Wrongly charged an installation fee

[#1]

For operational reasons BTOR have for some time delivered the service over a multi-pair cable to facilitate maintenance / repair

Indeed but that is the final drop from the local DP to the property.  This history seems quite clear, no installation to the property was required or undertaken.  All of the work was done at the cabinet and the exchange.

I suspect that either the d-side cabinet to DP was defective and a new d-side was required, or the same for the e-side … which was not properly connected at the exchange and therefore required a revisit - matching the reported 'evidence'.

If the connected line (in service or not) was found to be defective that should not give rise to an installation charge.

However through this muddled message from BTOR there is the possibility that the circuit which was there (or thought to be there) had been "robbed"** to repair another line and therefore the end to end circuit needed to be re-provided.

**A good deal of BTOR on the ground work is undertaken by sub-contractors who (certainly in the past) were not unknown from robbing a pair from one line to repair the one they were sent to investigate, rather than looking for a spare pair.

[#2]

@MauriceC, @Townman, @Browni,

Apologies if I added to the confusion. 

In this particular case it was an E-side issue. It was my understanding that you have your copper pair on the MDF, which then connects to a pair on the ADSL panel block which then connects to the line card; DSLAM and so on to a single pair on the D-side from the PCP.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not an engineer after all and have never set foot in a telephone exchange). 

[#3]

Hi Joe,

Yes it is complex, but within that complexity it can become possible to be bamboozled, especially if that means BTOR can raise charges which should be challenged.  I doubt few of us has stepped into an exchange, bit some have, for example @198kHz has.

https://kitz.co.uk/adsl/equip.htm shows the theory at block level, but does not show the detail of Distribution Points (DP), or the cabinet.

Now you have explained, indeed there does need to be both a PTSN and DSLAM tied pairs from the MDF to the telephony and broadband services.  My understanding is that the £49.99 line installation charge is for the e-side (MDF to Cabinet) and d-side (Cabinet - DP - House) installation.

It is the activation fee (frequently discounted) which pays for the connection of that circuit to the DSLAM and on to PlusNet's back haul.

Out of the confusion created by BTOR, has the right charge been raised here?

[#4]

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@Townman wrote:
Then in placing the order it appeared from BT records that an out of service line was available, leading to no charge and external work only.

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No. What appeared from BT records was that they didn't need to schedule a visit which @paulmiller had to be in for, not that they didn't have to do anything elsewhere to put a complete line together between house and exchange.

You say "robbed", but by being not in use, it becomes spare.

The fact that it didn't work initially and had to subsequently be fixed as a fault, while undoubtedly unfortunate and inconvenient, does not seem to be relevant to whether it should have been charged as a new line.