Hello,
I wonder if anyone can explain the reasons for what follows.
I have been a customer of Plusnet since I moved to my present address in June 2007. At that time my newly connected line provided a constant 8Mbps with attenuation of 32db. During the period that BTs 21CN was being introduced I signed up to join what was called, at the time, a WBC 21CN trial. Initially, my line did seem to increase in speed, and the attenuation went up from around 32db to 35db, which I later found out was quite normal when switching to 21CN. Over a period of many months, some better than others, the overall trend was a decrease in synch speed and wavering attenuation. Whenever I contacted the ISP they seemed to be of the view that my line was performing very well overall, considering the distance from the exchange. I assume they were basing that on the attenuation, but could be wrong about that.
As this went on and on for many months, and mainly because of the frustration that I was experiencing, I looked into having a new line installed by O2. I was already an O2 mobile customer and this provides me with a £5 per month discount on the broadband service that they provide. It had been my intention to run these two lines in parallel in order to compare their performance for a short time, but I still have both in service. Now, I do realise that the O2 broadband service is LLU, whereas the service provided by Plusnet, as far as I know uses standard BT equipment, and is therefore NOT 'unbundled'
The bit that I don't understand is why the O2 line synchs up at around 15Mbps at 29db attenuation, and has suffered only one outage as far as I can recall. Whereas the BT/Plusnet line appears incapable of connecting at much over 11Mbps with an attenuation of 36db, and is up and down like the proverbial lady of the nights underthings. As I said before, I have brought this to the attention of Plusnet on many occasions, but their attitude seems to be that I'm very lucky indeed to be able to use their service at all !!!!! Go figure.
Any thoughts on this would be very welcome
toulouse