Connection Dropping and slow, terrible old cables

[natswright]

So, for the last 9 years i've had 50mbps or there abouts, however a fault appeared on my line a few days ago and my speed dropped to 25mbps, and kept dropping.

Two faults in the cable due to water ingress were fixed, but the issues persist and the line wont go faster than 25mbps, without dropping.

This is unacceptably slow when I pay for full fibre and i've been informed that the very old copper cables here wont be replaced.

I also no there are no spare pairs to swap me to, so what can I do?

I'm stuck with terrible internet speed, and no way to fix.

Is it possible to force BT to replace the 900 feet of copper to the green BT box?

[natswright]

To add, as soon as I plug a phone in, my connection drops and then reconnects!

[imjolly]

sounds like high resistance fault

assuming you have filtered faceplate have you tried removing faceplate and connecting filter to test socket and see if that stabilises your connection and stops line dropping when using phone

[WSH]

“This is unacceptably slow when I pay for full fibre…”

It’s not “full” fibre if it’s coming over copper.  Its FTTC, fibre to the cabinet and copper to your door.  Perhaps an upgrade to FTTP, i.e. a full fibre optic connection, if available in your area, would be worthwhile?

[natswright]

I know it's copper to the cabinet. No, fibre is years away in my area. Open reach confirmed this, so it's copper or nothing

[rbz5416]

Presumably to have a guaranteed speed of above 25Mb, so just  keep reporting the fault. If it's not fixed within 30 days you can claim £20 & exit your contract without penalty.

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/what-is-bt-s-stay-fast-guarantee-

The only other option is to look at 4/5G or satellite.

But check the test socket as @imjolly suggested for starters. Also if you still have analogue phone service, do a quiet line test by dialling 17070 & selecting option 2. It should be near silent with no pops or clicks. If there is noise then my experience is reporting the noisy phone line is more productive than reporting the broadband issue.

[natswright]

Thanks, will try the quiet line test. Problem is, it drops the connection as soon as I plug in my phone. The outlet is new, replaced yesterday by the engineer.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@natswright 

That socket is probably the most recent, but it does have some reported issues due to poor connection between the front and back.

The filtered faceplate may have a fault within the phone filtering circuitry. Using the test socket, or connecting things up as shown below, would prove it.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Deleted by poster

[natswright]

Thanks.

There is definite noise on the line, and although it can connect anywhere from 25mbps to 67mbps, it is only stable for a few hours, then it drops

To add, it drops when my phone calls outbound, when the dial tone starts. I even purchased a new phone to test, and its the same on my old or new phone. This is since the faceplate was replaced.

So in essence I cannot make calls without my broadband dropping. 

It gets worse when it rains, so I suspect the water ingress found on Monday is worse than what the engineer found. I suspect water has tracked along the cables and the while the joints have been repaired, there is still moisture in there. Maybe when an analog phone is connected, its causing a short, or change in resistance thats enough to drop the line.

Either way, another engineer is coming on Thursday to take a look.

If they cannot fix it, i'll call it a day and move to virgin as there is literally zero prospect of openreach replacing the cables here. They were it a poor state 10 years ago, when I was without internet for 6 months while they replaced around 50m of the cable. There are so many joints in it, its no wonder today, 9 years later it has failed again.

There are no spare pairs either, this much I have been told.

So my hand is forced if they cannot fix it tomorrow.