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Author Topic: Can \ do BT re route telephone lines?  (Read 4066 times)

justboatonic

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Can \ do BT re route telephone lines?
« on: September 14, 2010, 10:05:47 pm »

Does anyone know if, when you change your broadband provider whether BT or the provider re routes your telephone line to another local exchange?

Reason I ask is I've just been given some info that suggests this has happened to my line.

The story so far (!) is, my previous broadband reseller managed to deliver a speed of 6 meg on a stable line. This reseller changed their broadband supplier and since then my line went totally unstable and speed dropped down to under 2 meg.

Eventually, I changed to another isp and my speed managed to get up to 3.6 meg on a good day but more often than not 2.5 meg. However they have said the line (which used to support 6 meg) cannot support more than 3.5 meg because Im 4.5kilometers from the exchange. Im not. Im 1.7 kilometers from my nearest 'local' exchange. I managed to find my line length was 2.2 kilometer from this exchange to my home address.

This is a lot less than 4.5k Im now being told is the distance I am from the exchange! My house hasnt moved an inch!

The line which used to support 6 meg now delivers just over half that on a good day. So, Im wondering if when the previous reseller changed their provider, because their infrastructure wasnt in the local exchange, my line has now been routed through another exchange which did have the supplier's infrastructure in situ and, is, roughly 5 kilometers away!

This could explain why the line will no longer support 6 meg and add substance to the isp's claim that the length of line is the reason I cannot get 6 meg any more.

Any one know whether this happens ie your line get re routed to a different exchange?
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funtimefrankie

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Re: Can \ do BT re route telephone lines?
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2010, 08:56:46 am »

It's some years since I left BT, but I would say that your exchange has not been changed. Has your phone number changed?
Your pair of wires goes from your house to the cabinet, the green box, then in bigger cables to the exchange, to connect you to another exchange would be a major job, which in my day was done rarely (and cost more money).
The speed or lack of it will be more to do with the ISP I would think.

The length of your line is nearer the length of the route you would drive to the exchange, not a crow flying distance.
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Can \ do BT re route telephone lines?
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2010, 11:36:52 am »

Frankie is near enough.  I, too, left the gentlemans club before the broadband provision, but from the knowledge I gained about wideband distribution, I would guess that there is a broadband "box" in each exchange building.  Maybe boxes, depending on how many major ISPs are interested in that area.  Smaller players might just rent space from the big guys to connect through to their own boxes in more central locations, and what you get is traffic choking as the attempt is made to squeeze several gallons a minute through a system only intended for a few pints per minute.
Swapping telephone service provider, especially if you keep the same number at the same address, basically just involves changing accounts departments, changing ISP might involve physically re-routing your line through a different box, and this fresh box might well have an entire different set of operating parameters.  You only find out if this is an improvement or not later on.
If a line is routed to a specific building, it is very unlikely to be routed to one further away, because that is an expensive process, and usually pointless.  Having said that, it is not unknown for a small exchange to be incorporated into a nearby larger one.  The local cable network would remain centred on the manhole outside the old one, but be physically re-routed to its new connection point - if it was in an area linked numbering scheme, there would be no change of number.  If your local exchange has suddenly sprouted "for sale" signs, this could be a clue.  Usually there is something about it in the local press.
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meechingman

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Re: Can \ do BT re route telephone lines?
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2010, 12:31:38 pm »

Change to an LLU service if you can. As BT couldn't give a **** that my line attenuation shot up overnight from 36dB to 48dB after they cross-wired me to another number, I was limited to a max of around 4Mb. And I had occasional disconnects that made the line profile drop and I'd be stuck with 2Mb for weeks. Going LLU costs me more, but I get a rock solid 8Mb.

If you can't get the service you want, change ISP if you can, going for a short duration contract (30 days notice).
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justboatonic

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Re: Can \ do BT re route telephone lines?
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2010, 09:44:54 pm »

Thanks all. I've just switched to LLU. But, Im puzzled why a previous ISP managed to push 6meg download on my then stable line via BT 21CN ADSL then, when that ISP changed their 'provider,' my line speed dropped to 2.5meg and the line suddenly became unstable.

The ISP then claimed because I was 4.5kilomters from the exchange (I dont, and I think Sam Knows or another site said the line length was 2km so if the line length is 4.5km, the line must go to some weird and wonderful places before arriving at my door! But I digress.) that 2.5 meg was all my line would support on 21CN.

So when I responded 'how the heck did you deliver 6meg every day for 6 months before you switched your provider?' they just said the line can only support 2.5meg. Bunch of "xxxxx".
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Can \ do BT re route telephone lines?
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2010, 10:40:40 pm »

I think that the degradation of ADSL service a lot of people are experiencing is simply down to the explosion of people getting online. This is putting the local bandwidth delivery in many areas under a great deal of strain as providers try to get a quart out of a pint pot. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any easy solution to this which probably explains why wireless links via the mobile nestwork are being hyped so much.

Colin
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