phone line faults

clwood

Hi Over the last 4 years we have had a faulty phone land line about 8 times,every time, BT come out and fix it they say it will be ok now, after 6 months it goes again. Is there any thing i can do about it? One engineer did say that the lines (which are underground) have not been renewed for about 30 years please help how do i complain
Regards Chris

davy_fulla

clwood wrote: »

Hi Over the last 4 years we have had a faulty phone land line about 8 times,every time, BT come out and fix it they say it will be ok now, after 6 months it goes again. Is there any thing i can do about it? One engineer did say that the lines (which are underground) have not been renewed for about 30 years please help how do i complain
Regards Chris

Hi, I am engineer with BT (now Openreach) and used to come across faults like this all the time. I'm assuming your complaining of a crackling on the line if it keeps coming back?

There could be any number of reasons causing the fault but a common one I found was that certain housing estates (usually about 30 years old), when the underground cables were provided used a less reliable type of cable. This cable was made with aluminium conductors instead of the copper conductors that were used before and after this time. These cables are now at the end of their 'shelf-life' and are becoming very fault prone.

If a lot of your neighbours have also been suffering from recurring faults then it is likely that BT are aware of the problem and have a program in place to provide a new cable.

Like I say, this may not be the cause of your problem and I'm just using a best guess.

Hope this helps!

clwood

Thanks Davy
That is exactly what is happening one minute its ok next we get a big lot of crackling i can only hope that BT do something soon
Thanks Davy Regards Chris

vickyb

hi guys hope someone might have an idea what this might be:

we got the internet connected at xmas and works fine the only thing is when both the phone and the internet are plugged in together the phone does not ring(well i say does not ring if you ring the house phone you cannot actually hear it ring)but you know someone has rang when you do 1471. when you have just the phone plugged in it rings and you hear it????? been suggested by a friend that it may be that the phone is not getting enough power to the ring the bell and the internet is taking more of the power,does this make any sense to anyone has anyone ever come across it?

oh phone line is bt and internet is through talk talk
many thanx

gt94sss2

vickyb wrote: »

we got the internet connected at xmas and works fine the only thing is when both the phone and the internet are plugged in together the phone does not ring(well i say does not ring if you ring the house phone you cannot actually hear it ring)but you know someone has rang when you do 1471. when you have just the phone plugged in it rings and you hear it????? been suggested by a friend that it may be that the phone is not getting enough power to the ring the bell and the internet is taking more of the power,does this make any sense to anyone has anyone ever come across it?

Assuming by internet, you mean ADSL/Broadband, its sounds as if its an ADSL filter issue:

Make sure all your telephones/fax machines/sky boxes and everything else connected to your telephone line has an ADSL filter attached.

If they do, it sounds as if one of your ADSL filters is faulty.

Regards
Sunil

davy_fulla

vickyb wrote: »

hi guys hope someone might have an idea what this might be:

we got the internet connected at xmas and works fine the only thing is when both the phone and the internet are plugged in together the phone does not ring(well i say does not ring if you ring the house phone you cannot actually hear it ring)but you know someone has rang when you do 1471. when you have just the phone plugged in it rings and you hear it????? been suggested by a friend that it may be that the phone is not getting enough power to the ring the bell and the internet is taking more of the power,does this make any sense to anyone has anyone ever come across it?

oh phone line is bt and internet is through talk talk
many thanx

Probably not a case of the phone not having enough power. Phone lines have a standard REN (Ring Equivalent Number) of 4 which basically means you can have up to 4 phones plugged in around the house and they will all ring OK. Any more than this and you'll have to buy a REN booster.

When I've been called out to faults like this in the past the problem has always either been a faulty ADSL filter or a fault on the internal extension wiring usually caused by dampness or a damaged wire. Try changing your filters and tracing the wiring to make sure it all looks OK.