in the process of writing to the Ombudsman.
An absolute disgrace, and tbh I would find the whole shambles hard to believe if it was someone else telling the story to me.

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-Mar-15 11:41:00)

Good luck with the ombudsman. I've never had to do it for telecoms purposes, but although it took absolutely ages, I eventually got a result (compensation in that case) after Npower seriously messed up my billing and said that "Their system couldn't do anything about it". So, not the same ombudsman and obviously not the same issue, but the process did work eventually and whoever was refusing to sort it out for me (which is the similar part) at Npower was forced to do so by the ombudsman.

Very disappointing that it appears OR simply can't be bothered with you, after messing things up themselves. It might be quite a rare problem but I'm sure it's not unique, and it's exactly the sort of screw-up they claim to be actively interested in avoiding and/or fixing if you read their "love our network" <vomits> -type articles in FEN and press releases.

Edited by deleted (Thu 12-Mar-15 15:06:21)

What a nightmare.
Maybe the only chance you have is to get the press and/or TV programmes like Watchdog involved to embarrass Openreach into sorting things out although it is a complicated story to "sell" to the press/TV . A bit of BT Openreach bashing might be just the sort of thing that some consumer programme would like though.

Edited by Jax2 (Thu 12-Mar-15 15:50:21)

Yes, the term Nightmare would just about cover it.
Its so frustrating because I know it can be fixed, they just won't do it, and are hiding behind the fact that they don't speak to the public directly which makes it hugely frustrating.
Talktalk have been lamentable throughout this, but ultimately I do lay the blame at Openreach. I have it from an engineer that they left my fibre connection at the old box willingly, even doing a packing job of some sort after moving my phoneline to the new cab 19. I cannot accept they would not know the consequences of this. They are bound to have known the actual path my broadband signal took would artificially almost double and my speed would suffer.
I have never ever heard of an infrastructural improvement scheme actually making the connection worse. They cannot claim lack of knowledge because TT have told them. I am presuming because I have a connection of sorts, their attitude is stuff him. Not being able to direct this to Openreach is an absolute scandal.
I am hoping the Ombudsman will address this. I am aware that this can take weeks or even months, but I have sent them a lengthy communication, and if they don't fall asleep reading it, I would expect them to be all over this. I am not after compensation, just a simple connection to a [censored] box only feet from my door!
Next step then will be ordering a brand new line from another telecom provider, and hoping that a new connection from scratch will provide phone and fibre from my new cab. In my mind this should work, but who knows with this lot??

It would drive me nuts.
Good luck, hope it eventually works out.

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

I have never ever heard of an infrastructural improvement scheme actually making the connection worse.

With you saying this, it made me think...

Have you tried getting in touch with the NI Improvement Project directly?

They'd probably love to discover that this kind of problem has been caused by the project - even if just to reduce the risk in future - and they'd probably know the right contacts to help get it fixed. You'd think they'd be dealing with Openreach directly.

I'm not sure who is actually in charge or funding the works. But it might be another avenue.

I got a call today from the TT CEOs office again. Even though they have said they can't/won't do any more, I thought this might be them back with some hope.

No. They were ringing to say they won't issue a deadlock letter, as in a nutshell, "its not their fault, its BTOR"
Pathetic. Talk about trying to cover your backside. I reminded them that my contract was with Talktalk, and letter or no letter, I was taking the case to the Ombusman, I then hung up. I have drafted lengthy letters to the Ombudsman as well as those high up in OR. Lets see what the replies are then.

Well, its going from bad to worse, and would welcome input and ideas from anywhere at this stage.

I ordered a brand new line install from the Post Office today. (the problem talk talk line is still active).
Engineer confirmed is was connected to the new cabinet 19 all ok as far as that goes. Engineer said when he signed off job it should be updated on the BT dsl checker within a few hours.

Well, just went and checked and I was gutted to see it showing a max connection of 1mb. So this brand new connection is still not allowing the correct fibre speeds to my door.
To say I am gutted is an understatement. I really thought this would work.
To make matters worse, I sent of a lengthy complaint re talk talk and OR to the Ombudsman. Coincidentally, I got a call from the Ombudsmans office today, saying the gist of my complaint was due to an OR issue rather than TT and as such could not take up the case!!
They gave me an OR complaint phone number, but this is useless as a recorded message says contact your provider in the case of a problem!

Where do I go from here, I am exasperated!
Openreach will not do what is needed
Talk talk say they cannot get Openreach to act and are absolving themselves of any blame.
The Ombudsman says this is an Openreach problem and won't help me because they have no jurisdiction with OR
A new line connection doesn't work
and Openreach cannot be contacted!

I am rapidly running out of options but I am truly baffled now from a technical standpoint, of why this new connection is not showing that I can pick up a full fat 80/20 fibre connection from this new box. The current TT connection MUST be having some bearing on this. HELP!

Edited by deleted (Mon 23-Mar-15 18:09:45)

As the line has only been connected today it may not yet have updated the info required by the availability database

In reply to a post by Pauli1:

I ordered a brand new line install from the Post Office today. (the problem talk talk line is still active).
Engineer confirmed is was connected to the new cabinet 19 all ok as far as that goes. Engineer said when he signed off job it should be updated on the BT del checker.

Well, just went and checked and I was gutted to see it showing a max connection of 1mb. So this brand new connection is still not allowing the correct fibre speeds to my door.

