Another Eng booked for Monday morning. Much as I'm fed up with this rubbish weather, I don't want it to go away before they repair / replace

Hi M1ke

The issues you are having mirror mine exactly. I have been having issues with my telephone line since we started having the bad weather at the end of November.

I'm on a fibre connection which prior to the bad weather I was getting 38mb download and 1.7mb upload which I was very happy with. During the bad weather my connection would drop completely and when it returned I got 3mb / 0.5 which was worse than my previous ADSL connection.
To cut a long story short despite Talktalk reporting the isue to Openreach the fault remains and whenever the weather is bad I lose my broadband. In the bad weather I can see the telephone line to my house swing in the wind at the same time I get a red light on my router saying my connection is down. Despite informiing this to the Openreach engineer who visited (when the weather was okay) he could trace no fault on the line.
I have yet again reported the fault to Talktalk but I'm not holding out much hope that the Openreach Engineer will note my observations and get up the telegraph pole and actually check the connections to my house.
Good luck in getting your landline repaired.
Graham

Thanks Graham. I haven't even bothered putting this through Talktalk because they are completely incompetent ( I won't bore you with the catalogue of issues I have with them)

I've got various quiet line recordings and BT's "an engineer has been booked" msg is on the answerphone though it's really difficult to make it out.

Let's see what Monday brings

Zen quoted £70 for another line but couldn't guarantee that that wouldn't be presented on the same cabling.

In reply to a post by M1ke_a:

Thanks very much guys

I can't remember which one of the 3 sockets is the master but the original incoming cabling is terminated at another junction box and then the 3 sockets are starred off from there.

The outside wiring runs along the house at 1st floor height and it'd be perfect to run this in to the 1st floor landing for a new master. OR eng said the existing cabling is likely to be better quality than their new copper plated steel stuff.

To summarise

Existing phone line really isn't well
I'd like a new master socket at a better location
I don't really want to pay for a new / replacement line from the pole
I'm recording quiet line tests when the line goes bad

So can I get this fixed by chasing BT to repair the line as per gt94sss2 and then sweet talking the OR eng on the day? (As it was near Xmas I suspect the prev eng wanted an easy day on the original visit)

P.S the nearest cab matches that checker though I'd have thought they'd have managed something better than using a permanent marker to identify it!

P.P.S Don't you guys have anything better to do on NYE?!

I suffered similar problems several years ago.

The telephone cabling to my house includes overhead wires, which reach the property via a series of telephone poles. The cabling used to terminate in an old-style BT junction box, screwed inside one of the window frames. The master socket and extension sockets were star wired, with extension wires that ran around the outside of the house. BT had installed this wiring in the 1970s, when the house was built.

High winds and driving rain were causing intermittent problems with my voice and broadband services, so I reported the problem to TalkTalk on many occasions. OR engineers attended repeatedly but each time, the weather had improved so they did not detect any fault. I insisted eventually that they examine all of the overhead wires and junctions between the cabinet and my home.

It transpired that BT's wiring was OK - until it reached my home. However, the original installers had used internal quality cable for the extension sockets, even though the wires were stapled to an outside wall. After 40 years' exposure to sun and rain, the plastic insulation had cracked. So every time it rained, water penetrated the cable and caused a short circuit.

BT Openreach removed the cracked extension wiring and installed a new NTE5 master socket. However, I had to run new wires inside the house to each extension socket. To add insult to injury, TalkTalk charged me for the engineer's visit, because even though the cracked wiring had been installed by BT and was outside the house, the crack was located AFTER the junction box.

In reply to a post by bob_lucas:

BT Openreach removed the cracked extension wiring and installed a new NTE5 master socket. However, I had to run new wires inside the house to each extension socket. To add insult to injury, TalkTalk charged me for the engineer's visit, because even though the cracked wiring had been installed by BT and was outside the house, the crack was located AFTER the junction box.

Well who would you expect to pay for the repair? If it had failed after a year or two, then you might have a claim under a guarantee, after that then no. If you paid ongoing rental for that installation, then you would have a claim but you did not. So, you have to accept responsibility for your property.


And it would not have been a BT installation in the 1970s - BT was only formed in 1981.

Edited by MHC (Sat 02-Jan-16 21:35:31)

We are told that wiring put in by the GPO or BT has got nowt to do with OpenReach . We are also told to put in a TRC if there is no NTE5 , fair or not thats the way it is.

In reply to a post by btbert:

We are told that wiring put in by the GPO or BT has got nowt to do with OpenReach .

How do they access the manholes with GPO or BT covers on them then?

Sorry i ment home wiring not the U/G or O/H network.

Yeah, the rules seem to change don't they

Thanks Bob

Internal wiring was redone around 15 years ago but I'm happy to refresh into a new NTE connection.

In the best law of Sod, as at 8:15 Mon the line sounds much better though my router is showing SNR 33dB and a 3Mb connection.

I hope the eng arrives soon and is in an obliging mood