How long will it likely take for Openreach to fix this?

Hi guys,

After a few months of suffering from intermittent broadband issues and worsening cracking on our Telephone line, we (today) have had an engineer identify a High Resistance Fault on our underground line under the pavement which is not ducted. It must be very bad because our 17dB line is struggling to hold a 1Meg sync reliably (Even though the problem appears to be on the upstream side of things according to my RouterStats graphs).

Apparently fixing it is going to be messy according to the engineer we had (New Manhole, possibly a new cable from the new Manhole to the external box on our premises) so I am curious;

How long is it likely going to take Openreach to fully fix a fault like this? I can't imagine it being very pleasant bearing in mind the pavement was resurfaced about 8 months ago.

I'm just asking this question out of general curiosity as it's the first time I've seen this happen to person to someone I know (Let alone myself).

Any ideas?

Edited by chris6273 (Fri 31-Aug-12 23:19:40)

Probably depends on the local council, and granting permission for the work

In reply to a post by chris6273:

Hi guys,

After a few months of suffering from intermittent broadband issues and worsening cracking on our Telephone line, we (today) have had an engineer identify a High Resistance Fault on our underground line under the pavement which is not ducted. It must be very bad because our 17dB line is struggling to hold a 1Meg sync reliably (Even though the problem appears to be on the upstream side of things according to my RouterStats graphs).

Apparently fixing it is going to be messy according to the engineer we had (New Manhole, possibly a new cable from the new Manhole to the external box on our premises) so I am curious;

How long is it likely going to take Openreach to fully fix a fault like this? I can't imagine it being very pleasant bearing in mind the pavement was resurfaced about 8 months ago.

I'm just asking this question out of general curiosity as it's the first time I've seen this happen to person to someone I know (Let alone myself).

Any ideas?

Most of the Openreach line plant is usually within ducting , with regular access points along it's length(D'Sides) so they shouldn't really present much of an issue, even if the footway needed an excavation to access the cable damage, I have seen quite a few instances on my local councils web site, so why it would be problematic for them i don't know, it shouldn't be, could just be that the engineer didn't fancy doing the work

Edited by tommy45 (Fri 31-Aug-12 23:48:14)

The pavement where the fault is, is not ducted at all apparently according to him (And He showed me the closest Manhole with a DP in it. It wasn't ducted at all, just a load of dirt at the bottom with black cables and the DP inside it with its bracket).

Also the closest Manhole cover to where the fault is, is about 25 meters down the road.

Also where our External box is, the cable goes into the ground, not through a duct of any sort .

Edited by chris6273 (Fri 31-Aug-12 23:55:59)

So, sounds like the engineers has measured your fault to the buried frontage tee (house between 1965 and 1975 at a guess). Will now require a track and mark engineer. He will mark up for the maintenance dig. Contractors come dig the hole, an engineer comes and remakes the joint. If real unlucky, the lead in to your property is borked, and will require replacing.

At a guess, back in service by Thursday or Friday.

That sounds exactly what the engineer said when he came around.
He said another engineer (Who was away at the time) has this special piece of kit which can track cables (Which they don't make anymore apparently), so he will mark it up for contractors.

By the way, what is the buried frontage tee? Is it where the cores in the 'lead in' cable connect to the trunk cable going along the pavement to the DP?

The BT18 box we have is dated 1971 (Intel from Telephonesuk) so I'm guessing that the frontage tee could possibly be the problem.

At the moment the connection is so bad that when you pick up the phone, the whole line disconnects and you can hear tons of noise so Hopefully the problem will become permanent for the moment so they can easily track the fault (As it has been intermittent).

We have an engineer coming round tomorrow so hopefully he/she will be the one with the kit to track and mark it.

Edited by chris6273 (Sun 02-Sep-12 08:52:27)

By the way, what is the buried frontage tee?

It is the direct in ground joint where the buried cable comes from your house (1 or 2 pair) to meet the main buried cable running along in front of all the houses. This is called a running DP.
PITA to be honest.
But then it has lasted 40 years, you see, when exposed by the dig, it is most likely just a taped up 'submarine' closure. Rubberised 'tapes amalgamating' wound round to cover, and then insulating tape on top of that. Some were grease filled, but I suspect yours was not, as these tend still not to be faulty. Will most likely be the connectors, either the dreaded 'blue beans' or maybe a tip solder connection with the then bare wires covered in a little sheath.

this special piece of kit which can track cables

A cat and genny.

In reply to a post by chris6273:

That sounds exactly what the engineer said when he came around.
He said another engineer (Who was away at the time) has this special piece of kit which can track cables (Which they don't make anymore apparently)

Ordered myself a brand new Cat & Genny a few months ago... Its about £500 for the pair and the company likes to have experienced operators using them as digs in the wrong place are very expensive and cause long delays.

Thanks for the info. I'm betting it's probably the dreaded 'blue bean' connectors - I can remember the lead-in cable being connected with Blue Bean connectors in the external BT18 box we have before they were replaced by an engineer.

Whether it be a solder joint or the blue bean connectors, something is definitely going down the chute to be able to take out over 32.5dB of Noise Margin on my upload. I bet drinking water could conduct better than whatever is down there at the moment:

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1245/wow30db.png


That Cat & Genny looks like quite a nice piece of kit

Edited by chris6273 (Sun 02-Sep-12 19:46:26)

Hopefully a submarine and not a resin joint!