Hi, i am on AOL broadband 1mb line. Just in the past few days, i have been experiencing some major problems - my telephone line has started to make crackling noises and my internet keeps coming on and off. Now the telephone line has become so bad that cannot hear the actual normal dialling tone. I also have the microfilters installed on each telephone socket. Can anyone help please!
help! telephone line is crackling
It sounds like a fault with the BT line itself and not your equipment. This is common on BT since some streets still use very old and outdated copper wire and is still waiting to be upgraded.
I would therefore ask you to disconnect all equipment and then plug in a non-cordless phone directly into the phone socket and dial 17070, your phone number will be read out, then you will be presented with 2 options.
1. Ring back test
2. Quiet line test: This a test were you remain on your line and listen for any interference such as crackling, if it still continues then do the following:
Call:
151 from the effected line or if its not possible to do this, call 151 from a BT payphone free or 0800-800-151 from a non-BT payphone or Mobile. Then speak to an advisor who will be able to hear the noise your experiencing and they will send out an engineer.
If its a problem with the BT line and not your equipment, do not continue to use such equipment as the fault could cause further problems with your AOL equipment.
If its a fault with AOL equipment, you are advised to consult advice from them.
I would therefore ask you to disconnect all equipment and then plug in a non-cordless phone directly into the phone socket and dial 17070, your phone number will be read out, then you will be presented with 2 options.
1. Ring back test
2. Quiet line test: This a test were you remain on your line and listen for any interference such as crackling, if it still continues then do the following:
Call:
151 from the effected line or if its not possible to do this, call 151 from a BT payphone free or 0800-800-151 from a non-BT payphone or Mobile. Then speak to an advisor who will be able to hear the noise your experiencing and they will send out an engineer.
If its a problem with the BT line and not your equipment, do not continue to use such equipment as the fault could cause further problems with your AOL equipment.
If its a fault with AOL equipment, you are advised to consult advice from them.
Originally Posted by m419:
“This is common on BT since some streets still use very old and outdated copper wire and is still waiting to be upgraded.”
“This is common on BT since some streets still use very old and outdated copper wire and is still waiting to be upgraded.”
Common my arse.
More common than you think.
When I was with BT, I had to have them out a few times due to crackling on the line, they had to rewire from the road to the cabinet, as water had got into the wiring under the ground, they then at another time switched my pairs from the exchange to the cabinet.
Similar thing has been done for 2 friends, and my brother and sister.
In our previous house, we had the same problem, that area used overhead wiring to the home, not the underground wiring to the home we have here, so we had the over head line replaced, but made no difference, but had to wait over 6 months, as they were replacing all the underground wiring from the poles to the exchange, as it was old and needed upgrading, that did fix the problem.
Granted m419 does post some rubbish from time to time, however this time they are quite correct.
When I was with BT, I had to have them out a few times due to crackling on the line, they had to rewire from the road to the cabinet, as water had got into the wiring under the ground, they then at another time switched my pairs from the exchange to the cabinet.
Similar thing has been done for 2 friends, and my brother and sister.
In our previous house, we had the same problem, that area used overhead wiring to the home, not the underground wiring to the home we have here, so we had the over head line replaced, but made no difference, but had to wait over 6 months, as they were replacing all the underground wiring from the poles to the exchange, as it was old and needed upgrading, that did fix the problem.
Granted m419 does post some rubbish from time to time, however this time they are quite correct.
This happened to me a lot until I got NTL through a set up box.
You will have to pester BT a lot til they do something about it too as they ALWAYS blame it on your equipment and not their exchange.
You will have to pester BT a lot til they do something about it too as they ALWAYS blame it on your equipment and not their exchange.
Originally Posted by BexTech:
“More common than you think.
When I was with BT, I had to have them out a few times due to crackling on the line, they had to rewire from the road to the cabinet, as water had got into the wiring under the ground, they then at another time switched my pairs from the exchange to the cabinet.
Similar thing has been done for 2 friends, and my brother and sister.
In our previous house, we had the same problem, that area used overhead wiring to the home, not the underground wiring to the home we have here, so we had the over head line replaced, but made no difference, but had to wait over 6 months, as they were replacing all the underground wiring from the poles to the exchange, as it was old and needed upgrading, that did fix the problem.
Granted m419 does post some rubbish from time to time, however this time they are quite correct.”
