[nzlug] Line noise

[cr]

This is possibly a little Off Topic but I hope someone on the list might 
know - 

Does anyone know exactly where Telecom's responsibility for my incoming phone 
line ends?   At the entry through the house wall?   Or at the first master 
socket inside the house?   Or at the junction box in the street?   (I don't 
pay their money-for-nothing 'wiring maintenance' charge, btw).

Background - every time it rains significantly I get line noise hissing and 
crackling away - I can hear it through the phones and what it does to my 
modem is diabolical.   I can hear it even with all the house wiring 
disconnected and just one phone plugged into the incoming master socket.   
Any phone.   Any master socket.   So I phone Clear's faults and they call 
back and confirm there's a fault on the line and they'll send someone out.   
So Telecom's contractor comes out, listens to the noise, agrees with 
everything I say then says in the tone of 
the-prisoner-was-injured-while-resisting-arrest, he-walked-into-a-door, 
there's nothing wrong with their lines, it must be my house wiring.   (Yeah, 
right.   I wish it was, I would have fixed it long since!!)

Now there's about 20 feet of incoming line hidden behind walls between the 
incoming cable entry point and the master socket.   So if that's 'mine' then 
I'll stick a junction box at the entry point on the outside wall and that 
will leave them no room to weasel out of it.   If that bit of line is 'theirs' 
then they don't have any wiggle room anyway - so long as I know they don't.   
Hence my query.

(BTW, sometimes, after I complain, the noise seems to go away quicker than 
usual.   I suspect they know their lines are crap, and they just play musical 
pairs and swap the problem onto some other poor bastard's line - until he 
complains.   But I have no proof of this and I don't know if it's technically 
likely.)

"Line noise courtesy of Telescum" is more than just a joke around here.   :(

cr