No wonder my internet has been playing up.

Had a power outage this morning in our road.

Call the network and some guy was prodding the grass verge with a meter and found the fault a few feet from my phone connection pavement box.

Couple of hours later, diggers etc turn up to find the mains cable.

Found this...

https://thumbsnap.com/i/4NLy643V.jpg

https://thumbsnap.com/i/fgciueMZ.jpg


And yes, the big gap in the middle once had a lead sheathed three phase cable supplying the whole area, and the thin wire just above it?

Yep, the phone lines.

He is of the opinion that it has been breaking down for a few years, and after all the heavy rain we have had, has caused it to fail big time and was probably making the ground live, and causing huge interference on the phone lines, although line tests always came back quiet.

Anyway, power has just been restored and i have checked my line stats and so far, ZERO errors on crc, fecs & es.

Not gonna hold my breath though.

The phone lines look like they were buried just below surface level.
The digging of the trench has made the phone cable sag down towards the power cables.
It's unlikely they were buried that deep.

Phone lines run that close to power lines under every pavement in the country and behind the walls of millions of homes.

Still wouldn't want it to be my line though.

Edited by j0hn83 (Sun 11-Aug-19 16:18:08)

You may have missed the bit where the chap said it was probably making the ground live.

Anyway, whether it was that or not i don't know, but my line is performing a massive amount better since the repair.

In reply to a post by Alucidnation:

You may have missed the bit where the chap said it was probably making the ground live.

Anyway, whether it was that or not i don't know, but my line is performing a massive amount better since the repair.

Could have been old aluminium they replaced, even a small run of Aluminium will cause major interference/speed decrease.

In reply to a post by Alucidnation:

You may have missed the bit where the chap said it was probably making the ground live.

Anyway, whether it was that or not i don't know, but my line is performing a massive amount better since the repair.

EMI electromagnetic interference from the 650v power cable if close enough would cause problems

Duh, they have done nothing to the telephone line. They have fixed a faulty mains cable that was likely causing a lot of interference.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

Duh, they have done nothing to the telephone line. They have fixed a faulty mains cable that was likely causing a lot of interference.

Congratulations on pointing out my mistake. Foolishly I misread the post and thought the stretch of phone line had been replaced.

Thank the lord we have heroes with time on their hands like you to patrol forums, I hope you also correct everyone's grammar.

Edited by dave2150 (Thu 15-Aug-19 20:38:12)

In reply to a post by dave2150:

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

Duh, they have done nothing to the telephone line. They have fixed a faulty mains cable that was likely causing a lot of interference.

Congratulations on pointing out my mistake. Foolishly I misread the post and thought the stretch of phone line had been replaced.

Thank the lord we have heroes with time on their hands like you to patrol forums, I hope you also correct everyone's grammar.

Spot on and thanks for bringing a smile to my face.

Big market for Specsavers and Nivea cream here