Major National Broadband Outage Strikes UK BT Based ISPs

[.Griff.]

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/10/21/major-national-broadband-outage-strikes-uk-bt-based-isps.html

[Glenn]

Thanks Griff, I was just wondering why I couldn't connect back to my VMWare server.

[sparky]

That's exactly the time mine went down this morning.

Fri, 2011-10-21 08:38:00 - LCP down.
Fri, 2011-10-21 08:38:03 - Initialize LCP.
Fri, 2011-10-21 08:38:03 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Fri, 2011-10-21 08:38:54 - CHAP authentication failed
Fri, 2011-10-21 08:38:54 - LCP down.
Etc.........

Back up and OK at the moment though.

[pctech]

Yep and I've kept losing my connection this afternoon while Zen balance connections across their BT hostlinks.

Seems to be the more high capacity connections that are added, the more unstable their infrastructure becomes.

I reckon they bought the cheapest kit you know.

[Rik]

It's called Huawei.

[pctech]

Could be the Communist party turning it on and off remotely then.

[Rik]

Entirely possible, Mitch. Just think, they also could control the voice network... 

[pctech]

Indeed.

Not sure why they didn't use Cisco kit throughout as it is very very robust.

[Rik]

And more expensive...

[pctech]

To hell with the service provided to customers (except BT Retail) so long as the shareholders are happy.

[Rik]

Always the way, Mitch.

[Polchraine]

And more expensive...

And that would result in higher charges to the end users ... everyone demands lower prices and then moans because it is not robust.    There is a trade off to get resilience, and it costs money.    I ran a major worldwide network within BT - we achieved over 9 years with no unplanned down time and it would have been longer if someone had not hit a kill button as he was being told "if you hit that emergency button ..." at which point he did immediately, whilst the technician carried on "... it will kill he comms room" - it results in a 4 minute outage.   But the network was not cheap to build and te customers always praised teh reliability but cursed the costs.

[Rik]

I couldn't agree with you more. We get what we pay for. IDNet customers, by definition, are willing to pay more for a better service but, unfortunately, BT don't really offer a choice.

[Polchraine]

I couldn't agree with you more. We get what we pay for. IDNet customers, by definition, are willing to pay more for a better service but, unfortunately, BT don't really offer a choice.

Driven by Ofcom, Which magazine and all of these groups clamouring for cheap BB for all ...

I use a Business service -becasue I want decent support,  then you get people who complain about overseas support but are unwilling to pay the extra £1/month that would be needed to base support in the UK.

[mervl]

um I'm not sure: aren't most problems (apart from those with your own equipment - standard fault finding: use the test socket or a direct ethernet connection to the OR modem for FTTx) down to ORs or BTW infrastructure, or the LLU DSLAM, and their quality of service doesn't seem to vary much whatever price you pay the broadband ISP or wherever their suppport is based?

If you have an electricity supply fault you go to the regional supply company's fault line not that of the billing supplier, and Transco not your supplier for gas, and it works efficiently: wouldn't it be better if BTOR ran a single fault report line for all telephone lines (including broadband delivered via phone lines) and could then see fault patterns on both individual lines and generally, more easily, referring matters on to BTW or the LLU operator/ISP if the fault was outside their network? And cheaper too?

The usual argument that the consumer has no contract with BTOR doesn't wash: you don't have a consumer contract with your local electricity supply company or Transco either!

[Polchraine]

mervl,

Yes, most are standard faults but having "script monkeys" who do not have English as their first language is the problem.   And if their suggestion does not work or the problem returns you have to go through the same process again.

Compare BT Res BB support with BT Business BB support - how often do you hear complaints about them?    Res - very frequently,  Business - very rare.

Can you imagine calling an overseas help desk to discuss a problem such as PSTN pick up on a VOIP line not working/available?   Works on ADSL but not VDSL (and yes I know why) but try to discuss a way to get it working with the support desk - it would be fun.

The argument about no contract with OR does not wash - I agree.   But who puts that restriction in place?   Not BT but OFCOM.      For a BT customer it uses 4 people to get the fault discussed with OR, and other ISPs 3 or 4.    Call helpdesk and talk to agent,  they talk to their teams contact person (CP),  the CP calls their OR Point of Contact(PoC),  the PoC calls the OR fault desk who will look into the fault - the CP and PoC are there at the insistence of OFCOM.   Howe much does that add to costs?   If the initial Agent could talk direct to OR faults it would be a lot easier, quicker and cheaper.

[Rik]

And BT could save some money...

[pctech]

Hmmm, a BE Wholesale connection with IDNet is looking like an option after yesterdays outage and subsequent hostlink load balancing which Zen had to perform.