topic Re: Trees fouling BT line in Broadband

Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:40:06 GMT

I have followed the telephone line from my block of flats to the BT green box. It appears to go underground to the first pole and then between poles to the end of the road then underground to the nearby green box. The overground wires pass through several trees and in places the branches are touching the wires and even pulling them several feet from their original straight line between posts. Could this be causing the crackling on the line I am experiencing? If so, whose responsibility would it be to trim the branches? The trees are on the property of a private residence, a nursing home and in the grounds of an electrical substation.
The crackling I am experiencing on the voice line is also affecting my broadband connection - frequent intermittent disconnections. A BT engineer recently checked the wiring within my block of flats and fitted a NTE5 socket to replace the old LJU but this hasn't fixed the problem as I still get regular crackling on the line and regular broadband disconnections.
[Moderator's note by Thomas (Be3G): thread moved as requested.]

Re: Trees fouling BT line

spraxyt — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:58:02 GMT

It is very likely that the trees are the cause of crackling on the line (and an awful broadband service). It is up to your voice service provider (BT?) to eliminate the crackling during phone calls by taking action as they determine is appropriate. Pointing out the trees to the engineer is fine.
Assuming BT do provide your voice services ringing their faults line when the crackling noise is apparent is the best approach, ignore any automated line test offered, report the problem to a person and ask them if they can hear the noise and to record this. Do not mention its effect on broadband or even that you have broadband, since that can lead to being told its not their problem and you need to contact your ISP.

Re: Trees fouling BT line

shutter — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:05:27 GMT

There is also a possibility that the wires are picking up electrical interference as they are overhead/nearby/passing a sub-station....

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:56:38 GMT

As I understand it, my provider is Plusnet (I pay my line rental and call charges to them as I am using Plusnet Home Phone). There is a ticket open on this problem open at the moment - 32060215 - with no response from the CS team since the BT engineer's visit last Thursday. Can someone from Plusnet pick this up please?

Re: Trees fouling BT line

pierre_pierre — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:33:40 GMT

you can add your findings to your ticket

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:49:03 GMT

Already have, pierre_pierre. My original post is a synopsis of the ticket so far. I appreciate that not many Plusnet CS staff will be working on a Sunday but would like to get some feedback on what would be reasonable to expect from Plusnet and BT when it comes to the trees fouling the telephone line.
dick:quote

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:15:19 GMT

Three BT engineer visits down and I'm still no nearer to having this resolved...
The first engineer agreed there was noise on the line, fitted a new NTE5 and found a wiring fault in the old GPO distribution box.
The second engineer agreed there was noise on the line, checked the line was clear from the green box to the exchange but didn't look at the GPO distribution box or the external wiring as it was dark outside.
The third engineer agreed there was noise on the line, repaired some bad corrosion in the GPO distribution box but did not look at the external wiring.
Despite these repairs there is still noise on the line and I suspect it is down to the wiring between the GPO distribution box and the green box. If the connections in the GPO box (inside the flats) were corroded, I con only imagine how bad they are in the boxes on the telegraph poles. This is probably compounded by the wires passing through trees as it goes down the road.
Please can someone at Plusnet pick this fault up again and push BT to investigate the external wiring?

Re: Trees fouling BT line

prichardson — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:20:37 GMT

What I have put below is generic in relation to the cable through the trees, and does not account specifically for the work noted in your last message.
We can investigate external cabling faults in this way and report them as external BT network damage.
The one problem we have here is that there is a large assumption there is damage to the network. Admittedly, this type of problem and a cause such as this is common place, but the fault report type is designed for cases were there is clear damage.
Were we are reporting it as suspected damage, the report will be subject to the standard checks and caveats, such as charge risks if proven internally.

Re: Trees fouling BT line

shutter — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:36:45 GMT

Quote from: P
What I have put below is generic in relation to the cable through the trees, and does not account specifically for the work noted in your last message.
We can investigate external cabling faults in this way and report them as external BT network damage.
Where we are reporting it as suspected damage, the report will be subject to the standard checks and caveats, such as charge risks if proven internally.

Erm....? the last bit looks a bit suspect ... "such as charge risks if proven internally." as I think the trees are not an internal item.....i.e inside the customers property....

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:50:41 GMT

Well, I've not identified any obvious damage to the wires - would have to wait until the weekend when I could look at them using binoculars during daylight as it is dark when I get home. Additionally, I can't examine the connections in the boxes at the top of the telegraph poles or the wires that are in the underground ducts. So, this leaves me in the position of having three BT engineers say that there is noise on the line and that the cause is on their equipment i,e. upstream of the NTE5, several attempted fixes but still having noise on the line. There is no way I would pay any charges for this being proven an internal problem as three BT engineers have said otherwise so far.
Has a BT engineer been booked to look into this or do I need to escalate the problem somehow?

Re: Trees fouling BT line

Mand — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:53:08 GMT

Hi there,
I've got one of our faults guys looking at this for you now.

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:01:22 GMT

Thanks Mand,
The intermittent nature of this problem makes it particularly frustrating - just when you think it's fixed the crackling starts again!

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:45:18 GMT

Just received a call from a BT engineer - he had been booked for an AM visit despite my having specified a PM visit. As he couldn't change the time of his visit the job was dropped. I've requested the earliest available afternoon (PM) appointment on my ticket but I'm worried this won't get picked up in time or the engineer will end up arriving after dark again...
Mand - please can you look at this for me?

Re: Trees fouling BT line

Chris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:37:39 GMT

One of our faults guys will be picking this up shortly for you.

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:48:04 GMT

Thanks Chris. Please make sure they take note of my alternative mobile number - my usual mobile's battery is about to die.

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:22:06 GMT

No activity on the ticket yet so looking like no visit from a BT engineer until tomorrow PM at the earliest. Please can you give the faults guys a nudge to arrange this please?

Re: Trees fouling BT line

Chris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:37:46 GMT

It's being worked on as I type. Sorry about the delay.

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:02:45 GMT

Fourth BT engineer lucky (I'm hoping)!
Looks like I might have been wrong about the trees after all - today's engineer replaced the wire between the GPO distribution board and the green box. The short time it took him to do this makes me think the wire was underground all the way rather than using the overhead wires down the street. I'm hoping this is finally sorted now. Just leaving this message as there are so many threads on this board that just sizzle out without any resolution.

Re: Trees fouling BT line

shutter — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:54:18 GMT

OK, has the noise gone on the phone line?
how is your broadband? can you put up a BT speedtest result, and some routerstats?

Re: Trees fouling BT line

twentythree — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:41:39 GMT

The noise seems to be gone - even the low level hiss - but I'll need to monitor this over the weekend as it was always intermittent. My speeds look good - up to the current BT IP profile of 12000 kbps but I'm syncing at a lower speed than I have been recently - 16639 kbps rather than the usual 20000ish kbps. Might just be because I plugged the router back in at about 6.30pm. The SNR seems quite high but stable - 6-7 dB, no disconnections yet but I have picked up some errors in the hour I've been connected. Again, this could just be because it is the noisy evening period. I'm going to resync tomorrow morning to see if I can improve my IP profile. Think it might be a good idea to request a retraining period as my connection was changed to ADSL2+ during the period I've been trying to resolve the noise problems and the connection has been up and down like a bride's nightie!