Fibre 2 - Downstream Handback Threshold (Mbps) and Legacy VDSL

[MisterDog]

Can someone tell me what Downstream Handback Threshold (Mbps) means, as shown in screenshot below.

And has anyone heard Legacy VDSL used when referring to a Fibre 2 service (or in fact any other BB service) and if so,  what it means?

 

[licquorice]

The downstream handback threshold is the speed below which you can be released from your contract without penalty if BT are unable to improve on it. Effectively it is the speed below which you can raise a complaint of low speed.

[MisterDog]

@licquorice Great - thanks for that info.  So just to clarify, even though there's a  45Mbps Stay Fast Guarantee  I could leave without penalty if it's (I guess consistently) below 57.7Mbps?  It's currently 54Mb, but 65-70+ prior to latest line fault.  Not concerned yet as helpfully informed by @imjolly it would take 7-10  days to get back to speed following a DLM reset/port swop.

Can you perhaps also tell me what a 'legacy VDSL' is?  Might have misheard, but pretty sure the engineer said something about this being a possible explanation when I asked why the line was still slow compared to before the fault.

[licquorice]

No idea what 'legacy VDSL' is, sounds like BS from the engineer to me.

Bear in mind whatever ISP you use, you will have the same infrastructure and same speed.

[pippincp]

There is no such thing as legacy VDSL. Something such as delivery only becomes "legacy" when the delivery system has changed. There has been no change to VDSL delivery system.

[MisterDog]

BS. Right. 

And thanks, I'm already aware other ISP's would deliver a service over "the same infrastructure" but given the quality of BT's service and support I might just as well look to get the equivalent at less expense.

[iniltous]

If BT Consumer have given you a stay fast guarantee of 45Mb, then ( AFAIK ) the ‘wholesale’ minimum hand back threshold of 49-58Mb that ‘OR’ will deliver to the ISP, is irrelevant to you , and , if you have had a fault that’s now repaired, there is no reason why your speed wouldn’t return to around that observed on the 20/4, of around 71Mb, way in excess of both anyway.

TBH, if you feel you could get a similar service for less money  , the connection speed would remain similar with any provider , the only difference being the router supplied by the ISP and the backhaul , any real world difference would be with throughput speed not connection speed , and that would be more a measure of the backhaul etc the ISP has available , a budget provider may be more inclined  to save money here , as it’s something consumers are unlikely to consider ( or even be aware of ).

If you are within a minimum term, any provider would hold you to that term , or raise ETC, if they were delivering what they ‘promised’, and you chose to leave anyway.

[MisterDog]

Hi @iniltous  thanks for your reply.  Prior to the repair we were getting 69-70 Mbps on Wifi all round the house. Now it's 50-60.  Guessing this is because the data rate shown on the hub is now 69.67Mbps when it was ~79Mbps before the fault and repair.  Is it possible for BT to increase the hub data rate somehow? 

 

[licquorice]

Your data rate is at the maximum possible that your line will support. You have a 3.0dB noise margin, its not going to improve on that.

[MisterDog]

Can you tell why the repaired line, albeit on a new port at the exchange, would perform less well than previously?