This topic

Has My Line Been "Banded"

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 09:25:42 GMT

For over a year now, my FTTC broadband has been very reliable - since Openreach moved us over to the cabinet which can be seen barely 50 metres from our front door. We were getting the full 80/20 sync with "Max Data Rate" figures of around 30 Up / 86 Down, and "Noise Marins" of approx 12dB/ 6.8dB.

Yesterday afternoon the broadband started dropping every 10 minutes or so, (we always has dial tone still, and a very quiet line). We noticed a couple of Openreach engineers were working in the cabinet - not unusual, but they were there for a few hours, which did seem unusual.

About 7pm I called 150 from the home phone, who tested the line and could find no problems - though the broadband was still dropping regularly and taking much longer than normal to restore. On their instructions I factory reset the hub, (SmartHub 2). When the broadband came back it was still dropping out regularly whilst I was on the phone to 150, so they booked me an engineer visit for tomorrow, (Thursday), morning.

Soon after I finished speaking to 150 the broadband seemed to stabilise, and remained so for the rest of the evening - still syncing at the full 80/20.

This morning, I noticed that the hub re-synced at just after 3am this morning, but the download sync speed has dropped to 74 - with max figures still of 33 Up and 86 Down, and Noise Margins gone up to 13.9 and 9dB. Line has remained connected though - ie no more drop outs.

I am wondering if there was a fault somewhere either at the cabinet or exchange that has since been rectified, but the repeated fails yesterday has made the cabinet think that my line is faulty and dropped my speed - "Banding" I think it is called?

Is this likely to be what has happened? If so, is there anything that can be done to restore the full speed, either by BT remotely or the Openreach engineer who is booked for tomorrow still? Or, is it just a case of leaving it alone to fix itself?

As I said above, the broadband is now staying connected though at a reduced speed. I agree that I probably won't notice the relatively small drop - but I would like it to be as fast as it can be, (and was for over a year)!

I have until 4pm today, (Wednesday), to cancel the Openreach appointment for tomorrow morning.

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

imjolly — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 09:36:49 GMT

your connection time only shows 1hr so is there still problems with internet dropping connection.

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

pippincp — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 09:37:46 GMT

I'd cancel the engineer and give DLM time to restore your speeds.

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 10:01:43 GMT

@imjolly

"your connection time only shows 1hr so is there still problems with internet dropping connection."

Well spotted - I accidentally knocked the power button on the back of the hub when straightening it up on the shelf earlier! That wasn't the problem yesterday though.

@pippincp

How long should I leave it for the DLM to restore the speeds? ie I will cancel the engineer now, but when should I think about calling 150 again if the speeds don't go back up?

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

imjolly — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 10:17:57 GMT

unfortunately a drop in connection is the same to DLM whether line problem or accidentally switching router off

you could be in a banded profile if you had as many drops in connection as you suggest and that could take a few weeks to rectify

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 10:48:22 GMT

@imjolly

Thanks.

I'm going to cancel Openreach for tomorrow.

"a few weeks to rectify" - should a month be sufficient, before I start thinking about calling BT again?

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

imjolly — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 11:36:01 GMT

4 weeks maybe slightly more but you must have a stable connection with no drops/resets during that period

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 13:51:57 GMT

@imjolly @pippincp

So, I have just called BT with the intention of cancelling tomorrow's Openreach visit. I left if longer to be sure that the broadband remained connected still, (it has).

I explained the details of yesterday's problems and that apart from me knocking it off this morning, the broadband has been stable, (from my perspective), for almost 12 hours - also mentioned the advice from this forum - and asked them what they advised. They said that according to their diagnostics, the broadband dropped 38 times yesterday! They also said that they were not happy with the line's "stability" - though wouldn't elaborate on what they meant by that - and said that Openreach still needed to come tomorrow. I was given assurances yesterday that I definitely will not be charged for this, but I'm wondering what else could be wrong still that they think Openreach need to fix?

