Most engineers ever involved? DSL speed issues progressed to line disconnection - Still not solv

[#1]

@Townman wrote:

@Gandalf,

Should not 

monitored by the Openreach Multiple Repeats Case Management Team

have negated the need for PN to escalate?  Or have these guys dropped the case now?

I'm not entirely sure what role the Openreach Multiple Repeats Case Management Team (I'll abbreviate this to OMRCMT if I mention this here in future) play. The BTW escalation has been accepted at team manager level.

We've been advised to progress the fault, we need to book another appointment but once booked they will escalate this with the Openreach Director's Service Office (DSO).

[#2]

Great news - DSO highest point of escalation is in sight.

[#3]

Not so great news (as a customer).

1. This has been accepted as a fault NOT in the property.

2. Therefore, the engineer does not need me to take ANOTHER day off work.

3. Therefore, the engineer can bloody well FIX the issue WITHOUT a booked appointment.

I'm not just increasingly frustrated, I am close to throwing in the towel on this issue.

I have done all I can to provide information. However, this information is sent to the DSLAM anyway. They just don't bother to log it. Agreed, logging all lines is expensive. But... Cmon. When you have a known issue line, MONITOR THE DAMN THING!

List of my responsibilities as a customer:

1. Pay my bill on time

2. Do not break any part of the BTOR owned infrastructure.

List of the responsibilities of Plusnet / BT / BTOR:

1. Provide working, reliable broadband at a speed which is usable.

Is there any value in asking about FTTP? 

We will try and arrange ANOTHER visit by an engineer. We must be over 25 visits now in the 6 months we have been here.

BTW, my earlier hopeful feeling was unfounded. Line drops abound, SNRM sitting around 10 but the allocated bits are all over the place.

[#4]

The problem might well be confirmed as not in the property but end to end testing requires access to both ends. The alternative is to break your line somewhere outside of the property... and hope after testing joining the tail end is not where the problem is.

Yes it is frustrating.

[#5]

Its a long line, is it really capable of any more than it is providing now?

For what it is worth, I found the old 2 Wire BT Business routers provided the best speeds and most reliable service on long lines. Still available on your favourite on line auction site.

Unless a few others sharing the same infrastructure also complain, then the DSO team are unlikely to link the issue - you may need to chat to your neighbours and group together complaints.

[#6]

Thanks, Mustrum!

I am aware it is a long line and have limited expectations, however, even with increasing the customer side SNRM to +5dB which is the maximum I can do I would expect the line to stay up consistently.

It doesn't.

Low speeds are not a terrible issue to me, but I quite often have to work from home and this makes my management increasingly concerned when I am "unavailable due to broadband issues - again".

Cheers,

Allan.

[#7]

---

@Dibblah wrote:

 Is there any value in asking about FTTP? 

---

The first check would be as previously advised - look at the "When can I get Fibre" site

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/index.do

Depending on what it says I think you can register an interest in faster service. If so, do so and then go door knocking to any neighbours in the same situation and get them to register.

If I recall correctly the Scottish Government have recently been speaking about a 100% superfast broadband target so there's hope for the future if nothing's happening at the moment.

Brian

Edit : Scottish site - https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/where-when/#

[#8]

Thanks. FTTP is a different offering - FTTC doesn't help at all since the cab is ~500m from the exchange and the line is on the order of 3.5km.

We're not offered FTTC on the postcode or line checker.

[#9]

@Dibblah

FTTP is a wonderful thing - I've been using it since November!!!

You need to check what the Scottish Digital site is saying for your house - if FTTC is not available due to distance they might, just might, be planning a FTTP installation.

If there are no plans (which comes up as "Exploring Options") then you need to Register an interest.

Brian

[#10]

Hi Allan.

Whilst I completely appreciate the frustration and inconvenience caused by repeated engineering visits, I'm afraid that that's the only course of action we have when line tests don't find a definitive cause of the problem.

