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Underground Line Replacement

houlton23
Grafter
Posts: 268
Registered: ‎22-05-2011

Underground Line Replacement

Hi all,
I'm currently dealing with a fault with one of my referral's (username: xxxxx) connection.
The actual fault is intermittent noise on the line which is having catastrophic consequences for the BB, as you can probably imagine.
BT were sent out on the 17th to investigate, and I was there too. He tested the line and he (amazingly) heard the noise before it vanished.
A test on his little magic box from the BT manhole (or whatever its called) outside the front door showed a pass on all tests and showed an 'AC Balance' of 63 (which I am told is brilliant for broadband).
A repeat of the test from where the line enters the property showed an AC Balance of 49 (1 below the pass threshold of 50). From this we decided to try the spare pair in the underground cable, which returned similar results.
He then pronounced the underground cable running from the manhole to the house (all 4-5 meters of it) knackered.
He said that BT would need to send some letters to get permission to dig up the garden and that we would need to speak to plusnet about getting this done.
I mentioned this in the ticket (#45244751) and got the reply that "BTs systems are saying that no further work is needed at the moment. I can also see on our systems that there has only been 2 disconnections PPP drops in the 6 days since the engineers visit with none in over 72 hours."
Obviously this means the fault is fixed...  Roll_eyes
I repeated myself and was then told that "The upstream errors have increased significantly [and therefore] will request removal of all equipment and then re-test to try and identify if internal wiring/equipment issue."
At this point I kinda got bored of trying to get the message through to the faults team that the fault is not with the CPE, so I came on here and started typing Smiley
My question now is what do I / Plusnet / BT need to do to get the cable replaced?
Alex Smiley
adie:green removed other customers account name.
18 REPLIES 18
Luzern
Hero
Posts: 4,823
Thanks: 872
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Sorry to interrupt Is it really wise to print someone's user name here? IMO that's not good security.
No one has to agree with my opinion, but in the time I have left a miracle would be nice.
lexusuk
Grafter
Posts: 567
Registered: ‎20-10-2009

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Hi houlton23,
I've tested the line in question and can see a 3 days 15 hours solid connection at 2.6Mbps which is over the line speed estimate.  I can also see that the line errors are within limits.  This means that if there is any issue with the line then it is not service affecting at the moment.  I would recommend to monitor the line over the next few days and to re-raise the fault if you see any further drop outs.
houlton23
Grafter
Posts: 268
Registered: ‎22-05-2011

Re: Underground Line Replacement

I'm back Alex Smiley
The burst of noise has happened again, this time sending the sync shooting down to 320kbps, and as you can see from the attached picture, leaving a 25 odd db margin when the noise event has finished.

I also attached a BT Speedtester.

Please can you get something started on this ASAP as it is crazy. And please don't read this on monday and say that the line has been stable for 2 days and the fault has gone..
Alex Smiley
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Alex (and all the other staff who monitor these forums) work Monday to Friday. Have you raised a fault?
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
SarcasticGuy1
Grafter
Posts: 70
Registered: ‎27-11-2009

Re: Underground Line Replacement

I feel you pain!
I've had what sounds like a similar problem since 22nd June. I raised a thread about it here. Although I couldn't/can't hear any noise on the line.
It's been about 9 weeks now and I can't be sure it's fixed. I don't remember any occurrences in about 1 week, but that doesn't mean it's fixed, just that it's been a good week. I'll need to see how it goes.
But it can get frustrating when Plus.net tell you that it hasn't occurred for 2 or 3 days and so the line now appears stable. I was even told that it's normal for any ADSL line to disconnect 1 per day and when getting drops from ~3000kbps sync to ~1200kbps sync that "Your speed is good at the moment, and the disconnections don't seem to be affecting this."
In 9 weeks I've had 4 Engineers sent out that not unsurprisingly didn't detect the intermittent fault. The BT engineers, in fairness, were as helpful as they could be given the circumstance. It did get annoying the amount of time Plus.net wanted to spend monitoring my line and also the response times to my ticket updates (usually 2 or 3 days). This didn't make it feel like much progress was being made.
I don't doubt that Plus.net were/are trying to help, but it didn't/doesn't really feel like they cared. It also feels like they don't really want to do anything and are hoping that if they drag it out long enough it'll either sort itself out or I'll get bored and leave.
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Hi there,
Sorry to hear it's still ongoing, we can definitely see the drops and will continue to push the fault for you. There'll be an update on the ticket soon.
houlton23
Grafter
Posts: 268
Registered: ‎22-05-2011

Re: Underground Line Replacement

@Matt
Was the update on the ticket for @SarcsticGuy1 or my referalls ticket?
Just asking as I can't see an update on the ticket Sad
Alex
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Hi Alex,
Apologies, the update was for SarcasticGuy1. I've just had a look on the account that's linked to your forum ID and can't see any tickets regarding referrals on there - any chance you could post a ticket ID please? I'll take a look as soon as I can.
houlton23
Grafter
Posts: 268
Registered: ‎22-05-2011

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Matt,
I did originally post the username that the fault ticket (#45244751) was linked to in the OP but this was removed by the mods. If you need it then let me know and I'll PM you it or something.
Alex Smiley
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

For staff - username is shown in the reported post
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Hi there,
I've had a look at the fault and it seems we need to confirm the fault's still apparent with the router in the master socket and everything else from the line, as it looks like it could be a faulty port that'd need a lift and shift or possibly a tie pair modify to sort. Having said that though, they've currently been connected for over 20 hours following the previous connection of over 3 days. That's on a connection profile of 2Mb as well, so it doesn't look like the speed has been substantially reduced.
If it's still happening with the router in the master socket please let me know and I'll get it kicked back to our suppliers for more investigation.
houlton23
Grafter
Posts: 268
Registered: ‎22-05-2011

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Matt,
There are no other sockets in the house so the router ha always been connected to the master socket.
Also, I doubt that it is a faulty port as the engineer tested the line upto the manhole outside and it was fine, so the fault is the section on line between the manhole and the master socket.
We can get a lift and shift or TPM done if you want but I highly suspect it will have little benefit.
Alex Smiley
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Understood, but given the lengths of connection is the fault still apparent? If so we can push this back and request the fix, but as I said the latest connection is well over 20 hours and the one previous was over 3 days.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Underground Line Replacement

Are the problems weather dependant?
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)