"Simon Avery" wrote
| Engineer switched me to the last working copper pair in the bundle
| - next time it goes I'm out for ages, and I have a sneaky suspicion
| they'll simply refuse me isdn access rather than replace the cable,
| since a few pops and whistles on analogue is neither here nor there.

If the last working copper pair in the bundle goes, they'll probably DACS
your line onto a neighbours. This will limit you (and them) to 33.6 modem
speed, which ironically might be a better connection.

ISDN, being digital and also running on a higher line voltage (100V rather
than 50V I think), should be more robust over some types of cable fault.

Owain