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Main BT Line Damaged, What happens if the Backup Fails

bigsim200 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:24:49 GMT

Some years ago, when I first moved into my current property. I was having problems with my telephone line. It had a very bad crackle on it

Eventually it was diagnosed as a fault on the main phone line (that is underground) leading to my property and Openreach switch me to the existing backup line and resolved the issue.

The engineer said that the crackle was most likely caused by damage to the main line that happened probably during installation and it was earthing in wet weather.

I now work from home full time so Broadband is a must and I am just concerned what happens if the backup line now also fails.

What is the current BT policy / procedure if the backup line fails?

Has anybody experienced an issue with both lines failing due to degraded / damaged cabling?

Kind Regards
Simon

Re: Main BT Line Damaged, What happens if the Backup Fails

licquorice — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:56:14 GMT

You don't actually have a 'Main' and 'Backup' line, your property just happens to be fed via a 2 pair cable but only one pair is needed. Obviously if both pairs go faulty, either the fault is located and repaired or the cable replaced.

Re: Main BT Line Damaged, What happens if the Backup Fails

-Richie- — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:56:26 GMT

@bigsim200wrote:
What is the current BT policy / procedure if the backup line fails?

When you have a fault, you report it to BT, they arrange Openreach to go out and repair it.

If you're going to be working from home for a while and the broadband is critical, maybe look at BT business which have different service level agreements and can cover losses, another option would be Halo 3+ or have the hybrid addon for £7 per month, it kicks in if/when the fixed line drops.

Re: Main BT Line Damaged, What happens if the Backup Fails

bigsim200 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:34:27 GMT

@licquorice Thanks for correcting me. I didn't know that 🙂

@-Richie- Thanks for the advice on my different options. In the end I upgraded to "Fibre 100 with Halo 3+"

Re: Main BT Line Damaged, What happens if the Backup Fails

licquorice — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:40:53 GMT

It was probably just the terminology the engineer used.