[UK-CONTEST] Bit off topic - but may be interesting.

[Dave Sergeant]

On 12 Jun 2007 at 20:37, STEPHEN LAWRENCE wrote:

> Come on then, someone out there explain this one to me.  Yesterday the
> phone line supplied by ONETEL suddenly started to act up..low audio
> crackling..sounds like one leg has gone O/C somewere between hr and
> the excahnge. 
> 
> Got up today, nothing.but my internet 8mb connection works just great
> still.....this service comes from BT....but if I aint got any dial
> tone what the heck is going on?
> 
> We are migrating back to BT on the 20th....bit strange to say the
> least. 
> 

Because ADSL works in the RF spectrum (up to 1MHz or so) it is not 
unknown for it to continue to work if one of the lines of the twisted 
pair is open circuit - I assume it finds its way via capacitive 
coupling.

You basically have a phone line fault, not uncommon (I had the same 
last year). I guess you need to go via OneTel to get BT Openreach out 
to sort it. At the moment it is dead so in theory will be easy to 
find. But you may find if somebody rings your line it will suddenly 
start working again, such faults can be a nightmare to track down.

73 Dave G3YMC

http://www.davesergeant.com