Case study, phone and internet outage # 1

At a job we had last week was for a phone and internet outage for a small branch of a large carpet company. The problem was that the internet service provider is a third tier supplier, so that we have to log the job with them, who then log the job with the upstream provider, who send the technician out.
Because the store had 3 x VOIP phones, we had to setup call the provider and ask them to put a diversion in place so no calls were dropped. A staff member then purchased a Wi-Fi hotspot so the pc’s could connect to the internet and RDP to the server at head branch to run the custom software and check stock levels, send cut sheets to the factory floor and other similar tasks.
The ISP technicians came three times over the next week to resolve the issue, and none were able to. They would test to the MDF at the back of the building and would test OK. They would then test from the MDF to the clients frame inside their own tenancy and the pair would test OK to there.
I would monitor the up-time of client’s connection to the internet remotely, and would see them drop out not long after then technician left. I would then call the supplier, and they would log another fault with the upstream provider who would then book a technician within the next 24-48 hours, all very frustrating for the client.
The Internet Service Provider would claim that the fault laid within the building past the demarcation point, which meant not the responsibility of theirs, it was the fault of the clients cabling within the building.
I then contracted a cable technician to check the cabling from the back of the building to the front where the shop is. He tested the line and reported OK, but did report a fault on the line outside of the building. That along with the fact that one of the technicians from Telstra had put tags on the lines saying that they tested fine at both ends. The speed at the point where the ADSL came into the building was very low 1-2 Mbps, so we thought that the issue was outside.
With the last technician booked for a Thursday afternoon, we were surprised to see the internet start working all by itself. So far it has been stable for 6 days, whereas previously it couldn’t stay stable for more than a few hours. My assumption is the technician that was sent to site went to the nearest exchange first and tested the line there and found some faults between the client address back to the exchange, and were able to diagnose and fix the fault OK.