The checker takes a couple of days to update - so if it was only installed today, leave it a while and see if it changes.

is it likely to change?

I presumed once it had updated, and was readable from the dsl checker it would reflect the true situation. This is what it is showing from todays install.
Is it possible it could move from this over a few days?

[IMG]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh242/Pauli363/SH...[/IMG]

Edited by deleted (Mon 23-Mar-15 18:28:28)

The database isn't updated instantaneously after installation of a line, it takes some time for the data to find it's way through the various systems - usually a day or two - so it's possible it may change.

Appreciate it's frustrating after all the issues, but give it a couple of days before losing all hope.

Don't despair, it does take some time to update. Quite possibly more than just one day - in fact I'm surprised you can get your phone number through the system already. I've had times when the records for phone number & address go through on different days.

And... even if it has problems, you have another ISP to complain to. This one should be easier

If the number given to you by the ombudsman doesn't answer, go back to the ombudsman to get another route.

Oh. And the whole case should go to either Ofcom or the directors of the BT group, as an example of why the Openreach separation is not working well for end-users. Or both. In fact, didn't the new boss for Openreach say they needed to act more for the needs of end users in a speech when he took on the job? Perhaps an email in his direction is another option.

thanks. I have no lack of energy to get this sorted. Apart from really needing a decent connection as I work from home, it is really frustrating that a terrific connection is available on my doorstep but for Openreach's incompetence and downright stupidity in doing what they did, and now their complacency and obstinacy over putting it right.
I am going to keep pushing by whatever means I can to have this sorted and even then, I am going to pursue Openreach until I get a reason as to why this has happened and why it was allowed to fester. Its not on.
How such an important body can shun any public accountability is a disgrace.
Fair enough if providers were able to act efficiently as an intermediary, but when OR frustrate them as well, then its time something was changed.
You would have thought the rollout of a fibre improvement scheme that actually resulted in a WORSE scenario for an end user would be a top priority, it seems not.

The new line at my daughter's flat showed as up to 1 Mbps for at least couple of days after the install despite the line being less that 1km and was syncing at 22 Mbps (ADSL2+).

1 Mbps seems to be the default speed shown for any new line.

Has gone from this yesterday

[IMG]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh242/Pauli363/SH...[/img]


to this today.

[IMG]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh242/Pauli363/Sc...[/IMG]


Hopefully this could be an indication that the dsl checker is still updating

Edited by deleted (Tue 24-Mar-15 08:54:27)

Well, you'll never believe it...


Sorted!!!!

As of this morning I am registering 80/20 from Cabinet 19!

To say I am ecstatic is an understatement. 6 months of pain to get here.

So after all that how did it happen? I contacted the stormtroopers at AAISP as a few had suggested, and within a week they had it addressed. I have been advised that it was a records issue and contact was made from AA to BTW who in turn contacted Openreach and got the thing sorted. I got an email this am, and by 11.am the DSL checker was showing a full 80/20 service from the new Cabinet 19. I had actually got to the point of snarling at that cabinet each day as I drove past it. A painful and cruel reminder of what I was missing with its big coloured "Fast Broadband now available" poster on front!!

So what can I say? A massive thank you to AAISP. I won't name the chap who helped but he is a superstar. I am now in the process of changing service to AA. They are a bit more expensive, but if this is the level of service provided, it will be money well spent.

Lesson learnt. Never give up. It seemed that I would never get this addressed, but if you escalate things methodically and work through your options you will get there. In the meantime, I have contacted the Ombudsman again re shambolic Talktalk, and I am not resting until they take action over the nightmare they put me through with this.

So hopefully in a few weeks Ill be all fibred up again at hitherto unseen speeds!

Many thanks to all who contributed to this thread. Your advice has been very helpful and I will keep coming back for hints and tips.

Good luck.

Congratulations. A well deserved result.

Well done.

The fact that AAISP got things sorted out pretty much proves that TT just didn't know what to do - even in the director-level team.

It'll be interesting to see if the Ombudsman actually gets involved, now there's irrefutable evidence.

I also wonder if you can make a useful report to Ofcom. Not necessarily as a complaint, but as a response to a consultation, so you can highlight the problems caused by Openreach not being accountable to end-users directly. There might not be an appropriate consultation going on right now, but there will be one day...

Signed up with AAISP and tomorrows the big day.
Switch on hopefully between 8am and 1pm. I'll be delighted if it all goes to plan which it should now.

Well,

Just a quick update to wind my yarn up with this thread.

The AAISP switch on went perfectly and I have since been enjoying speeds of up to 76mb/ 19mb from my 80/20 connection which is pretty good.
No issues at all so far and AA seen to be keeping things ticking along nicely.

BTW, in the intervening time, if you recall, I had sent a dossier to at least 4 places. One of these was to the head of Openreach and also to their high level complaints office.

Surprisingly I got a letter back from them last week apologising for the delay, and that they had looked in to this and rectified the fault.
Now, I imagine this was for the old line which I had already cancelled, because it was AA who got my new line sorted.
However, its worth noting for anyone who finds themselves stuck in a hole like I was for months, that a bit of perseverance can work wonders. So keep at it and don't give up!!

b*cat smiles and nods.

This is a great story for how, in the age of computers and automated orders, a database screwup can really bork things.

The only really acceptable answer from Openreach is that they've learnt they need to be receptive to direct contact from members of the public.

In the meantime, patience and advice on where to shake the tree really helps.