Crackling Phone Line - BT Say It's Internal Wiring - Help!!

[lpowelllap]

I am pretty peeved with BT at the moment, to say the least, with two problems which I'm sure have to be related in some way. Firstly, for some time now our phone line has become more and more crackly, sometimes to the point where it is so noisy that the person at the other end can't be heard. I have reported it twice to BT recently as a fault (with a 20 minute hold each time) and each time the person in the call centre in India (presumably?) has tested the line and assured me that there is no line fault, so any fault which exists must be internal, therefore giving them the right to charge £99 for an Engineer's visit. That kind of highway robbery puts **bleep** Turpin to shame! We have not touched any of the internal wiring or sockets or fitted any new equipment before or after the crackling started so it's hard to see how it can be an internal fault. To confuse things further, when we disconnect our router (which is plugged into the master socket via a filtered faceplate) the crackling stops! Now our broadband speed has never been brilliant, but before the crackling we could achieve 3Mbps reasonably consistently, with pretty good stability. Since the crackling however, we are often down at a pitiful 300kbps with frequent dropouts, so now we have poor telephony and poor broadband. This is supposed to be the 21st century, but you wouldn't think so. My call centre friends are adamant there is no line fault but I just can't see how it could be anything else? Is there any way that I can bypass the call centre system and get this investigated properly, efficiently and fairly? I've seen some broadly similar posts which seem to have resulted in a satisfactory resolution, and that is all that I am looking to achieve, without any more stress or grey hairs! Please help!!

[imjolly]

it is possible but unlikely that the filtered faceplate is faulty.  you could take the filtered faceplate off and connect phone and router to test socket via a filter and then try quiet line test  dial 17070 option 2  should be quiet and best with corded phone  if cordless then dull hum normal.  if noise still there then disconnect router and repeat test.

the cost of the callout will be charged if the engineer cannot find any fault with your line or the fault is on your side of the master socket

[Icarus]

'when we disconnect our router (which is plugged into the master socket via a filtered faceplate) the crackling stops!'

If the noise stops when you unplug your router doesn't that kind of narrow it down?

[Devon_Dave]

Have you tried a known working corded telephone in the test point of your main socket as shown here.

When the call centre run a line test it very rarely can detect a noisy line fault.

[brazenscroll]

I think its pretty unequivocal - the router cabling, router or plug is the issue. You could try changine the lead from the filter to the router, replace the filter, or even see if you can borrow another router and try that.

If BT are doing the check and saying there is no fault, and you get no noise with the router disconnected, then I am sure there is no fault with the incoming BT service.

My own choice would be the BB filter as first option, then the lead to the router.

[lpowelllap]

Just tried the quiet line test in the test socket - firstly with the router connected there was still definitely some crackling and disturbance there, as well as the hum due to the cordless phone - it was definitely not "silent" in terms of extraneous noise, but then again is it meant to be so? Anyway, then disconnected the router and there was absolutely no change to my ears - using the test socket connection, there was noise (crackling) both with and without the router being connected. Does this tell you anything? 

[imjolly]

if you have noise crackle at the test socket that is outwith your home and an openreach problem.  you need to report the fault to 151 with no mention of broadband.  the quiet line test should be quiet no crackle

[lpowelllap]

Based on past experience, I don't have much confidence in reporting to 151. Being kept on hold for 20 minutes before being talked through a list of standard actions by somebody whose first language probably isn't English and finally being sent a video of standard actions by text isn't really my idea of fun. Is there any way of escalating this to the BT Care Team to try and get it resolved positively? If the crackling shouldn't be there and it is an external fault, then I'm entitled to have it fixed so that I can get the quality of service that I pay for.

[imjolly]

this is a standard noise on the line problem which you need to report to 151 - at present it is not a broadband problem as it may well be fixed by getting the noise fixed on your phoneline

[lpowelllap]

BT engineer visited last Friday - said he couldn't find a fault, so I fully expect to be hit by the £99 charge! Strangely though, next day I received a text from BT saying "Sorry about your phone fault - it should be OK now" - so who knows? I'll just have to keep a close eye on future bills. Whatever they did or didn't do, the crackling has mysteriously disappeared and my broadband connection (and speed) has stabilised dramatically, so something seems to have altered somewhere along the line?