Suspect my active pair has been disconnected

rubberduck

rubberduck

rubberduck

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Broadband and phone line just stopped working last Thursday and have been dead since. I suspect my line has been disconnected at the cabinet. How can I prove this? I have an ADSL nation faceplate fitted with just the active pair going in to the A and B terminal (white wire and blue wire). FYI I have a 5 pair underground cable entering my house. Can I test the wires with a multimeter to confirm no physical connection?
 
rubberduck said:
Broadband and phone line just stopped working last Thursday and have been dead since. I suspect my line has been disconnected at the cabinet. How can I prove this? I have an ADSL nation faceplate fitted with just the active pair going in to the A and B terminal (white wire and blue wire). FYI I have a 5 pair underground cable entering my house. Can I test the wires with a multimeter to confirm no physical connection?
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It won't be a brilliant test as you could still see interference on the line despite being disconnected at the cab or any joint box etc.

I guess you've already raised this with your ISP? If you make it clear that the phone line is dead they do often try to arrange an openreach appointment to quicker than they would any normal broadband fault.
 
Yes raised with ISP and I think they have escalated it to openreach but was a call centre (Talk talk) so can't be sure. Stupid question - I don't suppose my active pair could have moved to one of the other 4 pairs entering my house could it?
 
Shouldn’t, not can’t. You do understand the master socket and its role as a demarcation point between your equipment and BT’s?
 
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What often happens is an openreach engineer has been doing some work in a manhole etc and moving cables about and yours has fractured because they can become brittle or just a joint moved, I have had this happen twice over the years, I even went out to an engineer while he was working and said my phone line had gone dead and he would not look at it he said phone BT and report it!
 
rubberduck said:
Is this stated in my contract with talktalk or is guidelines from ombudsman?
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bremen1874 said:
AFAIK BT fault repairs are done on a best effort basis.

You should expect some sort of action within a couple of working days.
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It depends on the 'Care level' ISP's have with Openreach. Most ISP's use level 2 but a couple have a level 1 care level. More info from Openreach:

Service benefits Maintenance Level target fix times
Level 1 Clear by 23.59 day after next, Monday to Friday, excluding Public and Bank Holidays. For example, report Tuesday, clear Thursday.
Level 2 Clear by 23.59 next day, Monday to Saturday, excluding Public and Bank Holidays. For example, report Tuesday, clear Wednesday.
Level 3 Report 13.00, clear by 23.59 same day. Report after 13.00 clear by 12.59 next day, seven days a week, including Public and Bank Holiday.
Level 4 Clear within 6 hours, any time of day, any day of the year.

Needless to say higher care levels cost substantially more and I'm unaware of any domestic ISP that goes beyond level 2. Business ISP's of course could choose 3 or 4 depending how critical the service is and how much the company is willing to pay. The price difference between Level 1 and level 2? £2 a year per customer last I heard. As you can see as well, level 1 only includes Monday to Friday appointments and 'normal' working hours, 8am-1pm or 1pm-6pm. It has caused issues for teachers etc. in the past for us!

It should also be noted that the 'clear' is an Engineer attending the fault, not guaranteed resolution. If dig work is required that's not on a path or road then AFAIK it's 24 hour notice to the council. Path 48 hours, Road with traffic management/lights can be a week, road closure? Up to 28 days!

I had one customer who lived about a dozen yards from the A1 North of Newcastle who's fault was located under the road. The council gave permission after three weeks for the dig work. On a Sunday morning, starting 7am! He got woken up!
 
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Silicon Si said:
What often happens is an openreach engineer has been doing some work in a manhole etc and moving cables about and yours has fractured because they can become brittle or just a joint moved, I have had this happen twice over the years, I even went out to an engineer while he was working and said my phone line had gone dead and he would not look at it he said phone BT and report it!
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They can't touch or work on lines unless a fault has been reported. Even if they cause the fault!
 
So an engineer turned up last Wednesday and mumbled something about needing to go to the exchange and he would be back. He disappeared for 30 mins then drove back and sat a outside my house in his van for an hour before driving off. Broadband was working fine when I went to bed but upon waking up the problem had returned overnight. Have had to jump through the usual hoops to get another engineer scheduled


Any ideas what could be causing my line/broadband to behave like this?
 
My thoughts would be a case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing as it's likely that what the engineer has done was undone by someone else later on.
 
rubberduck said:
But what would explain how it was working at mighnight Wednesday and then a few hours later at 7am Thursday it had stopped?
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demonix said:
My thoughts would be a case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing as it's likely that what the engineer has done was undone by someone else later on.
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Someone fixed it. Someone else broke it again doing other work is what he's saying
 
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