Bad BT line

[moonjiver]

(Well, PO Phones line anyway) Just wondered if anyone could shed some light on this. My landline has been active for two and a half years, no faults, no problems .. until this year. I was on the point of hooking up to the internet with broadband but came to a complete halt with that - the sound quality of calls started deteriorating, been getting steadily worse and now many of my calls and answerphone messages are obliterated by loud interference/static.

All the obvious tests have been done, different handset plugged in, TV unplugged, no other devices around which could cause the problem.

The BT guys came and renewed some of the cable just before the junction box (i.e. outside my window). Made no difference. It's intermittent, in fine weather or bad, and the phone becomes unusable for a while.

If I didn't want broadband set up, I wouldn't bother. My mobile calls cost a fraction of the landline charges!

[Derek Jempson]

A son-in-law of mine has exactly the same problem. He already has broadband and the line drops when the fault occurs. He has tried everything -replacing the router, cables, the lot, including a check by his broadband supplier, but still the problem persists. He suspects the BT cable from the street telegraph pole to his house. However, he is reluctant to ask BT to check the cable in case he ends-up footing the bill (BT are very good at turning their responsibility into the customer's). I fell foul of that once and had to pay for the line repair, even though the fault was on BT's side of the master socket.

[Kevin]

If you are experiencing noise interference with your broadband, check that every piece of equipment connected to your line has a micro-filter connected. This includes all phones, satellite television digi-boxes, faxes, etc. Without micro-filters you may get interference on your voice calls and/or problems with your broadband, including low speeds and disconnections.
You should be able to get these filters free from your service provider.

[moonjiver]

Thanks very much for the comments. I strongly suspect the telephone line across the street, we are in quite an exposed position and fifty yards from the shore. Remember those furious gales of 2014?

My weapon is that I need a broadband connection -which won't work well if the line is problematic. So, no resolution of the interference, no broadband deal! Will that cut much ice with them?!

[Derek Jempson]

Trouble is, you have to commit to a twelve or eighteen-month contract before broadband is supplied, so if your problem persists, you'll be spending a lot of time on the phone (if it works) to customer support. Your broadband supplier won't necessarily care that you are not getting the best out of their service and will probably blame BT anyway.

[moonjiver]

That's precisely the problem of course, I'm not keen to sign up unless they show some willing with resolving the interference issue.

I'm thinking of going for Plusnet (cheap and good reputation), thought about fibre optic etc. but it's not available in this area! They get you all ways .. Really wish the government would get much more strict - how can businesses be effective without efficient telephone/broadband systems? BT should be truly booted from behind ..

[moonjiver]

Well, I had a second visit from the BT engineer and he went off for an hour "to replace your equipment at the exchange" - I think he meant some of the connections routing calls to my number. Apparently some of the sections of the line are quite archaic (he even has to replace cloth-covered cable at times) - if it keeps on working they don't bother to renew it.

Time will tell if the bogies come back, the line seems clearer now. I completely lost several answerphone messages, even the "last caller" numbers, owing to severe interference last week and this.