Activation Day - Still no internet or dial tone

[Wildpaw]

The only connection is behind the back plate and is a single pair, orange and white  (although I guess the engineer could have used whatever colours he wanted as long as he connected it the same at the other end)

It comes in through a pole, engineer had to climb up to connect.

Thanks,

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Wildpaw wrote:

The only connection is behind the back plate and is a single pair, orange and white  (although I guess the engineer could have used whatever colours he wanted as long as he connected it the same at the other end)

It comes in through a pole, engineer had to climb up to connect.

Thanks,

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So you have a drop wire coming from the pole to your house. That will not go straight into your master socket, there has to be another connection block somewhere, which joins the external cable to the internal cable.

Where does the external cable from the pole go to, into the loft, or down the outside if the house?

Is this a totally new installation, or was there some existing wiring that has been simply re-used?

[Wildpaw]

I can't tell exactly which drop cable it is, as it's a terrace, there's cables everywhere, but this is an additional new line for home working, so the new socket is upstairs. As far as I know, the engineer did something at the pole to enable it, then I think he was going to run the cable from the downstairs main socket (from the outside - he didn't go anywhere downstairs) and up the front of the house and in through the upstairs room which is directly above the lounge.  Main line still works fine, I am using it now.

So I think he's extended what was already in place.

[Keith_Beddoe]

That is probably why he has used the second pair orange orange/white.

Its possible that the second pair in the drop wire is faulty, as it has two pairs.

There must be a disconnection somewhere, and as you are in a terrace, its not going to be possible for you to look at it yourself.

Hopefully it will be sorted on Monday.

Normally, if you have a new provision that does not work, you would expect a visit within 48 hours, to put it right, but I expect that Openreach are busy.

If you could please update this thread after the visit, to confirm that its now working. Thanks.

[Wildpaw]

Will certainly update. Thanks for your assistance and super fast responses.

I guess under normal circumstances the engineer would have stayed to confirm and test, but was unable to due to covid restrictions.

[Wildpaw · Accepted solution]

Engineer arrived this morning, was from Openreach, apparently previous engineer was from a third party.

This morning's engineer said he would stay until the issue was resolved, checked the pole and and socket in the house, tested socket, confirmed all ok.

Turns out that the previous engineer hadn't connected it at the cabinet down the road....

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Wildpaw wrote:

Engineer arrived this morning, was from Openreach, apparently previous engineer was from a third party.

This morning's engineer said he would stay until the issue was resolved, checked the pole and and socket in the house, tested socket, confirmed all ok.

Turns out that the previous engineer hadn't connected it at the cabinet down the road....

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That is quite an omission 😉

I am pleased it is now sorted. There may be compensation payable for failure to provide service on time.

https://www.bt.com/help/account-and-billing/automatic-compensation

• If we don’t activate landline or broadband on the day we promised, you’ll receive £5 compensation automatically
• Plus you’ll receive another £5 for every extra day you have to wait, not including the day your service is activated
• You are eligible for compensation if your service isn’t activated by one minute to midnight on the activation date we sent by email or post.

As you should have been activated on the 6th December then that would make four days not including today, so it may be as much as £20.

[Wildpaw]

Thanks, I did phone BT billing but they said I was a bit early, as the call hadn't been closed yet, as the engineer was booked for today, but that the compensation should be automatic and would appear on my next bill.

Currently running at 46Mb - will see how it settles down over the next few days, hoping for at least 50Mb (quoted 52-57Mb) stay fast at 47Mb

Thanks for all your help and prompt responses.