Phone & Broadband via the internet

[pompey1898]

I reported a noisy line on Tuesday and an engineer attended today, Thursday.

He tried replacing various sockets all to no avail.  He then went of the the DP about 80 metres away and returned to say there was a fault on the line.  He switched it to another line and the noise was removed.  He did not seem confident that the noise would not return as I have had the line switched several times over the years.  It is in buried cable installed about 1971.

He told me that BT now offer Phone and broadband over the internet, but I cannot find it on the BT website.  Can anyone tell me where I can find this please ?

[iniltous]

https://www.bt.com/broadband/digital-voice

basically BT contact you , or if you are a new customer or re contracting , and it’s available in your area ( and you want a telephone service ) it’s the standard offering , if BT haven’t contacted you , with notice that you are being moved ( have in mind there was a pause due to complaints from those who want to remain on PSTN forever) then you could try re contracting although this ( obviously ) would come with a new minimum term

[Keith_Beddoe]

@pompey1898 

If you have a poor quality line then this is going to have an impact on your broadband connection and will  also affect BT Digital Voice if there is a loss of signal.

The bandwidth requirements for Digital Voice are about 64Kbs for normal quality (SH2 phone socket), and about 128Kbs (BT Supplied Phones HD Quality), so if you have a very slow ADSL connection, you are likely to notice the reduction.

If your broadband has a lot of uncorrected errors due to a poor quality line, then that is likely to result in delayed speech which may make conversation difficult.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@pompey1898 

Noise on your phone line is not always due to the local line.

With ADSL, there are a number of connections and relays in the broadband path, which can sometimes cause high resistance connections. These include the Exchange Line Card, the Line Test System and the broadband Test Access and Monitoring System (TAMS). Most of this is now very old and contact wear out.

If you ring your phone line from a mobile, and leave it ringing for about 20 seconds before you pickup the phone, that can help to clear any high resistance connections and the noise.

The other option is to dial 17070 and select option 1. Then replace the phone and let it ring for a while, before answering it.

[pompey1898]

Hi @iniltous ,

I thought digital voice was only available on FTTP.

[pompey1898]

Hi @Keith_Beddoe ,

Thanks as usual for all your helpful advice.

I currently have no noise and no disconnections since the engineer left.

My downstream speed has alo in creased from 35 to 50Mbps. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@pompey1898 

So you are not on ADSL, you are on fibre (FTTC).

In that case ignore the bit about TAMS, as your broadband does not come from the exchange.

I will move this thread to the fibre board.

[licquorice]

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@pompey1898 wrote:

Hi @iniltous ,

I thought digital voice was only available on FTTP.

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No, its available on FTTC and I presume ADSL as well.

I'm still on FTTC and due to be switched to DV on Tuesday