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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Regular Disconnections & Fluctuating Speeds... 6+ phone calls, still not resolved

Hey All,

I moved into this property about two months ago and have had issues with the internet from day 1, from 10+ (sometimes 20+) disconnections a day to massively fluctuating internet speeds going from a 37Mbps connection down to 1Mbps connection randomly

When we moved in we subscribed to the "NowTV Super Fibre" which is supposed to provide average download speeds of 63Mbps. 

Events:

  • Moved in, subscribed to a 63Mbps connection

  • Noticed disconnections & fluctuating speeds.

  • Called NowTV and mentioned the issues, they suggested waiting a few more days as the line profiles were being automatically figured out.

  • Called NowTV and mentioned both the issues + the fact that I was paying for a 63Mbps connection yet only getting 37Mbps which is only fractionally faster than "NowTV Fab Fibre" so I asked to be downgraded. They put in the ticket to downgrade my account/line and then put me through to a different department regarding the connection issues. This new representative claimed that it was because we were mid-downgrade of which is very clearly wrong as I only just asked for it to be downgraded and the issues had been affecting us for many days before asking for that.

  • I suggested that maybe it is the internal wiring because to me the wiring looked very old and outdated, I provided NowTV with pictures of the setup and she agreed that it looked like the likely cause.The lady raised a ticket with BT Openreach to get an engineer sent out.

  • Engineer arrived and asked what the problem was, to which he had a look at the wiring and setup and very quickly suggested replacing all of the wiring because the current wiring looked like it was in very bad condition. After a short while he had finished replacing the wiring and it looks a lot better than it previously did. He ran a line test in the house and was getting 38Mbps however I've actually never got 

  • An hour or so after he left, we had another disconnection... I didn't bother calling up immediately because I hoped it would settle down but after a few days it was still acting the same as it was before which shows it wasn't the internal wiring that was the fault...

  • I called up NowTV again and they again said there were no issues on the line but he could try changing someone on my line (line profile I assume) and that after 24 hours it should be much improved...  He said that he would call back in 24-48 hours time and see how the line is. I never received a call. 
  • I called up 2 after 48 hours to which I was told the line profile changes can take up to 72 hours to process.

  • A few days pass, I call up again and the individual I spoke to claimed again nothing was wrong with my line, so they couldn't really do anything. I obviously argued against this because there very clearly is something wrong. He eventually suggested sending out a new router to which I asked something along the lines of "What's next if the new router doesn't solve the issue" to which he immediately gave me attitude stating that the new router is the next step, I asked again in a different way which he gave me the same reply, I asked again in yet another way and he finally said that it would be raised with the networking team to investigate. I accepted his suggestion of trying a new router even though I was confident it wouldn't fix the issue.

  • The new router arrived, I installed it (I'm not a novice when it comes to things like this), it's the same as how I set it up originally, same as how BT Openreach set it up and same as my previous properties. Didn't take long for disconnections to continue happening which made it clear to me that the router wasn't the issue either.

  • I called up NowTV again, and guess what... they suggested yet again everything was working and nothing could be done, yet when I got them to look into the logs of the line he could see disconnections (Though it wasn't as many as I was actually getting). He wasn't very helpful and I basically had to tell him that an engineer needs to be booked or NowTV/Sky need to investigate further. He agreed to organise an engineer to which I told him that the outside wiring + cabinet/exchange should be next because everything inside the house has been replaced so it surely can't be anything inside the premesis. I was informed that I would receive a text telling me when the engineer had finished but it could take 72+ hours.

  • I waited 7 days, no text, no email, no phone call... I called up to check and found out that the ticket didn't get "picked up" so no engineer was actually sent.

    I checked with this representative what had been done to the lines before they sent a new router as a previous rep said he had changed some settings on the line... he told me that nothing looks like it got changed.

    He ran a line test and there were no issues on the line again. He told me to reset the router to which I replied (while walking towards the router) "We've already tried resetting the rou..." and he interrupted me telling me that "I need you to reset it to continue" or something like that, to which I told me "Yes, I am resetting it. I am just telling you all the things that have been tried".

    I reset it and he said that the line shows we are getting 38Mbps, I replied telling him that sometimes it drops massively down to as low as 1Mbps to which he replied with "That's expected with WiFi" which I had to tell him "No no, on wired too. I've tried it on a wired computer and the same happens".