“More common than you think.
When I was with BT, I had to have them out a few times due to crackling on the line, they had to rewire from the road to the cabinet, as water had got into the wiring under the ground, they then at another time switched my pairs from the exchange to the cabinet.
Similar thing has been done for 2 friends, and my brother and sister.
In our previous house, we had the same problem, that area used overhead wiring to the home, not the underground wiring to the home we have here, so we had the over head line replaced, but made no difference, but had to wait over 6 months, as they were replacing all the underground wiring from the poles to the exchange, as it was old and needed upgrading, that did fix the problem.
Granted m419 does post some rubbish from time to time, however this time they are quite correct.”
Mate, I work for BT and know what the fault rates are as well as the reasons why they are reported, average response times etc.
Once again, s/he is posting rubbish.
Well, the BT wiring in my block of maisonettes is quite old, that was the reason why I moved to Telewest. BT took a while to figure out what to do about the situation since I was the only resident on that landing with a BT line since everyone else seems to Telewest or none at all.
When BT came to visit the building, I thought they were going to come and fix it there and then, then I was told they were just surveying of what needs doing, and a few days after recieved a letter saying that it would cost £155 to fix the problem and upgrade the line. I thought to myself, why they telling me how mcuh its going to cost until I relaised they were actually going to charge me.
The statement showed:
Call out: £50 17th Dec 2000
Call out: £50 11th Jan 2001
Repair and new line: £55
This was even before they fixed the line, so I just called them and stick their service where the sun don't shine because charging me £50 for each time someone visited was unreasonable.
Although some of BT's services are now cheaper than Telewest's, I'd rather pay the extra to Telewest than go back to BT.
When BT came to visit the building, I thought they were going to come and fix it there and then, then I was told they were just surveying of what needs doing, and a few days after recieved a letter saying that it would cost £155 to fix the problem and upgrade the line. I thought to myself, why they telling me how mcuh its going to cost until I relaised they were actually going to charge me.
The statement showed:
Call out: £50 17th Dec 2000
Call out: £50 11th Jan 2001
Repair and new line: £55
This was even before they fixed the line, so I just called them and stick their service where the sun don't shine because charging me £50 for each time someone visited was unreasonable.
Although some of BT's services are now cheaper than Telewest's, I'd rather pay the extra to Telewest than go back to BT.
Originally Posted by timboy:
“Mate, I work for BT and know what the fault rates are as well as the reasons why they are reported, average response times etc.
Once again, s/he is posting rubbish.”
“Mate, I work for BT and know what the fault rates are as well as the reasons why they are reported, average response times etc.
Once again, s/he is posting rubbish.”
That you may, but it doesn't alter the fact that we constantly hear about either crackling line or poor lines or very quiet lines, with BT.
There ARE many areas where the wiring is poor, and not only have I seen my one area I lived in being upgraded due to the number of poor lines, I've seen over the years a few others for the same, the trouble is, there is a lot of poor lines out there, many people put up with them, BT try and deny there is a problem, and will just try switching pairs, when people complain, and switching over again when someone else complains, they may replace the small runs of cables.
I don't like Telewest anymore because of their rip off prices, but the sound quality through their service IS much better than BT, always nice and clear. I just wished Telewest would wake up and see how poor value for money their service is. When in Brum it was Birmingham cable, it was value for money and people switched in droves, this is why Birmingham Cable became the largest cable operator in Europe, however once Telewest took over and almost doubled the costs, people left in droves back to BT, albeit with a CPS service to reduce costs.
Originally Posted by m419:
“Well, the BT wiring in my block of maisonettes is quite old, that was the reason why I moved to Telewest. BT took a while to figure out what to do about the situation since I was the only resident on that landing with a BT line since everyone else seems to Telewest or none at all.
When BT came to visit the building, I thought they were going to come and fix it there and then, then I was told they were just surveying of what needs doing, and a few days after recieved a letter saying that it would cost £155 to fix the problem and upgrade the line. I thought to myself, why they telling me how mcuh its going to cost until I relaised they were actually going to charge me.
The statement showed:
Call out: £50 17th Dec 2000
Call out: £50 11th Jan 2001
Repair and new line: £55
This was even before they fixed the line, so I just called them and stick their service where the sun don't shine because charging me £50 for each time someone visited was unreasonable.
