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FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

chrisjp — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 16:50:45 GMT

A contractor for Openreach (Morrisons) has just replaced the pole that carries the copper cable that supplies my FTTC broadband. This is good because the old pole was covered in ivy and leaning at a bit of an angle.

The replacement job of course required the temporary disconnection of my supply cable. It has now been reconnected, but my broadband download speed is now around 46Mbps, whereas before the work it was about 69-70Mbps. Upload used to be 13Mbps and is now struggling to get to 1Mbps.

I dimly recall reading that this will "settle" after a few days or weeks use, and my previous speed will be restored. Is this true or has Morrisons left me with a noisy line that is limiting the speed (I'm on DV so can't do a quiet line test)?

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

imjolly — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 17:38:34 GMT

I would. Expect your speed to return after the line settles down. Check the hub stats and see if attainable speed is up at 70/80mb and noise margin probably high with normal being about 6db

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

iniltous — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 17:56:13 GMT

As stated a check of your router stats should indicate if the speed will recover once the line remains stable , but unfortunately I suspect unless they disconnected and reconnected your ‘pair’ several times in quick succession then it may not be DLM that’s intervened and it may be the contractor has left your dropwire dis 1 leg or something similar …you could test your line via My BT , see if it picks up any defects if it does it may also report the issue to Openreach

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

chrisjp — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:00:39 GMT

I went to www.bt.com/exp/engineer-booking to investigate a possible fault and sure enough the system detected one.
To my pleasant surprise I could book a BT engineer to come and investigate the next day (today Friday). Although I explained that the slow speed had started as soon as my phone line was reconnected after the pole was replaced he, of course, had to go through all the usual indoor checks.
So he replaced my master socket, tried another socket to Hub cable, tried a new Hub and did various online speed tests
Results were erratic each time the hub was re-booted. Sometimes it would connect quite quickly and give speeds up to 50Mbps (though still not my usual 70Mbps), other times it would refuse to connect at all - flashing purple to denote no connection.
One other thing the engineer said: that my connection from socket to hub should still have a filter in it, even though I'm on DV. We tried it with such a filter - it didn't make any difference! Has anyone else heard that the filter is still required with DV - I thought it wasn't?
Anyway, he agreed the line was faulty and the fault must be external, so he got the issue escalated to Openreach.
I await their visit with some trepidation!
Meanwhile I've managed, after several re-boots, to get the hub to connect at a measly 30Mbps, and I now am going to leave it alone - it's enough for web browsing and emails, though not enough to stream anything.

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

licquorice — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:15:59 GMT

No, of course you don't need a filter with DV. I despair of the calibre of technicians that BT send out.

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

iniltous — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:31:19 GMT

You haven’t provided the stats from the router that could possibly have indicated an issue (although not where the issue is )

TBH this is playing out pretty much as expected, a problem at the pole is self evidently close to your property, (in relative terms ) , line testers indicate a general area but are limited , the problem the tester indicated could’ve been within your property or close to it , sending out ‘BT’ instead if Openreach has limitations in that if the problem is ‘outside’ then BT can’t encroach onto Openreach network, so this has introduced a delay

…unlike your automated test , my recent experience of reporting a fault via that method, didn’t indicate a BT visit was potentially necessary, it went directly to Openreach , my ‘fault’ was at the cabinet, 100-120 metres away , I dare say the distance to the pole top (where your issue almost certainly is ) is likely to be less than a third of that distance hence the decision to sent BT first .

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

chrisjp — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 13:13:31 GMT

I suspect the the BT technician has got used to still using a filter even for DV connections, because the filter provides an RJ11 socket, so a cable with RJ11s at each end can be used to connect socket to hub.
To dispense with the filter, you need a cable with the standard BT telephone plug at one end and an RJ11 at the other, which I obtained when I was changed to DV.
I don't think the BT technician had one of these in his bag!

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

chrisjp — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 11:12:23 GMT

Well, the Openreach technician visited my house as promised yesterday and, I must say, I can't fault both BT's and Openreach's quick response to the reduction in my broadband speed following replacement of the pole supplying my FTTC line.

Before pole replacement, I routinely got around 70Mbps but this reduced to about 15Mbps following the pole replacement. The Openreach technician soon found a fault in the connections on the pole and fixed this. Disappointingly though, this only got my speed up to about 50Mbs.

The Openreach technician tested my connection line right back to my master socket and, after replacing the line from my house eves (where the line from the pole is attached) right through to my master socket, he tested the speed here and it was over 70Mbps.

I run my Smarthub 2 off an extension socket that I installed many years ago, and this has never given any dimunition in speed before, so it seems a very strange co-incidence that it should start doing so exactly when the pole was replaced. Of course the Openreach technician said that there was nothing more he could do since speed at the master socket was well within expectations.

