BT Help needed - relocating my line to a new pole.

Hi, Hopefully someone can offer me a little advice with a BT problem I'm having !

I've recently moved house, giving up an NTL cable connection in the process, and now I'm trying to get ADSL broadband at my new home. After spending some four hours on the phone bouncing between Orange (my chosen ISP) and BT, I've got nowhere fast.

In short, my neighbours either side of me can get 6.5MB minimum ADSL, as we are all just 200 metres from the exchange. I can get nothing. Not according to Orange and ultimately BT via their ADSL checker page, as my line is "too far from the exchange" !!

Looking outside my new house I can see that my neighbours are connected to telegraph poles on our side of the road. I, on the other hand, am connected to a pole on the opposite side of the road, and what's more, I am the ONLY wire coming off that pole. This is certainly the cause of my ADSL woes.

I am trying to get BT to move my line to one of poles that my neighbours are connected to (one of which is actually physically nearer to me than the one I'm currently connected to !), but it's like trying to get blood out of a stone.

One chap at BT suggested I order an additional line, which (according to his screen) they could guarantee would support at least 6.5MB ADSL (i.e. it would be coming from one of the other poles), then transfer my number from the old line to the new one, then cancel the old line..... but this would cost me

First thing, do you have the phone line active and are paying line rental on it?

If not yet, then the checkers are very likely to return odd results, and once you take over the telephone number it can take a few days for the databases to update and cross reference your line with the actual copper line data for the physical line.

So in short, how long since you had the BT phone line made active?

>So in short, how long since you had the BT phone line made active?

The line was switched on on Friday 16th - so we're talking about 6 days now.

What's odd though, is that before we moved, I put the previous owners number into the Orange broadband checker page and not only did it say that broadband was available on the line, but that I could expect speeds of between 6.5 and 8 Meg !! We brought our number from our old NTL cable account, and that's all that's changed as far as I can see - I don't understand how one number can get broadband and another not when it's all using the same hardware - same line, same pole - unless they do something weird in the exchange when you bring a number over ?

What's that all about ?

Okay if the previous line number was OK then you should be fine, just order broadband from someone who will take your order and understands the issue that it is a new line.

It may well take longer for a ported number (the phrase for what you have done) to show up correctly in the database.

If your providers of choice, and you've mentioned Orange and BT Total still give you grief and you want to go with one of them email me [email protected] and I will endeavour to pass on your details and get someone to contact you to take it as a manual order. I'd need the telephone number, and the address

No need for pole changing or anything like that, just needs a bit of understanding from someone.

Thankyou very much for that. You have no idea what a relief it is to have someone actually trying to help after days of being put in queues for ages, only to get through to someone who just goes through a script and then says "computer says no", time after time... !!

Ironically, I got a phone call from Orange as I've just got a new contract phone with them. It was a PR call, explaining how my contract works etc., and the chap asked me if I wanted broadband.... So I explained the situation and he just said, "well, I'll just order the equipment for you anyway if you like". ....something I'd been trying to get Orange to do for days !!! So my plan now is to wait until the kit arrives from Orange, then see what kind of speed (if any) I get before considering any further course of action. Just out of curiousity, if I do get, say, only 512k or something tiny, can I push Orange to push BT to shift the line, without me having to cough up for a second line ?

Thanks again for your help - it really is very much appreciated !

Cheers,

Kev.

its very unlikely that the routing of the last bit of wire is the issue, see what the attenuation tells you when its running.

In reply to:

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.... One chap at BT suggested I order an additional line, which (according to his screen) they could guarantee would support at least 6.5MB ADSL.....

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Don't believe a word of it. BT sales will tell you anything to get a sale, even total lies.

In reply to:

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Just out of curiousity, if I do get, say, only 512k or something tiny, can I push Orange to push BT to shift the line,

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In short. no.

AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!

Excuse me - I needed to do that.

I rang Orange today to check that they are sending the kit to the correct address, as I haven't yet updated my mobile account details with my new house address.

Orange: "What Broadband order ?"
Me: "The one your chap took from me two days ago"
Orange: "There's no order on our system for you, what's your landline number ?"
Me: "01xxx xxxxxx"
Orange: "Your line doesn't support broadband, we can't help you"
Me: "%$%$$!!!!!!!!!! - I KNOW what the computer says - your colleage put in a manual order, because I KNOW the line can support broadband, the data on your screen is incorrect - please, just put a manual order in for me"
Orange: "Your line doesn't support broadband"

etc etc.....

Me: Hangs up in desperation and lights cigarette after having packed in since New Year's eve.

Andrew - I'll email you my details. You are my only hope !

An update:- After sending a complaint into BT, I get an email saying that there's no need to move my line to another pole as it will support "up to 8Mb" as it is.... and would I like to buy BT Total broadband ?

I pointed out to them that their own BT Wholesale ADSL Availability checker says "nope, can't have it", yet they're saying it can. They reply with a link to the "BT Total Broadband" checker page which, indeed, says I can have it, and, again, "would you like to buy BT Total broadband ?". Meantime, I get a reply from the previous owners of the house who confirm that they did have broadband here, from Tiscali, so at least I know I can get it without moving poles !

Back to BT....I point out to them that I wish to get my broadband from Orange as it's 1/4 of the price and also, that it could easily be misinterpreted that they are illegally trying to deny competitors my business by having false info on the BT Wholesale page that my line can't support it, yet at the same time trying to flog me their own product.

I've not received any response at all to that. Andrew here has very kindly contacted BT Openreach for me and asked for the Wholesale checker data to be corrected.
So.... it's waiting time again. I'm waiting to see if BT reply to my complaint, or Andrew's enquiry. If nothing comes of either - it's going to be a battle to find someone in Orange who can think outside the box and take a manual order for me.

Oh, save me from this dial-up hell !!!!! :-) I can't take it much longer !! :-)