Are overground telephone cables worse for ADSL?

I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am considering
buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above ground, from
telegraph poles, rather than underground.

Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more dropouts and
needing to reconnect?

I guess I've been spoiled so far that my house is only 15 years old and
cabled from the exchange without going above ground, whereas the house I'm
looking at is more like 40 years old. Current owner says her broadband is
good, reliable etc but then they are trying to sell the house, not me!

It does have one benefit - it is 1.5km from the (same) exchange rather than
the 3.4km that I am now, so faster speeds are hopefully a possibility too!

D.

David Wright wrote:

> I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am considering
> buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above ground, from
> telegraph poles, rather than underground.
>
> Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more dropouts and
> needing to reconnect?
>
> I guess I've been spoiled so far that my house is only 15 years old and
> cabled from the exchange without going above ground, whereas the house I'm
> looking at is more like 40 years old. Current owner says her broadband is
> good, reliable etc but then they are trying to sell the house, not me!
>
> It does have one benefit - it is 1.5km from the (same) exchange rather than
> the 3.4km that I am now, so faster speeds are hopefully a possibility too!

The last section of my line is overhead and it's just fine now after Mr BTman
removed an RF filter from the line ( had been troublesome before )

Graham

David Wright wrote:
> I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am
> considering
> buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above ground, from
> telegraph poles, rather than underground.
>
> Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more
> dropouts and needing to reconnect?
>
> I guess I've been spoiled so far that my house is only 15 years old
> and cabled from the exchange without going above ground, whereas the
> house I'm looking at is more like 40 years old. Current owner says
> her broadband is good, reliable etc but then they are trying to sell
> the house, not me!
> It does have one benefit - it is 1.5km from the (same) exchange
> rather than the 3.4km that I am now, so faster speeds are hopefully
> a
> possibility too!

Should have little affect on your service, if the dropwire is upto
standards that is & if it is not then it'll be quite easy to get
Openreach to change it....

On 29-Aug-2006, "David Wright" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am considering
> buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above ground, from
> telegraph poles, rather than underground.
>
> Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more dropouts and
> needing to reconnect?

Should be ok so long as it is not on a lightning prone hilltop and
the lightning sink for miles around. Envoronmental conditions
can cause unreliability, windage on drop wire, particularly during
snow or ice loading, dry joints in screw terminal JB at top of pole.
That said no worse than the effect of water lapping over the top
of your wellies in waterfilled manholes, and getting into the
100 pair. Anyway most of the route to the pole will be underground.

There are some special locations to avoid, like near airports when
any dry joint will pick up and rectify the radar transmission,
close proximity to mobile phone masts, in the shadow of Droitwich
or other high powered transmitters.
Never did manage to get rid of the morse from Portishead
radio station, no matter what filters were used. Think they
have now moved on.
Local emergency and taxi services are also potential
problems, man from the radio interference division fiddled
with filters and traps, never completely got rid of breakthrough
from the fire station, which also affected the local church,
not good halfway through the sermon to get an emergency
callout.
Also put radio hams as potential problem sources though
they are fairly helpful and considerate.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> On 29-Aug-2006, "David Wright" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am considering
>> buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above ground, from
>> telegraph poles, rather than underground.
>>
>> Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more dropouts
>> and
>> needing to reconnect?
>
> Should be ok so long as it is not on a lightning prone hilltop and
> the lightning sink for miles around. Envoronmental conditions
> can cause unreliability, windage on drop wire, particularly during
> snow or ice loading, dry joints in screw terminal JB at top of pole.
> That said no worse than the effect of water lapping over the top
> of your wellies in waterfilled manholes, and getting into the
> 100 pair. Anyway most of the route to the pole will be underground.
>
> There are some special locations to avoid, like near airports when
> any dry joint will pick up and rectify the radar transmission,
> close proximity to mobile phone masts, in the shadow of Droitwich
> or other high powered transmitters.
> Never did manage to get rid of the morse from Portishead
> radio station, no matter what filters were used. Think they
> have now moved on.
> Local emergency and taxi services are also potential
> problems, man from the radio interference division fiddled
> with filters and traps, never completely got rid of breakthrough
> from the fire station, which also affected the local church,
> not good halfway through the sermon to get an emergency
> callout.
> Also put radio hams as potential problem sources though
> they are fairly helpful and considerate.

No problem here so long as the pods are in good condition and the right way
up to avoid water getting in, I used to go and put it right way up as BT
engineers did not ever seem to worry until it rained and we got problems.

