BT Engineer coming to fit a new line

Sambostar

For broadband (Not fibre)

 

Stupidly agreed to digging it underground on his last visit as he was a Kiwi so got chatting about NZ and Oz.  Before I knew it I'd agreed to putting it underground and he'd gone.

Anyway, the BT duct is all in with the drawcord, 2 feet down, right up to the splitter on the pole and the wall I've put another drawcord up into the loft.

Distance is about 35 metres to the master socket.  If it is in the wall where I want it, otherwise about 30 meters.

If the master is in the wall, it runs parallel with a load of ring main and lighting cables.

Should I ask him to put the master in the loft and run a cat 7 cable from there to the wall instead?

Is BT cable well shielded? Or should I buy some cable myself?  Is 35 metres considered a long cable run?

I've left enough drawcord to leave it in there should I need another cable in the future.  But the BT man installation is a one hit, so want it to be as good as it can be.

Internet speed isn't going to be great, as we have copper phone lines, think BT use shielded Cat 5 cable.

PolarityMan

I'm just stunned you got the engineer to turn up within 6 months! O_o

Sambostar

Yeah, only one missed appointment and call to India so far too.  Apparently they are doing a 2500 strong recruitment drive in the South East.

wibble

Sambostar said:

Yeah, only one missed appointment and call to India so far too.  Apparently they are doing a 2500 strong recruitment drive in the South East.

wow seems a bit overkill just for 30m!

Sambostar

Yeah, but the cable is hand crafted from tallow and copper ore.

chillidoggy

Sambostar said:

Yeah, only one missed appointment and call to India so far too.  Apparently they are doing a 2500 strong recruitment drive in the South East.

That'll be in Tamilnadu, then.

Emp_Fab

Sambostar said:

Lots of stuff that left me confused.

I couldn't quite work out what is going on from your post, but...  if you're talking about a BT phone line, it's unshielded.  Also, why do you feel you need Cat 7 cabling anywhere. ?

Headphones

If only they were Engineers...

Sambostar

That is the point, the phone engineer is going to know more than me and I know he is the guy to ask, but as he will only have a roll of BT cable in his van and that is it and limited time, when I ask, it will be too late for alternatives.  If it is unshielded, then surely, as it is run off the main power pole, which has two unsheathed lives and a neutral and then is chased in my wall with a load of 240V mains cables and lighting cable, it will get interference, no?

Just trying to maximise my internet speed, although in fairness it is probably one of those 'My hi fi sounds better because the speaker feet spikes are made of gold' type things, seeing as the exchange is miles away and the cabling copper and probably shared anyway.

As for Cat 7...well it's the highest number, so I figured it would be like turning the internet speed  to eleven.

spark240

Forget Cat 7.. cat 5 max is plenty good enough.

Sambostar

I can just imagine it now, The subcontracted BT engineer will be like

'BT will only allow us to use garden twine and polystyrene cups for your new line, if only you had a length of decently shielded Cat 7e cable to hand, I could have fitted that, you would have had a half decent internet service with that, oh well, polystyrene cups and garden twine it is then'.

Sambostar

OK, but will 35 metres of unshielded BT cable be OK?  Or is it shielded?  I thought they uses 4 core Cat 5, which I understand is shielded?

chillidoggy

The thing is, if and when you do finally manage to get a BT engineer on site, they're normally pretty good guys, who know their stuff.

Sambostar

Yeah, I know.  I'm just a bit excited and trying to work myself into a panic about it.

Fuzzdog

Sambostar said:

Yeah, but the cable is hand crafted from tallow and copper ore.

That's what I keep telling myself to convince myself that the price I paid to have a line installed here was reasonable.  )

PolarityMan

Sambostar said:

I can just imagine it now, The subcontracted BT engineer will be like

'BT will only allow us to use garden twine and polystyrene cups for your new line, if only you had a length of decently shielded Cat 7e cable to hand, I could have fitted that, you would have had a half decent internet service with that, oh well, polystyrene cups and garden twine it is then'.

By the time the engineer actually turns up and all the "external work" is done the rest of the country will probably be getting internet beamed directly into their brain.

Sambostar

Well no one came on the 3rd, my mistake apparently for m=not informing India I had done the required underground ducting. 

Looks like no one is going to arrive today either.

So far my £159 odd advance line rental and £7.50 a month unlimited internet has costs me an additional two days wages.  Do BT do refunds?

chillidoggy

Yes, if you have a good case, and get the right person in the quagmire that is BT.

I've just got a 3-month line rental rebate, after the morons pulled the plug on the Company's main phone line and never managed to get it back working for 12 days. They told me they'd reconnected it after a week, but when it still didn't work they said the line was faulty. Turned out they'd reconnected the lines alright, but onto the wrong points at the exchange.

Twats, I hate them and the fact they have the monopoly on the lines.

Good luck with the refund!

boogieman

Sambostar said:

Yeah, only one missed appointment and call to India so far too.  Apparently they are doing a 2500 strong recruitment drive in the South East.

Ha ha, that's brilliant, seeing as how they've spent the last 5 years downsizing the workforce with voluntary redundancy deals. (I was one of the lucky ones who got one >:D< )

Sambostar

OK. On behalf of all the hard working BT engineers and subcontractors, the older engineers who are forced out to take early pay offs and the Indian guy who I could actually understand I apologize profusely.  Got about £450+ worth of engineering done for my money.

Appointment was apparently booked for after 1pm,  Engineer arrived 1pm spot on, just as the guy told me at 1pm.

Course, everything here was laid out, BT Duct with draw cord, draw cord to the loft and wire and backbox in the partition wall easy.  Except the poor engineer had to find a clear line from 2 miles away, as the splitter was crap. Had to chase the line back, call in a cherry picker, go three poles down for a connection, hoist up three poles worth of cabling, around 90 metres of cable, connect that up to a junction, before getting to the easy domestic bit, which was all he was booked in for really officially.  Poor lad got away at 6:30pm and missed his squash game.

So now have 53mbps it says.

Sambostar

Oh and the four core cable is pretty chunky too.  Satisfied customer.