BT forcing people from copper broadband onto fiber?

[licquorice]

Hence my comment.

[Gaelred]

It has everything to do with it. BT changed the line without checking whether their alternative would work when I told them it didn't. They changed the line from copper and own it and they own Openreach whose installers seem to know nothing about it. They now admit that they should have tested the area before installing. I presume you live in a city or you would not be showing off your so-called expertise. The fact is the alternatives of Vodafone, Talk-Talk and Shell have all declined based on the available speeds of Broadband. I can't even get a Firestick and my TV does not work since it went digital. The phone goes off when there is a power outages and lot of us are cut off from family and friends during this very stormy Spring and early Summer. At 81 I am very fit, grow my own food and provide myself with alternatives for heating and cooking at these time and do not drive.  I and my scattered neighbours are the nearest to carbon neutral you can get. We are being controlled by 'big business'. Personally I have no vested interest in making the French Israeli and his German partners bigger billionaires than they already are. British Telecom is nothing to do with Britain and nothing to do with anything other than providing most "cost effective methods" for the own benefit.

[Gaelred]

Well perhaps you could give me a clue as to who will do this. As usual you are out of your depth. Other suppliers give you a form to fill in about your connection difficulties. Although I already have TV with Sky they cannot supply me with a service because of the problems I have with the digital line. In all other cases I would not only switch if I could I would be saving money on the £50 plus per month I pay BT for  no WiFi, slow Broadband and only an intermittent telephone connection.Unlike BT they guarantee their service and check up beforehand if it will be possible. One question they ask is "do you have an alternative good mobile phone connection". Once of the reasons I told BT I did not want this service because I don't. 

[Gaelred]

Well that is not the case. They all say and so do BT that the problem will go with me because there is no alternative. Don't you think I would have done it by now if that were the case. 

[Gaelred]

Because they had to put in an Openreach box which when they asked me to check connections etc i could not open.

Reason the incompetant who installed it had jammed it between the wall and the old soapbox so I couldn't be opened.

I was not aware that the soapbox was no longer needed but BT would not accept that I couldn't open it to check the signals inside. Stupid isn't it? He thinks telephones always went off when power failed, not true the supply was backed up in the exchange by massive batteries. I have lived here for 22 years, worked in many countries including Uganda in the 60's where we had constant electrical storms. The telephones only went off on one occasion when the Prime Ministers switchboard was struck by lightening. All services in the country provided by properly trained people.

[Gaelred]

This was not a rant it was in response to someone living in a similar area not to accept a copper line installation because it will probably not work. If it doesn't there will be no alternative. They seem to have switched the most vulnerable and as I have said knew in advance that it probably would not work because they admit the Feasibility Survey showed only 60-64% effectiveness. No properly trained or licenced outfit would accept that low coverage.

In rural areas we are used to problems with weather but in 22 years my telephone has never gone off for the reasons explained, BT who was a British Company had a Fail-safe system which operated even during the war and wartime raids. I know modern people have different priorities such as gossiping with people online they don't actually know. As I have said I have contacts all over the world I used to pick up the phone, dial and start the conversation. No more. I can't even phone 27 miles away without getting "out of range" messages. I actually think none of the so-called experts on this channel have any idea of what it should be like to pay for a system and get it to work. Most of the stress reported today as you will see online is due to failed services and behaviour by employers whose only interest is to maximise profits.

[Gaelred]

I didn't say DV goes off in high winds.  BT claim that is one of the reasons along with having thick stone walls. When I had Copper lines the phone never went off. Other devices did suffer. The fact is BT made no attempts in rural areas of Scotland to find out how we would be affected. If it works why don't the phones work for longer than 10 minutes? Why does a signal come up when I answer the phone saying "out of range". I phone the bank (in the village) and wait the usual "taking longer than usual". but when I recently moved up from 12th in line to 1st the phone cut out. This is my daily experience. Perhaps if you are so knowledgeable you could explain that?

My gallery is in London out of reach to me. When I had to write and ask them why I had no invitation to the exhibition they said they thought I had taken ill and was in hospital because when they rang over several days there was no connection.  I would love if it one of you geniouses would explain this please without acronyms and jargonl

[Gaelred]

I didn't say  that I said in high winds and rain if the electricity went off we still have a telephone connection.

Failure of mobile systems is because I live in a hilly region, Scotch mist between our homes and the signal tower.

I am well aware that OFCOM sanctioned it. I have been in touch as have thousdands of other households. What use are they? They "monitor the situation" and watch it fail. Its like the chief of the fire crew "watching the fire" till the house has burnt down. Another toothless organisation to disguise the paucity of responsible customer centred suppliers.

I was just putting out a warning to the elderly couple who asked. I told them object to it unless you get a guarantee of a system fit for purpose - which it isn't in rural areas.

I appreciate you are all quite capable of coming up with objections to my experiences. However, you are just exercising your jaws because you don't know the problem. Your answers are just standard excuses put forward by BT.

Digital lines do not provide the service they claim in rural areas like mine.  If it was all so easy to resolve why are BT now saying they got it wrong and should not have gone ahead. If it is a matter of just 'switching' why won't they switch back to a system that DID work?

[Gaelred]

Ah self appointed sage. I wonder where you live. Usual nonesense from a person who has no experienced. BT do have a monopoly over lines and their incompetent engineers in Openreach. Why in 2020s are they incapable of installing systems which work everywhere? Because you are stuck with them and they can charge you enormous sums of money for the service. When I get cut off after a few minutes, I ring 1471 to get the number of the caller, I get charged. Most of what I pay is for 1471 calls. 

It has occurred to me that all on this platform are just people with nothing better to do that spend their time trying to demonstrate their superior knowledge. Believe me, I do not how this is supposed to work. Unfortunately it doesn't.All I wanted to do was to warn another peson in a rural community. You and your colleagues obviously have no experience of this (including BT) so you should not mislead. If you do understand the problem please answer.

How do i get my working telephone line back?

How do I get my (admittedly not perfect WiFi back?)

How do I get a broadband speed which will support my TV?

All these organisations Ofcom, Ombudsman are just here to hold off the onsloughts of complaints from customers because there are no longer any regulations governing customers' rights to a service they are paying for.

You are probably too young to know that the Fair Trading Office in every local community was cancelled.

That the Monopolies and Mergers organisation was disbanded.

So now, no matter what the guarantees are announced by BT, they cannot or do not fulfill them and people in areas like mine are left high and dry.

[licquorice · Accepted solution]

I really can't be bothered to read your rantings and ravings but I will tell you that I am in my seventies and live out in sticks despite what you may think.