If you contact an ISP for their phone and internet package and also need a new phone line and after inputting your info to their comp they say "we need to contact Openreach as they have to do a site survey". "You are on a long line and there are a limited amount of lines available" what does this mean ?

What's a site survey ?

How long does it take for them to get Openreach to do their survey and put in a new tel line so you can get phone and BB from the ISP ?


Thanks.

A site survey does exactly what it says on the tin. They come out and survey your location and work out how best to provide service or even if it is possible to provide a service.

Openreach (and predecessors BT, GPO) will only run in a certain capacity of phone lines. Especially if you live in a remote area. Thus it is not unknown for them to run out of free pairs in the cable back to the exchange. If they ran in a 20 pair cable to a tiny village with 10 houses 40 odd years ago they probably thought that was more than enough. Add some new houses and people wanting more than one line and that 20 pair cable suddenly starts to look like a liability.

So basically if there is any doubt they need to come out and see if there are any spare pairs in the cable back to the exchange and how easy or otherwise it is to connect your home into this cable.

Problem is the cost of installing a new cable will be passed on to your service provider. Usually whoever you are planning to pay line rental to. They may tell Openreach to go forth and multiply as they may decide it is way too costly. BT charge a flat fee for new lines, even though the actual installation cost may be ten times higher, or even more! On the basis that over several million installs the cost averages out. Other providers may not be so keen. Or may ask you to cough up a very large installation bill.

As for how long before you see the Openreach van turn up. How long is a bit of string

Thanks for that.


The ISP said to me a new line would be £110.


If I ring from my mobile the phone no that was on the line 2 years ago I get "you have dialled a wrong number".


I'll just wait and see if and when the ISP or Openreach contact me.


You always wonder if you go with Post Office home tel for your phone instead of a phoneline paid to your ISP if the service to install will be any quicker.

I know that Openreach say they don't give preference to BT or BT related companies like Post Office
home tel.

I did think of going with PO for the tel line (one month contract ) and another company with a monthly contract for internet.

I can't see Openreach being that quick in dealing with the request but we'll just have to wait and see I suppose.


It's a pity there wasn't some sort of microwave type link they could use for remote properties to give them a line back to a distant tel exchange but one that can handle internet as well as voice calls ?

Of course people out in the sticks are usually forgotten about by telecom companies.

If you plug a phone into the line do you get any dial tone? That might indicate the line is still connected back to the exchange even if it does not actually allow calls to be made or received.

If the line is still connected that makes the whole job a shed load easier. Far less work to reactivate a connected line than to work out where the line has been ripped out and reconnect it.

No the line blew down so I need a new line from the house to the tel pole.

When there was a line there was no dialtone as the phone had been unused for over two years.


From the tel pole to the exchange the cable is probably OK but it's old cable and as I'm out in the sticks they don't really care. I've seen Openreach out sometimes digging up the road so a few parts are underground and sometimes the water gets in and they have to dig it up and replace the bad bit of waterlogged cable.

So if they have sufficient pairs (I think that's what you said) if they connect the line from the house 20 ft to the pole I assume that's it.


I remember about 15-20 years ago when I lived in town there was a company Atlantic Telecom who were installing little boxes outside houses with a microlink to a base station in the centre of town and this was for voice calls.
At the time it was too slow for internet.

Now if they could do that but for fast internet that would be easier than using old fashioned wires on poles.

BT and the Post Office aren't related companies. They are completely seperate entities.

Oh sorry I thought they were related.

No need to apologise

Those of us over a certain age can remember when they WERE the same entity.

And it may only be me but the service from BT has spiralled downhill ever since the telecoms arm of the GPO was flogged off.

They went bust after a couple of years.

Yes they did but if we could have some sort of microlink to the exchange instead of wires especially for those of us out in the boondocks then I would give it a try.



Many years ago I was a telephone operator in London (around 1973) and I belonged to the Post Office union. We were forever walking out and leaving loads of lights to be answered.
The service then was poor and I'm not sure if it's got much better since then.

And my first phone in my first house in London (1974) was a party line.



Oh by the way the Openreach guy came today and did his site survey. He attached a meter to the line hanging from the tel pole,the one that blew down from my house, and took some readings.
He said another engineer would come and connect a dropline from the tel pole to my house.

I used to have to work with the GPO, specifically their Datel products. They were the most uncooperative, bureaucratic bunch of losers that is has been my misfortune to come across. The liberalisation of telecoms and the advent of BT was a breath of fresh air.

Probably just you.

When the GPO had a monopoly the standard of service was absolutely appalling.

They really got their act together after privatisation. (Of course, they could have got it together when they were part of the GPO - presumably there simply wasn't any incentive.)

As with most large companies you just hear the horror stories whereas in reality, most people with a BT line have no problems year in, year out.

The problems seem to be not with Openreach but with BT customer service. There are some real horror stories out there regarding BT. Customers also prefer call centres in the UK rather than abroad although the girls out there try to do a good job but I believe they read from scripts.
I do feel sorry for the calls centres abroad because they often suffer abuse because of the customers frustration at people here in the BT centres who don't do their job properly.

I don't like dealing with BT personally but because I'm out in the sticks with few choices I may pay line rental and broadband to another company but they have to go thru Openreach and use a BT line to give me phone and broadband service.


The customer service was poor with GPO but you'd think it would be really good by now and it isn't.

Once a new line is installed and you're given your new no does it take a few days to go on the database before you can order broadband ?

Believe it or not, it is still head and shoulders better than it was with the GPO.