Connection dropping out

[Lawtair]

Hi.

I am resorting to posting here as I am at the end of my tether with an issue I have been experiencing for months. 

Every day, at least several times a day our home broadband connection drops out for a minute or two at a time, with the box flashing purple.

Over the last 3-4 months I have had three engineer visits including an openreach engineer- spoken to multiple guides both over the phone and on webchat and been reassured that the issue will be resolved- it never is. The hub has been replaced as has the Ethernet port on the wall. I have attempted to open a complaint but simply receive the same automated responses when I try to pursue it. 

I am a healthcare professional who works from home twice a week and am in charge of directing admissions to and from hospitals during the night. The disconnections are highly disruptive and have led to issues with patient management and safety- I have explained this to BT as well but no one seems competent enough to repair whatever fault is causing this issue. As well as this, there is no support available from BT out of office hours.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

Intermittent faults on the copper network can be very difficult to fix, especially if your line is fed from a pole. Noise on the line or a high resistance joint can cause lots of issues, especially if there is no PSTN phone service on the line, as the loss of the 50 Volt on the copper pair, can make faults worse.

Have you considered a 4G backup arrangement, assuming you have a good 4G mobile signal?

[Lawtair]

I appreciate that the issue may not be an easy fix for the company, but with all due respect that is not my problem. I am paying them £44 per month to provide a stable service and expect them to be able to at least provide the minimum standard of service for that, which they are not currently doing.

What do you mean by a 4G backup and how would I go about setting that up?

[Keith_Beddoe]

BT Hybrid Connect provides 4G backup for residential customers, and 4G Assure for business.

https://www.bt.com/help/bt-halo/getting-set-up/learn-about-broadband-backup

Its extra cost of course.

[licquorice]

It will be of absolutely no use for short breaks however. Its not an instant switchover, it takes several minutes of loss of DSL signal before switching over.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Of course you could disconnect the DSL during critical times, and just us the 4G backup, although I do not believe is supports BT Digital Voice if that is being used. Messaging services would probably still work.

If FTTP is available, that should be better, however that is not guaranteed to be free of interruptions.

[iniltous]

Your issue may be effectively outside any control that your ISP or Openreach have , search REIN , SHINE , basically electrical devices that are faulty ( but appear to work ) or are poorly suppressed, can give off electrical interference that disrupts the ADSL/VDSL ‘signal’ causing the connection to drop out and have to re-sync…..things like central heating pumps , or even ( especially this time of year ) Christmas lights , can cause this type of instability…there was a famous incident where an old TV caused an entire village to have broadband issues , which unfortunately could mean if it is a faulty electrical device, it may be in a neighbouring property and not your own .

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54239180#:~:text=The%20mystery%20of%20why%20an,with%20the%20enti....

[Keith_Beddoe]

Boiler thermostat contacts arcing on disconnection, were are, and probably still are, a major cause of interference, with a pattern repeating about every 20 minutes. Identified by a loud buzzing  noise lasting about a minute, when heard on a long or medium wave radio.

Usually older non-condensing gas boilers.