Transmission1

Anyone know the freq for BT Open Reach, they are always at the bottom of my street messing around with the green box full of cables, not sure what you call them?

Im sure they must have radios in there van.

No radios, just mobile phones.

thelad wrote:No radios, just mobile phones.

Surely BT technicians would need a way to communicate if the phones went down.

All of them?

kr0ne wrote:All of them?

I thought with one of there roles being sorting out mobile masks they would need a way to comunicate back to hq when doing it. I dont know how mobiles work so Im probably wrong.

I didn't think Openreach touched any mobile phone stuff?

Except maybe to provide fixed line connectivity to a site.

The engineers that you see out and about in the vans definitely use mobile phones to communicate with their colleagues though. I think they usually phone a central number and need to wait for messages to be relayed to the exchanges etc. - either that or I've been bullshitted with the same story on more than one occasion while playing the waiting game.

Ofcourse, silly me dont they deal with BTs internet hotspots.
Never used there service.

they have a cool test phone that they can plug into any phone line and make phone calls and test the lines.

Try 168.9 NFM simplex.
An almost national assignment to BT (not NI and a few spots), comparatively busy round here.
Exactly what they use if for is uncertain.

168.9 CSQ and it's used by most of the cable laying teams.

The last time I saw them they were using single channel Motorola GP320's.

thelad wrote:they have a cool test phone that they can plug into any phone line and make phone calls and test the lines.

Ah! The "Engineers Set" - I have one of these in a box somewhere that was left behind by an engineer many years before Openreach existed...

giant blue plastic thing that reminds you a bit of a shoe for somebody with one leg shorter than the other.

I was completely gutted when I discovered it was just an absolutely standard analogue handset in a stupid case!

Of course, they almost certainly carry much more hi-tech gear with them these days as the same engineers now deal with analogue lines, ISDN, data etc.

Funny how they always have to phone in to get somebody else to come out with the Trend box when they have to do any in-depth trouble shooting though. Actually, thinking about it I wouldn't be surprised if their vans carried little more than a Krone tool, some plugs and a pair of pliers...

WoollyMammoth, Openreach primarily maintain (and install) the infrastructure between the exchanges and the customer premises. This can mean anything from the copper wires that come into your house to bits of glass fibre running into an office block, or even a 100Mbps network connection running into a lamp post!

I think they were set up at OfComs instruction back when they had a bee in their bonnet about ensuring competitors could get "equal" access to BT's infrastructure - something which has actually been really good for the consumer, even if it can be painful to deal with at times.

I know there are a few BT / ex-BT folk on here, so somebody might have better information than I do... I'm just another punter at the end of the day.

Minus1 wrote:Try 168.9 NFM simplex.

Nice one Minus1! That one's going in the file right now...

Should have known you would be sitting up there in TB5 looking down with a frequency in hand.

kr0ne wrote:

thelad wrote:they have a cool test phone that they can plug into any phone line and make phone calls and test the lines.

Ah! The "Engineers Set" - I have one of these in a box somewhere that was left behind by an engineer many years before Openreach existed...

giant blue plastic thing that reminds you a bit of a shoe for somebody with one leg shorter than the other.

I was completely gutted when I discovered it was just an absolutely standard analogue handset in a stupid case!

Of course, they almost certainly carry much more hi-tech gear with them these days as the same engineers now deal with analogue lines, ISDN, data etc.

Funny how they always have to phone in to get somebody else to come out with the Trend box when they have to do any in-depth trouble shooting though. Actually, thinking about it I wouldn't be surprised if their vans carried little more than a Krone tool, some plugs and a pair of pliers...

WoollyMammoth, Openreach primarily maintain (and install) the infrastructure between the exchanges and the customer premises. This can mean anything from the copper wires that come into your house to bits of glass fibre running into an office block, or even a 100Mbps network connection running into a lamp post!

I think they were set up at OfComs instruction back when they had a bee in their bonnet about ensuring competitors could get "equal" access to BT's infrastructure - something which has actually been really good for the consumer, even if it can be painful to deal with at times.

I know there are a few BT / ex-BT folk on here, so somebody might have better information than I do... I'm just another punter at the end of the day.

yep thats the phone lol the tranny vans are pretty well kitted out with a good racking system for tools and equipment.