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SKY landline crackles, unable to use home phones. Fibre b/b fine???


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Old 31-12-2015, 15:52
2Legit2Quit
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This is doing my head in now and I'm sure it's only started since upgrading to Sky Fibre broadband back in August.

Here's what's happening: For a few weeks now we're pretty much unable to use our landline, the phone will ring but the crackling will be really bad and the call will disconnect after about 4 seconds. Getting the phone to ring is an improvement on what we had a few weeks ago when we'd hear one ring and then it would cut off. The broadband is fine though which is weird as I'd have thought if the crackling was on the line the broadband wouldn't work.

I've tried everything, disconnecting the router, plugging it into different phone sockets (we have 4 in the house), trying the phones in different sockets, trying a corded phone, trying every combination with & without filters etc. Nothing makes a single bit of difference. Phoned Sky and they said it was a problem our end.
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Old 31-12-2015, 18:51
moox
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Have you tried a bog standard corded phone in the socket inside the master? (you have to remove the front plate, two screws and pull it off). That would eliminate any extension wiring as being a cause

There are faults that can make the phone not work properly but the broadband can still sort of work. If you can do the above and there's still an issue, it is very unlikely to be anything on your side and is an Openreach/Sky fault which would need their attention.
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Old 31-12-2015, 18:58
2Legit2Quit
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Have you tried a bog standard corded phone in the socket inside the master? (you have to remove the front plate, two screws and pull it off).
I tried a corded phone but plugged it straight in as normal, I'll try your idea in the morning.
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:02
moox
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I tried a corded phone but plugged it straight in as normal, I'll try your idea in the morning.
I forgot to say that this would only work if your master socket looks like this https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Images/..._3/GPNTE5A.JPG, you'd want to unscrew and remove the lower front plate e.g. http://www.rob-r.co.uk/other/UKphone...s/image012.jpg
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:18
2Legit2Quit
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It looks like this but with the BT logo on the top-left...

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/images...-bt-socket.jpg
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:28
moox
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It looks like this but with the BT logo on the top-left...

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/images...-bt-socket.jpg
And there are no other sockets that look like the one I linked to?

That certainly is a problem. Unless you know what you're doing and can disconnect the extensions yourself you might as well just badger Sky into getting someone to look at it.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:01
Nigel Goodwin
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That certainly is a problem. Unless you know what you're doing and can disconnect the extensions yourself you might as well just badger Sky into getting someone to look at it.
Unfortunately Sky would just pass the job to OpenReach (as pretty well all Telecom providers would), and OpenReach would charge you over £100 if the fault is on your premises. So 'badgering' isn't really going to help.

As you say, if he's got an NTE5 socket master socket, he can easily disconnect all his internal wiring, and prove if the fault is in his house or not by plugging a corded phone in the test socket.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:08
moox
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Unfortunately Sky would just pass the job to OpenReach (as pretty well all Telecom providers would), and OpenReach would charge you over £100 if the fault is on your premises. So 'badgering' isn't really going to help.

As you say, if he's got an NTE5 socket master socket, he can easily disconnect all his internal wiring, and prove if the fault is in his house or not by plugging a corded phone in the test socket.
This is true, but as an end user you cannot contact Openreach yourself, you have to get Sky to do it for you.

Since they may not have an NTE5 there isn't much that can be done other than to try disconnecting the wiring manually, if you know what goes where, or to get Sky to send someone out. I would argue that you aren't supposed to touch the inside of a pre-NTE5 master socket AFAIK (since I believe that's the entire point of the NTE5), so Openreach would have a hard time saying that you haven't done enough troubleshooting, and if Sky tries to pass the charges along I'd argue long and hard for it to be removed

I'd be surprised if the eventual fault isn't somewhere outside the premises anyway, and totally BT's responsibility
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:09
2Legit2Quit
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And there are no other sockets that look like the one I linked to?
Just looked round the house and they all look like the one in my link.

The problem with my house is the previous owner had 4 extensions built, we had a nightmare with the electrics as I reckon he got a mate to do them and now it seems like the phone line is the next to go wrong. Having said that, we've had no problems for seven years yet all these problems started in the last few months since upgrading to Sky's fibre broadband. I didn't put 2+2 together until I read a topic on Sky's own forum and a persons symptoms were exactly what I had i.e crackling line and a phone that would ring once then disconnect. As usual with forums the topic was from a year ago and they didn't update to say if or how the problem was resolved. I've gone past that stage now and all I'm getting is loud crackling as soon as I pick up the receiver, I'm unable to make a call and if someone calls me I can't hear anything over the crackling and it'll disconnect after 3 or 4 seconds.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:14
Nigel Goodwin
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I would argue that you aren't supposed to touch the inside of a pre-NTE5 socket AFAIK, so Openreach would have a hard time saying that you haven't done enough troubleshooting.
Assuming no NTE5, then OpenReach would probably charge you for upgrading your internal system

He says he's got four sockets though, I wonder if he's not checking them all? - or even if there's an unused Master hidden away somewhere? (my Master never had a phone connected to it, back when I had one).

In my experience (we get lumbered at work a lot!) most crackling lines are outside faults, but internal ones can be caused by all kinds of things, such as dogs, cats, mice etc' chewing on the wires, or liquid egress.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:17
Nigel Goodwin
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Just looked round the house and they all look like the one in my link.
Can you see where the phone-line enters your house, and follow it to where it goes?.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:36
2Legit2Quit
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Just gone outside with a torch and I can't for the life of me see where the line comes into the house. I'll have a better look tomorrow when it's light.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:39
Nigel Goodwin
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Just gone outside with a torch and I can't for the life of me see where the line comes into the house. I'll have a better look tomorrow when it's light.
Not easy when it's dark
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:47
2Legit2Quit
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I had a fairly bright torch and the help of a street lamp though.
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Old 31-12-2015, 22:50
SJ_Mental
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All our phone cables are underground, back in my adsl days during wetter times of the year it was quite often I would have this problem and openreach would have dug the main road up close to me and left it for weeks open to the elements.
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