Problems with EE - dead phone line

silvertree

I got moved over to EE from Orange with the bb and home phone and am having problems with the phone line. It is completely dead, though the internet works fine. I don't know exactly when this happened as to tell the truth we dont really use the phone, we have free minutes on our mobiles but if we are paying for it I want it up and running! I have checked a different phone in the socket, removed the filter and the usual things that get suggested. Annoyingly, we live in a new build so there is no master socket we can test. Its outside in a grey openreach box.

The issue is that I am coming to the end of my contract with Orange/EE and I rang for my MAC code and they offered me a much better deal than I am currently on. So I said that if the phone line issue is resolved within the 7 day cooling off period then I will continue with EE, otherwise I would have to cancel the contract.

Every time I try to speak to an engineer about the problem they say they will test the line then, oops, sorry, the system is down, I will ring you back (they dont) or ring back in 3 hours. I have emailed too but of course no response.:( Should i take this as a warnign and get the heck out of there?!:eek: Or is anyone aware of any recent issues with EE, is it worth sticking around to see if they will get it sorted? I dont want to get stuck in a new contract with a company if they are just there fobbing you off.

Good advice appreciated. I hate all the switching companies malarkey but it has to be done...!

brewerdave

1. Technically you can get b/band thru the phone line EVEN if one of the two wires necessary for voice calls is damaged - have you got more than one socket??
2. Suggest you get an independent telecom engineer in to check the house internal wiring first; if you persist with EE they will only send a BT Openreach man who will check as far as the external NTE5 for free; any work in the house will be chargeable and BT charge way more than a local independent !!
3. Get away from EE/HORRANGE as fast as you can!!

macman

Switching providers will not magically fix a local line fault, it will still be there.
Any new build should have a modern NTE5 master socket, are you sure?

graj

I'm having a very similar problem with Orange.

For the past couple of days my broadband has been very slow, on speedtest I usually average 10Mbit down 1Mbit up but in the last 3 days I have had down speeds of between 0.2-0.4 and less than 0.2 up speeds. The connection also drops a lot where it will work for a couple of minutes stop for 30 seconds and then start again.

I was patient for a couple of days in the hope that the fault would correct itself (somehow). I was ok with the slow speeds but the constant dropouts started to become a pain and when I went to do a line test I found out that my phone line was dead (I tested a second phone to confirm that it wasn't the fault of my phone).

So now I'm in the situation where I have broadband (albeit ridiculously slow) but no phone line. I don't really know who to call about this BT or Orange? This feels like a fault with the line and I'm leaning towards getting in contact with BT. Weirdly I had a similar problem early last year where both my phone line and broadband stopped working abruptly one day with no previous problems and an engineer from BT came on the same day and literally fixed the problem in less than a minute.

I initially wanted to post this in the internet access section but when I saw that OP had a similar issue I thought that I would post here rather than start a new thread.

macman

If you have a line fault then you contact your line rental provider-you don't say who that is. Regardless of whether it's Orange or BT Retail, it's BT OR who come out and fix it. You can't contact OR direct. Calling BT Retail will be pointless unless you are their customer.

notbritishgas

macman wrote: »

Switching providers will not magically fix a local line fault, it will still be there.
Any new build should have a modern NTE5 master socket, are you sure?

Openreach had a period when they fitted external NTE's, I think that has now been dropped. If you google "external nte" you will get the picture.

Perhaps OP's installation was carried out during that period.

I do not know but presume that after the external NTE all sockets within the house would be extension sockets not NTE5A or master sockets. This could prove difficult if you wanted to plug a phone or modem into the NTE test socket for fault test purposes.

graj

Whoops that was my bad.

Home broadband and phone are with Orange.
Line Rental is with BT.

In your opinion, does my problem sound like it could be a fault with the line?
If so I should get in contact with BT correct?

macman

graj wrote: »

Whoops that was my bad.

Home broadband and phone are with Orange.
Line Rental is with BT.

In your opinion, does my problem sound like it could be a fault with the line?
If so I should get in contact with BT correct?

Yes, it's a BT issue-nothing to do with Orange. If you have done the tests you describe and tested from the BT test socket (behind the master socket faceplate), then it's a line or exchange issue.

graj

A strange thing happened when I got back home in the evening, my phone line was working fine while the adsl still wasn't up to speed. I did a line test and I couldn't hear anything.

This morning when I tried the phone it wasn't working but a couple of hours later it seems to be working fine (line test was repeated while plugged into test socket with same result as last time).

As of this moment my phone works but my adsl is slow and still has dropouts. When I call BT is there anything specific that I should mention because this seems pretty weird.

brewerdave

macman wrote: »

Switching providers will not magically fix a local line fault, it will still be there.
Any new build should have a modern NTE5 master socket, are you sure?

...My daughter's new build in 2008 has an external NTE5 but internally there are just two bog standard extension sockets wired in series. Thats why I suggested an independent to check first that the fault isn't after the external NTE5.
see http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/btsockets.htm

macman

Possibly an intermittent fault often caused by water getting into the cabling. So worse when it's wet, but vanishes when it's dry. Pray for a rainy day when OR turn up to fix it!
And keep a log.