In reply to a post by M100:

Failures are often 'fixed' during the call to 'customer services' by sky doing something at their end,

This is a symptom of a line fault, perhaps a HR fault. Sky are not doing anything.

In reply to a post by M100:

It was double filtered because that's just how it was left after screwing the NTE5 back together for the <insert very large number> time pending Sky 'customer services' calling me back a week or two ago (which they failed to do) The filter was on the end of the phone cord after being in the test socket and it just got plugged into the bottom of faceplate.

This appears to be no reason at all to have a microfilter. I recommend you remove it to remove the ensuing confusion.

No extensions or extension wiring is connected (Some time ago Sky wanted to blame that too even though the voice call quality was barely enough to make out speech at the other end when connected to the test socket)

This sounds like there is extension wiring there but is unused. A really quiet line is another indication of a fault, or perhaps another master socket in front of the one you think is the master.

You want ideally an engineer to visit when the broadband is down.

As for the filters - should not be needed with the filtered faceplace so get rid.

As for the test socket - once you have tried it, if the fault remains, there is no need to keep trying it. You can simply say "I've tried it in the test socket for 2 weeks and it's the same."

In reply to a post by eckiedoo:

Compounded by the 2013/2014 FTTC being only 10 M from my house - when its doors are open, I can see inside it from the lounge window.

So the VDSL distance total is about 300 Metres, compared to an otherwise possible of about 100 M.

It's down to where your BT line was originally connected. I live in a house that was built in the 1920's. The cabinet is 1.11km (source:SamKnows) away as the crow flies although there are several more cabinets a lot closer, these were added as new builds appeared over the years. There is a cabinet over the road from me but I'm not connected to it and I'm told they cannot move my line to it, It has to stay in the cabinet where it has always been. I'm told that they didn't take broadband into account in the 1940's when this house was first supplied with a telephone service...

Edited by TMCR (Tue 01-Nov-16 13:34:42)

DP does not equal green street cabinet - which it sounds like you are suggesting

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

DP does not equal green street cabinet - which it sounds like you are suggesting

My bad, post corrected. Thanks for pointing that out.

Agreed Broadband was not envisaged in the 1940s.

This estate including my (former show-) house was built in 1967, as the first estate on and beyond the town boundary separated from the town by a large public park and school sports field, with 4 other estates "further out" built over the succeeding years.

So no point in trying to get a move on to another PCP/DP.

Although the estate itself had every house wired for phone during that 1967 build, running back to the PCP, plus main cable back to the exchange, there was no significant capacity in that existing Strowger exchange to take any more working lines.

About 1972, the Strowger system was going to be totally replaced in a new exchange building, by a Cross-Bar system.

Two senior Post Office Telephone Managers came to see me one Saturday morning, resulting in my being connected to one of the emergency reserved lines in the old Strowger exchange.

All of the others on the estate still had no connections.

About a month later, still 1972, the temporary Strowger connection was swapped over on to the Cross-Bar system in a completely new, larger building, resulting in a number change as well. Still got the two circular inserts with the appropriate numbers on them.

By 1978, 76 of the 77 houses definitely had working phones, so about 98% "penetration" at least, compared to the then Scottish average of 55%, 65% for England. (National figures obtained that year from Post Office Telephones. Estate figures by going around the doors.)

About 1992, callers were having difficulties phoning us, which was particularly a nuisance as my lady-wife was the Senior District Nursing Sister, frequently on-call etc. The fault was in the Cross-Bar system, apparently it was occasionally making contact with the Police Station line.

Fortunately our line had "Red Card" priority; but it took months to be cleared, by moving our line in the exchange on to the newer System X, with another number change - and there is a story to that in itself.

So as regards the main D and E-side wiring, there have been no obvious moves/changes in that area, apart from the mass move to the Cross-Bar, which involved every then-subscriber in the town, from a small exchange building at the back of some shops, to a much larger building about 150 metres away.