Phones and the internet

[sunray]

3 hours ago, sunray said:

I'm sure you don't know what you mean by that 🤣🤣🤣

I have unrestricted access to 3 cellphone sites, only 1 has battery backup and for the last 10 years the 4 200Ah batteries cannot be removed from the rack without dismantling as they have swollen so much and the sides have split away, even the battery MCB is switched off. The adjacent and similar rack has never had batteries fitted.

The engineer I spoke to reckoned there is a 20 minute response with generator but a couple of years ago I spent best part of a day there (building maintenance including moving a rack of radio kit/aerial feeders) and the power was off for hours.

Why a down vote?

[KevinE]

I think the fibre providers will be providing a sort of set-top box to allow access from analogue systems.

 

Quote

Switched to Plusnet, can`t speak highly enough about their customer service, fast to answer and empowered to get things done

 

I spent ages getting our lines at work changed over to plusnet from watchdog's very own 'Unicom'. It took me a long time because Unicom had entered the wrong address into the openreach database when signing us up years ago, which meant that when plusnet tried to adopt our line, openreach reported that no phone line existed at our address!

After a couple of years of trouble free service (except for noisy openreach line problems) we had an email from plusnet saying they were going to pull out of the business market, and we had a year to find a new supplier. Cheers! :-/

 

[musht]

....watched the guy with the trench cutter in the winter just set it off, put hands in pocket to keep warm, and then every now and then, give it a kick to point it away from the kerb or walls....

City Fibre dig too deep on a railway bridge,oops

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/edinburgh-shandon-bridge-residents-and-businesses-frustrated-by-closure-of-bridge-in-ashley-terrace-4062539

Plusnet, was Force 9 then Madasafish, parent company BT, are out of the phone business, only allowed to recommend BT as a voice provider.

no longer self powered phone line, Was some controversy over battery backed analogue adapters for vulnerable people, who maintains the battery.

[sunray]

Oh dear... 

Been out today and saw the effects of: city fibre had set the trenching machine moving then walked away.

It went off course into a garden and cut through water and leccy, seems quite lucky it missed gas.

Seems no one wanted to wade into the flood to turn water off knowing leccy was still live in the water.

[richard_cooper]

22 hours ago, KevinE said:

After a couple of years of trouble free service (except for noisy openreach line problems) we had an email from plusnet saying they were going to pull out of the business market, and we had a year to find a new supplier. Cheers! :-/

 

I don't know if you're looking, or this is just of historical info. I highly recommend Zen Internet I've been with them for my home connection since 2007 and moved my work connection (from Plusnet whom we had no end of trouble with) in 2019. All FTTC products as it's all that's available in the area. I think that I've had exactly one problem in 16 years at home that was not Openreach planned maintenance/outage. Work connection has been pretty much flawless. The one time I did have an outage, support was excellent  and I got straight through to someone who actually knew exactly what to do. It was long enough ago that I can't remember the details of.

And of course, if anyone wants a referral link for a £25 gift card when signing up..............

[AncientLight]

My issue is that so many VOI phones sound awful, with broken "underwater" effect. Maybe it's to do with the speed and quality of the connection, I don't know. But some conversations are almost unintelligible, like the early days of analogue mobiles. 

[GR1]

I was with Zen Internet for a number of years until last Autumn when I had a problem with varying - almost non existent internet speeds. After 6 weeks and several visits from Open Reach technicians plus replacement equipment from Zen and several long phone calls theye were unable to fix the problem and I had to change suppliers to Community Fibre. Zen were very very nice and very friendly but useless with no one taking responsibilty for resolving the problem. I had to piggy back my computer off my neighbour's WiFi for 6 weeks to have internet access. Zen keep getting very good feedback and it made them complacent in my case.

