Requesting engineer installation for new broadband

Hi,

Two years ago I put my mum on a satellite broadband service in rural Devon as her DSL service was 512k, and lives in a small village miles from the nearest exchange. I'm reversing the decision now; I can confirm that latency on satellite connections, plus the ridiculous usage limitations, make it an expensive and pointless service unless you can't get anything else!

So, going back to DSL - but when I order (probably from BT as it's easier for her), I want to ensure an engineer actually visits the house to do the installation. That way, maybe they'll be able to do something about the line and improve on the previous awful speed. We are among thousands waiting for Connecting Devon and Somerset to invest in our area, but we'll be waiting years not months.

Given BT want/expect you to do their own installations, how can I ask them to come over without shelling out a fortune?

Thanks

Will

Have you checked her ring/bell wire?

In 2005. It wasn't there, from memory, or if it was then it was already disconnected. Our nearest neighbour, whose line I guess we piggyback, gets much better speeds...

Why should you piggyback any line? You don't still have a party line, do you?

You shouldn't need or pay for an eng install on ADSL; just some simple prevention measures like ring wire and extension wiring which you can look up.

May I suggest AAISP? They can fix the line issue when you switch to them

See http://aa.net.uk/broadband-trial.html

I had many line issue and three previous ISPs could not fix. As soon as I switched to AAISP, they bent backward to get this resolved via BT. I now have a new line from the pole to my house, new line to the master socket and everything is perfect!

So worth considering this option... AAISP even offer you money back if they cannot fix the line issue! So you got nothing to lose.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Why should you piggyback any line? You don't still have a party line, do you?

A party line being what exactly? Piggybacking? This is rural, hilly Devon; I doubt a BT engineer has visited it since the Victorian era when the lines were first laid! All sorts of horrible wiring is happening; we can't even work out how the line reaches our house. It's underground, and there's no physical route from the "pole", so we assume it was just joined onto our neighbour's house...

You could start by checking the BT phone number here www.dslchecker.bt.com

Single dropwire with one pair to you and one to the neighbour.

Ignore te partyline comment - they no longer exist on BTs network.

Tony. Thanks - great idea. I know AA are hugely rated in the industry but had no idea they offered such help and guarantees. Are you locked into a 12-month with them? My only difficulty with them is the complicated usage limitations; I don't live with my mum, so it's almost impossible to explain such things to her, even though she relies on an internet connection to supplement her pension (she works remotely as a transcriber). It looks ridiculously complex.

Can I ask, the new line - who paid for that? I have spent years writing to BT to persuade them to come and see our village and help. Our local MP even intervened and spoke to BT's then chairman! But nothing.

I am fairly sure that my mother's line is "shared" with our neighbour. From the "pole" (not sure where that is), a line is run to our neighbour, and we piggyback off it. That is almost certainly why we failed to ever get more than 512k, not to mention the long line distance to the exchange.

The other concern with AA is that they only fix faults, not speed issues. Traditionally, even though 512k is appallingly slow, it was always reliable; uptimes of months or more. I'd love to hear more about your experience and the new line from the pole...and what your issue was in the first place, if you don't mind sharing.

The checker will tell you whats available.