Water covering the connectors underground, all fixed now. Need to wait for speeds to stabilise again :/

Engineer said he would reset the profile as he had to run another test later today. We had this same problem with our electricity where water flooded the aluminium conductors under ground, this causing major power issues blowing up TV's and washing machines. Luckily Western Power Distribution replaced with all new. Possibly related?

Let's see how we go....

Thanks all.

I've read that many people have had problems with these aluminium lines, aluminium was used in the early 80s due to expensive copper prices.

I've read that these type of lines always give slow speeds and if a problem in the past has been due to water then it is very likely to be a problem again (when it pours with rain).

Are these lines truly aluminium and not copper (seems odd)?

Does aluminium offer slower speeds and is it likely this problem will return?

Thanks all.

HeHe! You heard it first here :-

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Almost certainly at some point between the test socket (so possibly the connection from outside behind it, which is Openreach's responsibility) and the cabinet line card one wire of the pair has become detached. That gives exactly these symptoms.

Good to see in your follow-up posts it seems to be fixed .

Thanks for your previous help.

Speed is still low and I've received a text saying work has completed, how do I get my profile reset as the engineer clearly hasn't done it?

I think the engineer is new, he first came with another BTO engineer and until I corrected him, he thought 5up and 7down was good for fibre? :/

Pass . I don't know if it is supposed to be instant or at least very soon after he orders the reset, or whether it happens in the normal overnight adjustments.

If in a few days nothing has changed and ISP cannot get the DLM reset then prod me and see if a pester from my end will work.

Thanks Andrew, appreciate it. Sky have been quite good in the past and changing my profile on my previous ADSL2+ service. They were able to change the profile once I had played wuth the .snr on my 7800n, whether it is the same for Fibre I do not know.

Thanks...

Unfortunately it isn't.

The DLM on FTTC is Openreach, as it isn't "LLU" as such. It's an Openreach product, and Sky can only request one of three stability options at order time. I expect they can have it changed, but the day-to-day functioning is nothing they can affect.

On Sky ADSL2+ they have complete control of the line. All Openreach do is make sure the circuit between you and the Sky kit in the exchange works.

No, Openreach have never conducted any test prior to the engineers' visit. I doubt that this is a local anomaly, they probably just do not do that anywhere.

You are wholly wrong there, Openreach staff are measured on BYTTK (before you turn the key) tests are run prior to any faulting visit.

On the other hand ... " but have been told that they will not open a chamber to find it as they are then obliged to re-make every joint on every cable at that location. " Is awful to hear. It does make you wonder how come the engineer knew it was full of cack already ......

I hope no.18 is a genuine cove.

It was actually late 60 that the GPO started using aluminium as a cost saving exercise and probably used it exclusively for over 10 years.

They do generally give a lower speed because the electrical characteristics are significantly different to copper at high frequencies and things get worse it there is an ally section between copper sections because you can end up with an high resistance joint if water gets into it.

My line is 300m long and has a 120m section of Al cable that was used to replace a damaged section of cable back in 1976. Before it got hit by crosstalk it would only sync at 68-70 Mbps when an all copper cable would probably sync at the max speed. Now with crosstalk and issues with joints, it's down to slightly less than 54 Mbps.