BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

[Gammawolf]

just received word back from nga inquiries.



i dont understand where he is getting a line length if 1.8km. i went out to the street and looked where cabinet 11 is and i am 150 yards way, not 1.8km

It's entirely possible that its not a direct route to your house

 

[NZB]

1.8km seems a bit more than the usual detour though, more like a jaunt to the exchange and back lol.

Opstrat how far away is the exchange from you? Perhaps the person who replied mistakenly looked at the wrong line length and quoted it instead of from the cab.

 

[opstrat]

this is a link to google maps from my house to cabinet 11

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...FfouVQMdC6jB_w&t=h&mra=mift&mrsp=1&sz=18&z=18

this is the exchange

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...C_w&oq=glenboig&t=h&mra=dme&mrsp=1&sz=20&z=19

 

[NZB]

Guess not then, going by that you're 3-4km from the exchange.

Perhaps try emailing again explaining and see if you get a different answer as it doesn't make sense considering how close that cab is.

 

[opstrat]

ive emailed him back asking where cabinet 11 is and said there is an fttc cabinet with 11 painted on it at the end of my street and could this be it.

will see what he says.

 

[parityboy]

Its been two years on the BT fiber and I can finally cancel the contract and go to another ISP that respects its customers. I am looking to move to 76mbit from my current over priced contact with bt business at £60 per month for 40mbit.

Any suggestions on the ISP? Its either sky ( ) or talktalk which neither i am too pleased about. Zen is not unlimited for some reason and BE is no longer since sky bought them out. I think ill probably go with sky as they meant to be unlimited.

Is PlusNet available on your exchange? I can vouch for them being a good ISP.

 

[Westyfield2]

So today the BT Wholesale Checker has changed from "31st March 2014" to "Available" using my phone line for cabinet/exchange combination. The Openreach Superfast Where & When map still shows the exchange as "Coming soon September 2013".

Given that the BT Retail offers of £60 Sainsbury Vouchers and free BT Sport HD expire today (BT Sport SD will continue to be free, but they'll charge £3/m for HD upgrade) I have placed an order for Infinity 2. Seems to have accepted the order, but haven't given them a MAC yet.
Accepted the first 'engineer' date they gave which is three weeks away.

The BT Retail website said the 'engineer' will bring the VDSL modem with them, and I'll be sent the router a couple of days before install. That's good to know as I don't plan on using their router (but couldn't find any way of escaping the £6 delivery charge) and was worried that they might send me a combined modem/router rather than standalone modem... so them still using separate modem & router suits me fine.

Well I logged in with the BT.com sales reference a few days later to give them my MAC. Whilst there it asked me again abut the 'engineer' install date - I kept it as chosen originally.

Oddly though I haven't had any emails since the original one (which said something about order being confirmed within 5days by email/post and a separate email with details on how to complete order)... and when I just tried to check earlier today using the BT.com sales reference it now says order not found .

 

[anything I don't mind]

So i accepted defeat with BT billing and i am trying to get the line switched over to the residential infinity 2. I get through to customer options and she said there is a special team for that and needs to transfer me, i said ok. She transfer me i wait 15 mins in the queue only for customer options to pick up again as if its the first time i just called. Then she puts me back in the queue again. I wonder how many times i could repeat this nauseating experience. lol i am caught in the infinite BT customer support loop.

 

[Alex_6n2]

Anyone else having problems with Infinity tonight? Mine has slowed to 20Mbps

 

[esK`]

Finally ordered my BT Infinity today including a HH4 est download speed 20mb upload 4mb... Kinda sucks but its better than 8mb adsl2+...

 

[Westyfield2]

So today the BT Wholesale Checker has changed from "31st March 2014" to "Available" using my phone line for cabinet/exchange combination. The Openreach Superfast Where & When map still shows the exchange as "Coming soon September 2013".

Given that the BT Retail offers of £60 Sainsbury Vouchers and free BT Sport HD expire today (BT Sport SD will continue to be free, but they'll charge £3/m for HD upgrade) I have placed an order for Infinity 2. Seems to have accepted the order, but haven't given them a MAC yet.
Accepted the first 'engineer' date they gave which is three weeks away.

The BT Retail website said the 'engineer' will bring the VDSL modem with them, and I'll be sent the router a couple of days before install. That's good to know as I don't plan on using their router (but couldn't find any way of escaping the £6 delivery charge) and was worried that they might send me a combined modem/router rather than standalone modem... so them still using separate modem & router suits me fine.

Well I logged in with the BT.com sales reference a few days later to give them my MAC. Whilst there it asked me again abut the 'engineer' install date - I kept it as chosen originally.

Oddly though I haven't had any emails since the original one (which said something about order being confirmed within 5days by email/post and a separate email with details on how to complete order)... and when I just tried to check earlier today using the BT.com sales reference it now says order not found .

Today I've received an Order Confirmation, an email saying that BT Sport should now be working on my Sky STB, and an email from my current ISP acknowledging that I've used the MAC.