[paulears]

Peter mentioned the 'sound' of digital comms. In this day and age of everyone being audio experts, it's very odd that digital comms audio quality seems rarely to even be considered and few people moan about their two-way radios. When considering clever two-way, it's 100% about the facilities, and never about how easy the audio is to understand. We seem to all be gradually learning to interpret low bit rate digital audio without even thinking about it. It's often even worse when you mix brands. They have common codecs, so voice come out - but a Motorola to a Kenwood always sounds more difficult to understand, and some brands seem worse with some, better with others - but somebody presses a button, says testing testing and if that comes out the other end, job done! Digital two-way is never tested with some bass drum or guitar in the background, and often, even with an ear piece it's just a mess. VOIP phones seem similar. The ones I have seem pretty good, but at the moment my land line rings my mobile and sometimes I really struggle.

[paulears]

Well it's over a week without internet, and yesterday I cancelled the new order with Vodafone because they're useless. The people I'm texting to seem to probably be abroad, and I cannot make them understand my problem. They're convinced I am an open reach customer and Vodafone fibre uses City Fibre's network here, so en engineer is required to fit the fibre to the premises. I already have city fibre to the premises but they won't believe me. So I've now signed up with a service called giganet - which my friend in the same boat ordered same day she got cut off. She gets hers connected Monday. Vodafone wanted an engineer to call on the 28th. So I'm back to square one. 

[sleah]

I would have asked if you'd gone to whichever "Of" is the appropriate regulator. Ofcom I assume. However, they don't deal with individual cases and besides they are as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike/chocolate fire guard/other useless item of choice.

Edited March 19, 2023 by sleah

[Jivemaster]

Years ago in the era of the London Tube bombings, I was an ambulance driver and a good mate was in EOD. My mobile phone went offline, his official phone went offline just as his team got in the van to race towards the problem. 

I haven't seen any improvement in reliability of service since then.

[musht]

'Digital Voice ' rollout resumes

https://www-thisismoney-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-11901629/amp/BT-defies-critics-restart-rollout-controversial-digital-phones.html?

Fibre terminal in the house is powered by. USB plug, so mebbe keep a USB battery handy for backup.

 

 

[richardash1981]

44 minutes ago, musht said:

Fibre terminal in the house is powered by. USB plug, so mebbe keep a USB battery handy for backup.

Interesting, the one BT fitted (on a new provide) 15 months ago isn't, it uses a barrel jack of some sort. The the BT router has another, separate, wall wart, which I think is the same 12V 1.5A that Home Hubs have had for ages - but it's an oversize centre pin (larger than 2.5mm) I've never been able to buy a plug to fit!

[paulears]

Just to update the old post. today was connection day and at 10.15 they emailed to say I was live. They lied. I have waited all day for repeated promises and at 5pm they said it would be complete this afternoon. they then went home and it's still off. SO - if you are tempted to join Giganet - don't because they don't answer the complaints option (2) but did answer technical (3) after an hour, and the 'technical' advice was to pull the plug out. I pointed out I'd done this every 30 minutes since 10.15, and that was the limit of her technical expertise. Complete numptys. I got a quick response to a complaint on Facebook - asking for the amount detail by messenger. I responded and got an auto response - we're closed right now .........

Nothing I can do but warn as many people as possible how rubbish they are.

[sunray]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:47 AM, paulears said:

Peter mentioned the 'sound' of digital comms. In this day and age of everyone being audio experts, it's very odd that digital comms audio quality seems rarely to even be considered and few people moan about their two-way radios.

 

five years back I was setting up battery PA system behind the black wing extension fabric for Rochester Castle concert season. I could hear the squawking of DMR as various teams went about their business.

Equally I heard lots of shouting and swearing from the guys rigging the video screen concluding with "this f****** pile of S*** and a black object flying over the back cloth and hitting a dressing room shipping container. There it dispersed in several directions. The replacement radios were bright yellow Motorola 446's and the rigging continued unhindered.

I have some work within 2 way radio systems and have known of 2 companies update to digital only to beg to have their old system recommissioned within a couple of months.

I agree not all progress/improvement is better.