Hi everyone,
I've been watching this thread with interest, because I too have signed up to PN FTTC, since I would like something a bit faster than what we are currently getting (see this thread for more info!).
It is due for installation on Monday, and I have been given an estimated download speed of 11Mbps with a 2Mbps upload.
What I find most interesting is this comment in an email from PN I got today, confirming the installation procedure.
When the engineer completes the work you may not experience fibre speeds straight away. This is because we need to manually adjust your speed profile when the order completes, so the change should be effective within 48 hours. Please be patient with us whilst we do this for you.
Now is this saying that they are going to set the speed profile at 11Mbps and leave it there, meaning that there isn't a training period for the line, or is it standard that they have to manually put it up to 40Mbps and let it drop to a stable sync rate? Sounds like I might be given the stock estimated speed for the line, which, if the line is capable of more, would be a disappointment (which we are all unfortunately too familiar with here) ...
Thanks,
Thomas
Hi Thomas & welcome to Kitz.
I am also quite new on here too & my posts have concentrated in this thread for now.
The guys in this forum are realy helpful & may be able to address matters from your other thread a lot better than I can.
I will say though your issues sounded rather similar to my situation for a while.
It does sound like you have a problem somewhere that may well completely cock up your FTTC speeds though.
Hopefully, you will receive sufficient sound advice in your other thread about how to deal with that side of things.
If memory serves me right, your download & upload speeds look like mine did when I was on a fixed 0.5 Mb profile when I first had ADSL broadband installed, although my distance from the exchange of around 5000m is quite a bit more than yours.
I eventually ended up syncing at around 1 Mb when I switched to ADSLMax (variable rate).
In my case, I had to switch to a different Plusnet product (Value) in order to be eligible for FTTC as I had to be moved from a 20CN connection to a 21CN connection (actually cheaper than what I had been paying for the last few years) in readiness for FTTC. I presume your are moving directly from BT to Plusnet's FTTC so that matter possibly isn't relevant?
The manual speed profile adjustment just means that when FTTC is first installed via Plusnet, you will probably still see your old download speeds for a while. I did & I was given a similar message to yours warning me in advance.
This may well stump the installing engineer as he should be seeing FTTC speeds at your master socket straight away.
My installation engineer was reluctant to leave as he couldn't see the 30+Mb on my PC's speedtests that he told me I would be able to achive for my connection's conditions. He thought it very strange that Plusnet had to adjust my profile manually.
All it means is that unlike BT & their Infinity product where FTTC speeds are seen immediately, Plusnet will have to manually adjust your profile to FTTC's 37Mb (Plusnet's name for the FTTC profile) after the engineer has confirmed the FTTC installation is completed.
In theory, this should be just a few hours after installation, but as it is a manual process, it may take a little longer due to staff workloads etc.
In my case, it took around 1 hour before I could see FTTC download speeds.
Apparently, Plusnet appear to occasionally overlook the profile reset & you may end up having to call them to give it a nudge.
My speed estimate was 14.6 Mb & I achieved over 30 Mb for a while. I am currntly achieving around 20 Mb following a number of line issues as detailed in this very long thread.
It now seems like Plusnet are about to give up trying to resolve this for me.What I would strongly advise, & I wish I had done it at the time, is ask the engineer to give you as many connection statstics he can from his JDSU or other meter that he will test your connection with at your master socket.
Photograph the display if he will allow you to.
It may well come in very handy if you later have speed issues & at least you will be able to refer back to your connection's conditions at installation time. See the attached photo for the minimum details the engineer should give you. I took the photo during one of the BT engineer's "fault finding" visits, but I didn't have any details from installation date to compare them against.
If he won't let you photograph them, at least write them down & be insistent if he tries to avoid telling you.
It would be very helpful for us in this thread if you could post those stats here too as a comparison with mine & any others' FTTC stats as you will not be able to obtain them for yourself from the BT supplied modem. It is locked against users accessing their own connection stats
This obviously makes any trouble shooting almost impossible, then having to rely on BT engineer visits that could potentially cost you a lot of money if no fault is found at the time of his visit.
As you have mentioned in your other thread, a lot of the "basic" BT line tests result in LTOK.
A lot of tests carried out on my line have resulted in LTOK, but I have not had to pay for any of the now numerous visits so far as I also had a crackly phone line & complete loss of phone & broadband for 4 days etc. that had to be thoroughly investigated bt BT at no charge to me.
Final advice:-
Run regular speedtests (using the same speedtester for consistency). I use speedtest.net as it stores all your results over a long period of time, even when using the unregistered version.
Run regular BT performance tests as these are logged by BT & Plusnet are also informed. Really useful if/when trying to report a "fault".
Do you know which cabinet you will be connected to i.e. the line length from the cabinet to your home?
Once FTTC is installed, the line length all the way from the exchange can be ignored for broadband purposes.
Good luck, but be warned that as FTTC is fairly new technology, we don't fully understand exactly how it works yet, INCLUDING PLUSNET & SOME BT ENGINEERS & you may be given irrelevant "reasons" if your connection isn't performing properly.
e.g. both Plusnet & a visiting "special BT broadband engineer" have at some stage told me that I shouldn't expect high speeds from FTTC as my line is 5283m long. THAT IS ACTUALLY THE DISTANCE FROM THE EXCHANGE, NOT THE FTTC CABINET!!!!
Today's speed test result:-
Paul.
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