    He said that he couldn't see anything wrong and then tried to suggest that its because we have 9 devices connected. I told him that 7 of those are lights not computers/phones and he replied with "Yes, but as they're connected they could still be using too much of your lines bandwidth" which is laughable because we all know that 7 lights use basically no bandwidth and this particular router in theory can handle well over 100 devices and they shouldn't be able to cause disconnections only wifi slowdown. Regardless of that I told him "Yes but the issues with the internet have been around before these wifi lights were installed. I added these last week yet the issue has been around for over a month.

    He finally agreed to raising it with a different team, the networking team to have a look into the issue and action the engineer ticket and that he would call me back within 72 hours.

 

27 REPLIES 27
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi,

The disconnections aren't AS bad as before but it's still 5~ disconnects on average per day.

So they again didn't call me even though they said I would receive a phone call within 48 hours, they instead opened a ticket and asked for the 6th time for a photo of the socket & connections on the back of the hub.

I replied telling them that I've provided them these pictures 5+ times already and that it's a joke they're asking for them yet again.

I provided them with some of the things that have been tried:

- Both routers after the replacement wiring/master socket
- Both the master socket & customer socket
- Both routers with different microfilters & also without a microfilter (because the 
- Both routers with different phone cables
- Both routers with different ethernet cables (Cat5E unshielded & shielded cables and even a 1m Cat5E cable with shielding, braiding & individual shielded twisted pairs.)
- With only 1 device connected to the router (We've tried 2 different computers and also a laptop). We even turned off all the Alexas & WiFi Lights (Ridiculous that NowTV even tried to suggest that it could be these using up the bandwidth, it's laughable that it was even suggested)

I provided them with a log of what I've noticed over the last few days, all of which matches what the routers logs display & what ThinkBroadbands graphs also display.

Thursday:
06:00: Internet speed dropped down to 10Mbps
06:15: Internet disconnected
07:00: Internet disconnected again
07:30: Internet speed increased to 38Mbps (Highest I've seen it)
15:00: Internet disconnected
15:45: Internet disconnected
17:30: Internet disconnected
20:30: Internet disconnected
21:00 to 01:00: Internet speed dropped down to 25Mbps

Friday:
06:00: Internet disconnected
08:00: Internet disconnected
12:00: Internet speeds dropped down to 25Mbps
17:00: Internet disconnected
18:00: Internet disconnected

Saturday:
06:30: Internet disconnected
08:10: Internet disconnected
16:00: Internet speeds dropped down to 30Mbps for 30-45 mins
17:00: Internet disconnected
20:20: Internet disconnected
21:00 to 22:00: Internet speed dropped down to 25Mbps

I even provided them with the following logs of 1 full day where you can see it disconnects a few times.

 

