Abysmally Slow Internet

[#1]

Interesting situation here ... I thought that BTOR has FULL responsibility right up to the individual customer's test socket.

Where there is an internal DP and builder installed wiring to individual master sockets, who has the responsibility for addressing the gap?

Surely an issue such as this ought to have been detected at the time BTOR's new build team accepted the hand over from the builders?

[#2]

It looks like the internal wiring may be wired into the test socket, which would explain why the test socket didn't bypass the wiring. The engineer was unable to isolate the wiring, (from the notes) as it is all hidden in risers and cavity walls as well as going through roof space.

The BT Openreach new build team's responsibility would be to test the line to the boundaries of the building, the responsibility of the wiring would be the builders.

[#3]

@Gandalf,

This scenario appears to present complications to the definition of the "BTOR boundary of responsibility" and an ISP's need to have the EU test in the test socket - the accepted boundary.

In a building of multiple occupancy (as this one) where the internal to the building wiring is installed to individual dwellings, who owns the responsibility and where is the individual's test socket?

If the individual's test socket is in the individual's dwelling then surely BTOR is (having adopted the builder's wires) also responsible for the wiring from their internal DP to each master socket.  It is no different to the individual drop from the street DP and any ordinary house.

On the other hand, if the builder / dwelling occupier is responsible for said wiring, then any expectation that they can / should test in a test socket has no practical purpose, either the premise is flawed or the "test socket" has to be in the DP which one would expect to be inaccessible to any individual.

The BTOR new build test responsibility ought to be up to the consumer boundary, not the building boundary.

Where is an individual user such as this OP supposed to go with what is in effect a BTOR / builder boundary of responsibility scrap?  In such a situation there could be many parties involved - tennant, letting agent, land lord, builder, (BTOR?) sub contractor (etc) who need to be 'lined up' to sort this out ... whilst BTOR (again) slope their shoulders and duck their responsibilities, rather than they working with the builder to resolve the issue.

One would hope that a letter to the CEO of BTOR is not going to be required to get the right solution here?

[#4]

Had an inkling it was probably the building. Have heard today that the issue is not localised - new builds just one village over have also been wired wrong.

We've contacted our housing contractor and we've passed the issue onto them. Fully expecting some sort of recompense for this utter disaster of a building, because this is nonsense!

Thanks for all the support and help sorting this out to the best of your abilities, appreciate it. Gonna have to buckle down and do some shouting at people by the looks of it!

[#5]

You shout at whom?

This is a Plusnet responsibility.  BTOR are their supplier and they should get this fixed.

If there's a problem with the gas pipes to your meter, Centrica deal with it, they do not pass the problem back to the end consumer and tell them to go sort with the builder.  It's the same for electricity and water ... why does BT always think they can pass the buck?

[#6]

Dunno. Will see what comes of this within the next few days and update further, I guess?

[#7]

@Townman - I'm not sure it's a case of Openreach passing the buck.

The test socket is a usually a good check to bypass internal wiring, but in this case it appears the wiring had been wired to the back of the test socket which defeats the object of the test socket.

The internal wiring of a building would not really be Openreach's responsibility. An engineer would usually be able to isolate the wiring by installing an NTE5 with SSFP.

However, in this case, they were unable to access the wiring due to how the building is wired.

@aris - I appreciate it doesn't seem to be a good situation to be in. Please do let us know how you get on.

[#8]

Anoush,

I rather suspect from the descriptions provided that the BT circuits come into the shared building to an internal DP.

From there building contractor installed wires route to each flat / appartment and a NTE5 socket with a test socket.

The question to be tested is who owns responsibility for the wires between the internal DP and the consumer test socket? If I've understood the installation correctly - of course the wires in question go to the test socket, otherwise there would be no connection to the DP. Under the "rules of engagement" BTOR is responsible for the wires up to the test socket - no matter who installed them.

If the wires in question should be in the consumer side of the test socket, disconnecting them ought not to be a problem.

I'm half tempted to offer to go eye ball the installation myself...

[#9]

@Townman

BT SIN 349 actually states that the "Network Termination Point" doesn't have to be the test socket at the back of a master socket.

4.1 NTP Termination
The connection to the MPF at the NTP end can be either a BT Master socket or in the form of an Insulation Displacement Connection (IDC) cable termination.

I'm assuming that at least part of the problem here is that there is wiring going to other sockets connected to the incoming line somewhere other than at the master socket (star wiring). Presumably the Openreach person would have disconnected the problematic extension wiring if they could find and access where it was connected, which they say they couldn't.

It's even possible that merely disconnecting the bell wire would be a good enough solution for ADSL. Personally, I found that disconnecting the bell wire made a huge improvement, whereas subsequently getting rid of the star wiring made no further difference.

[#10]

UPDATE!
Housing association has, after a week of trying to do simple email correspondence, has sent an electrician.
He says nothing is wrong.

The end 🙄

Really not sure where to go from here, as apparently in one hand I've got BT claiming it's not their responsibility but that there IS definitely something wrong - had two engineers confirm this, and in the other hand I've got the housing association saying there is nothing wrong at all.

🤷‍♀️