I need advice - my line was disconnected at the cabinet? Could another ISP do this?

[bitterwinter]

Hi everyone.

First time posting after lurking these forums for years, so bear with me. 🙂 Some details may be vague to protect my privacy.

I've very recently started to rent for the first time and when we moved in we weren't told that there was broadband already here. I thought that was a bit unusual because normally when you rent - as far as I am aware - you normally pay for your own broadband. It wasn't mentioned anywhere in our tenancy agreement or otherwise. Regardless, it wasn't working when we found out there was supposedly a "line" installed as told by our landlord.

We spent around two months without internet after moving in trying to fix the broadband with the existing provider. It's one I haven't heard of before - in short, that fell through due to difficulties communicating with the landlord and the fact it is in their name so there were security hoops to pass through. We gave up in the end because it was getting simply ridiculous. The landlord outlined the cancellation costs with that ISP but also did mention we could install our own line. Me and my partner opted for that in the end because we literally had no internet since we moved in.

The engineer from Openreach came over and installed our broadband for us shortly after the order. We originally went through EE, but then they convinced us over the phone to go with BT. We were told there was a line here so that did add up with what the landlord told us. We simply asked that a brand new one was installed, and they said that was fine.

However the very strange thing is that when the engineer got here he told us flat out there wasn't any line to begin with. Zero connection to the internet here. Zero. Zilch. So the engineer just went ahead and installed a line as per normal rather than a brand new one alongside an exisiting one. If there wasn't a line to begin with then what on earth are that ISP and the landlord on about?

After he installed it everything was fine until 15 days later when our hub was blinking orange. I reported the fault and he came today to get it fixed. However, when he was finished he told me that our connection from the cabinet was completely removed - almost as if (and I quote) "Someone, by instruction, removed your connection from the cabinet". And honestly, it is giving me alot of anxiety over the entire thing. Being a first time renter has been stressful enough and this is the cherry on top. He did also mention it could of been a mistake but it seems to me like that's not likely? Surely?

I'm writing here because I honestly have never experienced this before in my life with any connections I have had in the past. It's so strange. Could of the ISP (the one that the landlord has not canceled, but there was no line here) have removed it? I am fairly certain this ISP in question also uses Openreach. I'm also worried this is going to happen again. Has anyone else experienced this? It is VDSL broadband.

Thank you in advance for anyone who can shed light on this very weird situation.

[bitterwinter]

Bumping for visibility. Can anyone help/give advice in regard to this situation? I'd really appreciate it 🙂 

[Starman]

Honestly I've never personally experienced this myself when  I was renting I took out a service from Telewest at the time but was nearly 20 years ago- days of 512k cable modem based broadband 🙂

I have however heard that some Engineers can sometimes be fooled by lines that have no dial tone as you can now be offered Broadband only service over copper pair that has no dial tone and without further checks cut off service to an existing customer.  You state you took a VDSL based service and so this is supplied via a small cabinet typically within a few hundred meters away where your copper pair is "jumpered" to allow broadband service before the line continues to the Openreach exchange here POTS copper voice service would be managed if in us. The jumpers at the cabinet can be removed if they are stated as idle by Openreach if there is high demand on the cabinet and they are needed for another service provide otherwise they are typically left in situ but remotely disconnected.

I don't know what actually happened in your case but just some background.

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

Openreach , when they get notification of a ceased service , ( basically an ISP /Telco advising Openreach that service is no longer wanted ) they don’t enter the external network and remove connections , all that happens is the equipment that delivers the service is effectively ‘turned off’ , or gives restricted service, the idea is that it makes it easier to restore service should it be required again , by the same user or a new occupant of the address , using the original ISP or a different ISP, they occasionally do disconnect lines completely in the exchange, not in the external network.

If the person who repaired your line , noticed that the ‘connection’ for your address was totally disconnected externally ( probably in the PCP , that’s the ( usually green ) street cabinet ) the chances are that ‘your’ cable pair was taken in error to repair someone else’s service or to provide someone else with new service, this can happen by mistake , if the tech doesn’t do the appropriate checks that the ‘line’  your service was on ( cable pair ) was already working and wasn’t ‘spare’  , or takes it deliberately,  because they get ‘paid’ to get new lines or repairs done , obviously it shouldn’t happen , especially when a line is ‘pinched’ to get someone else working , (robbing Peter to pay Paul ) , this  does occasionally happen even though it’s not allowed and if the tech was caught doing it there would be repercussions.

OR employ contractors , and it’s not just OR that enter Openreach infrastructure, they can have a more relaxed attitude to causing issues for others , as long as the job they have gets done.

There is no real reason to suspect that you will have the same issue again , chances are it was a one off.

[bitterwinter]

Thank you both @Starman @iniltous 🙂 I really appreciate the reassurance.

So my worry is that the line is fine even though the Landlord hasn't canceled the previous provider here (but there was no line with them) which is what made me suspect that the line was removed from the cabninet for that reason. It's a bit of a weird situation but it does seem to be more of a mistake by OR/A contractor working on the cabninet.