Update: BT were supposed to fix the fault today. They were due to carry out external checks. The engineer(s) had my mobile number and were supposed to call if access to the property was needed today.

I was informed by a neighbour that a BT engineer was at the door earlier. Nobody bothered to call me (I could have nipped home). I just called BT and was told an engineer visit to the house is necessary and that the earliest appointment is Tues 13 Feb.

I'm seriously annoyed with them, it's irritating enough that the BB keeps dropping randomly and that the hissing noise is still there, but I'm still paying line rental for this dire service from BT.

I've filed a formal complaint with BT and included a threat to sue for damages and consequential losses for the manner in which they've handled it. I'm not kidding, I've used the court system before and they are very helpful especially when it's a member of the public vs a corrupt corporation.

In the formal complaint I've asked for the fault to be resolved forthwith, I will see what comes back otherwise I'll be charging them £40 per day that this remains outstanding.

Absolutely disgusted with their behaviour.

Formal complaint to BT resulted in an engineer being available to attend today.

He opened a cover in the pavement down the road and said there were two wires touching there, he said it was something to do with the direct current wire. He did say that this fault would only have got worse over time and that if there were further issues a broadband engineer would be needed and as the line was underground it would probably mean digging up the front garden & paving slabs.

The hissing is still there when the broadband is in sync, but I'll leave it for a couple of days to see how stable it is.

Here are the current router stats (upload is normally 448 & error seconds have never shown anything except 0):

ADSL Mode ADSL2+
Interleaving: On
Up Down
DSL Line Speed 375 kbps 8004 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.1 dB 48.0 dB
SN Margin 4.4 dB 7.7 dB
Total Errors Seconds 0

If I have to go back to AOL, as soon as I mention hissing they'll revert to script and say it's a line issue & bounce me over to BT, so I wonder whether I should only mention the broadband dropping?

Or, in the event BB is still unstable, should I ask BT to monitor the line for 24hrs again, as only when they did that (instead of an on the spot line test) did they diagnose the issue that led to today's engineer visit.

The connection just dropped when the phone was used.

Router stats at the time it dropped:

Up Down
DSL Line Speed 375 kbps 8004 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.1 dB 48.0 dB
SN Margin 1.1 dB 5.3 dB

Called BT who said the line is testing ok, but they agreed to monitor it for 24 hrs.

If they can't find an issue, that'll give me the solid evidence to go to AOL and ask for an SFI without having to take their nonsense about going back to BT.

He opened a cover in the pavement down the road and said there were two wires touching there, he said it was something to do with the direct current wire. He did say that this fault would only have got worse over time and that if there were further issues a broadband engineer would be needed and as the line was underground it would probably mean digging up the front garden & paving slabs.

So if the wires are touching and that is a cause of the fault when is it going to be fixed and if not why not as you shouldn't have to put up with a noisy phone line, it surely has to be fixed if that is the fault?

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

So if the wires are touching and that is a cause of the fault when is it going to be fixed and if not why not as you shouldn't have to put up with a noisy phone line, it surely has to be fixed if that is the fault?

He said he fixed it today (he was at the underground pavement cover for about 15 mins). He did his tests with his phone unit plugged directly into the test socket (i.e. no BB).

Maybe there are two faults, who knows... all I can say is that the line is as noisy now as it was yesterday and the broadband still keeps dropping.

Hopefully BT's response tomorrow (after the 24hr monitoring period finishes) will either confirm an outstanding fault, or give me the ammo to go to AOL to request an SFI visit.

BT did their 24hr monitoring of the line and found no further issues.

AOL have offered an SFI but they've also said the connection seems more stable. It is more stable now, probably because the speed has decreased (was ~8Mbps, now ~5Mbps). They did say if the SFI finds no fault, it costs £50, however, I was told if that was the case they'd go back to BT Openreach as the evidence here suggests a fault, and I'm definitely plugged into the test socket so no internal wiring issues (apparently that's the main reason people get charged - when they leave an extension plugged in but claim they're in the test socket).

As a final check, I restarted the router while doing the quiet line test using a corded phone plugged into the filter that enters the test socket. I could hear a faint whistling sound while the router was gaining sync. When sync was achieved, the whistling noise was replaced by a hissing noise. I then switched off the router and a few seconds later, the hissing noise stopped. This is intermittent though - sometimes it'll be very noisy, other times you have to listen out for it.

So, unless there's anything else to try or suggest, I'll agree to the SFI visit.

A SFI is needed for sure! You are using the test socket, corded phone, tried alternative routers etc. which means nothing more can be done on your side of the NTE5.

So, unless there's anything else to try or suggest, I'll agree to the SFI visit.

Agree with it. When the engineer comes, describe the symptoms, "I could hear a faint whistling sound while the router was gaining sync. When sync was achieved, the whistling noise was replaced by a hissing noise." Is absolute classic HR evidence.
If it were me, I'd using the TDR function to look for the HR. Also using the manual ADSL function with the error counter running, whilst using the phone at the same time, should show the errors piling in as the phone is used.

An HR can be anywhere, but a high proportion seem to lay with the now non-required, crimps 8b in the cabinet. Ask the engineer if the cab is SCC, if so, ALWAYS worth a determination of both E and D.

That's excellent advice

When I had a SFI visit I had the router in the test socket plus a corded phone via a dangle filter, no extensions connected, RouterStatsLite running, described the symptoms and then made an incoming call using a mobile. When the call was made SNRM dropped to zero on the RouterStatsLite graph and I lost the ADSL connection. The SFI confirmed an extremely high error rate with his test equipment when we made another incoming call.

Actually the fault was found at the exchange after he traced the line all the way back to the exchange via the cabinet...

The issue I see, is to many engineers using the set of leads provided with their tester, straight on the pair and into the tester. Simply using a good, known, working micro filter and rj11 to rj11 lead, means you can be tabbing through the various screens whilst listening to the dial tone through your butt. Use of cords connecting 6/10e means this can be repeated wherever in the network.