Although some of BT's services are now cheaper than Telewest's, I'd rather pay the extra to Telewest than go back to BT.”
“Well, the BT wiring in my block of maisonettes is quite old, that was the reason why I moved to Telewest. BT took a while to figure out what to do about the situation since I was the only resident on that landing with a BT line since everyone else seems to Telewest or none at all.
When BT came to visit the building, I thought they were going to come and fix it there and then, then I was told they were just surveying of what needs doing, and a few days after recieved a letter saying that it would cost £155 to fix the problem and upgrade the line. I thought to myself, why they telling me how mcuh its going to cost until I relaised they were actually going to charge me.
The statement showed:
Call out: £50 17th Dec 2000
Call out: £50 11th Jan 2001
Repair and new line: £55
This was even before they fixed the line, so I just called them and stick their service where the sun don't shine because charging me £50 for each time someone visited was unreasonable.
Although some of BT's services are now cheaper than Telewest's, I'd rather pay the extra to Telewest than go back to BT.”
Once again you are caught out for talking rubbish.
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/...d.php?t=347823
On that thread you said that there wasn't even a BT line in your property.
Originally Posted by BexTech:
“That you may, but it doesn't alter the fact that we constantly hear about either crackling line or poor lines or very quiet lines, with BT.
There ARE many areas where the wiring is poor, and not only have I seen my one area I lived in being upgraded due to the number of poor lines, I've seen over the years a few others for the same, the trouble is, there is a lot of poor lines out there, many people put up with them, BT try and deny there is a problem, and will just try switching pairs, when people complain, and switching over again when someone else complains, they may replace the small runs of cables.”
“That you may, but it doesn't alter the fact that we constantly hear about either crackling line or poor lines or very quiet lines, with BT.
There ARE many areas where the wiring is poor, and not only have I seen my one area I lived in being upgraded due to the number of poor lines, I've seen over the years a few others for the same, the trouble is, there is a lot of poor lines out there, many people put up with them, BT try and deny there is a problem, and will just try switching pairs, when people complain, and switching over again when someone else complains, they may replace the small runs of cables.”
To be fair, people don't go around saying "my telephone line is working fine, I just wanted you to know that" do they? They expect the phone line to work and only mention anything when there is a problem.
BT has approx 20M lines. If 1% of those people say that they have a problem with a crackly line then that is 200,000 people complaining about the same thing. It sounds like a huge amount but overall is a small problem compared to the number of people who have a perfectly fine line.
I would agree and say there are areas where the wiring needs to be upgraded. It isn't so much a case of BT denying it as opposed to the call centre staff not being aware of it as each fault is raised individually. Talk to any engineer and I am sure they would tell you they have problem areas in their patch.
In the main though, as I said before, it isn't a common problem.
We used to have run ins everyday with BT, when we went out to repair customers fax machines, we knew there were faulty BT lines, but sometimes it would take days for BT to even admit there was a problem, or to investigate it, not once were we wrong.
Well it wouldn't really present BT's business very well if it was to admit that it was completely down to them and some of the faults can be caused by negligence of the people using the premises or by using dodgy equipment.
Also, I have never experienced this problem with a BT payphone, so most of these faults must be either within the premises or by faulty equipment which leads BT to believe that its Fax machines ect.....
BT should charge its customers a lot of money for those who do not maintain its equipment and line in good order and not charge for installations,line upgrades ect....
Also, I have never experienced this problem with a BT payphone, so most of these faults must be either within the premises or by faulty equipment which leads BT to believe that its Fax machines ect.....
BT should charge its customers a lot of money for those who do not maintain its equipment and line in good order and not charge for installations,line upgrades ect....
Originally Posted by BexTech:
“We used to have run ins everyday with BT, when we went out to repair customers fax machines, we knew there were faulty BT lines, but sometimes it would take days for BT to even admit there was a problem, or to investigate it, not once were we wrong.”
“We used to have run ins everyday with BT, when we went out to repair customers fax machines, we knew there were faulty BT lines, but sometimes it would take days for BT to even admit there was a problem, or to investigate it, not once were we wrong.”
Originally Posted by m419:
“Thats because the nice Telewest man ripped it out!”
“Thats because the nice Telewest man ripped it out!”
Nice to see you condone one company vandalising another companies property.