The only options I would have would be to (1) replace the extension cable, but this runs through my loft and down the wall in my study, buried in plaster, (2) put the Smarthub near the master socket, but there is no power supply near and I would then need long ethernet cables to connect my computer and white WiFi master disc, or (3) run a long BT plug to RJ11 from master socket to Smarthub. Both (2) and (3) would require chasing out walls and routing via the loft, so I'm very reluctant to do these.

50Mbps is actually quite a usable speed so at present I'm just living with the situation, but it's still very puzzling.

If anyone has any comments, or suggested remedies, I'd be glad to hear them!

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

licquorice — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 11:32:20 GMT

Can you post a screenshot of your hub stats please?

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

chrisjp — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:56:20 GMT

Hi licquorice, is this what you need?

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

chrisjp — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:02:42 GMT

I don't think the previous upload was readable. Try this!

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

licquorice — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:04:59 GMT

You're still at 6dB SNRM, once your line is stable for a few days DLM will reduce margin to 3dB to give you an increase. Doubt it will increase to 70 but you might get 60.

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

chrisjp — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:24:46 GMT

Ahh, thanks. I did wonder if the line would "settle" after a bit, but both BT and Openreach technicians dismissed the possibility when I suggested it.

Re: FTTC Broadband speed after pole replacement

licquorice — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:28:03 GMT

Noise margin should drop in 1dB steps down to 3dB over a few days.

Pole Replacement - Sequel

chrisjp — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 17:13:51 GMT

I previously posted how a recent replacement of the pole suppling my FTTC broadband resulted in my speed dropping from around 70Mbps to a measly 20Mbps or so.

I reported a fault on BT's website and, to their credit, a BT technician arrived to investigate a couple of days later. He confirmed the issue with the speed but of course insisted on replacing my Master Socket and the extension socket into which I plug my SH2, using Openreach 5C master sockets. He also tried a new SH2, and a new cable between the extension socket and my SH2. None of this made any improvement - which didn't surprise me because it seemed clear that the problem was with a connection on the new pole.

Anyhow, having taken these actions, the BT technician was then able to report to his line management that the problem "was outside" - which of course it was - and this enabled BT to call out Openreach to take a look at it.

The Openreach technician again arrived promptly and quickly found the problem with the connections at the top of the pole - which had been left with a fault by the Openreach contractor that replaced the pole. However, this only got my broadband speed up to around 50Mbps. The Openreach technician then replaced the entire cable from my roof eves (where the cable from the pole is attached to a junction box) all the way to my Master Socket, spending a good couple of hours doing this. However, this resulted in no improvement to the 50Mbps speed. However, he tested the speed at the master socket and declared it was around 79Mbps. So there was no more that he could do, indicating that there must be a fault with my extension wiring - that happened coincidentally with the pole replacement!

I left the SH2 connected for around a week to see if DLM would improve the speed and it did - but only up to around 56Mbps. So I then purchased a long lead with a BT plug to RJ11 plug so that I could trail this through the house and plug my SH2 directly into the master socket. This resulted in a speed of 79Mbps - so the Openreach technician was right.

My suspicions then centred on the connection from the master socket to my built-in extension cable, so I remade this and also replaced the newly installed master and extension sockets with the originals.

The result was a broadband speed of 71Mbps - right where I was before the pole replacement!

So it seems the the only fault I had was with the newly replaced pole, but the BT technician is of course unable to investigate this because it is Openreach's territory. Instead, he somehow messed up the connection to my internal extension cable and socket so, when the Openreach technician corrected the pole fault, it still didn't get my speed back to where it was before.

Such are the problems brought on by OFCOM's insistence that BT and Openreach operate completely independently of each other!

Re: Pole Replacement - Sequel

davidatoakside — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 14:47:13 GMT

My recent experience has been very similar - and very frustrating! My service runs at nearly 80Mbps when all is well . But since August it has been regularly dropping to 35. There have been many engineer visits. They have always restored full service, sometimes after rebuilding a joint, but sometimes after doing nothing relevant. But the reset has only survived a few days or weeks before falling back to 35 Mbps..

However a visit on Christmas Eve may have resolved the problem. It seems that at some time the 20-pair cable running down the pole has been replaced by a contractor and incorrectly wired. One leg of my twisted pair has been separated from its partner at the top, and then rejoined at a hidden underground joint near the foot of the post. And the joint is inadequately waterproofed. He has corrected the faulty wiring and so far this looks promising with restoration to full speed.

Re: Pole Replacement - Sequel

chrisjp — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 18:04:02 GMT

Interesting. The standard of work done by contractors working for Openreach seems often to be suspect.