Packet Loss / Connection Loss Tuesday 19th September 2023 2:30:00 pm
We're looking in to several reports of packet loss from just before 2pm.
This is affecting only BT Wholesale services and all reports appear to be in the South of the UK.
A case has been raised with BT Wholesale and we are awaiting an update.
We are closing this status after a period monitoring.
This was confirmed fixed by BT Wholesale just before 5:30pm yesterday and our morning reflected that. The final update from them confirms:
Resilience restored at 17: 23 following a microbend being corrected in Mile End exchange.
Whilst this issue is ongoing, we would like to post some comments about common questions.
Not all connections using BT Wholesale are affected.
Some customers have seen no impact at all. This depends not only on the route from your local OHP/Exchange within the BT Wholesale network but then BT Wholesale to us. This could mean that a neighbour has service which is working without fault with us, but another property on the same street does not. Reconnecting can sometimes help.
Information is minimal
In the early stages of a MSO (major service outage) as now confirmed by BTW, there is a period of reviewing monitoring, checking our network and then raising reports with BT Wholesale. They then have to do the same. Now we know it is due to a substantial fibre break.
Timeframe of impact
At present, we do not have this from BT Wholesale and now by extension Openreach. Such issues as they affect hundreds of service providers (ISPs), are fixed as quickly as possible. It is considered a fault of the highest priority.
Cause of break
This will need to be determined, often in a RFO (reason for outage) that is sent some time after it has been resolved. Usual fibre breaks are caused by damage to network, often by digging and we will be able to determine if that is the case here.
Updates will continue throughout this evening but they may be minimal based on what is received from BT Wholesale.
BT Wholesale have confirmed this is due to a fibre break in their network.
This should not cause a loss of service due to the links in various locations, so that is under investigation also.
Some lines are seeing a complete loss of connection. This is related.
There are 8 links to BT Wholesale down and this is still with their team to provide an update.
It is not affecting any of our other wholesale networks at this time.
It appears this is country wide. All reports we had received were within the South Wales/Midlands areas but this has since expanded.
We are chasing for further updates.
We are aware of others ISPs using BT Wholesale who are also affected which seems to confirm the issue within BT Wholesale's network.
