Any Phone Line Experts?

N

Nova2k7

Senior member
 Halifax - West Yorkshire
Ok so yesterday i had sky come out and install my fibre broadband! now i know it wasn't actually sky and that it was openreach but anyway, the chap came and plugged all the boxes in and then said that the line was bad as there was a lot of crackling and interference! anyway he pops out to the cabinet and comes back a few minutes later and still now DSL light on the modem, it just flashes and then stops! after a few mins the guy gets it to come on for a moment, just enough time for him to run a speed check and then leave! i could still hear his van going up the road when it went off again and now its not been back on since! the only time i can get it to come on is if i use the phone to make a call out! this seems to up the voltage and create a connection. i know have an engineer coming out on Sat 28th but im not very hopeful that they will fix anything after reading some of the comments on their forums!

anyone else had an issue like this? with the internet only coming on when the house phone is used?

as i write this its already gone off and back on twice
 
Got any other phones in the house on the line? If so, remove them to see if the noise is from one of those.

What fibre modem did you get?
 
If it's genuinely fibre to the house they need to plug an otdr in and see if there's a bad joint in the fibre. At least that will narrow down if the problem is in the copper or fibre network.

OTDR - Optical Time Domain Reflectometer. A faulty fibre line will cause a reflection to come back up the line. They can measure the time between transmission and reflection and get an accurate reading of where the issue is.
 
pvr said:
Got any other phones in the house on the line? If so, remove them to see if the noise is from one of those.

What fibre modem did you get?
Click to expand...

Nope, no other phones! We got a openreach NGA ECI-CPE-MODEMS TYPE 1B model B-FOCUS V-2FUB and a Sky router model SR101.

Stuart Truman said:
If it's genuinely fibre to the house they need to plug an otdr in and see if there's a bad joint in the fibre. At least that will narrow down if the problem is in the copper or fibre network.

OTDR - Optical Time Domain Reflectometer. A faulty fibre line will cause a reflection to come back up the line. They can measure the time between transmission and reflection and get an accurate reading of where the issue is.
Click to expand...

Well I'm assuming that there is an issue with the line
 
Won't this be the fibre to the cabinet type thing rather than fibre to the home/kerb?

If so - it still comes the last bit over the copper I think? With router/modem plugged into a phone socket?

If so, if it's not been tried, unscrew the BT master socket faceplate - which will disconnect all your phone extensions. There should be another phone socket behind. Plug router/modem directly into that and see if it's any better? If it is, probably dodgy wiring.

Another thing to try - dial 17070 and try the quiet line test. Should be no crackles or anything. You need something of a trained ear to get much from it - but if the line is terrible, an untrained person should be able to tell.

EDIT: Googling the modem model suggests it is a VDSL modem - so it is indeed a Fibre to the Cabinet type thing.
 
That was what I was looking for as well with the modem as it does mean copper is involved as well (so forget about this 150 Mbs stuff).

Surprising the engineer left with a dodgy connection though.
 
I work for Openreach, but I doubt I'll be of much help here. It might not have been one of our engineers, we use Quinns and Kellys as contractors to do FTTC (Fibre To The Cab) work such as yours.

Unfortunately, it could be many, many things, such as star wiring before the master socket, a problem with the copper wires from your house to the cabinet, or faulty fibre tie pairs. The only way you're going to get it fixed is by getting another engineer coming out.

What checks did the engineer do other than the speed check? Did they plug a multi meter into the line to do tests? If you lived in the south east I could help, but there are different databases all around the Uk, and I only have access to a few in the south east :(

Depending on what the second engineer says, I'd to tempted to raise a complaint of sub standard work.
 
ollie_owen_84 said:
I work for Openreach, but I doubt I'll be of much help here. It might not have been one of our engineers, we use Quinns and Kellys as contractors to do FTTC (Fibre To The Cab) work such as yours.

Unfortunately, it could be many, many things, such as star wiring before the master socket, a problem with the copper wires from your house to the cabinet, or faulty fibre tie pairs. The only way you're going to get it fixed is by getting another engineer coming out.

What checks did the engineer do other than the speed check? Did they plug a multi meter into the line to do tests? If you lived in the south east I could help, but there are different databases all around the Uk, and I only have access to a few in the south east :(

Depending on what the second engineer says, I'd to tempted to raise a complaint of sub standard work.
Click to expand...