The order tracking is now working, and I've noticed that both that and the email order confirmation received today have changed the date of the Openreach 'engineer' install by two days (but have kept the AM/PM preference). I can still make the new date, but it was only in reading the details that I noticed they've changed it. Would have been better if they had asked before changing it, or highlighted that this is a new date different to that originally chosen and to confirm that it is still OK!

"Home Hub 4" will be delivered two days before hand (so on the date I'd chosen for Openreach installation), and might not even make it into the house on its way to the bin .

 

[david25]

Hello everyone, I have a question for all you Infinity experts;

My line has been stable for over 6 months, but now the speed has taken a consistent drop (since those big storms when it was hot).

My ISP has said they can send a BT Special Faults Investigation Engineer, BUT if no fault is found, I will be charged £99+VAT.

Now the line is stable, no drops or other odd behaviour, so will he just say "its within parameters" and charge me?

 

[.Griff.]

Hello everyone, I have a question for all you Infinity experts;

My line has been stable for over 6 months, but now the speed has taken a consistent drop (since those big storms when it was hot).

My ISP has said they can send a BT Special Faults Investigation Engineer, BUT if no fault is found, I will be charged £99+VAT.

Now the line is stable, no drops or other odd behaviour, so will he just say "its within parameters" and charge me?

If you insist and proceed with a callout it will be logged as a CDTA job (Conscious decision to attend).

For these callouts the engineer has an explicit set of tests (PQT to RUE and 5/10/15 minute VDSL test) to go through and it's a simple case of pass or fail. If they pass then he/she is instructed/obliged to close the job and raise a TRC (time related charge) with no further investigation done.

My advice - wait a bit longer and see if the DLM recovers of it's own accord.

 

[david25]

OK, thanks for the quick reply.

How long should I wait, its been consistent for two weeks now and are BT Special Faults Investigation Engineer's better trained compared to the average one?

 

[.Griff.]

OK, thanks for the quick reply.

How long should I wait, its been consistent for two weeks now and are BT Special Faults Investigation Engineer's better trained compared to the average one?

Maybe give it one more week and then think about it again.

SFI is classed as another "skill" that can be assigned to an engineer and requires more training but in cases like yours it's literally a checklist procedure with pass/fail tests.

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Hello everyone, I have a question for all you Infinity experts;

My line has been stable for over 6 months, but now the speed has taken a consistent drop (since those big storms when it was hot).

My ISP has said they can send a BT Special Faults Investigation Engineer, BUT if no fault is found, I will be charged £99+VAT.

Now the line is stable, no drops or other odd behaviour, so will he just say "its within parameters" and charge me?

David - I've had EXACTLY the same problem as you as detailed in the previous pages. I wouldn't worry about the £99 fee they Indian mob try to scare you with in order to make you drop the case. The engineer turned up at the house and was very sympathetic to the speed drop, and if you mention storms he'll have a good place to start.

As it happens the engineer that attended my place recabled everything from the modem back to the external socket and replaced the modem free of charge, and replaced the modem too. Sadly the fault was in the ground cabling from the distribution block to the house, but it's dug in and and testing at 51db (fail is 50db) so there's naff all they can do.

If you're 100% confident you can prove the fault is nothing to do with your network at home, I wouldn't have any worry about getting an engineer out.

 

[david25]

OK thanks again, that's very useful to know.

 

[david25]

David - I've had EXACTLY the same problem as you as detailed in the previous pages. I wouldn't worry about the £99 fee they Indian mob try to scare you with in order to make you drop the case. The engineer turned up at the house and was very sympathetic to the speed drop, and if you mention storms he'll have a good place to start.

As it happens the engineer that attended my place recabled everything from the modem back to the external socket and replaced the modem free of charge, and replaced the modem too. Sadly the fault was in the ground cabling from the distribution block to the house, but it's dug in and and testing at 51db (fail is 50db) so there's naff all they can do.

If you're 100% confident you can prove the fault is nothing to do with your network at home, I wouldn't have any worry about getting an engineer out.

Yes, I am confident nothing has changed at my end since the original install 6 months ago. There is a single master socket and that's all.

I am more worried he will say the current performance is within "parameters" and you seem to have a good example with it being just 1db from a "proper" fail.

 

[.Griff.]

Sadly the fault was in the ground cabling from the distribution block to the house, but it's dug in and and testing at 51db (fail is 50db) so there's naff all they can do.

As far as AC balance is concerned 45db or below is a fail.

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Yes, I am confident nothing has changed at my end since the original install 6 months ago. There is a single master socket and that's all.

I am more worried he will say the current performance is within "parameters" and you seem to have a good example with it being just 1db from a "proper" fail.

It's the risk you take, but if you can prove the speed drop you've got a leg to stand on. Another good one is to dig out the original mail you got from BT promising you a certain speed, then compare it to what you're getting now. I did that, and they offered me an instant out of my contact with no fees as due to the current state of the cable they can't deliver what they promised. Nor is it cost effective for them to dig it up to replace.

As far as AC balance is concerned 45db or below is a fail.

Ah nuts. Well it's 68db at the ground point 15-20ft from the entry point, and 51db at the front door. Hopefully it'll carry on dropping then. Cheers for the info btw.