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Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

geehawk
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Registered: ‎07-07-2016

Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

I've noticed that some (but not all) of the broadband drop outs I'm experiencing in recent weeks occur when the house phone is being used. Only when the phone is first dialled, and not for the duration of the phone call.

Do I report this to BT (phone line provider) or Plusnet (broadband provider)?Huh

Its a cordless phone plugged into master socket (along with the router) with filter. Cable comes in through wall from outside straight into the master socket, no internal phone wiring for extensions.

 

8 REPLIES 8
graemev
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Registered: ‎13-06-2018

Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

Since somebody is bound to ask.

What is your microfilter setup? All sockets going to a phone must go via a microfilter. (I hoping you know this already)

I have a mater socket with separate filtered and unfiltered outputs. Many people simple use a plug in device on each "wall socket" they have.

jab1
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Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

@geehawk to BT -it is a phone problem. Have you tried the Quiet Line Test - dial 17070, option 2?

John
geehawk
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Registered: ‎07-07-2016

Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

@graemev As I said (because I knew someone would ask 😉) I just have the master socket no other extensions and that socket has a filter, plugged in variety.

@jab1 I'll try that now .... quite noisy ... 

graemev
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Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

Ahh, if it's the plugged in variety ...I've had TWO of these fail over the years (in part why I switched to using the built in NTE5 type and now a 5C) in one case activity on the DSL side caused the phones to "trill" in the night.

(I kept of of the most recent broken one because friends were sceptical that they did fail)

 

That said, it sounds like you have line noise problems anyhow . ABTW, suggest yo repeat that quiet test with the "test socket" found behind the front plate of most master sockets (sometimes , behind 2 plates)

MauriceC
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Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

@graemev   Be prepared for a few rounds of 'Not our problem' tennis.

BT only contract to deliver voice down your telephone line, so if it's not affecting voice calls...............

Luckily you can hear lots of 'noise' on the line, so report it to BT as a voice problem NOT an internet problem.  It could avoid the potential problem.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

geehawk
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Registered: ‎07-07-2016

Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

 

I do have a couple of the plug in ones and have swapped it over a while ago with no improvement.

It is actually plugged into the inside socket, as the cover has been off since an engineer visit some months ago. He was looking for an intermittent drop out fault that failed to present itself on the day of his visit typically.

I'll try and get on to BT re the quality of the line, but their online tests lead me to do just what I've done and there is not much chance of a reply on their phone lines at the moment. I'm still trying to get through to point out an error on my bill, calls to 123 made when we were away on holiday weeks ago. Online research suggests this could be engineer activity ..

Cheers for the help.

graemev
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Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

FWIW. I had a long term noise issue. I made a point of keeping BT as my phone provider during this period.

I used to work for NTL and I was aware they authorising a "truck roll" was difficult ( costs money) for all non-BT ISPs (so BT Retail uses BT Wholesale) whereas BT just "phoned a friend" and it's all sorted.

HOWEVER. It became clear that all that had changed an now BT Retail had to now go though official channels and use system-to-system requests. THESE DID NOT WORK! So I had the fault found outside my house about 4 times (same fault) a "Dig" was requested and the time set ...then nobody turned up . BT Retail had requested BT wholesale do the "dig" , BT wholesale had come back for a cost approval ...and BT retail had no system to accept and approve that job.

So the fault just got closed. Called , started again , re-detect the fault , order a new dig ...same .   This repeated until some more senior staff member bypassed the process and instead ordered a new BOX (large manhole, a technician can work down ..expensive)  and the then BT retail guy could test & fix the connection..hurra. Then I switched to PlusNet as my Phone provider. My guess is Plusnet have been using these inter-company system for longer and while they will resist a truck-roll, they at least will at least see the request of approval to (pay for) dig etc.

geehawk
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Registered: ‎07-07-2016

Re: Some Broadband drop outs appear to happen when a phonecall is made.

Well my issue is becoming long term now. I tried different filter, no joy.

Eventually the line noise got so bad that the line went completely around 28th April. 

BT were very good (to give them their due) and an engineer was out next day IIRC. He identified a fault and said he'd have to escalate it to get wiring between poles fixed.

BT updated the fault with an estimated fix date of 1st May .... that was 3 dates ago with 16th May being the next estimate.

 

That said the line did make a reappearance on 2nd (ish) still noisy and broadband dropping frequently. After wind/rain it is worse.

I was thinking of swapping my phone line over to Plusnet so they were both in the same place, but could not get a simple question answered regarding the upgrade. Shame as it would have cost me no more in total, and Plusnet would have got 3 times the money out of me every month.

So currently BT might fix the line at some point, and my broadband is slow and intermittent but that's not Plusnet's problem if BT supply the line.

 

Meanwhile Gigaclear have just finished digging up the lanes round here installing fibre to premises. I have a POT 12" from my house ... I'm thinking my days with Plusnet (19 years .. okay that includes F9) might be up soon, although Gigaclears Trustpilot reviews are worse than Plusnets!!!