Crackling phone line & internmittend FTTC dropout...

[#1]

Seemed to start yesterday, this morning I've done diagnostics of unplugging line cables, trying different phones on the line, testing via the test socket, even going as far as twiddling the A & B wires on the back of the socket itself (yes, I know that side is Openreach's side, but I'm more knowledgable about telephone systems & wiring than your average customer), and no change, crackling is still present no matter what...

Usually this is the junction box up the street where the wires are yanked out and crammed back in, common fault on this street, I can't do any more checks myself so need the help of the Openreach linesmen and his tricorder...

[#2]

So have you reported a fault?

[#3]

I believe I did with this thread, given online tools won't give any results other than "Something went wrong" when trying to do a line check, and I can't be bothered waiting on hold, so it's reported here and I can get on with my day...

[#4]

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@twocvbloke wrote:

...online tools won't give any results other than "Something went wrong"...

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It often still raises a ticket anyway. Anything here? -

https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=search

[#5]

Nope, no tickets there, the test tool just conks out, "Oops, something went wrong" and tells me to call the 0800 number, get something similar when testing with the BT wholesale thing too...

[#6]

The days of PN picking up faults on here seem long gone. At best you might get a "Together with our blah blaf"

If the tool is not raising a ticket, then you can raise one via faults.plus.net.

[#7]

Seems that doesn't work either, not sure if it's just a general fault on their end or cos I'm currently tethered to my mobile as the line's conked out again, but it's the same thing, an error occurred, contact us, blahblahblah.......

Also can't seem to do anything else as there's another error stating I can't change anything at the moment as there's a problem with my next billing date, which I don't get but that's not the main issue here...

[#8]

Seems I did a derp with the billing date thing, logged in under my pre-vodafone username & pass, and was trying to do the fixes via that, time to try again with the current ones....... 🙄

[#9]

Okay, that worked, need to go through my saved passwords list and remove some old ones it seems!!!

[#10]

Thanks for getting in touch with us @twocvbloke 

I'm sorry to see you're having issues with your line. I've tested your line and predictably the tests aren't showing any issues. Line tests are a bit hit and miss if a line's crackly due to the intermittment nature.

I've just added a reply to the fault ticket you've raised, if you could respond by going Here (You'd need to be logged into your account first before clicking on that link otherwise I believe you'll just get an error) then post back after, we'll make sure that's picked up for you and the engineer's booked in as soon as we can.

[#11]

Ticket responded to, just an annoying fault as it seeming comes and goes with moisture in the air, even at one point earlier today the uncle called and the broadband conked out with the obligatory loud crackling on the call...

[#12]

Well the engineer is booked fr tomorrow, but this evening, the line conked out again, and a workaround was found, just taking the wired phone off hook a few times seemed to kick some life into the line, enough to get the modem to reconnect, speeds are slow, but better than nowt!!!

[#13]

And the fella's been, fault was chafed wires due to a zip-tie wearing through and breaking the insulation (and the wires snapped the moment he pulled them out!) up the pole outside the house plus some lovely green corrosion on the terminal block, so all's sorted now, broadband's back up to 50Mbps sync and the line is quiet again... 😊