Weird phone problem

Gers

Just a little advice please?

A BT engineer managed to 'break' the service to my mother's phones and to the residence he was trying to connect. BT are sorting it so no problem there (I hope!)

But what is weird is that she still has full internet (total broadband) service and is surfing quite happily and emailing everyone.

I don't understand how she has no phone signal but has broadband - being un-techie I thought it was one line. Is it, in fact, split?

Just really interested.

Thanks

Oblivion

I have heard of this happening. You need two wires to complete a phone line connection but remarkably ADSL broadband can still operate, probably at a lower speed, on just one of the wires.

It seems likely that just one of the two wires is affected by what ever the engineer did.

johnmc

Is she using wifi?

If so, is she piggy backing someone elses?

neilwoods

Yeah, phone requires both cables. but broadband can run on a single cable (depending which one is broke)

Gers

johnmc wrote: »

Is she using wifi?

If so, is she piggy backing someone elses?

No. But I am right now and all is OK. Got this iPad and two mobiles connected to her broadband via wifi. Travelled to be with her.

BT have now diverted her calls to my mobile, 24 hours after the first request. Even though the repair has been classified as an emergency nothing has been fixed yet.

Thanks for the replies and info.

:T

esuhl

Oblivion wrote: »

I have heard of this happening. You need two wires to complete a phone line connection but remarkably ADSL broadband can still operate, probably at a lower speed, on just one of the wires.

It seems likely that just one of the two wires is affected by what ever the engineer did.

neilwoods wrote: »

Yeah, phone requires both cables. but broadband can run on a single cable (depending which one is broke)

Really?! The incoming BT line to your house has two cables: A and B. Surely you need both in order to make a circuit...? Otherwise it would be like having a live wire with no neutral... or a battery with a +ve terminal but not a -ve one... wouldn't it?

http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Wiring/UK_telephone/uk_telephone.html#Picture22

If the A & B lines are okay, then the problem would be with the domestic wiring, wouldn't it...? And if either A or B is broken, then neither the phone or ADSL would work.

If it's not something in the domestic wiring that's the problem, I'd say it would be with the filter at the local exchange that splits network and voice traffic...

(But I know absolutely nothing about phone wiring, so I'm genuinely curious to know if I'm barking up the wrong tree!)

earthstorm

esuhl wrote: »

Really?! The incoming BT line to your house has two cables: A and B. Surely you need both in order to make a circuit...? Otherwise it would be like having a live wire with no neutral... or a battery with a +ve terminal but not a -ve one... wouldn't it?

http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Wiring/UK_telephone/uk_telephone.html#Picture22

If the A & B lines are okay, then the problem would be with the domestic wiring, wouldn't it...? And if either A or B is broken, then neither the phone or ADSL would work.

If it's not something in the domestic wiring that's the problem, I'd say it would be with the filter at the local exchange that splits network and voice traffic...

(But I know absolutely nothing about phone wiring, so I'm genuinely curious to know if I'm barking up the wrong tree!)

have you seen the inside of a phone cable. It is a CAT-5 cable.

"CAT-5" is a nickname for cable with four wire pairs that each meet the "Catagory 5" specification for data communications.

Only 1 pair is used for phone services with another pair used for BB services. So if the pair for the phone breaks then BB will still work.

Oblivion

earthstorm wrote: »

have you seen the inside of a phone cable. It is a CAT-5 cable.

Only 1 pair is used for phone services with another pair used for BB services. So if the pair for the phone breaks then BB will still work.

Well the BT phone line into my property consists of 2 wires only and delivers telephone and ADSL+2 broadband.

earthstorm

Oblivion wrote: »

Well the BT phone line into my property consists of 2 wires only and delivers telephone and ADSL+2 broadband.

yes the outer casing is 2 , but the strands/pairs are inside the outer casing. this is the cables used by all telecommunication companies unless its a fiber setup

"CAT-5" for the phone, network and ISDN runs

kwikbreaks

The earlier posters and Oblivion are correct. There are two wires only to the back of a master socket. The master has a capacitor in it to one of them and the other side of the capacitor becomes the ring wire.

What comes off the master to extensions isn't cat5 although it does look similar.

ADSL will work off just one wire. It operates at much higher frequencies than the phone and there is enough stray capacitance to earth to form the return circuit. It will almost certainly be quite a bit slower that it would be with good wiring.

ukcarper

earthstorm wrote: »

yes the outer casing is 2 , but the strands/pairs are inside the outer casing. this is the cables used by all telecommunication companies unless its a fiber setup

I'm afraid your wrong the cable from a BT exchange to house is a twisted pair i.e 2wires which carry the phone line and adsl