A1024 labels and arc welding woes

[#1]

I've just had another ADSL line put in at "minimum 3mb" I'm getting about 1.2mb data rate on the BT wholesale tester, that is when  it will stay up (three different routers, cables, nothing esle attached etc.).

On the same site (different DP) our other line was good for about 17 (when on ADSL).

Long story cut fairly short, I traced the line back to an openreach distribution point that looks like a Xmas tree, bits hanging off other bits suspended only by cable ties, boxes not closed and three A1024 tags on it, the most recent being 2013 going back to 2008.

On the same site there is an Agricultural engineer that uses some serious welders.

This is my problem:

1 the cables show years of neglect by OpenReach

2 the other  lines to our building unconnected to the exchange sound like an arc welder is direclty connected (some of the time)

3 I will lose the the will to live if I have to explain this situation through various levels of support with simple checklists.

What I think is happening is that the lines are in such a bad shape they are prone to pick up from the arc welder, they may also be suffering corrosion or even shorting in the DP (one line to the local DP is noisy all the time).

I've moved the router to a UPS to try and reduce the chance of any mains born interference but I know this current situation will just not work for us, I want to give OpenReach a chance before I look at killing this pointless line.

One reason I got this extra line was so that I could use it while I get noise on the main FTTC sorted (fails quiet line tests), so far it has been a catalogue of failure from the copper side (Plusnet have been good but they don't sort the physical lines).

[#2]

Hi there, 

Yes it's perfectly possible especially if parts of the cables are exposed or damage that the welding equipment is causing interference on the line. 

We need to get an engineer out so we can start looking into this, it may take some investigation and them reporting back to a specialist REIN team (who deal with radio/electrical interference faults) but we can see evidence of the connection dropping frequently so let's get the ball rolling. 

Can you get a fault reported over at http://faults.plus.net and let me know when you have?

[#3]

Thanks for the response, I'll go through the troubleshooter again when they are welding, right now the voice line is OK and the ADSL is staying up with S/N of about 15db synced at 2266105, it drops below 10 just before giving up (the one time I happened to be looking).

BTW I'm using a tone tracer to detect noise on the unused pairs (to BT sockets from previous company's use), right now it is fairly quiet so no pick-up and things are stable.

I'll buy some new filters too so I've done my housekeeping right up to the master socket, I've tried a few but none are brand new.

This estate has always been bad for lines, we had a period of low occupancy when things were OK, once the pairs were used up again things started to fail.

[#4]

OK, thanks, do let us know here once you've been able to report the issue. 

[#5]

I swapped out the DSL filter for another one today, no change.

I have raised a fault now.

Wanted to just swap out that filter again after one of the three previous tried was faulty on the landline side.

Thanks for your help.

[#6]

Cheers for doing that. I've raised what's known as a damage report to Openreach to investigate the exposed wiring at the DP. The response time should be within the next 3 hours.