Brand new phone line failing BB Test

incisor71

Hi all,

First off, apologies to Blaster99 if this is a repetition of an old thread, but my attempts to search his/her previous threads drew a blank owing to the disabling of the search function. Maybe a PayPal contribution could swing Lady Search in my favour

I availed of the (currently free) new phone line connection with Eircom, as I moved into a house which hadn't had an active phone line since 1998. My previous place (1.5 miles away by road) had an active Eircom line and trouble-free BT Broadband service. Both abodes are served by the same exchange (Caherdavin).

At the first stage of the connection process (26/08/05), I asked the customer service rep if she could perform a line test for my new number. She said it wasn't possible. So I asked her to check phone numbers of neighbouring residences (without giving away any of their personal details, naturally) to see if they had broadband/passed the line test. She said she checked and there were neighbours with broadband (though she didn't say whether any checks had failed the test). OK, I said, it's an urban area, I'm about 1.5km from the exchange, all sounded pretty rosy.

Just under weeks later (last Wednesday, 14/09/05), the line became active and the technician called around. I asked him if they used carrier lines any more and he said "only in rural areas, in urban areas it's a pair of individual wires back to the exchange". Eircom told me I had to wait a week before requesting a line test. So far so good. At that stage I had the Eircom account number and phone number, so I sent in the relocation forms to BT Ireland.

Called Eircom today, both the 1901 number and the broadband subscription number (1800-503303). Line test result from both: Failed. :mad:

I asked them if there was any particular reason for this (pointing out that my neighbours had a usable service) and they said "No reason. The technicians will have to look at it .... there's a major backlog, it'll take 4 weeks". So they drew out their pseudo-trump card "have you tried ISDN?" to which I replied "I wouldn't touch it with a very long bargepole, my father had it before and experienced major problems with it." So the response was a mildly icy "Well sir, there's very little we can do, we can't guarantee broadband service".

So I got on to the folks at BT Ireland, and they too use the Eircom tests, which obviously failed for them too. They speculated that the neighbours may be connected to a different exchange - seems kinda unlikely to me, unless I've been fobbed off with a carrier line.

Wireless is not currently an option as I don't own the property (the landlord wouldn't permit bolting an aerial to the side of the house, let alone drilling holes for cable) and I'm not line-of-sight with the transmitter.

So basically I'm goosed, in urban and so-called modern Ireland. Argh!! The regression back to dial-up land is not a welcome prospect.

If anyone there has any big sledgehammer suggestions, or knowledge of people higher in the Customer Service pecking order, they'd be most welcome and appreciated.

Thanks in advance (and anticipation)!

[Hmmh, my sig pic has vanished .... do sigs expire after a time, or was Sasha Behar not suitable sig material? ]

Tony H

if its a new number or line it just takes a while for it to be enabled for broadband , same happened to me after getting a new line , it took a few week s to become broadband enabled
you could also try the local exchange and ask one of the blokes there if he could help , a friend of mine did that and he passed the next day

incisor71

Thanks fitzdragon

fitzdragon wrote:

you could also try the local exchange and ask one of the blokes there if he could help

Not sure what you mean by "try the local exchange" - I presume you meant "ask someone on the inside of Eircom to speed things up"? Bit of a toughie there, the only contact I had within Eircom passed away five years ago

Perhaps a week is too soon for the thing to "settle down"? I'd have thought that once all the wiring was in place, it was either going to pass a test, or not.

It seems that Eircom's line test results are sensitive to variations in the orientation of the moon, tides, Aurora Borealis patterns and whatever Prince Charles had for afternoon tea the day before the Queen Mother died. Most puzzling to this engineer.

Snaga

Its also very sensitive to the last 'foot' (or 50 feet in my case).

My line failed for years, I move out, 30 days later its passing, my best guess is that the 50 feet long extension cable I had from the termination point to my bedroom was causing the problem the whole time

Tony H

no the line is not enabled when it is installed , normally its enabled after 3 weeks or so ,about the exchange i meant just chance your arm and if you see a bloke going from an eircom van into the exchange in (Caherdavin). just go up to him and ask him if he could help you out all he can say is no ,

dub45

fitzdragon wrote:

no the line is not enabled when it is installed , normally its enabled after 3 weeks or so ,about the exchange i meant just chance your arm and if you see a bloke going from an eircom van into the exchange in (Caherdavin). just go up to him and ask him if he could help you out all he can say is no ,

From previous threads it appears that Eircom only carry out the test on a monthly basis or at best fortnightly so your line may not have been tested yet. Apparently many new lines show up as fail simply because they have not been tested at the time. make sure you dont have anything else on the line for the foreseeable future until you are absolutely sure of the status of the line.

machalla

Netsource line tests also give you the actual date of the line test and some indication as to why it might fail. If your new line has not been tested it will probably tell you that as well.

http://www.netsource.ie/

dahamsta

Like has been suggested, it probably just hasn't been tested yet. It's too much to ask Eircom to show this in their tests. Either wait the remainder of a month from the install date or pop down to your local exchange with a bottle of whiskey.

I'm not kidding about the whiskey.

incisor71

Many thanks for your help folks.

I undertook more detective work yesterday evening and called around to a few neighbours' houses. One of them told me that Eircom had been doing the hard sell with broadband in their estate this time last year, and he'd signed up and gotten line pre-qualification no hassle. He's only 15m away from where I'm living and most certainly no further from the exchange than I am. Another just a few doors up told me that he only had dial-up but his line also passed the pre-qual test.

I also found the mobile number of the installation technician on my phone, so I'm trying to decide how I'll go about asking him if he'll be back in the local exchange anytime soon and what he could do for me. The whiskey idea is a good one, but I have to find the geographical location of the exchange first.

In the meantime I swallowed my pride and signed up for the BT Anytime service - better to have slow internet than no internet. I wouldn't have gone back to BT except they owe me EUR54 from a billing f***-up. (But there are no guarantees they won't make a royal mess of it again). :mad:

incisor71

machalla wrote:

Netsource line tests also give you the actual date of the line test and some indication as to why it might fail. If your new line has not been tested it will probably tell you that as well.

I checked out that site and it told me that my test date was 10/09/05, which was four days before the technician called and before the final wiring was completed. Unfortunately it also said "your line is not suitable for DSL" and it supplied the Netsource number.

From the aforementioned investigation, my neighbours' lines are suitable (those of them who checked out broadband, at least). In addition, Eircom tried to fob me off at my previous abode by telling me that broadband was not available in the Caherdavin area (they knew bloody well it was, and I'm served by that same exchange now). It makes this showstopping test result hard to swallow.