VOIP?- long crackly line and reasonable 4 G connection.

[Matti-coops]

Hi

I'm on a long copper line in Rural Cumbria. I used to be able to get about 6mbs via- asdl2 connection, swapped to VSDL a while ago an now get about 3.5mbs- on a good day. Over the years when ever we have particularly wet weather or a dry patch (normally fairly rare in Cumbria...)- both the broadband starts dropping further in speed and often dropping out and the phone line gets very crackly again to a level where making a phone call is often impossible. 

Because of this I have connected a 4 G router to an external antenna and get a stable 60mps broadband connection via EE. This has helped a lot.

The phoneline however is still a major issue. It crackles like mad much of the time- but it is intermittent. I have had 2 separate Openreach engineers out to look at the line - for the time they are in the property the line is fine.... they say because of the intermittent nature of the problem they can't do much about it and that the other properties on the cable back to the exchange have similar problems- cables have been dug up several times but only seem to give a short term fix. 

The engineer said that the cable needs replaced as it is long and old back to the exchange but BT won't authorise the this to be done because at some point over the "next few years" it will be changed to a fibre to premises connection.

He suggested I look at using VOIP but could not tell me much about it- Ideally I would like to keep my existing BT number and BT contract (all my family mobiles are with BT etc)- I see there is something called BT digital voice- can I use this on my 4G EE broadband connection?? - (to get 4 G I use a Huwaei 5G CPE pro router in an outhouse with an 2 external antennae and a CAT6 cable coming to a Synology router which runs my MESH wifi in the house (old farm house with thick stone walls...)

Can anyone advise me if it is possible ? Would I need to get a new smart hub (I have a smart hub type A)- would I be able to use my existing synology router and wifi set up? Is there another better way of doing this ? Or is there something else could be done to my faulty line???

Sorry for such a long post 

Thanks for any advice

[rbz5416]

Firstly, you can't have BT's DV service through another ISP. There are other VOIP providers but other posts here suggest you can only keep the phone number by terminating service, which in turn will terminate broadband. Although I'm not sure what reason there is to keep a poor vDSL service if you get much better through 4G. You could almost certainly match or better the saving on the mobiles by moving supplier.

As for the current service, if you put your phone number into the broadband checker it should tell you what speed should be available to you. When you say you're on a long line, bear in mind the only relevant distance is to the fibre street cabinet. It's a bit concerning that an engineer is talking about cables to the exchange. So it might be worth pursuing the noisy line. When you experience noise you should report it online as a telephone fault, not a broadband one.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

If you post a screenshot after editing out your phone number, those more knowledgable can chip in.

[Matti-coops]

Thanks for your advice- I suppose I want to keep my landline in the hope it will be upgraded at some point...

here is my screenshot. Thanks again.

[rbz5416]

If my novice attempts are right you seem to be connected to a cab in Ainstable. If so & depending on what path the copper takes, you may well be outside the usable range for vDSL. You may well be better off going back to ADSL if you want to keep a BT connection. Did you choose to switch or was it imposed on you?

[imjolly]

from dslchecker results you were getting 3.68mb down on you FTTC connection which is far better than estimated and as good as if not better than adsl.  you are just to far from exchange for good adsl and to far from street cab for good vdsl

just need to wait and hope for Fibre whether openreach or another provider