BT phone line still dead.

[buddug]

I rang Sky last night and I was the first of their customers to report it to them. I was eventually passed to a technical person who was aware of the problem and yes, it was damaged due to people trying to steal the cable. He rang BT while I was holding and then told me they expect us to be up and running some time on Sunday.

[Marcus]

Possibly a dumb question, but... how do you steal cable that's under the ground?

[Penguin68]

Cables are accessed via cable chambers (they are under the slabs in the pavement with, often, 'GPO' on them. Lever them up and you get into a cable chamber and you can pull and cut cable from there (it's pretty heavy, which is why only comparatively short lengths are taken). Cables also terminate into cabinets and pillars (green street furniture, often also with GPO marks on them), but these are less easy to pull cable from. Cables run along ducts underground - these can also be exposed by other street works (gas, water. electricity) as they all follow broadly the same courses (they are all serving the same sites after all) - and they are again vulnerable in this instance.

I should note that cable chambers can (a) be flooded and (b) contain gas - accessing them can be dangerous and engineers have to be trained in their safe access and also have the right equipment (including gas detection). Don't try this at home (or actually, normally, just outside your home.

[Siduhe]

According to someone in BT's security division (who told me a couple of weeks ago there is a spate of incidents in South London at the moment):

Open up a BT access point (manhole) or dig down to the cable, cut cable, attach a vehicle to the cable and then drive off to pull it out. He reckons thieves particularly look for recent roadworks that have been filled in because a) it's easier to dig down through the recent tarmac/filler to get to the cables and b) if queried by anyone they can say they're fixing a botch in the previous job.

[V511]

Just had a BT engineer round at our offices. He reiterated what Karter said above. 170meters of cable stolen. About 1500 customers affected. They will have engineers on it 24hrs and estimate it will be fixed on Sunday.

They have put a temporary cable in place but it is limited capacity so a few people may get their line back but the majority won't.

[buddug]

Phones are back! Well, in Oglander anyway. Initially I picked up the phone and it was dead, no tone, but then I had a brainwave and decided to dial someone, and lo and behold the tone came back and it worked. Internet also back. So do dial out to activate and hopefully you'll find you're up and running too.

[victor]

Yay! Internet back! And phone!

[sweetchicken]

we have had no phoneline for last few days also - we are a 8693 number (apparently the prefix makes no difference according to the BT engineer I spoke to on Thursday) - Pipex keep texting me saying 'your phone is fixed!' I keep ringing to tell them it is not!! both my neighbours are affected and I am paying an arm and a leg to tether my mobile to my computer so I can access t'internet.....hope it comes back soon..it's amazing how much I rely on the internet - today I had to ring directory enquiries which I have not done for years!!!

[shot_by_the_sheriff]

Hi All,

Our phone and more importantly the connected broadband went down the same time as everyone else's. It wasn't till I found out that Lloyds Pharmacy and the Palmerston (North Cross Road) were having problems too that I found out about the vandalism. I was told it was at the East Dulwich Exchange.

I went into work again today (Sat) but left and came home at midday after noticing the Post Office was still shut because of the same problem.

This has really screwed with our business this week and I know that I'm not alone in that.

I'd like to offer my apologies to all our customers for the delay in dealing with their enquiries and orders.

I really hope it comes back on soon.

All the best.

Keith Sheriff

Shot by the Sheriff Photography

The Old Stable House - North Cross Road.

(Next to Jo Partridges Hair)

[cidered]

I am on north cross and still don't have phone or broadband. Is everybody supposed to be back on now?

[Penguin68]

Some earlier posters were saying that BT was talking about restoring service fully on Monday. In this sort of situation BT try to restore first key business (doctors etc.) and vulnerable personal subscribers (elderly, sick etc., where they know these) then other businesses (who will be suffering financial loss) then remainder of personal subscribers. However a 2000 pair cable will be split up (via flexibility points) so some subscribers will get service 'on the back of' vulnerable or key customers on the same sub-cable. I don't know the topology of this (or frankly any other) section of cable to know the sequencing of service restoration, but it is quite possible for some customers to receive service before others as a natural consequence of the sequencing of re-connecting the damaged cable sections. However it would be worth checking on Monday if BT thinks the work is complete - they may have either missed out on your pair (amongst 2000) - or of course you may be suffering from an unrelated fault.

