Does a crackly phone line effect Fibre Optic?

SpanishBlue

For weeks now I have been getting occasional crackle on my BT phone line, sometimes causing my BT Broadband to drop out. I have had many conversations with BT's Indian call centre who say they can't find any fault. I have also researched this problem online & see that many people have had the same problem unresolved for months or even years.

My broadband contract ends this month although I still have 6 months credit left on my line rental. If I was to switch to BT Fibre Optic, would the crackle still be an issue in causing me to lose my internet connection. Is Fibre Optic as sensitive to line crackle as much as Broadband is?

Or how about I dump BT, losing 6 months paid line rental, and switch to another provider (TalkTalk perhaps?), and request a new phone line. Would that guarantee me to lose the crackle, or would the new provider share some of BT's infrastructure, meaning there is still a chance I would not be crackle free?

I work from home relying on my phone line and internet, and this problem is effecting my job, so I would welcome any advice please.

creativemieu

Are you sure the crackle is on the line and not on your handset?

Tiglath

We've been having the same problem with BT recently. We replaced the handsets but to no avail; it goes down for a couple of days, then the broadband comes back but the phone is unusable which is annoying. Sympathies.

SpanishBlue

creativemieu wrote: »

Are you sure the crackle is on the line and not on your handset?

Definitely, I have tried with 3 different handsets, all tried by plugging directly into the test socket of the master socket with the Router powered off. I have also tried 3 different filters.

penrhyn

All depends where the noise is emanating from, if its between the FTTC cabinet and your house then you'll still have a problem.
If its between the FTTC box and the exchange then the broadband should be unaffected.

Trinitrotoluene

I deal with this daily.

The crackle could still affect your broadband. How often does it crackle? You're actually raising this better as a voice fault than a broadband fault. Tell them there is noise on your line and it keeps crackling.

If you go with another provider and ask them to put another line in they will charge you installation (or BT Openreach will as they would be fitting the physical line regardless of who was doing your phone rental).

My best advice is get the crackle fixed as a voice fault, which will then sort the broadband problems out.

cheddar_caveman

We had a lot of problem with our BT Broadband, not the least of which was that we were only getting a download speed of around 2-3Mb/s and this was not good enough when they started using the internet for their sports transmission. Several tests later and they found that the line coming into the house was in very poor state, the insulation had rotted so they ran a new lion back to the nearest box. Problem solved, up to 12Mb/s now and no problems! Took a lot of calls to get it sorted though!!

Moneymaker

Some years ago our line started to crackle. I traced it to a spider infestation in the extension socket in my garage/workshop!

My neighbour had similar crackling. Replaced all his sockets but to no avail. BT traced it to a bad connection on the nearest pole to his house.

So my advice is to check all your socket connections first.

cheddar_caveman wrote: »

so they ran a new lion back to the nearest box

A tiger might have worked just as well!

macman

Post 6 is spot on. Report it as a line fault, not a broadband fault.

Cisco001

May be you should get virgin instead.
It is not known where the fault of the line is, if it is between exchange cabinet and your house, changing to BT fibre optic don't seems to solve the problem.

zaax

As above call it in as voice fault.
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