Offline
My telephone line to the exchange does not go through one of those green roadside cabinets, as most UK people's do, but connects up in the street to a special deluxe pressurised air-filled cable that goes direct to the exchange.
(I suspect but am not sure that this is part of the reason why I couldn't get fibre when most other people on my exchange could.)
It turns out that the Openreach contractor who installed that cable did not properly pressurise it. That left it vulnerable to intrusion by water. A rainy period meant that water got in, with the obvious problems that causes to a complex electrical system.
Hundreds of domestic and business premises have no phone or broadband, or unreliable or degraded service. It's been going on since at least 22 July. It's made the local press. It's annoying for domestic customers, and probably seriously worrying for a handful. But it's a complete a bloody nightmare for many local businesses - e.g. having their suppliers thinking they've gone bust because they're not answering the phone, restaurants unable to take bookings, delivery companies (flowers, sandwiches, takeaways) unable to take orders, etc.
Many expected repair dates have blown past. I've kicked up again today, and have managed to get several different people to tell me that there is now no expected repair date, but they'll tell me on Monday evening whether or not they have one then.
Telephone and phone-line internet is not really a market: with a handful of exceptions, there are only one set of wires and fibres in the ground, owned and maintained by BT Openreach. But we have a confusopoly of outfits and brands pretending to be different companies selling telephone service.
I'm well enough off and Internet-obsessed enough that I'd previously stuck with BT for phone service, on the grounds that it'd be easier to switch ISP if necessary, and in the event of a fault it would be a single company (BT) responsible as both the phone company and the infrastructure provider. Whether or not this was a good idea, it's turned out to be a bad bet. BT the phone company is being completely useless about keeping me informed about what is going on. My neighbours with other phone companies have had far better information and service. Admittedly most of them still don't have a fix either, but at least they've had no problem getting through to someone who can talk sensibly about it and hassle Openreach.
The only progress I've managed to make was when I took to whinging about it on Twitter, which remarkably resulted in an Openreach engineer turning up shortly after. He was great - competent, friendly and informative. And that's how I know what's going on. He tried to find a spare working line back to the exchange to switch me over to, but couldn't. Replacing the big line is the proper fix, and he had no information about when that would happen, or even whether. Neither does anyone else, it seems.
Apparently, I'm not allowed to complain to BT about how long it is taking to fix my line until they have fixed my line. So I'm not changing immediately, but will do so at the earliest opportunity.
The obvious choice for phone is Zen - they're my ISP, and they offer way-cheaper broadband if you also take telephone. But investigating Zen's pricing, I discovered they've had new broadband products out since May, offering unlimited ADSL for less money. (I'm currently on a 200 Gb pcm cap.) I don't mind paying more for better service (in this instance), but I do mind feeling like a mug for being ripped off for being a loyal customer. I sent a query about it, and they've come back rather weaselly about it, which has put me right off them. So I also looked at Plusnet, and they work out about the same, or a bit cheaper including various lock-in contracts.
Oh yes, and I have only very limited mobile signal in my house, on top of my phone (Nexus 5) being a bit rubbish at picking up signal anyway, so I can only get Internet at work or very slowly and unreliably in a corner of my bedroom on my phone.
Long story short: If you're trying to get hold of me, you're probably out of luck. I'll be at Bicon in a bit and everything will be lovely then.
This entry crossposted to http://doug.dreamwidth.org/299554.html, where there are
comment(s) not shown here.
(I suspect but am not sure that this is part of the reason why I couldn't get fibre when most other people on my exchange could.)
It turns out that the Openreach contractor who installed that cable did not properly pressurise it. That left it vulnerable to intrusion by water. A rainy period meant that water got in, with the obvious problems that causes to a complex electrical system.
Hundreds of domestic and business premises have no phone or broadband, or unreliable or degraded service. It's been going on since at least 22 July. It's made the local press. It's annoying for domestic customers, and probably seriously worrying for a handful. But it's a complete a bloody nightmare for many local businesses - e.g. having their suppliers thinking they've gone bust because they're not answering the phone, restaurants unable to take bookings, delivery companies (flowers, sandwiches, takeaways) unable to take orders, etc.
Many expected repair dates have blown past. I've kicked up again today, and have managed to get several different people to tell me that there is now no expected repair date, but they'll tell me on Monday evening whether or not they have one then.
Telephone and phone-line internet is not really a market: with a handful of exceptions, there are only one set of wires and fibres in the ground, owned and maintained by BT Openreach. But we have a confusopoly of outfits and brands pretending to be different companies selling telephone service.
I'm well enough off and Internet-obsessed enough that I'd previously stuck with BT for phone service, on the grounds that it'd be easier to switch ISP if necessary, and in the event of a fault it would be a single company (BT) responsible as both the phone company and the infrastructure provider. Whether or not this was a good idea, it's turned out to be a bad bet. BT the phone company is being completely useless about keeping me informed about what is going on. My neighbours with other phone companies have had far better information and service. Admittedly most of them still don't have a fix either, but at least they've had no problem getting through to someone who can talk sensibly about it and hassle Openreach.
The only progress I've managed to make was when I took to whinging about it on Twitter, which remarkably resulted in an Openreach engineer turning up shortly after. He was great - competent, friendly and informative. And that's how I know what's going on. He tried to find a spare working line back to the exchange to switch me over to, but couldn't. Replacing the big line is the proper fix, and he had no information about when that would happen, or even whether. Neither does anyone else, it seems.
Apparently, I'm not allowed to complain to BT about how long it is taking to fix my line until they have fixed my line. So I'm not changing immediately, but will do so at the earliest opportunity.
The obvious choice for phone is Zen - they're my ISP, and they offer way-cheaper broadband if you also take telephone. But investigating Zen's pricing, I discovered they've had new broadband products out since May, offering unlimited ADSL for less money. (I'm currently on a 200 Gb pcm cap.) I don't mind paying more for better service (in this instance), but I do mind feeling like a mug for being ripped off for being a loyal customer. I sent a query about it, and they've come back rather weaselly about it, which has put me right off them. So I also looked at Plusnet, and they work out about the same, or a bit cheaper including various lock-in contracts.
Oh yes, and I have only very limited mobile signal in my house, on top of my phone (Nexus 5) being a bit rubbish at picking up signal anyway, so I can only get Internet at work or very slowly and unreliably in a corner of my bedroom on my phone.
Long story short: If you're trying to get hold of me, you're probably out of luck. I'll be at Bicon in a bit and everything will be lovely then.
This entry crossposted to http://doug.dreamwidth.org/299554.html, where there are
comment(s) not shown here.