Intermittent line noise and Broadband sync problem

A few weeks ago I was experiencing intermittent noise on my phone line which was causing intermittent Broadband line drops and consequent severe speed degradation (download speed eventually dropped to 15 kBp/s !

I noticed that the problem was worse when the weather was warm/very warm - however as the weather cooled down the noise diminished and the line speed improved. A BT engineer came out to look into the fault but due to the intermittent nature of the fault he couldn't find a problem - by then the weather was on the cool-down anyhow so the fault was easing off.

Naturally for test purposes I disconnected all my equipment, changed filters, used only the master socket, etc all to no avail. Also tried a different router.

Since then the weather has been relatively cool but over the past few days has started to warm up again and yes, you guessed it, the fault is starting to re-appear. Only one line drop so far (3 days ago) but intermittent noise on the phone line (although the automated BT test declares that the line is okay - I must be catching it at the wrong moment!). Broadband download speed has dropped back to 200 kBp/s (used to be over double that).

An engineer is coming out on Monday but no doubt the noise will still be intermittent and he'll say 'no fault found' or similar.

So what can I do?

The fault is obviously heat (or sunlight?) related, but how do I convince BT to get the problem sorted?


Thanks

BT engineers can range from the amazing to the bone idle. Maybe you'll get one of the former this time, and he'll find the fault. If it is affecting the voice side, eventually it will fail completely, and they'll have to find it.

Edited by deleted (Sun 08-Jun-08 08:56:31)

Yeah, it could well fail completely - if it does I hope they don't take TWO WEEKS to fix it as was the case when it partly failed last year (the phone line, not Broadband) - then a bad engineer came out, said he had fixed the phone line but it transpired that the phone line was NOT fixed and he had ALSO broken my Broadband which at least WAS working! Took them TWO WEEKS to get it all back up and working.

I was NOT happy ...........

If the fault is not apparent when the engineer turns up, ask (politely) if they might use their mole or the TDR function on their Hawk, to 'see' an HR fault on the line.








(Iron Giant is a splendid film isn't it)

Edited by Zarjaz (Sun 08-Jun-08 21:46:24)

What's this mole then? Some automated pipe crawler?

Presumably the Hawk is the main bit of test equipment?


And yes, The Iron Giant is an excellent film. :-)

The Hawk is a gizmo which sends a signal down the line and looks for reflections coming back (a bit like radar). One of the BT guys investigating a similar fault used one on my line, and found a few bad splices - two of which made absolutely no difference to my line, but the 3rd one did !

Thanks - hopefully the engineer will be good and won't need prompting though. :-)

Any updates on this ?

Well, apparently an underground engineer couldn't find a problem so rang on my door bell AND left me voicemail as he wanted to access my property yet, strangely enough, despite that fact thatI WAS IN ALL DAY no-one came to the door OR left a voicemail.

Some BT engineers are hopeless AND liars into the bargain (I've had this happen before).

The line has been okay for the past 24 hours anyhow, so I'll raise another fault when the problem returns.

I wish I could escalate this and get an engineer who not only knows what he is doing but is also prepared to spend the time to properly diagnose and fix the fault, but how do I get such a rarity?

Air conditioning causing problem? Doubt it but any update on today's call?

Trevor