Nov 27 00:18:19 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 00:18:19 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 00:18:19 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 00:22:37 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 00:22:37 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 00:53:11 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 00:53:11 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 01:17:29 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 01:17:29 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 01:50:09 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 01:50:09 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 02:16:15 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 02:16:15 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 02:30:17 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 02:30:17 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 02:30:17 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 02:47:06 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 02:47:07 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 03:18:34 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 03:18:34 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 03:52:08 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 03:52:08 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 04:22:42 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 04:22:42 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 04:51:12 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 04:51:12 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 04:51:12 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 04:51:12 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 04:51:11 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 05:21:09 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 05:21:10 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 05:47:33 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 05:47:34 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 06:21:08 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 06:21:08 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 06:22:16 syslog: [139097.347000] Line 0: VDSL2 link down
Nov 27 06:22:18 syslog: [139099.005000] Line 0: xDSL G.994 training
Nov 27 06:22:18 syslog: Clear IP addresses. IP connection DOWN.
Nov 27 06:22:33 syslog: [139114.012000] Line 0: VDSL G.993 started
Nov 27 06:22:45 syslog: [139126.048000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 0, us=7509, ds=39999
Nov 27 06:22:45 syslog: [139126.054000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 1, us=0, ds=0
Nov 27 06:23:23 syslog: ptm0.1 - WAN link UP.
Nov 27 06:23:23 syslog: Received valid DHCP lease from server.  Connection UP.
Nov 27 06:23:23 syslog: Connection Up. SNO/MAC/IP/SWVER: [xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxx/xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/2.90.2473.R]
Nov 27 06:23:23 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 06:53:39 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 06:53:39 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 06:53:39 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 06:58:57 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 06:58:57 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 07:24:09 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 07:24:09 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 07:55:19 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 07:55:19 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 08:14:31 syslog: [145832.108000] Line 0: VDSL2 link down
Nov 27 08:14:32 syslog: [145833.737000] Line 0: xDSL G.994 training
Nov 27 08:14:33 syslog: Clear IP addresses. IP connection DOWN.
Nov 27 08:14:47 syslog: [145848.754000] Line 0: VDSL G.993 started
Nov 27 08:14:59 syslog: [145860.769000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 0, us=7541, ds=39999
Nov 27 08:14:59 syslog: [145860.774000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 1, us=0, ds=0
Nov 27 08:15:29 syslog: ptm0.1 - WAN link UP.
Nov 27 08:15:29 syslog: Received valid DHCP lease from server.  Connection UP.
Nov 27 08:15:29 syslog: Connection Up. SNO/MAC/IP/SWVER: [xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxx/xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/2.90.2473.R]
Nov 27 08:15:30 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 08:39:23 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 08:39:23 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 09:04:17 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 09:04:17 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 09:04:17 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 09:04:17 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 09:04:16 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 09:39:55 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 09:39:56 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 10:07:14 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 10:07:14 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 10:34:32 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 10:34:32 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 11:09:36 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 11:09:36 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 11:09:36 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 11:09:36 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 11:09:35 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 11:38:40 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 11:38:41 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 12:03:34 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 12:03:35 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 12:38:57 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 12:38:57 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 13:06:15 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 13:06:15 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 13:28:17 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 13:28:17 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 13:28:17 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 13:41:53 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 13:41:53 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 14:09:11 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 14:09:11 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 14:36:11 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 14:36:11 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 15:06:27 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 15:06:27 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 15:30:27 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 15:30:27 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 15:30:27 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 15:30:27 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 15:30:27 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 15:58:02 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 15:58:03 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 16:22:03 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 16:22:03 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 16:52:19 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 16:52:19 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 17:16:19 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 17:16:19 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 17:22:45 syslog: [178730.924000] Line 0: VDSL2 link down
Nov 27 17:22:47 syslog: [178733.063000] Line 0: xDSL G.994 training
Nov 27 17:22:47 syslog: Clear IP addresses. IP connection DOWN.
Nov 27 17:23:02 syslog: [178748.067000] Line 0: VDSL G.993 started
Nov 27 17:23:14 syslog: [178759.614000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 0, us=7556, ds=32267
Nov 27 17:23:14 syslog: [178759.620000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 1, us=0, ds=0
Nov 27 17:23:58 syslog: ptm0.1 - WAN link UP.
Nov 27 17:23:58 syslog: Received valid DHCP lease from server.  Connection UP.
Nov 27 17:23:58 syslog: Connection Up. SNO/MAC/IP/SWVER: [xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxx/xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/2.90.2473.R]
Nov 27 17:23:58 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 17:49:03 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 17:49:03 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 17:49:03 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 17:59:13 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 17:59:13 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 18:27:43 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 18:27:43 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 18:59:47 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 18:59:47 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 19:35:27 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 19:35:27 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 20:05:35 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 20:05:35 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 20:05:35 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 20:11:06 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 20:11:06 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 20:24:35 syslog: [189643.369000] Line 0: VDSL2 link down
Nov 27 20:24:37 syslog: Clear IP addresses. IP connection DOWN.
Nov 27 20:24:37 syslog: [189645.577000] Line 0: xDSL G.994 training
Nov 27 20:24:52 syslog: [189660.587000] Line 0: VDSL G.993 started
Nov 27 20:25:04 syslog: [189672.051000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 0, us=7556, ds=34487
Nov 27 20:25:04 syslog: [189672.056000] Line 0: VDSL2 link up, Bearer 1, us=0, ds=0
Nov 27 20:25:40 syslog: ptm0.1 - WAN link UP.
Nov 27 20:25:40 syslog: Received valid DHCP lease from server.  Connection UP.
Nov 27 20:25:40 syslog: Connection Up. SNO/MAC/IP/SWVER: [xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxx/xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/2.90.2473.R]
Nov 27 20:25:41 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 20:55:51 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 20:55:51 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 21:22:51 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 21:22:51 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 21:56:07 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 21:56:07 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 22:27:17 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 22:27:17 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 22:27:17 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
Nov 27 22:27:17 syslog: System time is up to date
Nov 27 22:27:16 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 22:51:15 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 22:51:16 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 23:26:19 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 23:26:20 syslog: VCOP agent started.
Nov 27 23:57:48 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Nov 27 23:57:48 syslog: VCOP agent started.

