From ~73Mbps down to 50-62Mbps – but “No Line Fault”

[MisterDog]

Initially our broadband provided excellent download speed, but over the last couple of months this reduced to 50-62Mbps. The Smarthub was replaced but this made no difference. After numerous more calls to 0800 800 150 an Openreach engineer arrived (2 previous appointments were cancelled as BT said they’d found problems and fixed them). He found there was some interference on the line in the vicinity of the exchange and some corrosion on wires at the junction box in our the street. He said all was fine now and that he'd reset the DLM but his final test at the OR socket showed only 64Mbps.  

BT say there’s no line fault now but told me to ‘monitor the line”until 15:00hrs today. If there’s nothing changed since we were getting 70Mbps surely something is wrong somewhere?

From Smarthub

Data rate:
20.00 kbps / 65.74 kbps
Maximum data rate:
19999 / 75770
Noise margin:
15.5 / 6.1
Line attenuation:
17.1

BTW Performance Test Result (After OR Visit)

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Download Speed
57.51 Mbps

0 Mbps 63.63 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speed achieved during the test was - 57.51 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 40 Mbps-63.63 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 63.63 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.
Upload Speed
16.38 Mbps

0 Mbps 20 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 16.38Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 20 Mbps

[john46]

Can you run this checker and post back a screen shot of the results. Make sure you delete your phone number before posting.

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome

[MisterDog]

Sorry, can't find a way of doing that - not too computer fluent I'm afraid.

Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps) WBC FTTC Availability Date WBC SOGEA Availability Date WBC FTTC 18x2 Provide Availability WBC FTTC 18x2 Sim Availability Left in Jumper
High Low High Low
VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 63 20 19.8 55.9 Available -- -- -- --
VDSL Range B (Impacted) 68.6 40 20 10.7 32.8 Available -- -- -- --
Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) Downstream Range(Mbps) WBC FTTP Availability Date
FTTP on Demand 330 30 -- Available -- -- -- --
ADSL Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) Downstream Range(Mbps) Availability Date Left in Jumper
WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 19 -- 18 to 20.5 Available -- -- -- Yes
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 19 Up to 1.5 18 to 20.5 Available -- -- -- Yes
ADSL Max Up to 8 -- 7 to 8 Available -- -- -- --
WBC Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available -- -- -- Yes
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available -- -- -- --
Other Offerings Availability Date
VDSL Multicast -- -- -- Available -- -- -- --
ADSL Multicast -- -- -- Available -- -- -- --

[john46]

Your connection speed is within the spec of the checker so little can be done as Openreach will not carry out a reset as your line has no problem
download speeds do of course vary over a 24 hour period which is perfectly normal

[MisterDog]

That's a concern as when were took up the service it committed to a min of 65Mbps (we were getting 70Mbps+ for months) and the OR engineer said yesterday that with ADSL2 download speeds are not affected by other wider area traffic.  Was this wrong then?

[MisterDog]

Update:  BT just did some more tests and said they're going to send another Openreach engineer on Monday.  When asked what more another engineer could do (over and above what the OR engineer did yesterday) they said they'd sent the wrong type of engineer.  Didn't press them on this but it seems a bit strange.

[john46]

for a start you are not on ADSL2 you are on VDSL also the speeds committed are connection speeds not download speeds your connection speed is shown in your hub stats you currently have a 65.7Mbbps connection which is within the wholesales checkers range
all broadband services are subject to varying download speeds

[john46]

your connection speed has most likely dropped due to cross talk as more users are connected to the cabinet which is normal and nothing can be done about that

[MisterDog]

First off, thanks for your help so far - much appreciated.

So my understanding is the Openreach engineer was incorrect in referring to my Infinity service as ADSL2 or indeed ADSL of any sort!

But either way, we took Infinity at 76Mbps and download rates were excellent for a long time.  I’m fairly certain the wholesale speed checker when we took up Infinity showed ADSL(or 2?) was available and I’m pretty certain the Smarthub sync speed was 77 -74 for a long time.  

Maybe worth mentioning it took a fair old while to get Infinity in the first place.  This we were told was something to do with the fact our line was ‘exchange only’ and there was some sort of a problem with records somewhere. Online Lincolnshire had to step in to get it sorted.

Is it possible we were initially on ADSL or ADSL2 and we’ve since been switched to VDSL for some reason?

And if we’re not going to experience the initial quality of service again, would it be sensible to switch to the cheaper 56Mbps Infinity?  Or could that be expected to deteriorate over time as the 76M service has?

And do you feel the (2nd) Openreach appointment BT have made for Monday will be a waste of everyone’s time?  If so, I'll cancel it.

[john46]

ADSL /ADSL 2 are the old original coper broadband Infinity is VDSL

YES the Openreach Technician was incorrect in his reference

changing services will not change the problem as all download speeds vary anyway

yes the engineer visit is a waste of time