In reply to a post by burakkucat:

(1) tuning off and isolating all mains-powered electronics in the cupboard
(2) connecting a basic wired telephone to the NTE5A test socket
(3) performing a quiet line test

Done this morning. I even unplugged the 6 way from the wall. Plugged phone directly into master socket, with the front panel OFF (internal wiring removed from the equation) and the mains hum persists. There is occasionally a faint flutter of crackle on the quite line test too - I guess this will be causing the FEC errors that the modem is clocking all the time.

I think it's maybe time to open a fault case, a voice line fault as you suggest. I will have to go through A&A for this however, as the line managed under my account with them.

In reply to a post by mixt:

Done this morning. I even unplugged the 6 way from the wall. Plugged phone directly into master socket, with the front panel OFF (internal wiring removed from the equation) and the mains hum persists. There is occasionally a faint flutter of crackle on the quite line test too - I guess this will be causing the FEC errors that the modem is clocking all the time.

I think it's maybe time to open a fault case, a voice line fault as you suggest. I will have to go through A&A for this however, as the line managed under my account with them.

Right. So you've traced the origin of your poor broadband connection to the quality of the line / joints / etc at the OR side of your NTE5A.

Let A&A know of your voice line issues and they will quickly get OR on the job to resolve the problem. When the OR engineer arrives, just talk about the mains hum being detectable during a quiet line test via the NTE5A test socket.

Well this is just so convenient!

I opened a support ticket with A&A at the start of this week, and after speaking with A&A support, they arranged for a BT OpenReach engineer visit on Thursday next week (5th May).

I thought I would do some modem/line checks again this evening, purely out of curiosity. And I'm glad I did. ADSL is now syncing a whole 1 Mbit faster than it ever did before. I pick up the phone and there is now no mains hum, at all. In fact, it's probably the quietest line I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. No interference when touching the casing of any nearby unearthed appliances.

So in classic predictable BT style, someone has fixed the problem, they haven't told me they have fixed it, they haven't informed me or A&A that they were going to do this, so had I not done this check this evening, I would have been made to look like a complete idiot when the engineer shows up, plugs in his equipment and says to me 'what line fault? I can't hear anything' - at which point, they would also charge me 70 pounds for the privilege of the call out.

BT seriously [censored] me off. They pull this stunt ALL the time, even at an ISP I used to work at years ago back up north. Raise fault, fix it 10 minutes later, and bounce the fault back going 'what fault?'. Ass holes.

Now I have to request A&A to cancel the BT OpenReach engineer visit scheduled for Thursday, and lets hope they can, because if they can't, someone is going to be paying £70, and that sure isn't going to be me.

I wouldn't take it too personally dude.

If someone else in the area has had a similar problem and reported it (before you). An engineer may have investigated their fault, found (for example) a wet joint, which is common to your line and another 10, 20, 50, how ever many other lines. When the joint is dried and remade then your line, as well as the others, will be fixed also. Just a thought.

Did your SP tell you the results of the line test they ran?

The fact remains that even back in the days before aggressive charging was introduced, an amazing number of "no fault found" instances occurred, but the long-standing fault disappeared.

As it can now lead, as the poster pointed out, to a questionable charge, it is no longer a laughing matter.

If I were in your situation, I would advise my SP exactly what has happened and suggest that they should now cancel the OR engineering visit. As you are with A&A, and they are reputed to be "top class", there should be no problem.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The fact remains that even back in the days before aggressive charging was introduced, an amazing number of "no fault found" instances occurred, but the long-standing fault disappeared.

As it can now lead, as the poster pointed out, to a questionable charge, it is no longer a laughing matter.

"Aggressive charging" is bad enough, but manufacturing faults on a line (as I'm assuming is what is being implied here) so the company can benefit for a fault not found charge...

That is very serious, but I would suggest if you truly believe that to be the case, you do the responsible thing and report your suspicions to OFCOM instead of a forum?

You misread me polemonkey .

I didn't (mean to) imply faults have ever been "manufactured".

Just that even before broadband existed faults have been known to disappear once investigated.

This is common in all computer installations, never mind telecomms. No doubt in many other spheres of activity as well. The mere attachment of test equipment or running of diagnostic software can clear problems, especially if the disconnection of something else is involved.

In the past it was merely worthy of a wry chuckle. Now that it may lead to charges it is a concern.

Perhaps you could guarantee that if the OP takes no action that his now disappeared fault will not incur a charge for the engineer's visit should it take place?

Bearing in mind that BT systems seem not to pass on one engineer's report to the next investigating the same fault, the chances of the correction of a fault which possibly affected several lines being cured due to investigating one case thereby causing all other open similar faults in the area to be checked for continued relevance seem to be remote.

Oh right THAT'S what you meant! Sorry to misquote you (put words in your mouth!), my paranoid mind working overtime

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Perhaps you could guarantee that if the OP takes no action that his now disappeared fault will not incur a charge for the engineer's visit should it take place?

No, mixt's absolutely right to cancel. It's too risky letting an engineer come round because obviously the engineer won't find a fault (because it's now disappeared) and so his notes will reflect that no fault was found, potentially leading Openreach to charge the SP and then the SP may pass that charge onto mixt!

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Bearing in mind that BT systems seem not to pass on one engineer's report to the next investigating the same fault, the chances of the correction of a fault which possibly affected several lines being cured due to investigating one case thereby causing all other open similar faults in the area to be checked for continued relevance seem to be remote.

Kind of. Fault notes on the SAME fault do (should and normally do) get carried over to any further faults off the same directory number or fault reference. BUT multiple faults off, say, a common cable, joint or pole, don't often get linked together because the process would require too much investigative work on behalf of the fault help desk (or whoever issues faults to engineers). This is a shame because if the systems worked like this it would lead to better customer service, but that's another story...