Repair lasted 5 weeks this time!

[#1]

We live in the country about 3 km from the exchange to which we are connected by copper wire.  In the past 3 years we have had phone/internet problems which have been due to a bad joint in the line (a different joint each time).  The joint is fixed and all is back to normal until the next time.  That next time is today which is rubbish considering it was last fixed on 20 Aug.  Clearly the very old cable running to the exchange is past its use-by date.  Anyone have any idea how to get Openreach to run a new cable?
We will now go through the routine with the help desk - connect to the test socket etc etc etc.  Then we will wait 3 days for a line test which will show nothing so Openreach will be contacted and we will wait another week until someone comes along and tells us we have a bad joint on the line - they will toddle off and fix it - all will run normally then it will all fall apart again.  Then it'll be another 2 weeks farting about until the next temporary repair.  And so on.
Do Openreach have any obligation to replace crumbling infrastructure?  Any ideas how to sort this out?  It's like living in a third world country.  High Speed Rural Broadband?  Ha!  What a joke

[#2]

Hi there,
I'm sorry to hear you've had some repeat issues with this.
Unfortunately our suppliers aren't obliged to replace the cable and we're unable to force them any way into doing so.
Common sense would dictate that if this has been done a number of times replacing the length of cable would be a good idea.
As with everything there's up and downsides to doing that, the main thing being that cable replacement requires planning, often needs line plant work (for excavations), road closures and temporary traffic lights, all of which can take a long time to progress.
From checking your account I can see only one fault report relating to this, so let me know if this is something you've maybe had to broach with a previous supplier as that could add weight to is requesting a more permanent solution.
Incidentally line tests at the moment aren't showing any issues at all so please let me know how this problem is manifesting itself at the moment and we'll take things from there.

[#3]

Bizzarely, the fault seems to have corrected itself.  On the previous 3 occasions there was a quick, irreversible decline in service until such time as the line was fixed by Openreach.  The line is now stable again and the phone not noisy.  Thanks for your reply above.  I shall keep my fingers crossed that the line remains stable - the longest we have had a stable line was about a year so really our annual visit from Openreach should be many months away!!!

[#4]

Quote from: JASLincs

It's like living in a third world country.

It really, really isn't.