New Line Installed - Spliced - Effect on Latency & Jitter?

Hi all,

(Apologies for the long first post!)

After some degradation to my Virgin Media service, mainly due to bad latency noticeable when loading up webpages (to the point where it didn't even feel like a 100mb/s service) and in gaming (diagnosed via the TB BBQM, still present after a Virgin cable swap, now assuming to be Intel Puma 6 issues) I have decided to jump ship to BT Infinity.

My property didn't have an existing line so an engineer was booked and the job completed on Friday.

When the engineer arrived he assessed the current setup, and said he would run the new line to my existing brown Virgin box on the outside of the house, splice the BT line into the existing Virgin phone line (not the Virgin cable of course), and change the faceplate inside the house. I politely requested that I would prefer him run the new BT line straight from the cabinet into the property because: (a) to me that just makes sense to do the job 'properly' (not that I said it like that to the engineer), (b) as it was a new line, I am very close to the cabinet and due to me playing online games I would like a better ping as possible, so I wanted as little failure points as possible and (c) because I had never used a phone via that line since I'd lived in the house and it wasn't even wired up inside the box/faceplate inside the house anyway - just a loose wire coiled up ready to be connected. To keep my other half happy I did say lets just pull the Virgin phone line out and we could just use the existing hole in the wall to run the new line in through and also then use then existing screw holes for the new BT Master socket/backplate so no drilling required anywhere, keeping everyone happy.

At some point this got last in translation and the engineer cut the line at the brown Virgin box outside the house, a mere foot or 2 away from the holes in the wall. I did pull the existing Virgin phone line out so it was at least finished off with new BT cable. The 'jelly crimp' style connectors were used to splice to 2 lines, however they were just left loose inside the (very ill-fitting and definitely not weather-proof) brown Virgin box, not even in a gel splice enclosure.

My question is, should the engineer of even been touching the Virgin line in the first place (not that I'm bothered about the loss of a Virgin phone line I never used, but rather the overall cut-corners/whichever way is quickest & easiest approach to the job), should the splice of been left exposed as it was, and does splicing a connection have any affect on the latency/jitter on a line?

(For those wondering, from initial tests I'm getting around 49-51mb/s down on the 52mb/s package, 10-11mb/s up - so happy with speed though have had some low's around 10mb/s down. Ping around 18ms which I know isn't bad at all (probably far better than most!), but some high spikes on the monitor which seem to have settled down a bit
but due to the way the job was left and my very close proximity to the cabinet I can't help but feel that it could be better in perfect circumstances! Or am I just being moany?)

BBQM for those interested.

Regards,

Andy

In short, no, this is poor workmanship by the installer/sharp practice.

Ring whoever you ordered the line through and say that the installer has cut off your existing Virgin service without your permission, and get them to come and run a new line, unbroken from the feed to your NTE which should be sited in an agreed location.

Slipshod git, this kinda stuff winds me up a treat.

Was it done by an actual Openreach engineer or a contractor? (Such as Kelly Communications)

Sounds like the work of a lazy contractor, but I could be wrong.

Edited by deleted (Mon 16-Oct-17 14:44:02)

I'm glad you agree. I am a bit OCD about things but as I was writing the post was starting to think I was just being an grumpy a*se about the situation!

BINGO! We have a winner. Kelly Comms indeed...

Didn't want to say in the original post as didn't want to make blanket assumptions.

In all fairness the lad did say he was new, but it took 3-3 1/2 hours to run a line from the cabinet/post across the street, literally across the street and a couple houses down and then connect my service up.

Definitely without a doubt get into contact with your ISP and request for this to be put right, specifically by an actual Openreach engineer.

I'm sure not all Kelly Comms engineers are bad but I've heard more horror stories with them than successful ones.

The Openreach engineer that comes out should send a Candid report in for poor workmanship. The Kelly�s installer will then have his £25 taken off him.

.....Except the Candid system is such a PITA to use, very few bother.

Spot on mate.

Thanks to all who responded! While I guess you should always anyway, it gave me confidence to report it as a fault/poor installation.

Before seeing some of the later messages, I decided to reply to a text I received earlier today from Kelly Comms asking how the install went. I was unsure if to take this route with them directly or go via BT (which tbh, seemed like a hassle). Within the hour or so I had a call back from a very helpful customer service rep. I explained all as above, she completely understood and after a quick chat with a tech on her team had decided to escalate my issue so I should be receiving a call within the next day or so to rearrange an engineer visit.

I am still slightly hesitant of taking this route as she was unable to confirm that the line would definitely be replaced, however she did agree that as it's a new line for a new service, it shouldn't be spliced into existing services, especially VM's. I did explain that as far as I was concerned I wouldn't consider the issue resolved unless I did get a complete new line, unbroken from cabinet to faceplate otherwise I would have to raise the issue with BT, though she did reassure me that as they had installed the line they would take care of me untill it is sorted as a customer.

So fingers crossed! I'll update with any progress.

Thanks again and regards,

Andy