I have been experiencing crackling on the line for some time and put it down to my old cordless phone. Yesterday the phone kept ringing and stopping after a few seconds. I reported the fault and was told it was probably my phone. I checked their progress online last night and it took ages for them to complete their check.
I went out today and bought a brand new plug in phone and although the ringing has stopped the crackling is still there. BT phoned me this morning to say that there is no fault on the line.
Where does that leave me? If it is not my phone and it is not BT what is causing the problem?
I was warned not to insist on a call out as it would cost me over £60 if no fault was found with BT. Is this blackmail?
I went out today and bought a brand new plug in phone and although the ringing has stopped the crackling is still there. BT phoned me this morning to say that there is no fault on the line.
Where does that leave me? If it is not my phone and it is not BT what is causing the problem?
I was warned not to insist on a call out as it would cost me over £60 if no fault was found with BT. Is this blackmail?
I would suggest that as you now have tried 2 separate phones, and both show the same fault (i.e. crackling) then the chances are it is with the BT line.
I assume you have tried both of these phones connected directly to the BT master socket, and that you have no extentions or other eeqipment plugged in - if you do make sure the are disconnected.
Then call BT engineer out - get him/her to prove there is not a fault on the line by making a crackle free call as soon as they arrive with a handset that they have - as I doubt they will be able to there won't be any charge.
Even if they can, most BT engineers are quite helpful and will highlight the actual cause of your crackle because of your equipment or installation set-up, so surely it will be £60 well spent to obtain crackle free communication.
You could off-set some of the charge by returning the phone you just bought for a full refund if the BT engineer claims it to be faulty - use the engineer as an expert witness if required.
I assume you have tried both of these phones connected directly to the BT master socket, and that you have no extentions or other eeqipment plugged in - if you do make sure the are disconnected.
Then call BT engineer out - get him/her to prove there is not a fault on the line by making a crackle free call as soon as they arrive with a handset that they have - as I doubt they will be able to there won't be any charge.
Even if they can, most BT engineers are quite helpful and will highlight the actual cause of your crackle because of your equipment or installation set-up, so surely it will be £60 well spent to obtain crackle free communication.
You could off-set some of the charge by returning the phone you just bought for a full refund if the BT engineer claims it to be faulty - use the engineer as an expert witness if required.
i had this problem a couple of months ago....line was crackling and BT said there was no fault........i kept on at them to come out and it turned out to be a fault in the line several hundred metres away...........so keep on at them thats why you pay line rental
Hooray! We phoned them again last night and they discovered that there was a fault on the line after all. They are coming out this week to fix it.
Thanks dawson and Lucy-lou for your replies.
Thanks dawson and Lucy-lou for your replies.
On our line, we get intermittent fizzing as if someone's turned on a hairdryer (no one has), which then stops. It's enough to totally obscure any sound so you just have to wait for it to stop and carry on chatting, and it will take down the ADSL if you're online.
However, BT says there's nothing, and as luck would have it, you never get the fizz when you're on the phone to them, so you can't prove it.
Bugger!
However, BT says there's nothing, and as luck would have it, you never get the fizz when you're on the phone to them, so you can't prove it.
Bugger!
Well... the BT man came out on Thursday and fixed the crackling. Dampness in the underground wiring or something. He was very nice and helpful. He didn't even say anything when he noticed "1899" sellotaped to my phone as a memory aid!
Originally Posted by ladyeleanor:
“Well... the BT man came out on Thursday and fixed the crackling. Dampness in the underground wiring or something. He was very nice and helpful. He didn't even say anything when he noticed "1899" sellotaped to my phone as a memory aid!”
“Well... the BT man came out on Thursday and fixed the crackling. Dampness in the underground wiring or something. He was very nice and helpful. He didn't even say anything when he noticed "1899" sellotaped to my phone as a memory aid!”
Ah, but the engineers work for Openreach now, so he wouldn't care
We've never had a problem with our BT line, but I do remember once upon a time when at university (living in the halls of residence) we had a payphone that had a very bad line. It was reported to the porters and they took a week (of nagging) before they informed BT, who came round & fixed it next day. It turned out to be a problem with the line inside the building, that the Uni had installed and BT did the work that day, recabling it. The engineer told the head porter that he should have reported it sooner as that amount of noise was unnaceptable, and then handed them a bill 
