cable to my cabinet

[MARKYMARK2020]

would like ppls opinion on this fact... a open reach engineer has told me on a call out.. that i have aluminium cable and not copper to my street cabinet.. but yet twitter bt staff has told me no its copper... who would know best is my question... because i think its a disgrace that i have aluminium cable instead of copper..for which i believe is contributing to my bandwidth/speed and lag problems   

[pompey1898]

If it is a disgrace then there are many other disgraces around.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Aluminium was used extensively in the 1970s due to the high price of copper at that time. It has no effect on normal phone connections, which is what most people used at that time.

It has a slightly greater loss at broadband frequencies, which caused a slight drop in connection speed, but, in the absence of any other faults, would not affect latency.

Openreach are not going to dig up all the aluminium cables and replace them with copper. Optical fibre is the future.

If you are a BT Broadband customer, and have issues with your connection, then you need to specify what type of connection you have, normal ADSL broadband, or Fibre to the cabinet FTTC.

You may be able to get some help on this forum.

[pompey1898]

Hi@Keith_Beddoe ,

I guessed you would come along with a full and meaningful reply, thanks

[MARKYMARK2020]

im on vdsl... open reach says my line can handle upto 80mbs.. and im only getting 40mbs... along with lag in games.. buffering on youtube vids regular.... and the question was not regarding phone use... only fibre broadband... and its the cable going to my street cabinet that is the problem.. not the cable to to my home that is causing the speed issues...and also its my block of flats that is the only ones that has cable running under ground..all other property on my street are overhead connection.. but bk to the problem... i know that the aluminium cable to my street cabinet will be the factor of my problem.... but yes i know that fibre optic is the future.. but its a matter as when my street will get it... till then its not good practice to lie to a customer and say its copper.. when its not..nor is it right to con all the customers who thought they would get a decent speed that there line could handle.. a never know that they was being duped by the use still of aluminium cable and not copper for which all those customers yrs ago could of had a decent connection and speed that they pay good money for

[MARKYMARK2020]

i agree mate... TALKTALK is one of them...and italk

[imjolly]

@MARKYMARK2020 

to get some help from forum can you post some information

can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if  HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information . 

Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal

enter your phone number and post results  remember to delete number   https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

[Starwire]

Just count yourself lucky it isn’t Paper Insulated Lead Cable. 

[WSH]

The OP asked for opinions and to be fair to them, I would say it was highly unlikely that copper was a lie, as such.  The problem is that a lot of sloppy phraseology exists in domestic IT.  “Ethernet cable” is a favourite of mine…no such beast.  Ethernet is a transmission standard and can be passed over several different cable types.

In this case “copper” would have meant wired as opposed to fibre optic.  I suspect that BT staff would not be in a position to know if it was copper or aluminium.  Probably only OR would know that.

@starwire…jeez, does paper insulated lead actually exist or were you joking?  I would expect two tin cans and a length of string to work better than that.

[licquorice]

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@WSH wrote:

@starwire…jeez, does paper insulated lead actually exist or were you joking? 

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I very much suspect it does still exist.