Unstable Fibre Broadband

[edtheball]

My fibre broadband service went down for over 2 weeks before service came back albeit with a much slower line speed (dropped from >10Mbps to around 3Mbps as measured by a speed tester) and an unstable service (frequent service drops) . The fault investigation involved Openreach testing the line on-site and stating that it is ok resulting in a replacement hub being sent after a power cycle, changes of filters, power supplies and hub connection leads didn't change the situation. The new hub also didn't work and I eventually got a level of service back with the original hub after a factory reset and leaving it to try and synch for over 24hrs before it suddenly surprised me and dropped into service. Since then it continues to drop in and out of service. Worth saying that there is no internal connected wiring and the filter, hub and phone are connected directly into the master test socket. The phone service is fine and the quiet test doesn't suggest any problems beyond a slight background hiss which I believe is quite normal. Certainly no crackle and what noise can be heard is a very low level hiss. Certainly not satisfied with the current level of service which is less stable than the ADSL I had over a year ago and with a speed which is only marginally better. As it stands I would be better droping the fibre service and going back to what I originally had. Hoping that this community can offer some help since my phone discussions with BT have been frustrating with the agents cycling me through the same regimented script.  It's currently working and I'm taking the opportunity to get this out before it drops again and takes us off-line! Grateful for any advice on this forum regarding how to improve this before I take more drastic action.

As a final note what I find really frustrating is the knowledge that we have recently had a much closer fibre cabinet installed and neighbours, recently taking the BT service, are benefitting from a much better service, i.e. throughputs, then I've ever received. My line uses fibre in a cabinet over 1.5k away when we have a new fibre enabled cabinet less than 100m away. I directly asked the Openreach engineer if my copper line routed through the new fibre enabled cabinet and he confirmed that it did (albeit not using the fibre). The potential for a better line seems very real but I've no idea how to benefit from that potential!!?

I've pulled off the following from the Hub which should give more technical insight into what is happening. Getting my service back to what it was befoire would be a good first step.

Product name: BT Hub 6A

Serial number: +084316+NQ73335379

Firmware version: SG4B1000B540

Firmware updated: 17-May-2018

Board version: 1.0

Gui version: 1.64.0

DSL uptime: 0 Days, 6 Hours 10 Minutes 30 Seconds

Data rate: 1.14 Mbps / 4.57 Mbps

Maximum data rate: 1141 / 5236

Noise margin: 7 dB / 6.4 dB

Line attenuation: 30.5 dB

Signal attenuation:

VPI / VCI: 0/38

Modulation: G_993_2_ANNEX_B

Latency type: Fast Path

Data sent / received: 4 MB Uploaded / 116 MB Downloaded

Broadband username: bthomehub@btbroadband.com

BT Wi-fi: Active

2.4 GHz wireless network name: BTHub6-TSW7

2.4 GHz wireless channel: Smart (Channel 1)

5 GHz wireless network name: BTHub6-TSW7

5 GHz wireless channel: Smart (Channel 36)

Wireless security: WPA2 (Recommended)

Wireless mode: Mode 1

Firewall: On

MAC address: 58:90:43:29:E0:25

Software variant: -

Boot loader: 7.33.1

[Techwizz]

Can you post the result of your phone number (remember to blank out before posting), from here: http://dslchecker.bt.com

[edtheball]

[Techwizz]

Your sync speed is considerably lower than the estimate. Can you confirm whether the Hub is connected to the test socket?

[edtheball]

Yes it is connected to the test socket. The front cover of the master socket has been removed and I'm connected to the test socket which sits behind the cover.

[imjolly]

Have tried with new rj11 cable?

 Any line noise dial 17070 option 2 should be silent and best with corded phone

do use a phone extension cable to reach the test socket 

[edtheball]

I only have a cordless phone but the quiet test didn't flag up any obvious line noise issues to me. I could hear a low level hiss but no crackle. The low level hiss wouldn't be a problem for voice calls but I'm not sure if it is normal or indicative of a problem which would impact broadband. The Openreach engineer had tested for earths etc and stated that it was all fine. I will need to acquire a corded phone if a cordless phone isn't good enough to be conclusive.

I'm not sure I would know a new RJ11 cable from an old RJ11 cable. I have tried a few different hub cables, which I had acquire over time, but I suspect they are all similar, if not the same, in terms of their construction. The different RJ11 cables didn't change anything.

No extension leads are used for either the phone or the broadband connection. They all use the leads that were supplied with the products. The service was working fine up to mid October and I believe that nothing has changed in the house environment which could account for this sudden degradation in service.

[pippincp]

A corded phone is always better than a cordless. A cordless (in the main) emits a low background hum rather than a hiss.

As the reason for a quietline test is to save to the charge for an engineer (now £85) the small investment of £5 or £6 at a well known catalogue store seems reasonable.

[edtheball]

ok thanks I will get my hands on a corded phone and then update on the outcome.