ASDL basic Q's - help!

[Dr. X]

Hey guys long time no post, had a hectic summer which I'd rather forget but at the moment I'm having an annoying time getting a phone line and ADSL into a new flat.

The previous tenants had a phone line and ADSL in the flat, simple enough.

I phoned up BT with a view to getting the phone line reconnected and they said that there had never been a BT line to the flat and it would cost me £125 to get one installed in over a month's time!

NTL don't do that area.

The agent thinks it was either BT or NTL but we can check tomorrow when I move in a lose my internet!

Question is, who do I turn to? Do Cable & Wireless or Telewest or whoever re-sell BT phone lines? Can I use one of their lines to get ADSL? Are BT pulling a fast one or if they actually disconnected the previous line is this what always happens?

I really don't want to have to spend £125 just to get connected!

[Steve]

My current house used to have Telewest broadband. For some reason the phone wiring for the BT line was removed. BT reconnected me free of charge and even sent somebody out to wire everything back up FOC once we discovered the problem.

If the previous tenants had ADSL, I can't see how there wasn't a BT line there. Telewest broadband would be over cable, not ADSL.

[jamin]

BT perform a basic line test when any new tenant/owner move in to a proprtey. This involves their exchange (systemx/y) "looking" for the presence of a capacitor, which is part of a master socket. If they dont see a mastersocket, then they come up with the £125, if they see one then they automatically reconnect.

Steve, sounds like the TW contarctor who installed the previous BY service dissed the origional BT master. Which shouldnt happen according to ofcom, but hey, these guys are getting paid per job....

BY is over cable, but the TW phone service is over a phone line. If the contractor needed to connect the previous occupants extensions then he may (probably) have dissed the orginal BT master.