Can PN tell me if my fibre is active OR if there's a problem with the wiring

[#1]

Hi

I have a ticket #131520824 for the house move and the ticket's been closed but it had some contradictions in the communication e.g. both these comments were added on Tuesday:

This is to confirm that your order is in progress and this is due for completion on the 16/09/2016 at any point up to midnight

The order to provide telephone and broadband on your new line has completed. All of your account details have been updated and so you should be able to connect.

As of this morning the power light is still orange or red, and the broadband light is flashing orange or red (I'm colour blind so I find it difficult to tell the difference). So has it been active since Tuesday or will it not be active till midnight tonight?

Any techies at PN reading this - I need some way to know, from a portal perspective, when the fibre is definitely active at Plusnet's end.

I've already tried three different modem cables (including one that worked in the previous house) and two VDSL faceplates (both newish and one of which was in use at the old house). The phone works fine. There are some other phone points in the house but they're all disconnected so at the moment we only have the master socket in use.

So I need to know when the router should be able to connect because there is no point investigating the cabling, VDSL faceplate, master socket or exterior cabling if it won't be activated till midnight!

[#2]

As of this morning there has been no change on the router and faults.plus.net is still saying the broadband is associated with the phone number at the old house (tel 2852) and says the house move is still in progress).

This is getting silly.

New house has new line (tel 9202) and THAT is the one that needs fibre.

The old house was rented and has a direct line to the exchange so it cannot get fibre. The old number (2852) HAS to stay with that house, it's a stipulation in the tenancy contract. We do not own that house or the line or the number, the landlord does.

Our new house has a new number (9202) and we own that house with that line.

Has Openreach ballsed this up again? If so then you need to resort to Father Ted cow analogies to explain to them the difference between a previous rented address which keeps the old phone number for the next tenant and can't get fibre, and a new address which needed and has already got its own number, and CAN get fibre.

If the order is complete can you please update faults.plus.net database and run some diags on 9202 line and let me know the result if it is FTTC enabled, so I can then start to figure out if it's the router, the faceplate, the cabling or the copper from house to cabinet.

[#3]

Update (this is all on the current ticket by the way:

The address and phone number misreporting issue is now fixed but we still have no fibre connection.

BT Openreach were working near a cabinet and cabling near me over the weekend. That cabinet is quite new and, I'm told, is the one my next door neighbour is connected to - oddly this cabinet has no number on its front and it doesn't show up on Codelook or Kitz checkers either but you can now see it on Google Street View.

One of the BTOR engineers I spoke to said he doesn't do the domestic stuff, only the trunk cabling, but after I explained the problem all he suggested was "I wouldn't know where to start mate, try logging it as a faulty telephone line not a broadband issue" - seriously? You're a telecoms engineer and you have NO IDEA AT ALL?!

No wonder small consultancies are springing up all over with people who actually do know how to do this stuff properly.

My line is connected to a Cabinet labelled P41, but either the new cabinet or Cabinet P39 is a possibility for the fibre as both are slightly closer to the house.

Bizarre fact: if I plumb my number into BT Wholesale's checker it says "Exchange IRVINE STANECASTLE is served by Cabinet 41". Well done BT, because that's Irvine, Scotland. LOL. Can't even get the country right on their systems. Telecoms troubleshooter acquaintance of mine sniggered when I told him and said he gets that all the time.

I have now tested 3 confirmed working routers (one supplied by a Plusnet reseller who has a stock of fully tested kit for emergency swapout), 4 microfilters, 2 vdsl2 faceplates (both confirmed working before we moved), 3 tested rj11 cables.

All combinations of the above are telling me there is no evidence of any fibre / adsl signal on the line - routers say DSL is not activated at all. No inbound traffic is being detected on the dsl or wan ports.

These tests are direct from the test socket on the master socket with all other devices (homeplugs, analogue phone handsets, wired bridge) disconnected.

So I would say at this point me and my contactws have already ruled out internal kit, master socket, copper to the poles (no sag, acceptable attenuation), and copper from the poles to the underground ducting passes a visual inspection - it's either the connection to the cabinet or the connection from the cabinet to the exchange that's the problem.

So whose butt do I have to kick to get BT Openreach to do the relatively simple bit of checking their own work?

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Hi @tstaddon, apologies for the delayed response.

Your orders are complete and I can see you have now raised a fault with us. We'll aim to provide an update on the ticket as soon as we can for you.

In regards to the wrong exchange coming back on dslchecker, this could just be a discrepancy on our suppliers database. I'll also make sure this is flagged up with our suppliers to investigate further.

[#5]

Apologies for the late response - and thanks Harry.

An engineer visit is in the process of being arranged. How do BT Openreach normally contact customers to arrange a time and what is their SLA for making that contact?

Internet access and cellphone signal at home is difficult (not an issue at work though) so mobile, SMS and email are the best options for contacting me. On the day they would be better off contacting me on the land line.

We're currently borrowing the neighbour's wifi connection to get by in the evenings, but the signal strength is a problem; a stable connection is only possible if we're sat on a chair against the back wall of the living room. Mobile Data allowances are maxed out already.

I have seperately raised the question of whether or not the FTTP trial is a viable option - we live ~425m from the town's main exchange so in theory it'd be a short run.

[#6]

The BT Number checker will tell you if FTTP is available.

[#7]

The BT checker says FTTP on Demand is available (and well done PN because BT have already fixed the misreporting of the exchange!).

[#8]

@tstaddon

Plusnet do not do "FTTP On Demand", no consumer ISP does if fact and very few business ones. It has massive costs for installation and is a 3 year contract , the Openreach price list from 2014 https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=0WyIM7tTGGguc...

[#9]

Good point - and it's why I asked the question when I did.

Last week the BT checker was telling me that my local exchange is in a town in Scotland when I gave it my number and postcode (I live in West Yorkshire and have an area code specific to the town I live in!), while also saying FTTPoD was available. At the same time, other checkers said neither FTTPoD nor FTTP was available from this exchange.Ambiguous.Anyway - still no contact from BT yet about a time for the engineer to come round.

[#10]

Well, it turns out the engineer who initially signed the fibre provisioning was done had connected it up to the wrong port in the cabinet, provisioning a totally empty property with my fibre. For posterity I put the correct port details on the ticket.

Took all of 15 minutes to fix, but I do like being right!