Just seen said post today. Apologies for taking so long to pick it up, my workstack's been a little hectic of late! I have responded but if I'm honest the reply is nowhere near reasoned enough based on all of the information this particular thread contains!
I'm guilty of having only skim read the 7 pages that make up this thread, but is there or isn't there any noticeable degradation of your voice service? If there is then that's one avenue we're yet to explore from what I can gather?
I recognise that you may well have been synchronising above your current rate at one point, but I can kind of accept the reasoning from some of our help-desk folk. Whilst admittedly it's conservative, you're still currently synchronising 9Mbps above the estimate returned by a BT Wholesale availability check, and that's a pretty significant amount.
If you do wish to go down the repeat engineer route, then by all means let me know and I'll see if I can get one of our seasoned faults bods on the case. I'll also do whatever I can to avoid you suffering the wrath of any Openreach appointing fees. As mentioned above though, if there's any defect with your voice service then I think that's the most favourable route to take.
Best regards,
@ bobpullenHi Bob,
Thanks for responding, both here & in p.s.customer-feedback
I'll try to summarise here for now, although you do also have the very long Plusnet ticket No. including screenshots & Plusnet reports to wade through when you get the time.
FTTC was installed 24th June. The engineer repositioned the master socket from upstairs, to downstairs next to my desk, using my own existing good quality "data" cable. After a couple of trips to the cabinet & back, the engineer told me I had a speed of around 35 Mb, which was about right for my distance from the FTTC cabinet. He also told me not to expect the full 40 Mb as it was just a bit too far away.
Right up to the first issue 4th July, everything was fantastic, with download speeds consistently around 32-33 Mb.
4th July, the first really warm day since FTTC was installed, & after a few hours use, the BT modem could not maintain a connection.
I had read about overheating modems & phoned Plusnet to report the matter.
While on hold, I installed a desk fan, pointed directly at the BT modem, although the modem only felt warm, not hot.
Following instructions from the Plusnet agent, we tried a few things, including plugging my ethernet cable directly into the modem & setting up a new connection.
Nothing we did made any difference, so I plugged the ethernet cable back into the router & the router cable back into the modem.
Just as we were about to conclude the phone call with the ticket being updated as a modem fault, the BT modem reconnected. After a few speed tests etc, everything looked stable again, so we left it, as I thought, that the modem would be replaced in due course.
A few days later, I noticed my download speeds had dropped by around 5 Mb. I was advised to wait for 10 days or so, & that if the connection appeared stable, I should regain the previous decent download speeds.
21st July, I enquired if the "defective" modem needed replacing as my IP Profile & download speeds had not improved.
22nd July, completely lost both broadband & telephone services.
26th July, 3 engineers took a few hours to locate the fault that was "somewhere on the external line" & restore broadband & telephone services, informing my wife who was at home at the time that "someone else" living nearby had also suffered a similar issue.
Download speeds had now dropped to around 16 Mb & upload speeds had dropped to around 0.6 Mb.
2nd August, download speeds had gradually dropped to around 8 Mb, with uploads still at around 0.67 Mb.
4th August, the BT Modem was replaced & BT reset my profile, but only to 24 mb, saying that was the maximum that my line could achieve due to the distance from the cabinet. The engineer queried this with BT as he could see my printed test results that clearly showed download speeds of 32-33 Mb.
Plusnet also informed me that my original estimated speeds were 14.6 Mb & that as my line was currently performing over an acceptable rate for the length of my line there was nothing they could do to push the matter.
My download speeds were then around 22 Mb, some 10-11 Mb less than when FTTC was installed.
5th August, the modem lost connection & would not reconnect, so I phoned Plusnet to report the matter. At that time the phone line was very crackly. While I was on hold, the modem reconnected & the phone went quiet again.
I asked the Plusnet agent to add this to my existing ticket to keep an ongoing record of the various issues I was experiencing.
I subsequently discovered he had actually created & closed another ticket (#45200538).
I registered with Kitz forums & started asking questions in this thread
8th August, Plusnet accept that my connection is still dropping on a regular basis & confirm that once it is stable again the low speed issues will be looked into again.
