topic Re: FTTP Problem in Full Fibre

FTTP Problem

Trialbygone — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 16:21:17 GMT

@Gandalf We seem to have had a similar issue to some other posters who you have been able to help on here eg https://community.plus.net/t5/Full-Fibre/FTTP-Fault/td-p/1888829 and https://community.plus.net/t5/Full-Fibre/Internet-status-connected-but-can-t-access-internet/td-p/1889512

We were on original Plus Net FTTP trial a decade ago. and service has worked well till Friday 16 September.
We have had no broadband now for 11 days now, despite numerous phone calls to support, a visit from an open reach engineer (Tues 20) and a visit from a Qube Engineer (Sat 24). tried three different routers, shared my phone camera to show a picture of the ONT box on the wall twice because there seems to be disbelief that we really do have FTTP.

I was told again (this morning) it would be fixed within 24 hours, but I am not holding my breath.
If its not fixed by 9 AM tomorrow - woulf it be ok to PM you Gandalf and ask you to look into it for me?

At my wits end.

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 16:40:19 GMT

Hiya, I'm really sorry for what looks like a nightmare you've had trying to get your FTTP connection back up and running. From what I can see your connection is affected by a known problem we have logged internally under ref IMT-8090.

Unfortunately our suppliers quality assurance helpdesk who have the power to fix are closed for the night but I'll get in touch with them for you when I'm in for you tomorrow after 11:30am. Really sorry again for this.

In the meantime I see we're upgrading your package to Full Fibre 300 which should complete tomorrow. I suspect this is in an attempt to fix the problem which might not fix it, so I'll still get in touch with our suppliers tomorrow.

As part of this change we're doing, your phone line and landline number is due to cease on the 28th September. I just wanted to make sure you're happy with this? Let me know if not and I'll see what I can do so you can keep your number.

Re: FTTP Problem

Trialbygone — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 16:52:53 GMT

Hi @Gandalf thank you for such a quick response. Yes we were told that upgrading should fix the problem, that was the main driver for upgrading.

But last I heard (this morning) was that because we had been on the original trial we would NOT be losing the landline. We have elderly relatives who know our current number off by heart so if there is anything you can do to help us keep our current landline phone number that would be great.

Many thanks again.

Re: FTTP Problem

SpendLessTime — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 17:02:01 GMT

@Trialbygone wrote:

Yes we were told that upgrading should fix the problem, that was the main driver for upgrading.

More up selling here to fix problems - interesting.

Re: FTTP Problem

bmc — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 17:06:01 GMT

@Trialbygone

Cancel the upgrade urgently if you want to keep your phone number.

As you're on the Trial you may well be able to port your number out to a VOIP provider if you want to re-contract for faster speed. But you need to get things organised first - @Gandalf is a wizard at this.

Brian

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 17:12:47 GMT

Heya, thanks for getting back to me @Trialbygone

No problem, that makes sense. I've cancelled the cease order, so your landline number is safe.

However as we've already changed your account type to Full Fibre, I'm afraid I can't reverse this to get your account back onto the trial product that includes a phone line, due to the way our systems work. Upgrading is essentially one way, and by upgrading I mean to full fibre as you can move between full fibre packages.

Unfortunately this means that you'll need to transfer your landline number to another provider as soon as possible as it's currently just live in the background with no account associated with it our side so we won't ever charge you for it again.

To make things easier what I can do is ask one of my colleagues to call you back to move both your FTTP service and landline number to BT as they offer a dedicated VoIP service called Digital Voice. Appreciate though that this option means leaving us which I wouldn't want to see especially after how long you've been with us so far.

Really sorry once again for what's happened but let me know what you think?

Re: FTTP Problem

RealAleMadrid — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 18:09:55 GMT

@Gandalf @SpendLessTime I'm afraid words fail me now. In my opinion it is an absolute disgrace the way this has been totally messed up by customer service agents who still do not appear to know anything about the problem (Incident ref IMT-8090.) Why isn't it known to them and why is an upgrade forced on customers when it won't fix the issue and cause even more problems🙄?

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 19:02:42 GMT

@RealAleMadrid

I've asked questions.

Additionally as part of the historic FTTP trial and the T's and C's which went with it, we only provided support on these forums. Encouraging customers to upgrade to our full fibre product means that it's easier to get help from us.

Agents are though likely only doing this so we can send a new router free of charge (bar P&P) but I agree that as this problem is logged as an incident, then it should be known to the agent who takes the call.

I'm not trying to take away the bad experience however as I have fed this back.

@Trialbygone I've spoken with one of my colleagues @bobpullen and we're seeing if we can get you back onto your previous account type so we can carry on providing your phone line, though no promises.

Re: FTTP Problem

Trialbygone — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 07:39:14 GMT

Hi @Gandalf

So to update you, this morning (day 12) my broadband seems to be back working. I assume that's the upgraded full fibre but that leaves me with the issue over my landline - which I would rather keep even if I have to move it elsewhere or need to revert (downgrade?) to previous account type.

Any advice you can give would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 08:37:57 GMT

Hi @Trialbygone

Excellent, I’m glad you’re up and running again! The upgrade must’ve corrected those wrong settings in our suppliers systems which stopped you from getting online.

I’ll see what I can do to revert the account type, but I’ve been thinking about this and honestly it may be worth moving your landline number away to another provider. While as far as I’m aware we have no plans to discontinue the trial, these accounts are still legacy.

If you move your number to another provider, you’ll be future proofing it, especially if you choose a digital voice solution (VoIP). Other Community people around here may be able to recommend providers to you.

