BB drops when phone rings

[Brian69]

Today (am) I am off to investagate this fault. It's come through from a well known ISP, who have sent out routers,capped speed, and it has been dragging on for 6 months. I will update this evening. You should be able to guess the ISP

[richone54]

do you have any more clues

[Brian69]

Hi everyone.
Before going into the nitty gritty of this, just a bit of background. Sky (the Isp) had tried all the normal stuff, (speed cap, line test ), the local trading standards had become involved as well as the Citizens Advice Bureau,
and local MP. So you get the drift, one very angry Sky customer.
The house concerned is about 5 years old, with pre wired phone sockets in every room. On arrival the customer demonstrated the fault, and showed me the 6 (six) new routers which Sky had sent him ( All new Sagam, no wonder no one else can get one!) along with a bucket full of filters. These had all been tried and made no differance.
By this time he had calmed down a bit, so he left me to it. The incoming is underground, so I dissconnected outside where the line comes up and connected up test phone and lappy. This gave a rock solid 16meg with a healthy noise margin and no amount of calls had any effect.
Customer not happy, he is convinced that my kit is covering up the fault (this is not uncommon). So in the interests of customer relations (no coffee yet!) I ran a lead to his PC, and left him delighted while I had a coffee .

The internal wiring was the normal mish-mash of reel ends that get used by site electricans for telephones. All were connected together in the loft, along with the feed from the outside. Re connecting this and checking in the loft, with it disconnected from the rest, produced the fault, there was no NTE5 master.
Cure was a NTE-5 master, new line to the loft, and customers own faceplate filter, to run a new extension to PC. (He had several so I used a ADSL Nation one to give me the unfiltered extension)
As I was about to leave, he asked me if I would like a router? I said he should return them to Sky, but I don't think he will. As for who will pay for all this (5.5 hours + call out) I have a feeling it will get lost in Openreach accounts.

[HELGHAST]

ihad this problem and have it again.i had it with AOL

i rang BT said there fault in my line they say nothing wrong try your ISP i phone AOL and they said its BT phone them get a enginner and pass the bill to us. we were told. so we phoned BT got enginner out and they said if they cant find nothing were charged with £125 call out fee. we thought ok were not paying it AOL are. so out he comes we said the internet drops when the phone rings or when we phone out and we get a static noise. so does his test finds nothing. goes up the pole nothing. goes around the corner and goes up that pole. 30mins later hw said he replaced the wire as it was worn out. and we might have to phone to get it fixed in few months time. but bbt are doin service in the area soon. this was 2years ago. now i got the prblem back again. so my best bet is phone sky tell them you want them to order a enginner as your line is crappy then when he comes let him know my sistuation. good luck with it. im attempting todo so monday

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

does said customer actually now think Sky aren't as bad as he assumed now its proven that it was HIS wiring at fault?

[Brian69]

Hi IANTE.
As I'm sure you will appreciate, this was only the edited highlights and yes we had a long chat about Sky and ISP's. I did point out that IMO, Sky were no worse, and in many ways, a lot better than most. They all have their idea of how to deal with customer problems, and will always start off with the "check filters,test socket" script for the very good reason that this is oftern the problem. My own dealings with Sky have always been fine, and I did suggest that a letter from him to Sky, to explane all that had happened would do no harm and he might even get a couple of free months, which he will be glad of if Openreach's bill ends up with him!!

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

indeed he might - id expect Sky would appreciate it - at the very least its something that can be highlighted next time Sky/BT meet to discuss TS and procedures when it comes to fixing issues regrding BB

[dsldude]

So who is ultimately responsible for this mess-up?

Is it BT for not terminating the line with a NTE5
before it was activated or is it the homebuilders
braking some rules?

[Brian69]

Hi Dsldude.
IMO as there was no demarcation point, then BT/openreach should bear the cost. As the original cable which connected to BT network (the one which went from the underground feed to the loft) was not standard telephone cable, then to recover costs it would be upto Openreach to sue the original electrical contractors.

[dsldude]

Yep Brain sounds about right to me

Certainly a interesting scenario, and makes
you wonder how many other homeowners will
have the same issues.