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[phi2008]

Hi,

I am probably going to move into a new property soon. I have been checking the potential speed of the property's broadband connection by entering the postcode into the BT Wholesale availability checker. The postcode check gives me a speed of 5Mbps under ADSL Max.

Yesterday I activated the property's phone line, in my name, with BT. Today I received the line's new number and was told activation is complete. So I proceeded to enter the new phone number in the Wholesale checker and it displayed the following -

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 1Mbps. However due to the length of your line the 1Mbps service may require an engineer visit who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.

Our initial test on your line indicates that your line may not support a reliable ADSL Max broadband service, with current technology. However, an order for 250Kbps broadband speed will still be accepted, but an engineer may need to visit who will, where possible, supply the service. ...

So what I want to know is who is correct? The postcode check or the number check? If it's of any help I don't think the last occupant had broadband(though I could be wrong). 

[Black Sheep]

Ignore 'em both mate. If an engineer doesn't turn up at the premises as mooted, then do a speed-test and request your ISP despatch one asap to better the speed. If the previous occupant hasn't had DSL, there could be all sorts of bridged-taps, unfiltered extensions etc going on.

[burakkucat]

Normally one should place more relevance on the information returned by the 'Number Checker', as that will be specific for the particular line. The 'Postcode Checker' will return the average for all lines in that postcode area.

It could be that the 'new' number that has been allocated to you was last used for a line in a totally different part of your local telephone area and the database is returning what information it currently has -- out of date.

Do you know a neighbour's telephone number? Could you look up the telephone number for a local shop? Anything of that nature in the same postcode area? If so, try that number in the 'Number Checker' and see if it is more like that returned by the 'Postcode Checker'.

[phi2008]

Thanks for the replies guys...

Normally one should place more relevance on the information returned by the 'Number Checker', as that will be specific for the particular line. ...

In the meantime I've tried the other option on the wholesale checker(address - as opposed to postcode and tel. number) and it suggests an ADSL Max speed of 3Mbps. So their database appears to be contradicting itself. The BT Infinity checker(house no.+postcode) suggests a speed of 4Mbps for ADSL, while not pulling any result at all when the phone number is entered.

Seems using the postcode or actual house number gives passable results, but using my new number dumbfounds their database.

Do you know a neighbour's telephone number? Could you look up the telephone number for a local shop? Anything of that nature in the same postcode area? If so, try that number in the 'Number Checker' and see if it is more like that returned by the 'Postcode Checker'.

Without going into the details of the house move/purchase I don't know any adjacent telephone numbers so can't test them.

[kitz]

Normally you would expect your phone number to give the best result.  The Postal code is based on an average for the surrounding area.

Address should give you info based on the existing line if its a BT line and information is held in their database for that line..  else if its an LLU'd line or no existing data on that line is held, then information will be based on average of the local area.

However, (and as b*cat has already mentioned) if you are moving into a new home, and a new telephone number is allocated its not uncommon for the database to pull up information on the last known results for that telephone number.   BT frequently re-allocate phone numbers and from your comments, then this is most likely what has been done in your case.   The phone number could have been reallocated from an entirely different part of your town and in cases like this, it can be very wrong...  and therefore the address or postal code is the better option.

[JGO]

FWIW this is my experience:=
Before connection my ISP estimated 2 Mb/sec.
On connection I was thus quite pleased with 2.7, but over time, by interrupting the ring wire, new modem and better filters etc I've pushed it up to about 4.5. It touched 4.9 once but it is limited by noise so it is up and down.
Distance to exchange is estimated as 4 - 4.5 km from 1.4*direct distance which at 13 dB/km (this assumes newish lines) is 52 - 58 dB attenuation; modem says 52 or 53. From published graph this ties in with actual speed range.

I suggest the actual speed (except for people very close to exchange) will be highly dependent on local wiring and interference so estimates based on nearby users will be low if anything. However doing an estimate of your own gives an idea where the point of diminishing returns comes in.

[phi2008]

I've just checked the BT Wholesale ADSL checker again and, using my tel. number, it now returns potential ADSL Max speeds of between 2-5Mbps. So it seems the problem was a delay in the BT database being updated for a new line activation. 

[burakkucat]