topic Re: Phone line problem in Business

Phone line problem

John_ — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 12:55:17 GMT

Hello since boxing Day my business broadband has been dropping out a lot. Alsolso the phone line was a little crackly.
I did a phone line test and it said there was a problem. then a few days later the broadband came back.
But now I'm back at work again the phone line is crackly than ever and also the broadband drops out when I'm using the phone. I did another phone and check and it now says there isn't a problem. But obviously there is!
I have recently upgraded to a hub 2 but I have tried the old hub and the new one both give the same result.

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 13:11:11 GMT

Hmmm 🤔 now I've tried it and all seems normal again.

Re: Phone line problem

Townman — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 13:26:43 GMT

Hi John,

If the line is crackly, then you probably have an intermittent fault ... one with the propensity to disappear when the auto testers do their stuff.

Damp joints will markedly degrade broadband performance. The act of testing or using the phone (especially inbound calls) can dry out the joints and all is well for a while. Do QLTs repeatedly, follow the phone line fault reporting process and be sure to indicate that it is an intermittently noisy line.

Broadband is not going to work well if the "phone" line is not working properly.

Please perform a quiet line test - dial 17070 select option 2 using a corded phone plugged into the test socket behind the face plate of the master socket. It should be silent. A noisy phone line (or no dial tone) will have a marked adverse impact on the performance of broadband.

If the line is noisy or there is no dial tone, then a PHONE LINE fault needs to be raised with your phone provider. If this is PlusNet, you can report a fault on line using the button below. From the Q&A list, choose the one which matches the problem, 'open' the 'section' and click the trouble-shooter link. NB: If you receive a failure message (rather than a log-in prompt) then log-in to the user portal in a different browser tab and attempt to use the trouble-shooter again.

Phone Faults

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:48:32 GMT

Thanks for your post @John_

I'm sorry to see you're having problems with your phone line and broadband.

I can see you've run a line test online and we've found a Battery Contact fault we've raised to our suppliers.

We've been given an estimated response time of by 06/01/22 23:59:59 for an engineer to investigate further.

We'll provide an update when we know more but feel free to post back if you need further help.

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 17:42:18 GMT

It seems a very intermittent problem at the moment it's fine.
As long as I don't get charged if they don't find a problem!

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 17:49:55 GMT

No problem, we no longer charge for fault investigations so don't worry about that

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 20:09:14 GMT

It was playing up today had a few dropped calls. No openreach engineer has turned up yet.

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:54:00 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @John_

As this was raised as an external fault, there wasn't a confirmed appointment booked for a particular date. It looks like our suppliers missed the estimated response time due to engineer availability and resourcing in the area.

I can see though that an engineer has been out this morning and looks to have resolved the problem. Could you confirm if everything's sorted now or are you still having issues?

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 15:00:14 GMT

Yes it seems to be fixed now. But what the engineer did say I should raise a fault with the broadband to be because it's desperately slow, so that pretty much dial-up speeds!
But it does what I needed to do so I might not bother.

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 15:28:15 GMT

Thanks for getting back to us @John_

I'm glad to see your phone's fixed now.

I've tested your broadband service and I can see your speed is what's known as "chronically banded" down to 0.2mbps, caused by the fault on the line but as that's resolved, I've now reset your line to lift this artificial restriction.

Can you let me know if your speed is any faster after half an hour? Let me know how it goes.

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 15:30:06 GMT

I'm not at work at the moment but I will try it in the morning and report back.

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 15:34:32 GMT

No problem @John_ sounds like a plan

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:17:52 GMT

Im getting 0.87 down and 0.43 up

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:39:07 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @John_

That is incredibly slow, but due to how far you are away from the exchange, the current estimated download speed range for your line shown Here is between 0.25mbps to 2mbps, so looks like what you're getting is on target.

Your upload speed will always be slower than your download speed and there's no specific speed estimates for this, but anywhere up to 1mbps for an upload speed is considered good for an ADSL broadband service.

It may be worth filling out our suppliers fibre availability form Here to ask if there are plans to provide your area with fibre.

Let us know how it goes.

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 15:27:32 GMT

The phone line is back to crackling and the broadband drops out when in a call again.
I did a self phone line test and it passed.

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:28:44 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @John_

I'm really sorry to see your phone's noisy again and you're having broadband issues.

As line tests are passing, I'd like to arrange an engineer visit with you to investigate further.

Could you reply to the ticket we've logged on your account Here with when you'll be available for a visit?

If you can post back afterwards, I'll make sure we book the engineer as soon as we can.

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 19:42:07 GMT

Any morning is good for me

Re: Phone line problem

Gandalf — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 20:24:50 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @John_

I can see we've updated the support ticket 220786199 following your response.

Once you've had a chance to reply back, feel free to let me know and I'll be happy to make sure it's picked back up.

Re: Phone line problem

John_ — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 15:54:02 GMT

Seems fixed now, and my internet speed has gone up 3 fold albeit from a very low base!

Re: Phone line problem

TheMightyAJ — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 16:43:32 GMT

I'm glad to hear everything seems to be fixed now @John_ If there are any further issues then please let us know and we'll be more than happy to pick this back up for review.