Openreach Mk4 faceplate - renew or dump?

[#1]

Noticed some noise on my landline a few weeks ago, accompanied by regular drops of my FTTC connection. The target SNRM's increased from 6/6 to 9/12 up and down respectively, and the connection rate was declining substantially as a result after each drop.

I took off the Mk4 faceplate and substituted a 'dangly filter' in the test socket, and hey presto - no noise on line and the connection stats are slowly returning to normal.

Never a good idea to 'celebrate' too early, but it does seem fairly safe to conclude that the faceplate is faulty - the clips seem to hold it pretty securely, and the (unplated) contacts don't appear to be oxidised or damaged, so it could be the circuitry has gone faulty.

I'm aware this particular faceplate doesn't have too many fans, and I'm wary about replacing one piece of junk like for like (especially as it would no doubt be at my expense!)

Am I just unlucky, is there a better faceplate option with a 5C backplate, or should I just cut my losses and continue with the rather messy looking and 'old school' dangly filter plugged into the test socket?

[#2]

If you still have analogue phone then there's a similar dual phone/VDSL faceplate for the 5C master socket. You need to buy a new one as the design changed significantly and old ones don't fit. Or is that what you have that is faulty?

If you don't have a phone, bizarrely BT suggest plugging a filter into the standard faceplate on the 5C socket!

[#3]

Given that the UK phone system will be switched off at the end of 2025 and you will need to upgrade well before then,

1. when are you going to upgrade your traditional landline phone to the replacement digital VoIP standard ?
2. is there any telephone extension wiring attached to the removable faceplate ?

Filtered faceplates do two things -

1. they break the 'bell wire' connection on extension wiring which otherwise acts as an aerial for electrical noise
2. they filter low frequency interference from badly designed phone handsets from getting on to the broadband signal

Filtered faceplates DO NOT filter the VDSL(FTTC) broadband signal, it is a straight through connection to the test socket.

Therefore, when you don't have any phone extension wiring, and have converted your analogue telephone to VoIP, then you can safely replace your faulty filtered faceplate with an unfiltered single outlet telephone socket faceplate (with no electronics to go wrong).

You'd then connect your router to the BT socket using an RJ11 to BT431A cable, and plug your VoIP handset in to your router.

[#4]

@JayG 

If you go throught the trouble shooting options for both the phone and internet and a fault is found then you'd probably get a visit from an OR engineer resulting in a brand new master socket.

Brian

[#5]

Thanks for your replies guys.

It is the Mk4 faceplate which is faulty, and for a variety of reasons (including increased costs) I'm in no hurry to switch to an ultimately unavoidable VOIP setup.

@bmc  - I'm not willing to deliberately reintroduce the fault in the hope that I can get Plusnet to pick it up and perhaps ultimately get me a free replacement master socket, which will of course be of the same suspect quality as the one I've already got.

In the absence of a better quality replacement option I may as well stick with the dangly filter in the test socket until I finally have to bite the VOIP bullet.

[#6]

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@JayG wrote:

... reasons (including increased costs) I'm in no hurry to switch to an ultimately unavoidable VOIP setup.

Increased cost ?

Ok, so you will probably pay £30 to £50 to convert your existing handset to VoIP, or ~£100 for a new VoIP phone,

and it will cost something like £15 to port your landline number to a VoIP provider.

BUT -

When you upgrade your broadband with Plusnet from FTTC to SoGEA (to release your phone number to a VoIP provider), your monthly broadband cost should be cheaper

With A&A VoIP, the monthly cost of keeping your number is only £1.44

Calls over VoIP typically cost 1.5p/minute and are charged to the nearest second,

compare that to Plusnet who charge a call setup fee, round up to the next minute, and have much higher call costs -

VoIP calls are perfectly clear and don't crackle or vary massively in volume - unlike a traditional phone !

VoIP calls can be recorded automatically, and an mp3 file of your calls emailed to you - at no cost.

VoIP calls can be configured to also ring a VoIP app on a mobile, so you can answer your home phone when away.

Your home VoIP handset can be located anywhere in your house where there is access to your internet,  and you are not tied to the position of your BT phone socket(s)

VoIP calls to international destinations are often massively cheaper than using a conventional landline

[#7]

I'd roughly agree with @Anonymous analysis of costs, and that's why I'm moving from landline/ADSL to FTTC/SOGEA/VOIP though by a rather more complex route to avoid any possibility of losing my landline number.

I'm on a very advantageous contract with BT for my landline and a relatively cheap "out of contract" ADSL service with PN. Yes there's some initial outlay but once the transition is complete I'll have a roughly three times faster broadband (with much faster uploads) and a modernised phone system, reusing some old DECT handsets and adding a couple of much more capable new ones to replace the worn-out ones. All running at about two-thirds of the current monthly costs.

And yes, I'm taking advantage of the fact that almost all our outgoing calls are now via mobile phones not landline, so using A&A VOIP is really cost-effective.

And it's all a lot tidier than before (or will be) which SWMBO approves of. 😂

[#8]

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@JayG wrote:

It is the Mk4 faceplate which is faulty, and for a variety of reasons (including increased costs) I'm in no hurry to switch to an ultimately unavoidable VOIP setup.

I'm not willing to deliberately reintroduce the fault in the hope that I can get Plusnet to pick it up and perhaps ultimately get me a free replacement master socket, which will of course be of the same suspect quality as the one I've already got.

In the absence of a better quality replacement option I may as well stick with the dangly filter in the test socket until I finally have to bite the VOIP bullet.

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I suspect removal of the phone service would not solve a faulty faceplate so even when you go to VOIP you'd still need to plug your router into the Test socket.

Switch back to your faceplate just long enough to get the tests done and PN to accept the fault if there is one. Then go back to the test socket until the fault gets fixed.

Brian

Brian