This topic

Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

Weekailz — Mon, 10 May 2021 21:48:14 GMT

I’ll try to keep a very long story as short as possible...

My parents live in the country, at the end of a 6 mile copper wire. To our knowledge their speed has always been around 0.5mbps at best which they had resigned themselves to years ago as it was just about enough to meet their needs.

They've had literally dozens of issues over the past 8 years and each time an engineer comes out and says they’ve fixed it, which lasts a varying amount of time. This time, however, they have been without internet for 5 weeks (it has occasionally randomly come on at times, but never for more than 48 hours). They’ve had every inch of the cabling from the hub all the way back to the exchange checked, 6 engineers called out (2 didn’t show), new hub (they had a 2.0 and on changing it the internet stopped again!), they had an open reach ‘expert’ last Friday who said the issue was that the signal being sent down the line was too weak to sustain a reliable connection at the house, the further down the line the speeds just drop, however if BT were to change the connection to a stronger - 24mbps - connection at the exchange it would help.

BT say this isn’t possible. Literally ‘computer says no’.
My dad has taken 6 days of annual leave waiting for calls or engineers to visit. Every single advisor has a different story and claims what the last one told them is wrong. In one day alone they had over 5000 dropouts!

They know there’s nothing wrong with the line. They’d be happy with 1mbps!! If BT aren’t providing the minimum of 1-3mbps then surely they shouldn’t be paying?

Where can they go from here?

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

imjolly — Tue, 11 May 2021 09:01:37 GMT

can you enter the phone number and post results remember delete number

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

Weekailz — Tue, 11 May 2021 09:51:25 GMT

ADSL Products Downstream Line Rate (Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Range(Mbps) ADSL Availability Date WBC SOADSL Availability Date Left in JumperWBC ADSL 2+WBC ADSL2+ Annex MADSL MaxWBC Fixed RateFixed Rate

Up to 1	--	1 to 3.5	Available	Available	--
Up to 1	Up to 0.5	1 to 3.5	Available	Available	--
Up to 0.5	--	0.25 to 1.5	Available	Available	--
0.5	--	--	Available	Available	--
0.5	--	--	Available	--	--

Observed Speeds ADSLMax Observed Downstream SpeedMax Observed Upstream SpeedObserved Date

1.09

0.06

2019-09-29

Other Offerings Availability DateADSL Multicast

Available

Premise Environment StatusBridge TapVRINTE FacePlateLast Test Date

23-04-2021

Exchange Product Restrictions StatusFTTP Priority ExchangeWLR WithdrawalSOADSL Restriction

The premise/line is associated with exchange which is NOT part of current fibre priority programme.

The premise/line is associated with exchange where WLR is not withdrawn.

The premise/line is associated with exchange where SOADSL service is restricted.

FTTP is not available.

For all ADSL and WBC Fibre to the Cabinet (VDSL or G.fast) services, the stable line rate will be determined during the first 10 days of service usage.

Actual speeds experienced by end users and quoted by CPs will be lower due to a number of factors within and external to BT's network, Communication Providers' networks and within customer premises.

@imjolly I hope this is clear enough. A screenshot was too big a file to attach.

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

imjolly — Tue, 11 May 2021 10:31:53 GMT

sorry but there is nothing in checker results that gives any hope of a faster connection at present

does your phone line work? any noise - dial 17070 option 2 should be silent apart from announcement

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

Weekailz — Tue, 11 May 2021 10:45:53 GMT

Yes the phone line has pretty much always been absolutely fine.

This is where the frustration lies - nobody will actually commit to saying the internet will never actually be any faster, apart from yourself and the specialist engineer last Friday who said BT would need to connect the line to another exchange which has a 24mbps signal, but BT are pushing back saying they can’t/won’t do that.

To add to the frustration there are hundreds of new homes being built about a mile away (on the other side of the house to where their line is) which all have fiber being installed!

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

imjolly — Tue, 11 May 2021 10:48:55 GMT

are you able to post any stats from the hub

in order for the forum members to help please can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information .

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

licquorice — Tue, 11 May 2021 14:27:59 GMT

@Weekailz wrote:

however if BT were to change the connection to a stronger - 24mbps - connection at the exchange it would help.

Clearly the 'engineer' didn't understand how broadband works.

The 'Stronger' 24Mbps signal (ADSL2+) isn't 'Stronger' it uses a wider range of frequencies giving the extra speed. However, this extra speed will not travel the same distance as basic ADSL as the higher frequencies used are attenuated more.

On a very long line, as counter intuitive as it sounds, ADSL will give a higher speed than ADSL2+

To be honest, at 6 miles from the exchange you are lucky to get any signal at all.

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

Starwire — Fri, 14 May 2021 19:36:26 GMT

@licquorice

‘Clearly the 'engineer' didn't understand how broadband works.’

Unfortunately you’re right.

Believe it or SFI Training used to only be given to experienced Engineers who had proved their worth. The SFI training Course was an instructor lead 5 day training programme followed by field training with an experienced SFI Engineer, usually for a few weeks.

Now SFI Training is done via Computer Based Training that lasts a few hours and the field training has been reduced to a few days and what makes it worse some of the people who are mentoring the newly trained people have themselves only been doing SFI work for a few months at best.

But hey, it’s only a pair wires so it can’t be that hard. 😒

Re: Is 1mbps too much to ask for?

licquorice — Fri, 14 May 2021 19:41:56 GMT

Don't you just love the bean counters? ☹️