You're right, it was a Kelly engineer! He just plugged in a big phone and dialed a few numbers, I'll be honest, the line is shockingly bad
 
When you say the line is shockingly bad, so you mean there is a lot of crackling noises when you pick the phone up?

Did the engineer fit a new front plate? -> http://tiddlyspace.com/bags/mesha2327_public/tiddlers/SSFP%203.png

When the next Openreach person comes to fix the fault, ask him to fill out a CANDID form to report the Kellys engineer.
 
ollie_owen_84 said:
When you say the line is shockingly bad, so you mean there is a lot of crackling noises when you pick the phone up?

Did the engineer fit a new front plate? -> http://tiddlyspace.com/bags/mesha2327_public/tiddlers/SSFP%203.png

When the next Openreach person comes to fix the fault, ask him to fill out a CANDID form to report the Kellys engineer.
Click to expand...


Yeah he came and fitted a new facia plate! Yeag lots of crackling noises and hissing
 
Do you have a drop wire coming from a pole or are you UG (under ground) fed ?

Sent via Tapatalk from my Galaxy S3
 
When FTTC was going live in my area I found a forum with some local people on it who were having installs. Some had BT engineers and some Kelly engineers. The feedback on the Kelly guys was mixed, but generally crap.

On my go live day my heart sunk as a Kelly guy turned up. When I told him I didn't want to use the BT router, but my Airport instead, he was totally lost. I said not to worry, just set it up with the BT one and I'd change it later.

It was all ok.

Was you line noisy before hand?

I had an NTE5 master socket (that someone with a similar name to me fitted!!!!) and he plugged in a new front plate to it, so didn't have to re-wire anything. The new frontplate has a normal phone socket and a small socket for the modem cable, so no more external filters.

Are you far from the green cabinet? The way I understand it (and I will happily be corrected) is that its fibre to the cab, then copper to the house, but uses VDSL instead of ADSL. VDSL being much faster, but working over shorter distances?

I used to get about 2.5MB on ADSL, now about 36MB on fttc.

You could try doing a line check directly with BT, although does that still work as you are with Sky? If the noise only appeared during his visit, then thats incriminating!
 
ric19 said:
Do you have a drop wire coming from a pole or are you UG (under ground) fed ?

Sent via Tapatalk from my Galaxy S3
Click to expand...

its a drop wire! it runs down the side of the house!

kevinmarkwhite said:
When FTTC was going live in my area I found a forum with some local people on it who were having installs. Some had BT engineers and some Kelly engineers. The feedback on the Kelly guys was mixed, but generally crap.

On my go live day my heart sunk as a Kelly guy turned up. When I told him I didn't want to use the BT router, but my Airport instead, he was totally lost. I said not to worry, just set it up with the BT one and I'd change it later.

It was all ok.

Was you line noisy before hand?

I had an NTE5 master socket (that someone with a similar name to me fitted!!!!) and he plugged in a new front plate to it, so didn't have to re-wire anything. The new frontplate has a normal phone socket and a small socket for the modem cable, so no more external filters.

Are you far from the green cabinet? The way I understand it (and I will happily be corrected) is that its fibre to the cab, then copper to the house, but uses VDSL instead of ADSL. VDSL being much faster, but working over shorter distances?

I used to get about 2.5MB on ADSL, now about 36MB on fttc.

You could try doing a line check directly with BT, although does that still work as you are with Sky? If the noise only appeared during his visit, then thats incriminating!
Click to expand...

Yes the line was very noisy and crackling before hand and the previous owner of the house confirmed that they had issues getting the internet before! the confirmed that they needed a new line but nothing ever got sorted. The Kellys guy even said that the cabinet was very close! BT have done quite a few line checks and they always come back ok apparently!
 
And can you tell which kind of dw it is..if its grey and has 2 distinct conductors thats a dw 6 or a 4 if it ancient if its black and has 4 conductors and several catenary wires thats 10 or later..if its 6 if the insulator sometimes gets damaged and the steel wire that is copper coated can rust and you can end up with a hr (high resistance) dis (disconnection ) that makes your line sound like its crackling and wont show up on a test.in fact the line test can blow the fault off temporarily. If its a dw 10 these are made of fully copper wires and are not likely to be the fault

Sent via Tapatalk from my Galaxy S3
 
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