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Interference

During calls I can hear static and other people talking on the line. I cannot understand what they are saying but it's enough to interfere with my calls. The other party on the line also hears static and other people talking. This happens whether I'm using a cordless or corded phone. Verizon says that I have copper line service, however when I went outside to the phone interface box I found that the copper wire coming from the telephone pole is cut and that there is a connection between my fios box to the copper telephone interface box through two pieces of equipment that I do not recognize and then out to my house and a distribution box. Has anyone had a similar experience or know why the copper wire from the telephone phone is cut?

Comments

xnavyrmcm2

Another question. If I have to run new phone wire to another part of my house, can I just hook the new wire to the ONT?

lasagna

If you go to the ONT, there should be a small screw which you can loosen and then snap open the ONT for access to the "customer" side of the ONT. Inside you will find connections for TV, phone, and ethernet -- one or more of which will be connected depending on the services you have.

If you have phone service, there will be a standard phone wire plugged into one of the phone jacks -- you can disconnect the wire here and plug a phone directly into this connection -- if when you do this your phone interference issues go away, then the problem is inside your house in the wiring. If it remains, try a different phone. If it still remains, the problem is within Verizon's system and you will need to place a service call telling them that you tested "at the ONT directly" and still received the noise (could be a crossed wire or something at the head end before it's put onto the fiber coming to your home).

The attached picture shows where the phone jacks are on my ONT. If you can perhaps post pictures of the other "devices" you don't recognize, maybe someone can tell you what they are ... you certainly shouldn't need them in this instance.

GaryDoug

If his ONT is like mine, there is also a phone line punch block just below and in parallel with the jack. Mine is wired to the punch block only. He should look there also and be aware that if his is connected to the punch block, testing the line using the jack might be inconclusive.

xnavyrmcm2

Have not figured how to insert pictures on this forum yet so I'll try to explain a little more clearly what I have.

The phone lines leave the ONT on the terminal blocks and travel down to the old TELCO copper terminal box.

The Phone line from the ONT enters the old copper line cable box on the right hand side (yes I know it’s for TELCO use only!) and enters a black box called a “signal circuit protector”. Out of this “signal circuit protector it goes to the terminal block on the left and from there it is distributed to my house. The old copper line from the telephone pose has been cut and is tucked inside this box.

I do not understand why the phone lines are going from the ONT, through the old telephone box and then out to the house. Why can’t I just run the wire to my house directly from the terminals in the ONT and bypass the old TELCO box which to me is just another source of potential problems.

I’ve plugged an old rotary phone into the test jacks on the ONT but the problem is that the interference/talking is not constant. It comes and goes making it hard to troubleshoot.

GaryDoug

xNavy,

There is no real reason you can't do what you suggest. That's the way mine is connected but then again I don't use the phone co box for distribution. Maybe the installer wanted to leave you an easy way to disconnect and test the line. Is there a swingaway plug in the phone co box? See my attachment. Mine uses 2 lines (1,2). In the photo, line 2 is unplugged and can be tested by plugging a phone into the open jack. I notice you said your line is connected to the ONT terminal blocks. Those are probably like the red and green ones in lasagna's photo, right? They are punch posts and are a bit tricky to remove and reattach, so you might want to do your testing at the telco box if you can.

FYI, If you can put your photos in a free public-accessible place online (like photobucket.com), you can put a link to it in your text (unless I'm wrong about that too).

like this one:

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h358/GaryDoug/?action=view&current=telcojacks.jpg

Takes about 5 minutes or less to sign up.

xCstGrd

telco jacks.jpg

xnavyrmcm2

Here is a link to my ONT setup.

http://flic.kr/p/8K4Sge

And here is the TELCO box.

http://flic.kr/p/8K7UVy

Like I said the problem is intermittent so it's going to be a bear to find the problem. I've already disconnected some old phone line runs that went to the house leaving only new grounded cabling. If that doesn't work I'm going to try and wire directly from the ONT to the house wiring. If that doesn't work I'll try running a new separate wire from the ONT to a phone. If that doesn't work then Verizon will get a call. I just hate to have them come out, check out the TELCO side, tell me there is nothing wrong and then charge me a for a house call!!

GaryDoug

Sounds like you have all the bases covered.

The jacks on the ONT look a bit like they are RJ45 ethernet jacks, hard to tell in the picture. If they have 8 little brass-colored wires in the socket, it's ethernet (or perhaps a 4-line phone jack??). If it's 2 or 4 it's phone. If the socket is ethernet. you probably won't be able to use it for phones. I say "probably" because I don't recognize the ONT type and some RG45 connectors actually carry phone signals as well as data, just on separate pins. Since they are labeled TEST1 and TEST2 they might do both. If the test jacks won't work for phones, you could cut the blue and white phone wires near the ONT and connect an RJ11 jack (Radio Shack, Home Depot, or ?) to make it easy to attach a phone extension line.

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