Fault at exchange, Openreach won't look til mid July!

Foxy_Snob

Hi All

Long story short, have recently taken out BB and a phone line (didn't have an active landline as cancelled BT one 2 yrs ago) with Virgin, though through BT's line and exchange as no cable in my area.

Both phone and BB were due to be activated on 19th May. The phone was, and works.

The BB doesn't. After being fobbed off for many calls to Virgin, I'm told that there's a fault at the exchange, and that Openreach have given a review date of 10th July. :eek: This is a review date only, it won't neccessarily be resolved then. It also hasn't escaped my notice that this is a Saturday, so all in all, I'm not hopeful that I'll be up and running, even then.

I've been on the phone to Virgin today, to see if there's any way that can happen sooner, and they've apparently gone back to Openreach and been told no.

Anyone got any knowledge of these things? Can I hurry it up in any way? Can I contact Openreach direct and complain to them?

Any advice gratefully received!

Cheers

spike7451

You cant contact Openreach directly.Problem is you are'nt a BT customer so,in their eye's,the's no big rush.Now if you were a BT customer,it'd be done in a day or so.(I've experienced this first hand!)If the's no BBand it sounds like a Tie Pair problem,simple to fix.

Foxy_Snob

spike7451 wrote: »

You cant contact Openreach directly.Problem is you are'nt a BT customer so,in their eye's,the's no big rush.Now if you were a BT customer,it'd be done in a day or so.(I've experienced this first hand!)If the's no BBand it sounds like a Tie Pair problem,simple to fix.

Doesn't sound optimistic for having the review date brought forward then. Suppose I'll just have to make some poor soul at Virgin's life difficult until they pass the difficulty on to Openreach.
Tie Pair...??

penrhyn

Tie pair, refers to the connection between your incoming line to the exchange equipment.
A tie pair swap will move your connection along the MDF so it uses another port (hopefully working) on the ISPs DSLAM.

MDF Main distribution frame
DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplex.

A further problem is that BT's workers are revolting and may strike.

Foxy_Snob

penrhyn wrote: »

Tie pair, refers to the connection between your incoming line to the exchange equipment.
A tie pair swap will move your connection along the MDF so it uses another port (hopefully working) on the ISPs DSLAM.

MDF Main distribution frame
DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplex.

A further problem is that BT's workers are revolting and may strike.

Thanks for the explanation Huh, just as spike said, simple. 8 weeks to fix though :mad:

There're often openreach vans about when I drive through to my house. Might stop and accost one

iniltous

Lots of things dont make sense here... your phone is in and working but there is a delay on the broadband and VM say its an exchange problem and will be reviewed in July but, if the problem is inn the 'exchange' then this is nothing to do with Openreach, its either BTWholesale (if its a resold BT product) or their own broadband provider if they use there own kit ...you probably have been fobbed off, or not told the real problem.....if the problem does need Openreach then the problem isnt in the exchange, your line is probably not a Direct Exchange Line but uses some sort of network electronic maybe DACS or TPON/CMUX if this is the case then that could explain the lengthy delay...whats more there is no requirement for BT/Openreach to (at any cost) convert your line to an ordinary DEL, as that could cost thousands of £££, any other reason for such a long delay makes no sense....if Virgin use ther own kit for broadband and they have run out of broadband ports then they should tell you its their capacity problem.....if VM are reselling some BTWholesale broadband then the delay will be nothing like 6 weeks,

Foxy_Snob

iniltous wrote: »

Lots of things dont make sense here... your phone is in and working but there is a delay on the broadband and VM say its an exchange problem and will be reviewed in July but, if the problem is inn the 'exchange' then this is nothing to do with Openreach, its either BTWholesale (if its a resold BT product) or their own broadband provider if they use there own kit ...you probably have been fobbed off, or not told the real problem.....if the problem does need Openreach then the problem isnt in the exchange, your line is probably not a Direct Exchange Line but uses some sort of network electronic maybe DACS or TPON/CMUX if this is the case then that could explain the lengthy delay...whats more there is no requirement for BT/Openreach to (at any cost) convert your line to an ordinary DEL, as that could cost thousands of £££, any other reason for such a long delay makes no sense....if Virgin use ther own kit for broadband and they have run out of broadband ports then they should tell you its their capacity problem.....if VM are reselling some BTWholesale broadband then the delay will be nothing like 6 weeks,

Oh. Confused now - naturally blonde Both VM and BT (rang them after speaking to VM, just to confirm that Openreach do their exchange maintenance) tell me that any exchange fault is the responsibility of Openreach...?!?!

Not entirely sure what you mean by VM's "own kit" - do you mean my router? Or the wires and things that're outside my house? I'm pretty certain the exchange I'm on is entirely BT, does that help or have I got the wrong end of the stick entirely?

Ok, I'll ring VM tomorrow and re-query this with them. What should I ask?

Foxy_Snob

iniltous wrote: »

Lots of things dont make sense here... your phone is in and working but there is a delay on the broadband and VM say its an exchange problem and will be reviewed in July but, if the problem is inn the 'exchange' then this is nothing to do with Openreach, its either BTWholesale (if its a resold BT product) or their own broadband provider if they use there own kit ...you probably have been fobbed off, or not told the real problem.....if the problem does need Openreach then the problem isnt in the exchange, your line is probably not a Direct Exchange Line but uses some sort of network electronic maybe DACS or TPON/CMUX if this is the case then that could explain the lengthy delay...whats more there is no requirement for BT/Openreach to (at any cost) convert your line to an ordinary DEL, as that could cost thousands of £££, any other reason for such a long delay makes no sense....if Virgin use ther own kit for broadband and they have run out of broadband ports then they should tell you its their capacity problem.....if VM are reselling some BTWholesale broadband then the delay will be nothing like 6 weeks,

Oooh, forgot to mention a nugget of information. Ooops! Not sure whether it makes a difference or not...
The exchange is some distance away in a village about 6 miles by road. From the exchange, there is an 'extension' to another village. From that secondary box (sorry, not sure on correct term!), there is a further extension lead, which I'm at the end of. Does that change things?

macman

If you are 6m from the exchange I'm amazed you can even get ADSL broadband at all. What speed are you supposed to be getting on this Virgin National service?
Go to samknows.com and use the exchange mapping facility to get your predicted speed.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/mapping/mapping.php

Foxy_Snob

macman wrote: »

If you are 6m from the exchange I'm amazed you can even get ADSL broadband at all. What speed are you supposed to be getting on this Virgin National service?
Go to samknows.com and use the exchange mapping facility to get your predicted speed.

VM have said up to a meg and a half. Samknows is "Unable to find an address at this location" when I put in my postcode.

macman

Try putting in your street address instead of the postcode, i.e. Smith Street, Anytown. Then if it picks up the street, you can enter the house number.
Then try with this one:
http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome
If not a problem suggest you post your exchange name and postcode.
Can your immediate neighbours get ADSL broadband, if so what sort of speeds?