 


They still had the cheek of replying suggesting no fault on their end and trying to suggest no disconnections are happening.

 


@NowTV wrote:

Unfortunately we will still require a photo of your socket and also a photo of the connections on the back of your hub so that we can forward this proof to our Network team and in order to investigate further as there have been no drop outs / speed issues on our side since 7th November.


Here are the last 5 days, pretty much every time there is a red line that's 1/10 of the graph long or bigger this is a disconnection.






Anonymous User
Not applicable

To be honest, it sound like you have done all that can be expected of an end user.

The only option now is to use the complaints procedure and take it to  CISAS (Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme) if necessary.

 

NOW complaints procedure and codes of practice (nowtv.com)

 

Good Luck

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hey,

Thanks for reviewing my post.

Yeah, I have not been impressed with their dismissive attitude in phone calls and emails, constantly trying to make up excuses and the lack of followup calls + lack of actually making sure an engineer ticket actually goes through.

In my last reply to them where I provided all of the above, including the things I've not been happy with I started out asking for it to be raised to the complaints department as well.

I suspect they'll give me more "We can't raise complaints, please visit xyz to raise your complaint" -_-


Anonymous User
Not applicable

I've had similar problems which had an interesting cause.  The old local boxes with a full set of connections often have old aluminium cables to the local 'unbundling' exchange. The aluminium tends to corrode and become fragile over time, leading to fractures hidden inside the insulation. The cabling is itself fragile enough that changing anything in the box can cause other hidden fractures. And in many or most cases, BT is the owner but has no plans to modernise.

 

The result was speed drops related to road vibration! Also downtime for as little as a few minutes followed by retraining and connection similar to those log entries. The problem is well known by OpenReach and everyone else using BT wholesale resources. 

 

We eventually moved to Virgin to avoid the BT dependency. We're trying Now for a year to see if they can avoid the same BT problem - with mixed results. One line goes through aluminium and has already required an engineer visit. The other is copper all the way to the exchange and so far trouble-free. Service was fairly prompt and effective but we're taking a 'wait and see' approach.

 

Hope it's useful information.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

"Too many devices" thing is really annoying and I'm having the same problem as you. 
They say it's because I have too many devices but I'm like 'they're lights, a doorbell, a thermostat and a powerline so that we can get an ethernet connection to the PC upstairs because the WIFI IS SO BAD!!!"

My connection was fine until about 3 days ago and now drops 60-70x a day according to the router's log.

Did you ever get anywhere with your complaint? 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

According to the engineer who came out yesterday the cabinet was upgraded earlier this year so she didn't think the issue was that the cabinet was overloaded in any way and didn't think it would be anything line corrosion.

I had a good laugh with the engineer over the NowTV representative suggesting that it could have been the wifi lights that were causing the drops in connection. I made the joke that our lights watch netflix 24/7 so thats why they use all the bandwidth 😉

She ran some line tests and confirmed there was a lot of crosstalk, she estimated that we should get a pretty stable 35Mbit or more connection speed, even with BT Openreach's system suggesting 25Mbit based on line lengths.

She couldn't think of anything to try other than trying a new faceplate right now because they have noticed some of the newer MK4 faceplates have had a few issues. If that doesn't work then it should be raised with them again, she told me that if it continues I could text the Openreach number and she would either organise another engineer appointment with herself or another one of the team but would speak to them to go over what has been checked/tried.

4th of December:


5th of December:


You can see on the 5th it was really quite bad, early morning (1am~) it was ridiculously slow so I had to stop working and go to bed. I got up and the internet was fluctuating a lot which is visible in the graph.

We then had some disconnections at midday and also at 5:30pm which again are both visible in the graph.

6th & 7th of December:


The disconnections at 11:50 was because Openreach were here changing the faceplate/running tests... etc. She replaced the faceplate and you can see the graph is looking a LOT cleaner, we've not had a disconnection yet which is the first time we've not had a disconnection in a 24 hour period.

I suspect what's happened is we had a line issue, the previous engineer fixed that issue and unfortunately introduced a brand new issue which this other engineer might have fixed (hopefully).

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Unfortunately after about 28 hours of no downtime the disconnections have started happening again...

 

I left it a few days just in case it was just unlucky but 4 days on the issues still exist. I've replied to openreach to try and get some help from them.

 

I called up NowTV to try and re-raise the issue and today for some reason they won't deal with me even though I'm the one who's dealt with everything so far.

