But before you rush to your 'phone to check, remember that it is not a free service. I don't want to encourage anyone to increase the income of BT whilst proving the inadequacy of their service.
I spent a fairly frustrating time trying to report the fault, but as anyone who has tried to report a problem using an automated, multiple choice 'phone reporting system will appreciate, as soon as you have a problem that falls outside the normal options, you are snookered.
Eventually, I managed to negotiate my way through the various layers of, "Press one for Billing, press two for Broadband, Press three if you are losing the will to live...", until I was speaking to a human being.
I knew that she was almost certainly not the right person to deal with this particular issue, but I hoped that she might be able to contact the appropriate department.
It did not go terribly well.
Although she was not actually rude, her reaction when I tried to report the problem was somewhat terse. I explained that I realized it was not really the sort of fault that she would normally be resposible for dealing with, but as there appeared to be no other way of getting in contact with the service provider, I was hoping she could either pass the message on herself or refer me to a more appropriate department.
Her response was, "What business is it of yours to tell us that the Speaking Clock is wrong?"
"Well, it is a service that I'm paying for, and it's supposed to be reliable... and not four seconds fast."
"How do you know it's wrong?"
At this point, I decided to keep it simple.
I could have explained that as I was in the Control Room at Jodrell Bank, I had access to two independant Global Positioning Satellite Clocks and our own on-site Atomic Clock, all of which were telling me that the Speaking Clock was wrong.
Instead, I just said, "I checked it against the Greenwich Time signal "pips" at 9 o'clock, broadcast by the BBC. And before you ask, that was the analogue service, not digital."
Now I have no idea whether this has been passed on to anyone in BT who is interested or capable enough to sort it out, but at 7:45 this morning it was still wrong.
I'll let you know when it's been corrected.
The "Station Clock" at Jodrell Bank
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Well I know a man who should be able to shed some light on this matter.
ReplyDeleteApart from all the high-profile televotes, our mass call answering platform spends most of its time being used for comparatively mundane commercial applications, one of which is the speaking clock.
Of course there is no longer just one speaking clock. In these deregulated days most other operators have their own version that they route calls to - do you know whether Jodrell Bank are using somebody other than BT?
Anyway, I've passed your findings on to my esteemed colleague who is responsible for all things in the speaking clock area (he's the one who gets to spend quality studio-time with various celebrities whenever they record alternative voices for charity versions of the clock). He's just checked it against an internet (NTP) time source and it appears to be in sync, but he's off to check the logs to see if anything has gone awry in the last day.
From a technical point-of-view there are a couple of aerial receivers at a top secret BT location that take the MSF signal transmitted from Anthorn in Cumbria. Should these lose connection, the clock equipment will continue quite happily, but be subject to a small amount of drift until it re-establishes the MSF feed. It would need to lose this connection for several weeks in order to drift four seconds.
Our replica system (an exact copy of the hardware and software at BT) is within 100ms of the NTP sources, so the MSF signal appears to be fine.
It's probably worth pointing out that we are a supplier to BT, so any complaints about their levels of customer service shouldn't be directed at us!
I'm really pleased that you got in touch Jon.
ReplyDeleteYou've made quite a few things a whole lot clearer and in the process saved me from probably digging an even bigger hole for myself.
The University of Manchester, of which Jodrell Bank is a part, has made some changes to telephone provision recently. Your comment reminded me of this, so I did a bit more 'phoning round and I believe I am now closer to finding the source of the discrepancy.
It appears that the Speaking Clock that is 4 seconds fast, is not direct from BT. By using one of our emergency back-up 'phone lines which is not routed through the main University system, I was able to call the "Real" BT Speaking Clock and discovered that this absolutely correct.
I'll be posting again, to grovel to BT.
Thanks again, Jon, for the wise words.
I don't understand any of that, however, that woman was very rude to speak to you in that way. She should be reprimanded.
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