What should i ask the BT Engineer ?

[#1]

Hi All, next Tuesday i have a BT Engineer turning up to check up on my BT Line which has been unused for probably 20 years !, that is i estimate the time i have been with NTL World later to become Virgin Media.
I am soon hoping to leave Virgin Media and use my BT line to get a Plus Net broadband (and phone service).
I have a sneaking suspicion that when i laid the patio in front of my house that i ACCIDENTALLY damaged my BT Line where it goes into the brickwork, with a sharp spade !!!!.
So i am hoping the BT man will come clean and replace the wire if it is damaged at all, CAN THEY ACTUALLY DO THIS ?
So in preparation for this Event next Tuesday i am asking the Forum members, what i should say and/or talk about with the BT engineer chappie, AS IF i know what i am talking about !!!
What jargon can i use to find out if my aged BT Line is up to the job to get me around 20mb on the speed meter, sod the phone line, i am happy using my mobile, LOL.
Oh yes and i am only 300 metres from the BT telephone exchange so i am expecting great things from "Plus Net"
Tim

[#2]

First thing to ask is do you take milk and sugar in your tea/coffee  and help yourself to these chocolate digestives!
Are they actually coming to connect it up?
If the cable is cut he will know about it very quickly... they will probably have done a line check at the exchange, so you may not need to say anything. Unless you managed to short the cable when it was cut.
I would play dumb and not mention the patio work, let them figure out what to do.

[#3]

Perhaps an obvious question but have you checked that your exchange is enabled for ADSL2+?
You might find it useful to check the route your line follows to the exchange. Presumably it goes straight to the exchange and not via a cabinet? Are you actually on the same road?

[#4]

Things may have changed in the last 10+ years, but when my ADSL was initially installed there was an issue where the drop-wire from the junction box on the outside wall had been damaged by the builders who put in our porch, and our telephone service was working intermittently. At the time, ADSL installation required an engineer visit; when the ADSL engineer tested the line he detected a break, called up one of his colleagues, and they ran a new drop-wire and (apart from some minor issues) the ADSL has worked well to this day, initially at 500kbps, upgraded through 1000kbps to 2000kbps, then the full 8128kbps on ADSL Max, now synching at around 17500kbps on ADSL2+.
If the engineer's visit is to install a telephone service, then he is quite likely to replace the drop-wire, as the alternative would be to dig up your patio to repair the cable, which may well not be possible.

[#5]

Thank you lads, When i changed from BT to VM a long time ago, no BT person came along and actually disconnected anything in the house LOL,  The cabinet is between me and the exchange if that helps, i can see the exchange from my front door across our Park, which has recently been ruined by an enormous concrete Skate Board park for the "youths" to daub there graffiti on !!!.
Oh yes it is ADSL2+ enabled  "MK45 1QH" i can't remember where i went to, to find that out LOL.
What actually is a DROP LINE ?, where would/should it be routed if i DO get a new one ?.
I was hoping i should perhaps find out more about the terms you people use, when answering posts in the forum, when people are critiscising the speed of there Internet ?
Thanks again for your Input on my question, and i always offer Tea/Biscuits when any Proffesional arrives, this BT is going to be the most important of them to arrive for a long time, i really enjoy using the Internet, sod the phone  LOL..
Tim

[#6]

A drop line is the telephone cable that goes from a telegraph pole to a property. However it looks like your cabling is underground so you won't have one. The main terms you find used on the forums are router stats which are sync speed, attenuation, and signal to noise ratio margin (often called simply noise margin). The Kitz website provides a great resource for understanding what these are (and much more). However until your broadband is set up you won't know what the values are.
If you put your post code into the Kitz ADSL checker (I doubt your phone number will be recognised until you have one from BT Openreach) you will get quite a bit of generic information for your potential connection, collected from reliable sources. That suggests your line might be around 500 metres long assuming it follows the roads.
The Kitz information shows FTTC is due to be enabled in the exchange at the end of May. I wouldn't get too excited about that - such dates are a movable feast for one thing but it's cabinet dates that matter. Another cabinet would have to installed near your existing cabinet for starters. For now it would be appropriate to consider where you want your master socket to be installed. For FTTC it needs to have a power socket close by (for the FTTC modem) and that modem needs an Ethernet connection to a router. Your existing cable router might be suitable for that.
Being able to plug your ADSL2+ modem into the master socket and run an Ethernet cable to your PC is also desirable. Is a set-up like you currently have for cable broadband feasible?

[#7]

thanks for all that info buddy, no we don't have telegraph around here LOL, it is all underground, yikes !, so i may have to pull the patio up if the wire is damaged, but it shouldn't be too difficult i only laid it on sand on a black sheet (which hasnt done a very good job at keeping the weeds down !)
Although i suppose my best plan of action is to say the previous owner put the Patio down  LOL.
So would they be able to pull out the old inner cable/wire and replace it with a new one ?, where i clobbered it with the spade, i can see i cut through a kind of protective! outer sleeve and i can't actually see if the inner cable is damaged at all !
Oh yes i am well sorted out, for the positioning of the new Modem/Router near a power supply. thanks.
Thanks for the links to the Kitz website.
tim