No pairs available?

Openreach engineer told me there was no pairs left and that he can't do anything, what does this mean? How long does it take normally to get sorted?

It will go to an Openreach network planning department to look into. May need to divert pairs from elsewhere or new cable maybe required. Could be days/weeks/months

In reply to a post by Ribble:

It will go to an Openreach network planning department to look into. May need to divert pairs from elsewhere or new cable maybe required. Could be days/weeks/months

BT have said they have agreed to do the work whatever that is, so far its been 8 weeks since I placed my order, I already have a phone line installed at the address, next "update" to get a futher update is on the 30th

In reply to a post by ashmo:

BT have said they have agreed to do the work whatever that is, so far its been 8 weeks since I placed my order, I already have a phone line installed at the address, next "update" to get a futher update is on the 30th

NO. As you have already been advised - you have a copper wire from house to pole. You do NOT have a phone line.

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by ashmo:

BT have said they have agreed to do the work whatever that is, so far its been 8 weeks since I placed my order, I already have a phone line installed at the address, next "update" to get a futher update is on the 30th

NO. As you have already been advised - you have a copper wire from house to pole. You do NOT have a phone line.

So someone stole the rest from the pole to the cabinet? Last person at the address had a working service.

When that line was stopped/ceased it became spare. Part of the line has probably been used to provide service for someone else.
The physical lines belong to Openreach, it doesn't belong to a particular address , a connection is merely rented for the duration of service.

And that may well have been allocated to provide service to someone else who had a fault or had been waiting for service.

Just to expand on what others have said there are parts of the network from house to exchange which are not a 1:1 cable provision. Your cable probably connects back to the cabinet. There will be lines from houses back to the cabinet that are no longer in use - therefore no point in them being connected from the cabinet to the exchange.

What has happened now is that the cables further back in the network are all in use - the cable that was once used for your property will now be used by someone else's. It just happens that now they have run out of pairs in that part of the network and so may well need to install some more cables from that point backwards.

There is not, in most cases, a single cable that runs from a property to the exchange.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Just to expand on what others have said there are parts of the network from house to exchange which are not a 1:1 cable provision. Your cable probably connects back to the cabinet. There will be lines from houses back to the cabinet that are no longer in use - therefore no point in them being connected from the cabinet to the exchange.

What has happened now is that the cables further back in the network are all in use - the cable that was once used for your property will now be used by someone else's. It just happens that now they have run out of pairs in that part of the network and so may well need to install some more cables from that point backwards.

There is not, in most cases, a single cable that runs from a property to the exchange.

Ok so what would normally happen run a new cable from the cab to the pole?

No, the cable from cab to pole is likely still there (presuming you can physically see it). It is the cabling deeper in the network that is "shared" and so it is likely that somewhere from the cab back to the exchange needs a new cable installed.