ICR lost dialtone totally on the studio lines, curiously there was still (just) broadband but only 44 volts DC on the line and one wire of the pair had “gone to battery”. This means that somethng is adrift between the Telephone Exchange and the local NTE (network termination equipment), as any phone circuit should have some isolation from earth and battery (-48V) via its line relays or whatever is used these days with electronic stuff.

it turned out the Openreach access trench below the road was full with the bounty of the Orwell, usually there is a pump to bail this out but it had stopped, so the Openreach dude had to use a portable pump and redo some splices that water had got into (rather him than me, as there is often a quantity of sewage in this water :yakk:)

so once that it is done I had to visit ICR late on Saturday and was there until 03:00 checking the circuit and the internal wiring – at one point I had to get out my butane soldering iron to make a bodge cable from BT plug to CAT5 twisted pair (as this should be downstream of the filter)and I replaced the RJ45 + tail in the studio with a old style British Telecom master socket – so that way no fool can get mixed up and swap roiund the computers and phone then complain the hybrid doesn’t work.
it was late and I was knackered hence why I howled the circuit badly with the service phone…(normally i would take more care). TBH I prefer the VOIP design anyway, not so many rough sounds from telecom volts being switched

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DT3WUf46co

even then I got a panic call today from a presenter waiting for a remote interview from Jamaica as some blighter had swaped round the cables at the hybrid (I do wish folk would no fuck around with stuff they do not understand :rant:)