The Weekly Gripe

Noisy phone line and BT problems

Sorting out my noisy phone line

Phone and broadband problems

It's strange how BT seem to have forgot all about the line rental I have paid in the last 30 years and the money they had from ISDN when I used it.



I have the dreaded crackles on my phone line and it gets so bad that I can hardly hear the other person speaking whilst on the phone. So far four BT engineers have called and two of them have found faults.

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Posted Comment Visitor
27-5-2010 Slipitin - the employee wasn't sticking up for BT, only saying that if faults are caused by customer equipment they'll charge you. Personally, I find this acceptable, if you waste their time, they should recoup their costs. Why do you say BT are lazy and INCONSIDERATE? I don't understand your statement. BT are the supplier for most of the 3rd party internet providers, heavily investinging in fibre to the curb/home to improve speeds and get rid of these terrible copper/aluminum lines. Cable companies may laugh that BT are copying their (aging) network architecture. but they only managed a very small proportion of the UK.moo
22-4-2010 BT Employee and of course you will stick up for BT seeing as you are a BT Employee ? I don't think what you have to say is going to hold any water here. face the facts BT are lazy and inconciderate,they charge the earth for a mediocre service.thats what they do right ?Slipitin
21-4-2010 Try Commsmaster they are very helpful and resolved all my issues!!PollyD
08-4-2010 I know what your problem is. You have to put a bt filter on every phone you have connected in the house, otherwise all the lines get amplified background noise. This filter is the white box that you use to connect the hub to the phone line socket- get one for each phone. If you don't have enough filters, disconnect the phones that you don't have filters on until you get more, and you should be fine. It happened to my nan when she first got broadband.luke
16-12-2009 Same problem here in West Virginia, U.S. Can't hear and have a clear conversation much of the time. Wish I could talk to a human being, and one who is not half way around the world and whom I can't understand due to language/accent barrier. I'm thinking of going back to dial-up connection just to get my phone service back in order.Nana
25-10-2009 4 engineer visits over a period of time, same problem-corrosion where the wire from outside enters box inside. Last one was helpful, binned the contents of the box and connected the wires using outdoor grade silicone sealed connectors, they lasted longer than the others (who all said it was/my fault/damp/nothing there etc). One contact corroded away inside the silicone - you can see the black and I kept it to prove. This must be some chemical reaction/electrolitic? I'm no expert, perhaps someone can suggest? I shortened the wires again and connected with automotive block connector - all working again. I shoulde send BT my bill for £120 perhaps? -location Dalton-in-FurnessThe Monster
17-10-2009 Same here in Formby, Merseyside. We have terrible line noise/crackles at certain times throughout the year, mostly daily and I've called to complain about it many times. Following all these calls to BT eventually an engineer was sent out. We were informed that the line was fine and there was not a problem. I insisted that there was, we were continualy getting noise/crackles and I was sure it was the line itself and not any internal equiment as 'I' had unplugged it all. The engineer assured me that the line from the pole to our house had been replaced recently. Funny that!! Nobody has ever entered our house since it was built more than 35 years ago to connect anything to our internal master socket, hmmm, this is where the BT line ends! Make sure you write all your experiences down folks (I am.) BT won't have a leg to stand on here in future however much they try to deny it.John
22-9-2009 I have exactly the same problem, haveing antiquated aluminium cable in the road outside. Unfortunately there are only three of us in the lane and so no chance, despite several battles, of getting BT to supply the standard of service I would like. Line chaecker shows ½meg 4k from the exchange!! Personally I'm now using an expensive but working wimax radio link for my broadband, but why should I have to!! CT14 postcodeChris_Sav
27-8-2009 Yes I had the same problem until BT went down their pavement manhole and cleared away the ants nest and debris from around the connectionsArchie
28-7-2009 I too suffer from a BT aluminium wire instalation and the consequential drop of my Broadband connection, this has been ongoing for 3 years and I have already had 6 x engineer visits to my house this year alone, 2 of the visits by Broadband specialist teams (more than 1 engineer). Yesterday I received a BT Home-hub (free - to replace my Belkin N BT compatible router that cost me £86.00 in February) The good news is they have now offered to increase my speed at a cost reduction of around £5.00 (makes sense to me !) AND I got £50 in vouchers for the protracted period I have suffered from an unreliable service for which I pay. Aluminium can not deliver effective Broadband as it was never designed to do this, so copper wire is the only answer, but I also feel that replacement cable is a step that will never be takenTerry - Colchester
19-7-2009Always make sure the fault isn't with in your property by proving it to the test socket behind the removable lower part of the master socket .Try 2 phones or borrow next doors.If your not sure or haven't got one you could get a local private telephone engineer (Google telephone engineer + town/city name) to prove its BT Openreachs fault or fix it ,they will charge a lot less than the BT £120 call out + £98/h.Dave
09-6-2009I had the same issue on my home phone/broadband and now have the same issue with business broadband. Ended up going on for months. Only got sorted when they changed my line over at the exchange.TW

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