Sounds like a crossed line but is it?

Question

I have a BT landline with BT infinity fibre optic broadband and BT vision, all of which I'd been very happy with. However, about 8 months ago, I started noticing a click on the line when making or receiving calls. It sounds just as if someone has picked up an extension somewhere in the house and is listening in but you can't hear any background noise or talking, just a change in the sidetone (although I have a few sockets around the house, none have extensions connected as I have 4 BT freelance cordless handsets). I've had the engineers round twice and they can't fix it. The first one did witness the fault and said it must be in the exchange and went off to fix it but no luck. The second one said that he'd get the exchange equipment changed out just as a precausion. Personally, I think it is a contact with someone elses line because the clicks are so intermittent. Sometimes it happens 10 times in a call and then it will go several days without happening. Leaving the house with just one phone connected via the master with all BB off is very inconvenient and so far I've not been able to reproduce the fault with just the master connected. I have changed out the modem, the Freelance phone set and the home hub 3 for spares, so I really do not think it is internal equipment but it's driving us mad. I'd happily pay the fee if they could fix it but the engineers just rely on test gear these days, They won't go off and do a visual inspection of the DP, cab, fibre cab and MDF. Where are the SFIOs? (special fault investigation offices)

Answer 1

OK. Thankyou lines man. Any ideas of what it can be then?
A few weeks back, I had connected an old 746 type bell telephone (with a pstn plug on it) to the line and all we could hear all evening was the bell just tinging every now and then. Again, just like someone else had picked up an extension. As already stated, I don't have any other extensions, there is no other equipment connected anywhere. Just the modem and home hub 3.
I have had the BT Freelance cordless phone base disconnected and a wired phone plugged in and it still happens.
As you can probably tell from my use of terminology, I am an ex-BT technician but from many years ago, working in clockwork (Strowger) exchanges long before broadband, so I'm out of touch with most of it.
About 5 years ago, I had a second line coming into the same house, so 2 lines were running through the same dropwire. If that line is in contact with another working line, would it induce a click in my line as it runs in the same dropwire?? I am clutching at straws now, as you can see, but I really need help on this one and I don't see the point of reporting it conventionally again as all they do is test the line ans say it's OK.