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New broadband will never work - socket wiring not completed

jimfan
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hello,

 

I write this to ask for Vodafone's attention and to express my disappointment.

 

At first I was informed Openreach would come to my unit for installation on 17-Sep. On 16-Sep I received SMS from Vodafone mentioning there was no need to send an engineer to activate my broadband.

 

So I connected my router (from Vodafone) and patiently waited and kept trying throughout 17-Sep. Router failed to connect with red light flashing.

 

On 18-Sep, before trying to ring Vodafone, I followed troubleshooting steps on Vodafone website. Until I reached the step of opening up the Openreach socket, I was in shock to find the wiring connection resembling this:

 

PXL_20210918_193834762.jpg

 

None of the wires has been properly punched into the socket. That means I have been trying to get broadband connection through air.

 

Today (19-Sep) I went to Vodafone shop and was instructed to call 191. Only it never get through to reach any real person that I might seek help from.

 

Even more frustrating is I just received SMS + email reminding me Vodafone has started billing me - for a service that has yet been rendered.

 

What should I do to get my broadband connection fix as soon as possible? Thank you.

 

JF

 

 

11 REPLIES 11

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Your picture has not been moderated yet, but I would suggest ringing 08080 034 515 because (as far as I know) that is the broadband support line.

I am not trying to defend Vodafone, but it was not unreasonable to expect if you have a telephone socket that it would be cabled correctly.

Once the picture has been moderated we may be able to help as Vodafone will not reply officially on here.

The first question is, is that the only telephone socket in your unit, and depending on why you describe it as a unit does that mean the internal wiring is private and not Openreach?

Hi Jayach,

 

It is not the only phone socket - there are totally three and I have tried all three of them, one of which has Openreach logo. My photo intends to show the internal of the Openreach socket. There are 4 cores of solid colour wires, all hanging in air.

 

If Openreach did come timely and perform a modest test on physical connection, the engineer would have discovered this and have it sorted.

 

I have been considering to punch down the cables myself. As the cable and socket are obviously not my property (Maybe BT's property? Landlord's property? Not sure), I could not bare the risk of damaging it, despite I have been a networking practitioner some time ago. Besides, I have no way to tell if this is going to fix the problem at all.

 

Really appreciate your initiative to assist.

 

JF

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

If it's a standard Openreach cable the incoming signal will be on the orange and white wires, and they go to connectors 2 and 5, but I fully understand you not wanting to touch them.

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Telecoms/Telephone%20Wiring.htm

 

Hi Jayach,

 

The cable is not the usual T-568A/B we have in modern network. It comes with four pieces of wire - 1 x orange, 1 x brown, 1 x green and 1 x blue. All four are of solid colour, no strip.

 

Just now I have called 191 and the lady over the phone was helpful enough to create a case for me and have the 2nd-tier support team's number with case reference number sent through SMS. I was instructed to wait for their call/SMS/email in the next 24 hour. If no one makes contact then I should ring that phone number.

 

Hope this is going to get sorted soon.

 

JF

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

From this webpage : https://telephonesuk.org.uk/wiring-info/

"On some installations of internal extension wiring (post-2012) BT/Openreach have now come full circle and have reverted back to using white four core cable containing solid colours: blue to pin 2, orange to pin 5, brown to pin 3 and green to pin 4 (if used)."

So it sounds like the incoming line will be on blue and orange, but hopefully Vodafone will get Openreach out and they will sort it.

Good Luck.

Those wires sticking out are for connecting to extension sockets elsewhere in the building, which will be connected to the pins on the front part of the socket in your hand. The main incoming cable wire will be attached behind the socket that is on the wall.

One thing that is missing is you have no VDSL iPlate on the actual socket that sits between them both or you plug in a filter in the front of the socket that Vodafone sent you. You will need the filter for the broadband to connect.

The broadband signal actually only comes in on 1 leg, the second leg is for the phoneline to make calls.

One thing you could do also is stick a phone in the test socket to see if there is a dialing tone to see if the socket is live and dial 17070 and it will tell you the phone number that is connected.


@VFbroadbanduser wrote:

 

The broadband signal actually only comes in on 1 leg, the second leg is for the phoneline to make calls.

 


Sorry but that is incorrect, they both need the pair of wires to work correctly, but because the DSL broadband uses various frequency's to carry the signal it can just about work with one leg missing

But you are correct that the wires shown in the picture do appear to be for extensions. However the master socket should not have more than one extension from it. I wonder if in the past that was an intermediate extension socket and someone has just added a master socket in it's place.

Nope Jayach, you are actually wrong on that one about the one leg, the broadband signal does only come down on one leg. Ask any accredited Openreach or other telecoms engineer, plus I was an accredited Openreach engineer myself and for other telecoms companies.

The reason the two legs are required is to get a dial tone and to make calls because they won't work without it.

You are also wrong again about having more than one extension with VDSL lines, because it's all about how you wire everything together. To move a master socket you take the incoming outside cable pair and you crimp that to an internal pair bypassing the original socket and then punch the wires to the back of the new NTE5 socket. You then take a pair from that socket connecting it from the front of the socket and send that back to the original socket punching the pair down on the rear of the socket. You can do this multiple times adding other extension sockets.

I could send you the Openreach training manual if you really wanted to read it.

Thanks for the offer on the training manual, but I think I will pass on that.

For anyone else interested there are some useful Openreach documents available from here: https://www.openreach.com/building-developers-and-projects/fibre-for-developers/guides-and-handbooks

 


@VFbroadbanduser wrote:

You are also wrong again about having more than one extension with VDSL lines, because it's all about how you wire everything together.

I never said that (at least it wasn't what I meant) I intended to say that you would not have the master socket in the middle of multiple extensions. i.e there would only (normally) be one extension cable from the master socket.

To move a master socket you take the incoming outside cable pair and you crimp that to an internal pair bypassing the original socket and then punch the wires to the back of the new NTE5 socket. You then take a pair from that socket connecting it from the front of the socket and send that back to the original socket punching the pair down on the rear of the socket.

I know perfectly well how to move or extend the DSL signal.

You can do this multiple times adding other extension sockets.

I could send you the Openreach training manual if you really wanted to read it.


I didn't mean to attack your comment, but I couldn't agree when you seemed to say the two wires are one for the phone and one for the broadband. Perhaps I was misreading what you meant.

@VFbroadbanduser wrote:

The broadband signal actually only comes in on 1 leg, the second leg is for the phoneline to make calls.