Broadband Order Problems

1. There's a Tag on the line

A tag, or marker, is placed on a line to indicate that the line cannot have a broadband service installed on it. There are 2 types of marker.

• Broadband marker - this is the most common marker, placed by another service provider when they are responsible for providing a service on the line. If someone moves house but the marker is not removed, this will prevent us from placing a broadband order.

If there's a tag on the line from another provider, we'll contact BT Wholesale and arrange to have it removed.

• Hard marker - this shows there is something physical stopping the broadband being activated on the line. If the property is old, it may have an old style BT bell box (installed before modern phone sockets and didn't have a connection point, as the phone was effectively hardwired into the line).

Without a phone socket, there would be nowhere to plug your micro filters in. In addition there would be no connection for your broadband equipment, so the line cannot have a broadband order placed on it. If there is a hard marker, you'll have to call your telephone provider and ask them to remove the marker from the database; this will then allow us to place your broadband order.

2. Incompatible products are on the line

Some telephone services are not compatible with broadband. Examples include:

• Alarm systems which link in to the phone line
• A PBX telephone exchange
• The BT Retail Light User scheme (BT Retail require a full subscription to be paid in order to allow broadband to work on the line)

If your line uses one of these then you'll need to get the service removed or have a second line installed for broadband.

3. There's a DACS on the line

A DACS (Digital Access Carrier System) is a device used on some phone lines to allow two phone lines to make use of a single set of wires. This is more common in rural areas & places where it may be difficult to install a new line.

If you there's a DACS on your line, there’s no need to worry, as we can arrange to have this removed for you.

There are two types of DACS:

• Internal: this will be on your property and will require a BT Openreach engineer to visit your address to remove it.
• External: this does not require an engineer to gain access to your property, but they may need access to private land or, in some cases to dig up cables in the road. The time it takes to remove an external DACS depends on its location and if permission to temporarily close roads is required

4. No capacity at the exchange

Occasionally there'll be times when a telephone exchange runs out of capacity for new broadband connections. If this happens, orders will be placed in a queue and completed as soon as space becomes available - either due to other people cancelling their broadband or when the exchange has additional capacity installed.

If this happens, we'll contact BT Wholesale and get as much information as we can on the potential delay. However, you should be aware that we can't always find out the length of the queue, or the specific details of any upgrade plans.

5. There are system problems

Sometimes we simply encounter ordering delays.  This may be because there is a lack of engineers available on a given day, or an exchange problem diverts resources away temporarily. In most cases it's rare for these problems to delay things by more than 48 hours and we will always keep you updated.

This page last updated 14th August 2009