Hi All,

My Dad has lost his phone connection. The line is completely dead. They've had a bad line on and off for years, but it has finally given up the ghost. There is no "MASTER" socket as BT haven't been into the house for decades. There is no dial tone, and if you call from outside, there is a constant engaged signal. However, Broadband does seem to be working intermittently. BT are coming sometime tomorrow, but I wanted to ask if any of you guys who are Telecoms Engineers, might be able to give us some advice in advance of the visit. BT are very keen to blame any none BT equipment for the problem, and charge a fortune for callout, plus about £90.00 an hour. The line test indicates that there is no problem, and as there is no master socket, we're unable to test BT's point of entry into the house.

Many thanks,

Ian.

the b leg is disconected.
The broadband will still work even on one wire......
The overhead or a joint further down the line may have been disturbed

Afraid I can't help you on this one matey...

We signed upto bt a year ago in our first flat. 125 quid to connect then 25 quid a month for broadband only. Oh and by the way, the broadband service in your brand new block of apartments (around 5 blocks in total) has a maximum speed of 512kb/s... Mint.

Then when we moved house, I called and told them - "That'll be 125 pounds please"... I told them I already paid that 6 months ago and they said the property didn't have a line. What they actually meant was "it doesn't have a BT line"...

It worked out cheaper to pay off the remaining 6 months line rental and a cancellation fee (80 quid in all) and start a new contract with virgin media for £30, than it was to pay and stay with bt. I explained this to the guy on the phone at bt, and he said "There's nowt I can do about it"...

Virgin on the other hand: 30 quid to connect, 8mbbroadband then upgraded to 10mb for free after one month (because they were doing maintenance in the area)... we had a problem with our virgin media box for the tv - they sent a guy round within an hour of the call with no questions asked and replaced the tv box free of charge... When we moved house, it was £30 to get the line activated again and to have an engineer sent out... Virgin media's service is amazing & I would recommend them to anyone

I disagree i think there is an intermittand short circuit on the line, And yes it is your fault cos BT says so. I deal with this everyday in life and bt will not accept responsability even if you phone them on a crackling line (earth fault) they still insist its ok.

There will be a master socket somewhere - otherwise your phones wouldn't ring! If BT haven't had access to the property for decades, then it won't be the modern NTE5 (with the removeable faceplate) but will be smaller and look the same as the extension sockets. The only way to tell the difference is by removing the front covers until you find one with a large yellow capacitor on the back. This will be your master socket (extension sockets do not have this)
Similarly, assuming the property is fed by an overhead 'dropwire' then its likely to be of the type that looks like a thick grey twin 'bell wire'. These can become faulty due to the insulation becoming brittle over the years -allowing water ingress leading to corrosion of the conductors and ultimately their fracture. (Possible symptoms are intermittent loss of dial tone especially when its windy or a noisy line when its raining)
However, since you have a permanent engaged tone when trying to ring in, it suggests that there is a'short' rather than an 'open circuit' somewhere in the line/network. A possible cause is corrosion. Look for a green deposit ('verde de gris' ) on the contacts where the external wire terminates/joins with internal wiring.

[Edited on 2/12/08 by andrew.carwithen]

I have found a cover with a large capacitor. The house is fed (we think) by a buried cable that drops down from the telegraph pole a few yards from the house. Whenever there are high winds, and heavy rain, the symptoms are very much as you describe. I have found what can best be described as an armoured cable downstairs in with the fuse boxes. This is connected via some transparent resin looking type connectors to the cable that joins up with the capacitor type socket. I haven't seen any green deposits, but thanks to you all for the input and ideas.

Looks like it could be an expensive visit.

Regards,

Ian.

quote:

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Originally posted by paul the 6th
Afraid I can't help you on this one matey...

We signed upto bt a year ago in our first flat. 125 quid to connect then 25 quid a month for broadband only. Oh and by the way, the broadband service in your brand new block of apartments (around 5 blocks in total) has a maximum speed of 512kb/s... Mint.

Then when we moved house, I called and told them - "That'll be 125 pounds please"... I told them I already paid that 6 months ago and they said the property didn't have a line. What they actually meant was "it doesn't have a BT line"...

It worked out cheaper to pay off the remaining 6 months line rental and a cancellation fee (80 quid in all) and start a new contract with virgin media for £30, than it was to pay and stay with bt. I explained this to the guy on the phone at bt, and he said "There's nowt I can do about it"...

Virgin on the other hand: 30 quid to connect, 8mbbroadband then upgraded to 10mb for free after one month (because they were doing maintenance in the area)... we had a problem with our virgin media box for the tv - they sent a guy round within an hour of the call with no questions asked and replaced the tv box free of charge... When we moved house, it was £30 to get the line activated again and to have an engineer sent out... Virgin media's service is amazing & I would recommend them to anyone

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The transparent connectors are jelly filled crimps. Disconnect any extension wiring from the main box (with the capacitor) note which wire goes where.Ring the number if still busy its down to BT if not its an internal dead short.
Nine times out of ten this type of fault is an underground short.
Dont worry too much about BT's call out charges this is just scare mongering to make sure youve checked your end thoroughly.
We get an average of 5 calls a week with the above problem or no dial tone.
The BT test means nothing half the time the monkey thats doing it doesnt know how to interpret the result anyway.
Cheers,
Bob