[Carrie]

Have just discovered that our internet at Glazer Delmar on Northcross Road has been reconnected. Not sure about the phone lines yet as I was logging on from home - but fingers crossed that it will be business as usual from tomorrow.

[cidered]

I live on the same road as glazer and phoneline + broadband is back to normal

[geh]

it's back, hurrah!

[keilo]

Hurray, we're back too! Well done BT. Did anyone else find Sky support a bit useless in keeping you informed? I logged a call on Thursday, but only found out what was happening through the forum. And it cost me a fortune phoning them on my mobile...

[dullwitch]

I'm with Talk Talk and have had no connection since yesterday morning. I still have a phone line, just not broadband. Is anyone else having problems connecting, as I'm wondering if it's the modem or not.

[Penguin68]

The severed cable would take out broadband and telephone - the problem as you describe it with TalkTalk suggests a completely different problem than that being generally discussed here - it may either be a modem/ router problem or possibly a problem with the TalkTalk service itself. It could also be a problem with your own connection to TalkTalk equipment in the exchange - I assume that you have an unbundled line? If so, this might effect just you. But if you have dial tone it does suggest that you have an integral line back to the exchange equipment.

[dullwitch]

Thanks Penguin, I'm re installing the wireless router at the moment. Hopefully that will work. I appreciate your response. Xx

[radnrach]

phone line and broadband both back up again in Melbourne Grove... finally!

[Carrie]

Nothing is straight forward - whilst we have got our internet back we still haven't got our phones back at Glazer Delmar- apparently BT have to reconfigure our phones but hope to have us back up and running by the end of today.

[chesterpuss81]

Keilo - in response to your post, we found Sky very unhelpful! We got home yesterday afternoon from a week away to find that broadband and phone were dead, we phoned Sky to report the problem who were very rude and patronising in the first instance and then put me through to their technical team who were even more rude. They made us do several tests which included taking the front of the phone socket off the wall to which the guy huffed when I said I needed to go find a screwdriver!! He then proceeded to tell me that there wasn't a problem with the line and that we had to test it with another phone (who keeps a spare phone just in case?) as it was likely to be our faulty equipment, when I protested and said it can't be the faulty phone becasue the internet is down too he proceeded to say that if he booked an engineer who discovered it was our equipment they'd charge us ?100 plus the hourly call out charge. I gave up in the end and decided to look at the EDF via my phone, only to find this thread!!

A few hours later the internet lights started blinking again and we were back up and running, no thanks to Sky who didn't have a clue that there was a problem in the area!

If all else fails check the EDF!

[mammab]

I seem to have my phone line back up but not my Internet - and seeing as I work for myself from home, I'm starting to tear my hair out a bit! I've had endless lengthy talks with both Sky and BT - both blaming each other! BT confirm that there is no longer any fault on my line, but I still have no broadband. I've tried 2 different routers and done every kind of reset/off and on again routine there is, and still nothing. My laptop is fine as I have been using it in nearby cafes whilst my house has been down. The laptop picks up and connects to my router but then says underneath the router name "no Internet access".

Sorry for the ramble, but just wondered if anyone else had any bright ideas or suggestions for me to try!

[nunhead_man]

Mammab presume you have Sky for internet?

If its been off for a few days may well take a while to realise you are back?

Suggest you keep rebooting?

And might be easier to look at your router by a wired connection while you are sorting things out? One thing less to go wrong!

[mammab]

Thanks nunhead-man.

Yup-sky provide my broadband. I'm currently waiting for them to call me back....30mins and counting...ooh, they've just called ad our sending an engineer tomorrow apparently.

Even when I was using the router through a wired connection it still wasn't giving me internet access, so something is definitely up. Fingers crossed they can sort it tomorrow!

[karter]

BT Phone lines back up and running and internet too, stick an ethernet cable into your router if it is not working wirelessly for now and don't forget to add back the filter in the phone line for internet if you have one.