In the past in a similar situation I've booked engineers leaving explicit notes for the engineer not to visit our customer but to investigate externally but the job was simply passed back to us as a missed appointment.

I can confirm that our suppliers have raised a DSO case ahead of the booked visit tomorrow afternoon.

I'm working lates until 8pm then so I'll definitely be able to follow up afterwards.

[#11]

"

Your cabinet is enabled for fibre, but you are too far from the cabinet to get an increased connection speed.

You are connected to cabinet number 2 on Coalburn exchange. 

We are working hard to bring faster broadband to as many homes and businesses as possible. You can read more about our plans here.

If you would like to keep up-to-date with our plans, you can register for our newsletter.  You can also search our FAQs if you still have questions."

[#12]

@Dibblah

While this doesn't tell you anything you didn't already know it at least confirms the system knows you can't get fibre broadband.

I see from playing about with the web site there is a "Keep me in the Loop" form - probably worth filling in and getting any neighbour to do likewise.

Only other thing you can do is to bug your local councillor and see if they know anything or can apply pressure.

Brian

[#13]

So, the engineer has been and replaced another section of cable - 0.4mm underground to 0.9mm overground. Went from 3,000 CRC errors a second (?) to 600, which is better, but still not within their acceptance criterion. Which is odd, since the prior engineers managed to close off the job...

He has apparently marked the job as incomplete and has said to expect another engineer tomorrow. Yay?

He also said that the line has once again had a profile applied - since we have a bit of new cable, is it possible to clear this and see if the havoc ensues again?

Cheers,

Allan.

[#14]

Hi Allan. I'm glad to hear that the engineer replaced replaced some of the cabling.

Our tests aren't showing the profile correctly so I can't establish whether it is banded or not, so I've reset your line anyway which will remove any banding there. Can you retest your speeds in about 15 minutes?

Also I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the engineer has passed the job back, advising to book another engineer appointment. However their notes do indicate that a hoist will be required next time and possibly temporary cables.

Let us know how your connection looks tonight.

[#15]

Finally caught it when the line was up.

ATU-C Vendor ID:                          Broadcom 163.167
ATU-C System Vendor ID:                   00,00,30,30,30,30,00,00
Chipset:                                  Lantiq-VRX200 Unknown
Firmware Version:                         5.8.0.11.1.1
API Version:                              4.17.18.6
XTSE Capabilities:                        0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0
Annex:                                    A
Line Mode:                                G.992.5 (ADSL2+)
Profile:
Line State:                               UP [0x801: showtime_tc_sync]
Forward Error Correction Seconds (FECS):  Near: 30267 / Far: 0
Errored seconds (ES):                     Near: 229 / Far: 84
Severely Errored Seconds (SES):           Near: 160 / Far: 44
Loss of Signal Seconds (LOSS):            Near: 15 / Far: 33
Unavailable Seconds (UAS):                Near: 13842927 / Far: 13842927
Header Error Code Errors (HEC):           Near: 16629 / Far: 1879
Non Pre-emtive CRC errors (CRC_P):        Near: 0 / Far: 0
Pre-emtive CRC errors (CRCP_P):           Near: 0 / Far: 0
Power Management Mode:                    L0 - Synchronized
Latency / Interleave Delay:               Down: Interleave (8.0 ms) / Up: Interleave (6.75 ms)
Data Rate:                                Down: 1.749 Mb/s / Up: 446 Kb/s
Line Attenuation (LATN):                  Down: 65.1dB / Up: 39.2dB
Signal Attenuation (SATN):                Down: 59.2dB / Up: 38.7dB
Noise Margin (SNR):                       Down: 9.6dB / Up: 11.4dB
Aggregate Transmit Power (ACTATP):        Down: 16.5dB / Up: 12.2dB
Max. Attainable Data Rate (ATTNDR):       Down: 2.372 Mb/s / Up: 640 Kb/s
Line Uptime Seconds:                      33
Line Uptime:                              33s