Verizon DSL → [connectivity] High Open

I saw this on another forum, but it fits my issue exactly:

"The phone line consists of a pair of copper wires originating at a Central Office (CO) or Remote Terminal (RT) and running through various cables, cross connect boxes, and other splices until it reaches your Network Interface Device (NID). From the NID your inside wiring brings the line to your telephone and modem jacks.

Each splice, interconnect, and terminal on the line between you and the phone company's equipment must be a tight, low-resistance electrical connection for the line to work well.

When you use a telephone a small amount of electrical current flows in the copper wires and this current, which carries your voice, also helps keep the splice points in the line clean and tight. This is commonly called "sealing current" because it seals the junctions.

Lines exposed to air can either oxidize slightly or sometimes corrode heavily depending on conditions. This deterioration at splice points in copper phone cable can cause this "high open" condition. The bad junction creates high resistance, effectively creating an "open" in the line, and DSL signals might fail to cross it, or be weakened by the attempt. When a phone is picked up current begins to flow and the resistance drops during the call. If its just a light case of oxidation you may not notice any change in sound quality. A bad case of corrosion might cause audible clicks, pops, and static on a voice call.

Since DSL signals do not draw current on your line, high open conditions can lead to the degradation of the DSL signal to the point of losing sync. When you use your phone you seal the faulty connection and DSL signal returns. When you put the phone on-hook and stop the current flow the high open returns, sometimes right away - sometimes with a delay, and your DSL loses sync. High opens can also cause other oddball conditions, such as sync loss when the phone rings."

I had the technician out last week, and he had no clue what to call my issue, let alone how to resolve it. He reset my modem, which worked for about a day or two, but I'm back to having to have my phone off the hook again in order to connect to the internet.

Another tech is coming out next week and I'm insisting he physically check the wiring, and if possible, replace it.

But in the meantime, I thought I'd share, because Google only shows that AT&T and British Telecom have mentioned "High Open", and I can't understand how multiple Verizon techs couldn't have diagnosed this when they hear the symptoms.

A High Open is the type of issue that is best tracked down and repaired by POTS technicians typically. That article suggests to call the telco's POTS repair techs. Were they not able to find that fault?

I'm not sure what a POTS is, but I had called for DSL tech support. The gentleman who came out last week had all the tools and monitoring devices for the phone lines and he told me he'd been a telephone tech for several decades...

He tested the line and said it was fine. He reset the modem and that seemed to do it. But it only lasted a couple of days and I'm back to basically calling myself and leaving the phone off the hook.

And last year, men from the local office were out. I think that time, I put on five filters to have it working and that lasted for about half a year.



Stuff like that.

POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service (analog phone service).

Assuming DSL shares phone line if there are audible anomalies on phone either noise (especially when phone is first picked up) or crosstalk (other voices) it is best to call voice repair, not Verizon on-line. Voice techs are more experienced with physical circuit then DSL techs.

/tom

Ah, thank you. I took the advice of the original post and called tech repair, so the guy coming out is a POTS person.

But I'm still surprised that this condition isn't known to DSL tech support. I think it should be, since it affects the service so badly...

The POTS tech came out and declared my wall jack to be a piece of crap. He said my problem was that the jack was too big for the plug, so that only parts of the plug were hitting the jack and transmitting the signal through, so basically what'd I been doing all this time was jiggling the plug to get it to work.

He ended up replacing the whole wall unit and my service has been working since then. Bruce was annoyed/amazed that none of the other techs who'd came out thought to look at the jack itself as the possible source of the problem, though I told him they were all DSL guys...

He said, before leaving that there was still some static on the line and a second guy came out a couple of hours later to check the connections at the junction boxes. He determined that there wasn't any static, but checked out the boxes anyway.

So, now I have a new wall jack, and my service is working.

*crosses fingers*