Slow high error rate VDSL. no spare pairs

So after many many years of regular issues, looks like the armored cable which serves about 20 properties (about 3km from the cabinet) has no spare pairs and currently I have a line with high packet loss.

What will Openreach do will they replace the whole 1km of armored cable, lay an additional armored cable, put up poles, create the ducts ... what do you think?

Or they will dig it up, unravel the wires, crimp the fault and place it all back into the ground again?

Order a new line. BT will have to pay you compensation because they can not provide a service so long as no one else cancels. BT are aware of a scam where people order multiple lines for say an office when they know BT have no spare capacity.

False

The existing USO requirements only apply to the first line at a property.

What compensation do you think would be due? Other than refunding what you had already paid to get a service installed.

My bet is that at 3km VDSL2 is considered to be past expectations and thus they'll just mark the line as red. Thus you'll be waiting for USO solutions in a year or so and that is probably EE 4G

In reply to a post by godsell4:

So after many many years of regular issues, looks like the armored cable which serves about 20 properties (about 3km from the cabinet) has no spare pairs and currently I have a line with high packet loss.

What will Openreach do will they replace the whole 1km of armored cable, lay an additional armored cable, put up poles, create the ducts ... what do you think?

Or they will dig it up, unravel the wires, crimp the fault and place it all back into the ground again?

I think it will depend on if the actual copper line pair (not the broadband) fails a line test.

Your signature mentions Gigaclear, do you have or can you order service from them ?

500Kohm HR fault detected at the moment, so they have to do something, and we have had +4Mb for many years, so they can not claim the line is too long for VDSL.

Gigaclear is not an option yet, they are 3 months behind schedule and I think at the current rate likely another 3 months from starting the build in this area proper.

>>500Kohm HR fault detected at the moment

This makes no sense. If it's 500Kohm high resistance A-B you won't have a dial tone. If it is 500Kohm A/B-Earth, it's a low resistance fault innit

Edited by deleted (Wed 20-Mar-19 21:12:14)

+1

There is no way Openreach will replace a kilometre of armoured ....

There must be a few joints en route at least three at a guess, maybe more. So it can be narrowed down.

Maybe the OP hasn't checked for a dial-tone .

I am quoting the notes from the OR engineer, Yep I have a dial tone. The OR engineer has checked the line at each joint from the house until they found the fault. So they know which piece of line is at fault and that is in the buried armored cable.

Not listed on the copy of the notes I see, but I assume a TDR test shows how far along that piece of line the fault is too.

Yes I am pretty certain they will not replace the cable and will dig it up, repair it and put it back in the ground again.

In reply to a post by godsell4:

The OR engineer has checked the line at each joint from the house until they found the fault. So they know which piece of line is at fault and that is in the buried armored cable.

Not listed on the copy of the notes I see, but I assume a TDR test shows how far along that piece of line the fault is too.

Yes I am pretty certain they will not replace the cable and will dig it up, repair it and put it back in the ground again.

They will locate where the fault is on the faulty section of cable, and repair it.

If there is damage for say 10 or 20 meters on that section, then they will replace the faulty section and rebury the cable. There is no reason for them to replace an entire length of cable, when 90% or more of it is perfectly fine.

They can and will test the cable once it is dug up to ensure the faults have gone.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

False

The existing USO requirements only apply to the first line at a property.

What compensation do you think would be due? Other than refunding what you had already paid to get a service installed.

£5 per day according to. I did get a call from the BT fraud department when they did not provide a phone line for my mother's room in a nursing home. Unfortunately I had to cancel the order as my mother left the nursing home so the compensation was not paid.

That £5 is for when the provider has promised to install on a specific date but doesn't - if they don't promise a date because they can't/won't deliver then there wouldn't be any compensation.

In reply to a post by godsell4:

The OR engineer has checked the line at each joint from the house until they found the fault. So they know which piece of line is at fault and that is in the buried armored cable.

Zarjaz makes a good point about the 1km of armoured being made up of multiple pieces of armoured jointed together.
Normally those joints would most likely be where the issue is unless someone has gone through the cable with a digger but then you would expect more than 1 property being affected.

In reply to a post by ian72:

That £5 is for when the provider has promised to install on a specific date but doesn't - if they don't promise a date because they can't/won't deliver then there wouldn't be any compensation.

Indeed, I do wonder what happens if the provider initially says yes then finds the work is to expensive and wants to cancel.

Openreach say the line is fixed, but I now sync at less than 1Mb and that is below the 'handback threshold'

What happens next when I tell PlusNet this is not good enough.

In reply to a post by godsell4:

Openreach say the line is fixed, but I now sync at less than 1Mb and that is below the 'handback threshold'

What happens next when I tell PlusNet this is not good enough.

This is not good, have they fixed the line or just doing a runner? this will give you a way out of your contract with plusnet but your line may be red flagged which would then prevent other ISP's supplying FTTC to you.

After getting the modem to train 5 times I have got to 4Mb, a few time it connected at less than 500kb/s, once at 1.1Mb and then at 4Mb.

The fact there is such a wide range in sync speeds tells us there is a problem. I have to run dslstats later and start seeing what the CRC and FEC rates are increasing at.

At this time, Openreach say the line is fixed, and PN say the line show all is good. Yeah, but the PN line test have always shown all is good.

I got home form work and it was dark so I have not been down into the village to see if they have actually dug up the cable or have put me on the best of the worse pairs available. I suspect the latter.

In reply to a post by godsell4:

Gigaclear is not an option yet, they are 3 months behind schedule and I think at the current rate likely another 3 months from starting the build in this area proper.

If that comes it will be much better IME. No point in keep checking your router to find out what the connection speed is.