What went wrong for an exhange problem to take a month to fix?

[Ramothefox]

Hello,

As the title mentioned.

What could the problem at an exhange be that makes it so that it would need a month to fix?

For context i signed up to BT for my new property that already has open reach available and the advisor mentioned that there is no fault at the property itself but at the exchange.

The provisional date i was given was the 7th of November to gain internet access but then was changed to 7th of December. When doing a search it said BT usually fixes issue between 1-2 days of it being reported. But an entire month is absolutely baffling as i was under the impression that the manpower and equipment behind BT would make short work of any issue.

Any ideas what it can be for this to be the case?

Thanks. 

[Ramothefox]

I just realised this section may not have been the best area to post in. Is there a way to move it or would i have to post it again?

Sorry in advance.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Its fine here, as its to do with the provision of a broadband package that you have ordered.

[iniltous]

To give an opinion, there probably needs to be more info , the ‘exchange’ , when it comes to regular (PSTN) telephony, houses the equipment to give dialtone and switching of telephone calls and if on ADSL or ADSL2 broadband ( upto 24Mb ) it contains that equipment too, if the broadband is FTTC VDSL , fibre to the cabinet, the ‘exchange’ isn’t delivering broadband but a street cabinet ( usually green in colour ) is  , so was the issue with telephony ?, if it was telephony, (but not DV telephony)  then the ‘exchange’ may have been the location of the issue , as  it could be if it was an ADSL broadband fault , but if it were FTTC broadband or DV ( digital voice ) then the ‘local’ exchange is not be the location of the equipment delivering your service , but without more detail it’s impossible to say.
Non engineering customer service reps trying to ‘explain’ issues could result in explanations that are not necessarily very accurate, do you have any more ‘details’ ?

[Ramothefox]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

Im not going to pretend that im an expert by any means on the nature of networking. But ill try to the best of my abilities to explain what i can see.

In my property i have what appears to be a Huawei 1-port modem that has most light flashing green with the exception of LOS which is off and CHARGING which is orange and port 1 which is flashing green. And i have the hub connected to it properly as far as i can tell. Ill call BT up tomorrow and try and get some more info if that is possible 

[Ramothefox]

Just called BT and it turns out to be what you said. That the previous advisor simply didn't understand what was being said properly. The other advisor informed me that the issue was at the time of activation the ONT wasn't receiving a signal (due to it being switched off because i had yet to get the keys) and when they tried again it wasnt accepting it. So the advisor essentially told me it isnt anything major just a lack of engineers available to fix the issue.

[iniltous]

So it’s FTTP , so references to the ‘exchange’ are not necessarily helpful,

The most relevant light  lit on the ONT at your end is the PON light , this should be lit and steady , and in effect means the the ONT is ‘talking’ to the OLT (headend) , which may be , but probably isn’t , located at your local exchange, one OLT location will serve many ‘local’ exchange areas,

if the PON light is flashing that means although there is a ‘signal’ arriving at the ONT , the ONT is not being authenticated by the OLT , basically the headend doesn’t recognise the ONT , so won’t ‘communicate’ with it, the LOS ( Loss of signal ) would be lit if there wasn’t an optical signal or the optical signal wasn’t of sufficient ‘strength’.

If the PON light is steady green and your hub is connected to the only Ethernet socket of the ONT that’s correct but as  you say the ‘charging’  light is flashing , this is more commonly the BBU ( battery back up ) used with older FTTP installations, these can have 4 ports ( Ethernet sockets ) , so ensure it’s the 1st port on the ONT connected to the router.

Has your router a ‘red’ WAN port or are all the ports ‘yellow’ , if the second option  , you need to check the SH2 is set to ‘full fibre mode’ in the settings which turns port 4 from a LAN to WAN port, if the PON light is flashing then the ONT needs authentication, this requires the serial number of the ONT to be provided to the OLT  and there isn’t much you can do , although if not already attempted, call the FTTP ‘team’ they should be able to check the serial number recorded for your installation matches the actual S/N of the ONT.

If the PON light is lit and steady,  what colour is the light on the SH2 ( hub ) ?

[Ramothefox]

Sorry for the late reply, just in the process of organising.

Yes i believe i am connected to the right port. The port1 is lit and flashing which i guess indicates that although its connected there is no internet?

My router does have the red wan cable which is what i have connected to the port1 (did i make a mistake?)

And yes the PON is lit and steady which means it is also reaching the 'exchange' right? Sorry if i sound like an idiot.

The light on the router is yellow/orange.

In a fit of desperation i may have tried to reset the ONT like the neanderthal i am but that hasnt changed much and all the lights are still as i described previously (with the exception of the charging light which is now off)

Seems to me that it may be down to an engineer to fix this maybe but since the availability of them is scarce it may well take the month that they originally stated.

With that said i would like to thank you for the help and advice that you gave. I will leave the discussion open just in case you have any other ideas/tips i may be able to try but otherwise i think i might have to resign to my fate haha and probably just call customer support every now and then and ask if any engineers had a cancellation and might be assigned to this issue.

(Just a disclaimer i am not angry about this. If theres noone available then there isnt anyone available, just a little upset that i may have to wait for a month and use a hotspot to be able to do my job)

---

[iniltous]

The steady PON light on the ONT indicates that the Openreach part of your connection, your ONT to the headend  is OK , the Orange light on the hub basically indicates that the router is ‘connected’ but there is no onward ‘internet’ access , this may be an account setup error or omission, so an Openreach engineering visit won’t necessarily achieve much ,or the interconnection between the headend and the ISP equipment is missing.

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/fix-a-problem/broadband-and-wi-fi/i-can-t-connect/what-do-the-ligh...

Search for the FTTP customer service number , If it’s administrative issues or the OR/BT interface neither  , require a visit to your home by OR , if it is simply the way your individual account is configured , that should be a quick fix, but  it is possible , given that  the ‘exchange’ was mentioned , that its the interconnection (cable link) between OR OLT and BT (ISP) equipment that is the issue, this could explain why there is a significant  delay , if this interconnection is yet to be provided, it wouldn’t simply be visiting the ‘exchange’ and flicking a switch , it’s a physical interconnection that needs to be installed ,  it wouldn’t just affect you, but potentially others waiting on this to be provided, will have the same issue.

If a missing cable link is the issue, and the ISP has customers are waiting on its provision, (obviously it should have been provided in advance not reactivity with customers waiting ) , but should be a priority job and done as quickly as possible.