I don't live that close to Portishead for radio interference but I can see
it from here. :-}

"It's Me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:44f5630e$0$1389$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> On 29-Aug-2006, "David Wright" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>> I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am considering
>>> buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above ground, from
>>> telegraph poles, rather than underground.
>>>
>>> Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more dropouts
>>> and
>>> needing to reconnect?
>>
>> Should be ok so long as it is not on a lightning prone hilltop and
>> the lightning sink for miles around. Envoronmental conditions
>> can cause unreliability, windage on drop wire, particularly during
>> snow or ice loading, dry joints in screw terminal JB at top of pole.
>> That said no worse than the effect of water lapping over the top
>> of your wellies in waterfilled manholes, and getting into the
>> 100 pair. Anyway most of the route to the pole will be underground.
>>
>> There are some special locations to avoid, like near airports when
>> any dry joint will pick up and rectify the radar transmission,
>> close proximity to mobile phone masts, in the shadow of Droitwich
>> or other high powered transmitters.
>> Never did manage to get rid of the morse from Portishead
>> radio station, no matter what filters were used. Think they
>> have now moved on.
>> Local emergency and taxi services are also potential
>> problems, man from the radio interference division fiddled
>> with filters and traps, never completely got rid of breakthrough
>> from the fire station, which also affected the local church,
>> not good halfway through the sermon to get an emergency
>> callout.
>> Also put radio hams as potential problem sources though
>> they are fairly helpful and considerate.
>
> No problem here so long as the pods are in good condition and the right
> way up to avoid water getting in, I used to go and put it right way up as
> BT engineers did not ever seem to worry until it rained and we got
> problems.
>
> I don't live that close to Portishead for radio interference but I can see
> it from here. :-}

As a matter of interest, Portishead (ship-to-shore) radio station moved out
to Bridgwater(?) about 30 years ago but retained its name, so that mariners
wouldn't get confused.
About 10 years ago, ship-to-shore radio stopped using morse code.
So no more problems in that respect!

George

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> On 29-Aug-2006, "David Wright" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am considering
>> buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above ground, from
>> telegraph poles, rather than underground.
>>
>> Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more dropouts
>> and
>> needing to reconnect?
>
> Should be ok so long as it is not on a lightning prone hilltop and
> the lightning sink for miles around. Envoronmental conditions
> can cause unreliability, windage on drop wire, particularly during
> snow or ice loading, dry joints in screw terminal JB at top of pole.
> That said no worse than the effect of water lapping over the top
> of your wellies in waterfilled manholes, and getting into the
> 100 pair. Anyway most of the route to the pole will be underground.
>
OTOH underground fills up with water and you get UG faults, especially if
the 1970's cheap ally wire was used...

On 30-Aug-2006, "George Weston" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> As a matter of interest, Portishead (ship-to-shore) radio station moved out
> to Bridgwater(?) about 30 years ago but retained its name, so that mariners
> wouldn't get confused.
> About 10 years ago, ship-to-shore radio stopped using morse code.
> So no more problems in that respect!

Like I said it all cleared up when they moved on.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> Like I said it all cleared up when they moved on.

What devices were you getting interference on?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> On 29-Aug-2006, "David Wright" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I know I've never heard anything to the contrary, but I am
>> considering buying a house where the telephone cable comes in above
>> ground, from telegraph poles, rather than underground.
>>
>> Does/can this affect the broadband signal quality or cause more
>> dropouts and needing to reconnect?
>
> Should be ok so long as it is not on a lightning prone hilltop and
> the lightning sink for miles around. Envoronmental conditions
> can cause unreliability, windage on drop wire, particularly during
> snow or ice loading, dry joints in screw terminal JB at top of pole.
> That said no worse than the effect of water lapping over the top
> of your wellies in waterfilled manholes, and getting into the
> 100 pair. Anyway most of the route to the pole will be underground.
>
> There are some special locations to avoid, like near airports when
> any dry joint will pick up and rectify the radar transmission,
> close proximity to mobile phone masts, in the shadow of Droitwich
> or other high powered transmitters.
> Never did manage to get rid of the morse from Portishead
> radio station, no matter what filters were used. Think they
> have now moved on.
> Local emergency and taxi services are also potential
> problems, man from the radio interference division fiddled
> with filters and traps, never completely got rid of breakthrough
> from the fire station, which also affected the local church,
> not good halfway through the sermon to get an emergency
> callout.
> Also put radio hams as potential problem sources though
> they are fairly helpful and considerate.

Don't forget the rogue power supplies which seem to be cropping up in
ever increasing numbers. Could be on a large (or small) flatscreen
TV, low voltage halogen lights etc even down to the power supply of
the DSL router itself.

Recently had a case where one such noisey powersupply effectively
stopped the ADSL service for a whole street of around 50 houses, cured
the problem by cutting the UG feed to the building as the occupants
had gone on holiday (but it did take 5 weeks to get the T(echnical)
T(ransmision) O(fficer) to site). Quite looking forward to going out
to reconnect them so I can find out what this little gem is, probably
something obtuse, but that's the fun of the job..