Good afternoon Readers,
Feedback from today's engineer's visit:-The OR Engineer arrived with no brief other than to find out what the issues have been & to fix them as necessary.
After a very brief summary of the issues, he accepted that I had indeed achieved download speeds in excess of 30Mb, which made a refreshing change. (see lower down for the engineer's theory on this)
He allowed me to photograph his JDSU, but unfortunately my camera skills are very poor, as you will see in the attached photo.
What I did glean though, was my US Line attenuation had gone down from 52.9dB to 21.9dB & my DS Line attenuation had gone down from 30.2dB to 23.0dB since the previous photograph of the JDSU.
He showed me the VDSL summary screen (thanks Thomas for obtaining that screen during your recent installation), which showed an estimated length of 1.1km.
I explained about the 22Mb or so that was seen recently at the cabinet, so off he went to check.
After quite a while, he returned with the following comments:-
I would not be allowed to photograph his JDSU again, but I was allowed to see it (he must have spoken to someone back at BT, as he had no qualms at all when I took the photo on his arrival).
I didn't manage to jot all the figures down, but it showed DS Actual Rate of 23500k & DS Max Rate of 23514k.
The estimated length was now showing as 1.0km
He had checked my connection at the cabinet, & as it was immediately showing lots of "errors", he had performed a lift & shift to a new DSLAM port.
This action sorted out the errors, & the speed following the L & S was actually 40Mb at the cabinet.
When I queried the still low speeds at home, he mentioned that the previous engineer had shown me "something" from BT's Network Records, but that it was the wrong screen as it didn't show the actual line route.
Therefore the previous engineer's reported line length of only 820m was incorrect & that it probably is actually around 1.0km as shown today on the JDSU.
The engineer's theory is that my new download speeds, currently around 22Mb are probably about right for the distance from the cabinet, unless something is still capping them. They are indeed slightly better since today's Lift & Shift.
He went on to state that via fibre, the cabinets currently receive "up to" 80Mb & that BT currently cap download speeds at a
maximum of 40Mb for all customers.
Those living close to the cabinet (say up to 500m or so will indeed be able to download at around 38Mb or slightly higher, with those living further away achieving less, based upon signal loss over the copper D-side.
There are apparently tentative plans to provide "uncapped" connections in the not too distant future, no doubt at additional cost?.
He also added that typically, FTTC speeds are completely uncapped during the 10 day training period & that he has actually seen actual download speeds in excess of 60Mb at the end user's home.
In theory, the 40Mb cap is introduced immediately following the 10 day training period, but "occasionally" it gets missed & the user continues to enjoy higher than 40Mb download speeds.
He thought that it was possible that I was obtaining 33Mb or so for the first couple of weeks, because my connection was "open" to whatever uncapped speeds could be delivered, & as soon as the 40Mb cap was introduced, my line length would only allow up to 25Mb or so.
I have previously queried more than once whether speeds are uncapped during the training period & the answer has been that they are not.
He also thought that my various previous issues such as a crackly phone line, frequent random disconnections, HR fault (double jumpering), total loss of servce for a number of days etc. may well have been pure coincidence & a bit of a "red herring" in matters.
These theories could have some validity, but I will be asking Plusnet to confirm on my behalf that neither they, or BT are currently capping my download speeds for any reason.
So, that may be that now. I
may finally have to accept download speeds of around 22Mb as shown here, obtained since the engineer finished his job today:-
There still appear to be many uncertainties around BT's current FTTC provision, with various "experts" providing conflicting advice (as previously demonstrated in this very thread).
THIS NEEDS TO BE QUICKLY SORTED OUT ONCE & FOR ALL, SO THAT END USERS CAN ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND MATTERS ACCORDINGLY, IN THE SAME WAY THAT ADSL TECHNOLOGY (& ACHIEVABLE DOWNLOAD SPEEDS) ARE UNDERSTOOD.How difficult should it really be for BT & ISPs to publicise a "typical" & realistic speed graph/chart based upon distance from the cabinet
at a starting speed of 40Mb?
Surely, between them, they
MUST have sufficient data based upon actual installations by now.
Furthermore, how difficult should it really be to provide customer help desk staff
(& BT Engineers) with simple & accurate fact sheets, actually based upon facts?
Paul.
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