I feel a letter coming on.

[fleetfootmike]

So, i upgraded to ADSL Max on our ADSL-only, doesn't-have-a-handset-plugged-into-it second line on April 4. The upgrade completed on Apr 5, and since then, as anyone trying to use FilkNet or a hosted service on my machines can attest, the line quality has been variable between 'OK but no better than the old 2M line' and 'complete shite that could be done better with a 56k modem'.

Andrews and Arnold, my thoroughly reliable and recommended ISP, who are in no way to blame for this, were about to escalate to BT on Weds morning when the phone bill arrived. Luckily (apart from not feeling well) I was at home, and noticed there were CALLS on that line. All to either 123 (speaking clock) or various local numbers consisting entirely of 1s, 2s and 3s....

Needless to say, I preempted A+A and raised a fault, as well as asking for the charges to be cancelled (why would I get up from my nice warm bed at 3am, ignore the clock/radio/telephone by my bed, ignore two other phones, and grovel on the floor under Anne's desk downstairs at the opposite end of the house to plug in a phone to dial the speaking clock?...)

No reply before this morning, so I called, and checked the faults page on my BT account as well. It's listed as a fault with the exchange, but, oddly, there are THREE OTHER faults listed on the line, recorded as 'fixed to my satisfaction' on Jan 13, and twice on Jan 20. About which I know nothing?

I phoned again... apparently they were all 'noisy calls to 112' - i.e. random crud on the line had caused it to (pulse-)dial the new emergency number (999's Euro replacement).

So. BT have known there is a noise problem on my line since Jan 13. They've 'fixed' it three times 'to my satisfaction'.

I. Don't. Think. So.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

The emergency number is 112, and pulse dialing is still supported? Bad planning on the Euroarchs' part, I'd say.

[occams_pyramid]

Bad planning on the Euroarchs' part, I'd say.

Latest news: Pope considered Catholic! Bears known to defeacate in arboreal areas!

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Very few countries around the world use a 9xx number, and one of the reasons for 999 in the UK was to guard against spurious calls in the pulse-dialing days. The US and Canada use 911, but it's mostly zeroes and ones in the rest of the world.

I don't know if 999 is the technical best option, and I can't see the US conforming to anyone else's standard, but 911 does make more sense than 112 if you want to support pulse-dialling.

It's still BT administration being a bit cack-handed whether these spurious calls were to an emergency number or to something else. They must be rather relieved at WHItehall-1212 that they didn't have a call centre in Abbotsford.

[gas-king.livejournal.com]

maxADSL seems to be a bit of a problem for BT in general. I got my line upgraded last Monday. During the day the service has been fine but from 9pm to 9am you can forget it. The ADSL stays synced but thats about it - throughput is nil and even rebooting the mod/router has no effect. Apparently this is a 'bad' thing in general as it appears to BT as a dodgy line so they lower your speed.

Current speeds

Downstream 3712 kbps
Upstream 448 kbps

Pants compared to last week.

[filkerbaby.livejournal.com]

Please include the letter in the post after you have written it. I love your letters - they are magnificent.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

My understanding from reports else-net is that this BT-touted upgrading is running far too close to the noise limits, and the retransmission of data is greatly reducing the effective throughput.

Checking what your hardware reports as the moise margins can be interesting. I get 24 dB noise margin, some people with the upgrade are reporting a 2 dB margin with only a 10-fold speed increase.

[occams_pyramid]

I got a letter from BT this morning.

Apparently they meant to include their crap advertising flyer with my last bill and forgot, so they are apologising(!) and have sent it separately (presumably using money which could have been spent on improving services).

The letter begins:

> In your recent BT Bill you should of received your regular issue of Update.

If they can't be bothered with service improvements, maybe they could try spending some money on grammar lessons for their PR staff?