Following an telephone discussion, an engineer's appointment was arranged for 9th August to investigate intermittent line issues such as high resistance etc. that would require "special" tests
9th August, engineer did not arrive. I was informed that BT had carried out some basic remote tests & confirmed a visit was required, but had been unable to book it.
A visit was arranged for 10th August to carry out the "special" tests.
10th August, engineer arrived & after simply confirming my line speed was more that the 15 Mb that BT have to guarantee, replaced the 6 day old modem with a new one. The new modem (No. 3) is a version 2B, supposedly improved & tested.
The engineer showed no interest at all in the previous issues leading up to his visit.
The only comment he made was that I should have reported the crackly phone line. When I told him that I had reported it to Plusnet, he just said that nobody at BT had made him aware of it.
When asked if he would be carrying out the "special" tests (TDR etc.) to look for high resistance type faults, he said he wouldn't as he had been sent to just confirm the speed was more than 15 Mb & replace the modem.
He either refused to tell me, or just didn't know how to confirm my line length when I asked him.
He did also mention that he didn't really understand these matters anyway.
By this time, I was aware that BT were reporting my line FTTC length as 5283m & I suspected this was partly the reason for the very low originally estimated speed of 14.6 Mb.
11th August, I discussed the whole matter with a Plusnet agent who confirmed that if another engineer visit was requested, I may well be charged £144 + VAT if he could not locate a fault, intermittent or otherwise.
This agent also quoted my reported line length of 5283m, hence the low estimated speeds.
As I live only around 600m from the FTTC cabinet, this reported 5283m is completeley irrelevant.
Indeed, it has been proven that my line could maintain download speeds of 32-33Mb (until the "issues" started).
I have however been told that records of these achievable & reliable connection speeds were deleted when BT reset my profile to around 24 Mb. Is this really the case?
Since the issues started I have lost connection many times, I completely lost the broadband & phone services for a number of days & am now suffering via reduced connection & download speeds. You comment that I am currently achieving 9 Mb more than the estimated speeds which is a significant amount.
From my point of view, I am currently able to download at around 12 Mb LESS than my connection was originally achieving. This is an even more significant amount.
Nobody at Plusnet or BT is able to explain what the estimated speed was based upon, other than I have a reported long line.
(Please also see or discuss the dialogue I have recently had with Alex R in the Plusnet Community forum).
Incidentally, Alex was the first person to pick up the Plusnet ticket regarding this matter.
My connection currently appears stable & if this is to remain so, I may regain my lost speeds given time.
I cannot honestly claim that I currently have a degraded phone service to help speed this along.
However, I am not aware that any work has been carried out on it since I reported it 5th August, so maybe the fault report is still live?
However, the consensus of opinion from the knowledgeable & "hands on" experienced members of this forum is that I am suffering from an intermittent line fault, that combined with what appear to be high attenuation levels, would suggest a high resistance issue.
As this was discussed with, but not tested by the 2nd engineer who just replaced the modem, I do not feel that I should be now charged to have the tests carried out that I believed had been previously arranged.
We further believe that the original speed estimate of 14.6 Mb is not valid & should no longer be referred to, as from what we can gather, it has been based upon BT's inaccurate line length data, rather than the actual line length between the FTTC cabinet & my home.
Apart from the ongoing potential line/connection issues, it appears to me that there has been a breakdown of communication between Plusnet & BT, & an admitted lack of understanding of the whole FTTC technology.
My frustration is that it has taken a very long time (since 4th July), with little or no tangible progress with this matter.
I am confident that this matter will be resolved at some stage in the not too distant future, providing the "right" people, with the "right" knowledge & skills are dealing with it.
I would have much preferred to have been able to resolve this matter in a private manner, but had no choice but to request help & advice in a public forum.
You do have my contact details so perhaps you could give me a call to discuss a way forward with this.
Finally, to conclude, I would comment that I have been a loyal Plusnet customer, via Free-Online, F9, & Plusnet for many years & as your records would demonstrate, I do not make a habit of complaining.
I am not actually complaining now, rather I am merely stating fact & requesting some assistance in resolving an admittedly tricky problem, that is exacerbated simply by not being able to monitor my own connection statistics due to the lack of user access to the BT modem.
Paul.
Author
Topic: FTTC - Distance from the Cabinet - Realistic speed estimate (Read 254688 times)