Care of elderly relatives impacted by very loud buzz on landline

[Shandy]

Sorry to say, THE BUZZ IS BACK (the one I reported in May 2024, that was subsequently fixed).

Symptoms (last 1-2 weeks) are the same as before:

When my land line is open for a call, as soon as any sound is made by either party to the call a loud buzz is heard in the earpiece/speaker. When neither party makes a sound, the buzz is cut off, but I think that’s due to a noise gate that’s always in play (perhaps a crude device to make a noisy line sound "better" when either caller falls silent).

I'm not suggesting the buzz is caused by the gate, but the opening and closing of the gate makes the rise and fall of the buzz more difficult to deal with, as it "surges" into the audio stream along with whatever sound the caller is intentionally making.

The noise makes conversation with my elderly relatives especially difficult, and as a joint carer I need to speak with them often.

Previously, a similar noise problem was linked to a "battery fault on the line" and quickly remedied… I think by OpenReach, but obviously I’m not empowered to invoke that action.

I’d be grateful if the issue could be fixed.

Thank you!

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

How has your voice service been over the weekend?

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello again,

Just to add, we've also received an update to advise that Openreach have located and resolved the fault so we'll check back in with you on Monday just to ensure that the voice fault has been fully resolved.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for the update. How are you getting on? Did Openreach resolve the fault?

Michelle

[Shandy]

Thanks for initiating prompt action, Michelle

An OpenReach engineer is here in the street as I write this, working in an underground service enclosure.  We had a chat and he stated that there is definitely a fault on the line, and he's surprised that "anything is working at all" in the premises. I explained that things are working, just very imperfectly.

For starters, the engineer has found a possibly waterlogged cable joiner in the enclosure, which could be the source of the fault (causing shorts, signals interferring across lines, unwanted voltage on lines... I think).

Hopefully things are moving in the right direction.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

I've checked again and the fault is still assigned to the engineer, no additional updates as yet.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

The fault has been assigned to a line engineer this morning so we should know more later on today.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello,

No additional updates as yet, we'll keep monitoring this for you.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

The fault is still under investigation with Openreach at the moment so I'll check again this afternoon.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Good afternoon,

I've re-checked and no additional updates from Openreach as yet. We'll check again first thing in the morning.

Thanks

Michelle

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

I'm really sorry to hear this. The line test has detected a potential external line fault (earth fault) so I've passed this straight over to Openreach now to complete an external line investigation. We'll check later on this afternoon to see if we've received an update back.

Thanks

Michelle

[ferguson]

Have you tried a different phone? Or made sure that your current one is isolated from any other nearby electrical devices? Subject to that, this has been flagged to the support team and you should get a response from them tomorrow.