One wire broad band

[gw3xjc]

Hi long time no talk.. I’m confused , as a retired engineer working with cctv and some some simple networks.

the copper internet connection has worked in my partners house for approx 6 years. Down load speeds  were about 22-25 mbs which was perfect for us. However this last month we had notice a fair amount of buffering . When I checked the speed it was down to 8-10 mbs. BT tested the line and agreed there was a problem. Engineer called this morning and said “only the one wire was connected outside and this would slow the internet connection down” He put a test on and found that down the back lane there was only one wire connected.

now what exactly would he mean by that?? An open ended wire like that in my radio world would be called an aerial lol. In my brain you need two wires even if one was a bit of a high resistance  in a bad joint, but one wire??? . Please explain ?? Sure enough he went out the lane came back in described the fault , restored the connection and speed immediately  rose from 10mbs to 35mbs . He was right of course but I don’t understand the science behind it

[imjolly]

Your VDSL broadband normally has the 2 wires connected but the broadband Can work with only 1 wire connected just it would be slower. If you had home phone it needs both wires connected so if only 1 wire then phone would not work even if broadband does

[gw3xjc]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply, and yes  I realise it would work only slower but , perhaps I didn’t explain myself self very well , my question  HOW does it work??? Having worked in electrics and electronics all my life  everything I have dealt with has always had a “ flow and return”  ie a battery and a bulb, a door bell, a loud speaker , a multi meter .  The only thing I can think of with a single wire with no return is an aerial . Being a radio ham for 56 year we would always use a “long wire aerial” , just a single wire contacted the transmitter . What am I missing here I really don’t understand , data over a single wire??? Is it magnetically  coupled, induction - how please

TIA 

[licquorice · Accepted solution]

There's no DC component to broadband, its basically RF.

[gw3xjc]

Oh thanks for that, can you elaborate or recommend a site that could explain more ?

[licquorice]

Have a look at https://kitz.co.uk/

[gw3xjc]

Will check it out thanks