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[lcl00]

I've recently signed up with Plusnet to see if I can obtain a faster speed at my premises amidst unusual line conditions on my current line.

It's now showing for my soon to be activated line:

FTTC Range A (Clean)   74.5   56.8   20   18.1   --   Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted)   60.7   33.3   19.6   8.5   --   Available

For a line that's 1.3km, irrespective of cable thickness that's just... silly, I'm hoping for an improvement over what I've got, but the above figures seem completely unrealistic.

However, they've told me that they're going to send me a Plusnet Hub One and after a bit of research it looks like a HH5A.  Is it definitely going to be that, or is it possible that it'll contain the guts of something a bit less horrible?  If there's going to be G.INP issues then I suspect it won't see out of the box!

I suppose in any case, it's something else to tinker with. 

Thanks

[Starman]

Unfortunately the new PN router is a re-badged HH5A with some slight firmware changes (Removal of BT WiFi).

[Ronski]

Are you sure your line is 1.3km to the cabinet not the exchange?

[lcl00]

Are you sure your line is 1.3km to the cabinet not the exchange?

Certain!  I'm much further from the exchange, probably about 6.5km cable length and a lot of it's aluminium on the E side (72dB attenuation on ADSL2+).  BT (and KN) told me the line length when they were installing the poles, etc.  I also got the engineers to confirm it when they were testing, and I checked it myself (Google Maps, phone with GPS, etc.).  There's only one available path from the cabinet to my premises.  The cable is 0.9mm in areas and 0.6mm in others, but it still doesn't really make up for estimates like that.

How accurate are those estimates supposed to be?  My neighbour up the road is getting estimates in the mid 60s down to 40 something and they'd be 1.5km away, so it seems to be affecting more than just me.  My neighbour closer (about 1km) always got estimates in the region of 73 down to 50 something.  None of us are on the same DP.

The only possible explanation, however unusual, is that it actualy isn't 0.9mm, and something thicker (I'm told reliably that that's never been seen).  I've completely ruled out a shorter route to the cabinet, there just isn't one, and even the old potential one that might've been there would've only been 50m shorter, but I'm told under no uncertain terms that the line does not route that way (the road was closed in the 60s).  We'll see what speeds the new line yields!  I suspect the checker's just being daft.

Unfortunately the new PN router is a re-badged HH5A with some slight firmware changes (Removal of BT WiFi).

Looks like the Hub One will be lying in a box!  Thanks for the info. 

[Chrysalis]

I have heard of super thick copper been used in rural areas with long overhead cables.

[lcl00]

Yes, that does happen in this instance.  My line now runs to the bottom of my road and into an underground cable.  There's another few miles of overhead and underground cables that run further up that main road and branch off up other roads, the longest probably being an additional 3 miles or so.  I had surmised that it might have been thicker than 0.9mm cable given with me getting 72dB on ADSL2+, I'd be guessing that at a further 3 miles away, they'd be at the fringe of being able to even receive a telephone service.  Might be wrong though!

[Ronski]

I've read that the estimate is based on the distribution point, not the end users location, so if you have a long run from the DP what you get would be lower than the estimate. Also if no one on the DP has fttc then BT can't fine tune the estimate for that DP. When fttc first became available everyone complained that their estimates kept dropping, but there appears to be an on going fine tuning of estimates based on what end users are getting.

Hopefully you'll get a good speed 

[Chrysalis]

yeah that could be it, the DP is usually very close to the property, but it seems in a small amount of cases the distance can be larger.

[gt94sss2]

However, they've told me that they're going to send me a Plusnet Hub One and after a bit of research it looks like a HH5A.  Is it definitely going to be that, or is it possible that it'll contain the guts of something a bit less horrible?

To be fair to the HH5A it's quite decent kit for something an ISP provides free. What Plusnet used to provide was a lot worse.

It will support DS G.INP - and now G.INP is being rolled out to ECI cabs seems to get higher sync speeds on them than Broadcom chipsets - but is not good for harvesting stats ( though I suppose you could install OpenWRT on it)

[lcl00]

I've read that the estimate is based on the distribution point, not the end users location, so if you have a long run from the DP what you get would be lower than the estimate. Also if no one on the DP has fttc then BT can't fine tune the estimate for that DP. When fttc first became available everyone complained that their estimates kept dropping, but there appears to be an on going fine tuning of estimates based on what end users are getting.

Hopefully you'll get a good speed 

All users are quite close to their DP, including my own line, my dropwire probably wouldn't be much more than 10m and I have active fibre services on that, although they're impacted.  The estimate for it did bounce up and down a bit, but nothing quite as high as the 'new' line.  They've now settled at roughly what the line is achieving currently.  There's also active fibre services on that DP my neighbours closer to the cabinet are connected to and the estimates are still daft.  Strange!

However, they've told me that they're going to send me a Plusnet Hub One and after a bit of research it looks like a HH5A.  Is it definitely going to be that, or is it possible that it'll contain the guts of something a bit less horrible?

To be fair to the HH5A it's quite decent kit for something an ISP provides free. What Plusnet used to provide was a lot worse.

It will support DS G.INP - and now G.INP is being rolled out to ECI cabs seems to get higher sync speeds on them than Broadcom chipsets - but is not good for harvesting stats ( though I suppose you could install OpenWRT on it)

Fortunately, I'm on a Huawei cabinet, so I suspect I won't see any sort of improvement in using a Hub One.  Suppose it'll be interesting to plug it in to see what it does though!  Does it not show any stats at all, or does it just not play ball with DSLstats?

[kitz]

It has some very basic stats such as line rate.

[Ronski]

You say 'new line', if that's a new line with a new number it could be showing the estimate for it's old location. It can take some time for the database to catch up.

[lcl00]

You say 'new line', if that's a new line with a new number it could be showing the estimate for it's old location. It can take some time for the database to catch up.

Sorry, let me elaborate.  That line has been at this premises for 20 odd years, it isn't 'new'.  It was originally routed through a different PCP with no fibre estimates owing to it being 4km from the cabinet (over rickety overhead cable that was falling apart).  It was rerouted and the information was never changed until recently, when the routing was changed, but with no fibre estimates.  The fibre estimates had to be updated individually after so really, this was the first time that particular line ever showed fibre availability. 

Initially, I thought the estimates were a fault and just ignored it, but it then revised upwards after the order was placed (by about 2mbps), where I suspect another check of a similar nature would've been done.

[phi2008]

Going off at a slight tangent ... the Hub One is not free, it'll add a deferred equipment charge of £100 to your contractual liabilities - written off, proportionately, across the length of your 18 month contract. Worth taking into account if you are not wholly confident you will be happy with Plusnet and might terminate your contract early.

Personally I'd avoid the extra liability and just get a cheap Openreach modem from eBay.

[Ronski]

Has you new line been activated yet, and if so what speeds did you end up with?