Also by keeping your full fibre account type, you’ll be able to take advantage of our online report a problem tool which doesn’t work for FTTP trial accounts.

(I’m not in the office yet but will still look at reverting your account type later today in case you do want this)

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 14:51:19 GMT

Hi @Trialbygone,

I've looked into this further for you and I really don't think there's a feasible way to revert your account type.

Once an account is changed to full fibre, the landline phone service is completely removed from our systems, so the product change tool won't let us choose a copper (ADSL or FTTC) product to change it to. A trial account type is basically an ADSL or FTTC account with a bodged speed profile to allow for the higher speeds.

From what I can see the only instance we can move an account back to a copper product is during a house move as the system acts differently here but would require new orders to be placed which isn't possible.

Sorry but it looks like you'll need to transfer your landline number to another provider.

What are your thoughts?

Re: FTTP Problem

Trialbygone — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:27:16 GMT

Hey @Gandalf

Many thanks for looking into this. We will stick with PN FullFibre but start looking around for another provider to keep our landline (Probably VOIP). I guess the sooner we can do that the better the chance of success

Many thanks for your help.

Re: FTTP Problem

MisterW — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:45:19 GMT

@Trialbygone I'd certainly agree with that, a third party voip solution can give much reduced call costs (about 1.5p/minute). An ATA such as this http://www.grandstream.com/products/gateways-and-atas/analog-telephone-adaptors/product/ht812 (about £50) would allow connecting your existing phone(s). Porting your number to voip costs around £20 ( one off cost).

In the past I think most people on here who already use voip would have suggested Sipgate as a voip supplier, since they provided a free account and only charged for outgoing calls. I believe they have stopped providing new free accounts and are proposing £10/month with an included call allowance. An alternative would be https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/ who only charge £1.20/month rental and calls on a PAYG basis.

If you need more info then shout up , there's quite a few people on here who been using voip for some while.

@Gandalf I'm assuming you can delay the cease for long enough for any port to be completed ?

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:55:23 GMT

Hey @Trialbygone,

Sounds like a plan. I agree, as soon as possible is best as I don't know how long I'll be able to keep your landline service active without being associated to an account. I'll keep an eye on this for you and try to make sure we do keep it working for a reasonable length of time so you can have a look around for another provider.

@MisterW, yup I've cancelled the cease order as this would prevent another provider from taking over the number.

Re: FTTP Problem

Bluey — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 14:45:05 GMT

Hey Gandalf,

I am having the same issue as the OP. My FTTP connection hasn’t been working since Sunday. I have had an engineer out and a new router which hasn’t solved the problem. My router appears to be trying to respond to an authentication challenge but the end system isn’t receiving the response.

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 14:51:34 GMT

Hey, this should be fixed for you now.

Can you reboot your router? Let me know how it goes.

Re: FTTP Problem

Bluey — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 15:04:50 GMT

Thank you, its finally back up and running. You are a legend.

This issue really needs to be communicated to the helpdesk. I rang them today to tell them about your posts and fixes and was told they couldn't access the forums as it was "a different part of the business". If I hadn't looked the issue up we would likely be waiting way after the next Openreach engineer turns up to tell me everything is okay on my end.

But again, thank you. I can't believe how quickly you were able to resolve this.

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 15:25:07 GMT

Awesome and I'm really sorry for the trouble you've had getting your FTTP connection fixed.

The incident (ref: IMT-8090) logged is definitely visible to agents, but I've asked if we can communicate it out as we know it's a terrible experience, we're expending engineer resource and sending additional hardware due to this.

In the meantime as I'm involved in the investigation, I can say for sure that the right people are on it. They're looking for the root cause, with an aim to fix all remaining broken FTTP trial connections in a fell swoop.

One of the benefits of being involved is that I can arrange for individual fixes for this particular issue pretty quickly.

Also sorry if the agents you've spoken with gave that response about our forums as anyone can see the posts here.

If anyone else has the same issue, feel free to let me know.

Re: FTTP Problem

Trialbygone — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 11:29:50 GMT

Just thought I'd update this in case anyone else ends up with similar issues.

We ended up going with a&a (poor website, cumbersome way of doing an order necessitating using online banking but good price, fast response, good telephone support and able to preconfigure the phone and base station before sending them to us) having also shortlisted Voipfone.

We are now switched over to VoIP, the number porting worked well and we are now using the service to receive calls - but making outgoing calls on our Plusnet mobiles, for the cheapest all round solution. Plus elderly relatives have been able to continue calling without having needed to learn a new number, so they are happy too, which has made all the effort worthwhile.

Only thing that's left is there is still a dial tone on the old landline if we pick up the old phone. Do we need to do anything else to get it turned off?

Thanks again for all the help with both the internet and the landline issues - your help made a big difference to ensuring that we were able to emerge from a stressful situation with an internet service and our own phone number, which we were beginning to doubt would ever be possible!

Re: FTTP Problem

Gandalf — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 21:26:25 GMT

@Trialbygone, cheers for the update!

I’m glad to see the port went well. As a silver lining to the experience, at least you’re ahead of the curve and have your phone number off the aging copper network.

It’s normal to hear dial tone on a stopped phone line, but you won’t be able to make or receive calls. There’s a dial tone so it’s easy to reactivate it remotely if needed. It’ll remain that way until an engineer decides to either unplug it or use the line to connect a neighbouring property.

No problem at all for the help, I’m happy it’s all worked out in the end and let me know if there’s ever anything else you’d need help with.