I'm assuming that with the advice on this thread being just to leave it alone and be patient, isn't Openreach breaking the circuit down for testing, (that's the first thing they normally do isn't it?), just going to make the DLM think that there is another fault and at best delay a return to full speed?

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

imjolly — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 13:54:49 GMT

@Anonymous

assuming it is a broadband engineer and not just phone then hopefully engineer will find problem causing drops and then ask for engineer to request a DLM reset save waiting

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 14:08:07 GMT

@imjolly

I had been led to believe before that engineers were unable to force or request a DLM reset - that is what BT were saying. I'll certainly ask though, can't do any harm? 😀

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

imjolly — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 14:09:51 GMT

as I said must be broadband engineer and find and fix fault but engineer can then request a DLM reset

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

licquorice — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 14:11:43 GMT

They can request a DLM reset if they positively clear a fault.

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 16:45:02 GMT

It has been a couple of months since I started this thread. I didn't return to it because despite what the Openreach engineer told me at the end of August, the DLM never got my sync speed back above 74Mbps - even though the hub resynced itself many times.

I reported it again yesterday, and today Openreach came out again. Line tested OK from the joint inside the front wall of my house, (as per the previous engineer, who didn't come inside the house), but at the socket, (1 metre of cable inside the house from the joint), he was measuring errors. After changing the master socket faceplate the hub resynced at 80Mbps - hooray!, first time in 2 months!! But he still wasn't happy - his tester was still showing errors.

Next he replaced the master socket backplate. Hub syncs at 80 again but he still isn't happy with the errors. Suspicion now falls upon the short bit of cable from the joint in the wall to the socket. He says that it is not one piece of cable, but seems to have another joint in it. I had a look and found that it was actually one piece, but was jammed in the brickwork and the white outer sheathing was badly torn exposing the individual wires inside. He proposed drilling a new hole to run a cable through and putting a new socket in a location that was not good for us. Luckily, he was happy for me show him how to strip back the insulation on each conductor of the old and replacement cables and twist them together, to use the old to draw the new one through. Working between us, we managed to carefully pull in the new cable through the original hole.

Great fun - took me back to my days as a BT apprentice exactly 40 years ago 😀

But still he wasn't happy. Although my hub syncs at 80, shows a Maximum Data Rate of 87 and a download noise margin of 7.2dB, his tester is still showing errors!

So now he has changed both parts of the master socket and replaced the internal wiring. The only thing left is the 50 metre underground cable from the joint in my house to the cabinet, (a 10 pair cable with just me and a near neighbour on). Although he could find nothing wrong with our existing pair, he changed it anyway.

Once again the hub resynced at 80, but the Maximum Data Rate shot up from 87 to 100.5Mbps, and the noise margin from 9.3 to 10.7dB. These are similar figures to those measured when I was moved to the nearer cabinet in March 2020, and before our neighbour was transferred as well. (I suspect that our proximity to the cabinet was masking a number of issues?).

Finally, his tester stopped erroring!!!!

So my broadband circuit is now like Trigger's Broom - for those that understand the reference 😀

Hopefully, it will stay like this - but I would like the Openreach engineer who came today to be recognised for his persistence in getting to the bottom of these problems. I believe that there is a procedure for doing this - can someone advise please? I have a VOL fault reference if that helps.

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

imjolly — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 17:30:40 GMT

Great result and terrific engineer.

Nothing to do with banding

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

licquorice — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 17:37:18 GMT

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/thank-an-engineer-form

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

DanielS — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 19:34:09 GMT

That's great news @Anonymous.

That engineer really did everything possible to help you. I'm glad that you're taking the time to give them praise. @licquorice posted the link above which lets you contact Openreach directly.

The twist trick that you taught him will come in very useful for a lot of other people down the line.

Congratulations on your apprentice day anniversary too 😊

Thanks
DanielS

Re: Has My Line Been "Banded"

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 19:50:46 GMT

I have submitted the Openreach form. It took me a while to fill in - you only get 1000 characters 😉