 

I was the one who setup the broadband account, the debit card is under my name as I'm paying the bills, contact number and contact emails are under my name the only thing that isn't is the name on the account which we setup with his name because the primary name on the house is his name.

 

When we signed up we specifically chose to setup the second person on the account to myself but Sky/NowTV are oblivious to this feature, what the ###### is the point in having that functionality of you don't allow it to be used.

 

I know from SkyTV when my mum has called up about issues with her services that they've not even questioned the name on the account because she said that she's my dads wife.

 

I had to text my brother at work (we work at opposite times) and had to ask him to call up NowTV provide them withh my debit card and every other detail on the account being mine and tell them to give me full control of the account. They said all that's needed is setting up a password on the account so we set that up. The fact that my brother didn't even need to tell me the password because I already knew the password makes it laughable. Bunch of clowns 🤡

 

I call back up straight after he texts back and said that it's setup, they finally started letting me deal with the issues again and the guy I spoke to gave the same dismissive attitude, didn't listen to the fact that I told him that the router is disconnecting and I can see it is because the middle light goes orange/red, I can see it on thinkbroadbands monitoring and the router logs show it. He still came out with some stupid "have you changed the bandwidth?* I was obviously confused because it clearly shows he's either not paying attention or knows nothing. I got him to clarify and he wanted me to change the 2.4ghz WiFi bandwidth to which I had to repeat about the disconnections and tell him again that it disconnects on wired connections at the same time because the sorry itself is disconnecting

 

NowTV still claim that on their end it shows it hasn't disconnected since the 7th of November which I ###### because it very very clearly has and how the hell has BT openreach replaced all the wiring + mastersocket inside my property and replaced the faceplate without disconnecting the internet? Magic that's how lol  They can't so NowTVs monitoring is clearly broken. 

 

The guy in the phone kept trying to push the whole "well the tests are coming back saying the line is fine, we've tried everything so I don't know what to say" bs. Eventually he agreed to setting up an engineer yet again but obviously this is for next Tuesday. I've been having these issues since 15th of October. 

 

Really quite ###### off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Did this ever get resolved? I'm having similar issues. I'm a new Now TV broadband customer since 6 December and had this issue since day 1. Loads of engineers have tested and say everything looks fine, but can't explain why the internet drops out.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Anonymous User any luck with this?

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hey Ben,

I knew for a fact that the issue wasn't my side as I'm far from a novice so I kept going back to them over and over, NOW kept giving me the same bs responses and were not in the slightest bit helpful. Easily the worst customer service

Eventually after having to raise a complaint someone higher up organised an engineer to come out and this time they made sure they send out a broadband engineer.

The engineer was amazing (To be honest all of the Openreach Engineers are very helpful/friendly/understanding) and she listened to the issues, she decided to do something different and work from where the line enters the house backwards as she was confident that I'd ensured that it wasn't in the house like NOW TV kept claiming.

I told her that NOW TV had claimed we hadn't had a disconnection in over 3 weeks and she showed me her tablet which showed that NOW TV straight up lying to me over the phone because the graph that showed an average of 4 disconnections a day was provided to them (OpenReach) by NOWTV. She also told me that the notes showed that the line was flagged for crosstalk being significantly higher than expected.

She ran a line test and after about 5 minutes she told us that the line was throwing 16,000 errors because of high levels of crosstalk, they will accept up to 500 errors. She ran some more tests and the line was suggesting that about 20 metres away there might be an issue and she informed us that the best solution would likely be a brand new line to be installed because chances are the line is faulty as it's an old underground line. She investigated outside and spoke to our neighbour who had their line fully replaced earlier in the year for the very same reasons.

Ideally she wanted to replace the whole line which is what the previous engineer also suggested might be the best option but considering the neighbours wiring is new and with fibre expected in our are between July 2022 & September 2022 she suggested the best option would be to use the spare twisted pair from their line for our premises and wait until fibre enters the area because their line will easily out-live the time it takes for all houses to be upgraded to FTTP otherwise it would require Openreach to dig up a channel through the path affecting our neighbours to lay a new line.

She ran the line test after using their spare twisted pair and the line errors dropped from 16,000 down to just 22. The line speed inside the house is now a stable for both wired and wireless and the ping with both Google & Ookla dropped from 40-60ms~ down to 10-20ms.

TLDR: I was correct there was an issue, it was located outside the house and the only solutions were to get a new line installed OR hijack our neighbours spare twisted pair.