Re-connecting cut telephone cable

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Of course there are - the underground cabling wasn't replaced for broadband, and some is pretty old.

[Andrew Gabriel]

and thousands of customers whose broadband is surprisingly poor given the distance to the exchange.

[robert]

On two occasions now I have lost phone connection while maintained broadband due to a very poor connection while BT were fiddling down the road. The broadband attenuation did go through the roof tho'.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've seen them die in either order. My parents had a tree wear through the overhead line, and in that case the broadband died about 2 days before the voice part did. But I've also had loss of DC voltage on the line and the phone apparently dead whilst the broadband continued just fine.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Don't tell me, he knows because he has to go out and fix em!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Probably around 60 years inside a house away from weather.

Its an interesting point. One hopes a houses struictire will do 120-250 years really, but not much of teh fixtrures and fittings will be expected to do that.

I had a converstaion with a man who worked on cosnerving old stuff - maiunly machines, but soime houess.

"generally a refurb every 15 years, a major refurb every 30, and 60 years is when you gut, make good and totally redo the interior after the occupants have died.."

So a 60 year lifespan is adequate :-) It will fiber of direct microwave brain injection by then.,.. ;-)

[Frank Erskine]

No - oddly he has more trouble with crimped joints in cabinets.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes -- until about 1970, houses in the UK were built with a life expectancy of about 200 years. From that point, a wide diversity of construction changes has appeared, which is likely to lead to a number of shorter lived houses. As a surveyor pointed out to me, this isn't something the public have taken on board yet when considering the value of a property, which means many houses are built using cheaper shorter life materials in the knowledge they will still sell for the full price.

Interestingly, offices are usually built with a 30 year life expectancy.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I don't think you can say that at all.

Many rural houses were built with no life expectancy..they were just built. I suspect the same for most timber stuff.

No. there have always been a wide diversity, depending on local materials you might see brick, stone or timber, clunch, horsehair and dung, you name it, they have built houses out of it..even turf rooves.

I think therehave always been good houyses and crap houses.

\Today teh cots of refurb is way below land costs, so who cares?

What? not the new ones I have been in they aren't.

Concrete and glass..good for at least 50..the interiors last about 5 years mind you..

[Andy Dingley]

All depends on whether peeople have "run the cable neatly", i.e. under the carpet and across doorways, where it gets walked upon.

Back when I worked for BT and did installs we had it drummed into us where to run cables correctly (i.e. go up and over a door, not under it), and how important it was to do so even if it made the job longer to carry out. BT were still planning to be around in 25 years, or even

60 years, so it was expected that it would be _their_ bottom line that paid to fix the future fault otherwise.

I've not seen this same attitude in commercial phone or CTV cablers, any time in the last decade (even from BT). Network cablers are a bit more conscientuous, as Cat5 is itself fussier.

[Tony Bryer]

A bit optimistic, I think: without any evidence I would have thought that the majority of pre-1880s properties have long since been demolished.

What's happened since 1970 is the price of land has escalated dramatically as has the cost of repairs and maintenance, new build

- which has been deskilled - less so. Thus knocking down a 1930s house and building a new one to modern tastes and needs may make economic sense, which would not have been the case a few decades back. If the house is listed or in a Conservation Area it may well sell for less than the cleared site value - IOW the building has a negative value.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, but mostly through social engineering, not contruction failures (although there are some I'm sure).

That's an argument for not bothering to design houses to last 200 years, as other factors will render them obsolete before then.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes the architrave and skirting board people as a chippy mate used to call them. Making a mess of his neat work.

IMHO the correct place for telephone cables - and any other - is under the floorboards etc - ie concealed. That way they can't get damaged either.

BTW - never knew a BT inside man who would take five minutes for a job where one would 'do'.

[Andy Dingley]

Not the local loop, so not especially relevant for broadband, but an awful lot of cable _was_ replaced for digital telephony (i.e. into the local exchange) and this was at lower data rates than we currently expect from broadband (2 MBps and up). Some of this was to avoid old connectors, some because the cable design itself changed (pair conductors were separated into D-shaped groups within a cable, with a screen between).

The sorts of bitrate we routinely push down phone cables today owes as much to demonology as it does to Nyquist. I've never understood or trusted it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Virtually all pre 1900 timber buildings eventually rotted or burnt down. Survivors are the exception, not the rule.

Again,if you look at brick or stone houses, this was the structural material of the affluent. You think houses were better build in 1775? think again. Your average timber framed cow dung and parsley cottage lasted maybe only a few years, ..which is why there aren't any left. Even the best of thatch has only a 25 year life..fail to do labour intensive maintenance, and thats the roof timbers gone, and then the wall timbers..and then the house..

Victorain terraces build on the cheap for workers, all smell of rot. Unless they have been extensively treated and restored. They are vile. There is nowhere to park a car, they are right on the road, and only by dint of using what used to be a backyard full of coal to put extensions on, do they even manage to have a decent kitchen, or bathroom, by and large.

If they weren't all glued togther, everyone would have demolished them as beyond ecomonic repair years ago.

They have with most other victorian properties in the 'below upper middle class' category.

The only difference today, is that the carp that is being put up hasn't fallen down or been demolished to build something better - yet.

I doubt that half of 20th century houses will be in existence by 2050.

Any more than half of 19th century houses were in existence in 1950.

Which in terms of low cost mass housing a la Barratt SuperHutch, is precisely the correct attitude.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The bitrate as specified by Nyquits, is essentially bandwidth*power to noise input. Up the power, and the bitrate goes up.Even if the bandwidth doesn't..

The demology consists in getting as close to Nyquist as you can..

[Dave Liquorice]

er so lead mine worker circa 1720 was affluent eh? That is who this house was orginally built for along with the barn and byre so they could actually survive up here. It's rubble stone built and still here, mind you the walls are the only orginal bits left. B-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Relatively, yes.

I meant dressed stone, not lumps of whatever the local earth was made up piled iup. Yes, clunch, wood, small stones piled dry..these are all 'rustic' styles and none last very well.