Broadband speed is now throttled to 20mbs compared 38mbps to when it was first installed.

[sevans67]

Hi All,

BT should be taken to task on this and reported to the regulator. My first installation was 10 years ago and it was 78mbps download. The Openreach engineer said it should never drop below this as the FTTC fibre cabinet could take as much bandwidth as required to service all the houses in the vicinity and since the copper line was direct 1:1 from the FTTC cab to my house no one else could have an affect on it.

Since first installation it has dropped twice - first to 69Mbps and currently 59Mbps, prices have not dropped to match an it is poor service. 

When I ring to ask why they just say that they are meeting their contact which has been amend twice to suit after you renew a contract. 

They will never have my custom again when next renewal is due.

[iniltous]

The speed someone will get from FTTC ( and ADSL for that matter ) is primarily a result of the line distance to the cabinet with FTTC or the exchange with ADSL , and obviously the speed profile purchased.

If someone speed isn’t as good as it once were , given that the distance from the exchange or cabinet is constant, then the reason is likely to be the ‘line’ has issues, not that the ISP or Openreach are interfering, there is absolutely no benefit in OR or the ISP doing this, so why would they ?

Once a line has real world performance data , then that can be used in future estimates, so ( for example ) someone signs up , the line can achieve 50Mb , due to the limits of the line length , the customer has purchased Fibre 1 ( upto 55Mb ) , the original estimate, before any real data was available stated 40-50Mb , so actual performance better than estimates .

The line develops an ‘issue’ that impacts the line performance, this could  be something the customer is responsible for ( like they put cheap Christmas Tree lights up , and they interfere with the router ) or the ‘line’ is affected by a high resistance fault and electrically is not as ‘good’ as it once was ) but the consumer doesn’t report this to the ISP, DLM ( digital line management ) intervention reduces the sync speed to get better stability and the line is now ‘only’ providing 40Mb.

Many will ( incorrectly ) think that the ISP has ‘deliberately’ reduced what they are getting ,  they haven’t , the ‘estimates’ at renewal may be less than the original 40-50Mb , again that not the ISP being underhand, the line is ( currently) delivering 40Mb , so using that real data available , the estimate is based on that.

These things can relatively easily checked , the router statistics ( that the OP doesn’t want to post ) will indicate if the line is underperforming or not ,  and a DSL check from 

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

will give the range of speed to be expected for the location .

The most likely reason for line performance reduction is a fault on the line.

[sevans67]

Thank you iniltous

Maybe you want like to ring BT on my behalf and argue my case.  I have not changed my packaged since day one. I've asked for an engineer on several occasions to come and check the line which they refuse as they and my broadband meet the "legal contact" I have agreed to. So BT see  there is nothing wrong with the line.

What BT do not point out until you ring and complain "I DONT HAVE 78mpbs" is "THEY- BT" have changed the contract so the min speed you should attain is X. Check the small print in your contract.. Over the years BT have been reducing it slowly. 

So even though my package is Fibre 2+ which states 78MB download speed and as the Openreach engineer stated - you should never go below this speed unless there is a genuine issue - I will never get this now...

However I state again in the small print of the contract it now states min download speed 59mbps - even though the package headline states 78mbps.

I am getting ~ 60Mbps which is 25% less than when I first started with no discount in price e.g. the price has actually gone up by a considerable % based on what is being provided to where I started.

I agree it partly has nothing to do with throttling but answer me this - why does BT change the small print in the contract to less than something they are selling a 78mbps package.

I repeat my initial message - BT should be brought to task with the regulator. If I buy a car I want 4 wheels not 3..

[licquorice]

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@sevans67 wrote:

I agree it partly has nothing to do with throttling but answer me this - why does BT change the small print in the contract to less than something they are selling a 78mbps package.

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It has got nothing at all to do with throttling, not partly.

Speed can reduce over time as the effect of crosstalk in a cable can severely reduce speed. Crosstalk is an extremely complex subject and is not possible to mitigate. In a nutshell the signal from one pair of wires in a cable interferes with another pair. The more customers in a cable the more likely a crosstalk disturber will reduce the speed of a connection. Moving customers to a different cable pair is not a feasible solution as it just becomes a game of whack a mole.

[sevans67]

Hi All,

Here are my figures for my line, hopefully you can make some sense of it and I call BT with your recomendations.

[pippincp]

Your estimated range is 56-74mbps, as you are within that range there's not a lot BT can do.

[iniltous]

On the20th Sept your observed download was about 64Mb, roughly in the middle of your predicted range , so from that perspective there isn’t anything obviously wrong , post your router stats , they may indicate something , but 64Mb download could equate to something like 68-70Mb sync rate.
TBH , you won’t notice any real world difference between a sync rate of 78Mb and 70Mb, and as stated there is a possibility that ‘crosstalk’ the result of more users of FTTC on your ‘cabinet’ have impacted your line , this is ‘physics’ , not much can be done about that.
If you are struggling to have a fault accepted by your ISP , that’s because there may well not be one, if there is a slight issue ( and it cannot really be more than a relatively minor issue , even if one exists ) it’s always open to you to insist on a visit , but that opens you up to the possibility of being charged for an unnecessary visit , if the engineer finds nothing wrong with the line.
If you were given a guaranteed 78Mb ( and if that the case you should have the documentary proof than can be referenced with any conversation with your ISP )  , it’s much more likely the 78 was the top of a range of speeds , and your MSG is much less.
When you took your contract the minimum speed is quoted , when you renew ( if you did ) then the minimum speed isn’t necessarily the same as the initial one guaranteed , you need to find that document to see what’s been guaranteed, TBH , it’s not likely to be 78Mb.

[sevans67]

Hi Inilous

That's the point I am trying to make and you are missing it - BT should be brought to task with the regulator.

The original contract started out 10 years ago min speed 75mbps. After 2 years you get a reminder that your contract is coming to an end. You renew, in the 80 page contract detail is a line stating the the min speed is reduced. WHO in this day an age reads a contract of 80 pages for a broad band renew with a text size so small you have to have a magnifying glass to read. There should be an amendments section so you can just read the highlights/changes.

Two years passes again. Do you want to renew email? Yes thinking nothing has changed to my original Fibre 2+ I agree, but again in the small print the min MBPS has been lowered again!!

Until finally 6 - 8 years later it's moved 25% lower than where you originally started. So you ring BT and say there must be an issue, then they refer to page 19, clause 4.2, subsection 25, point 5....NO LOOK AT  page 19, clause 4.2, subsection 25, point 5

I raised this in the forum so people who think they are getting throttled will probably find out like me the min speeds are being reduced.

Why are BT reducing the min speeds in their contracts, that what we should be asking?

We can agree to disagree all day, I just think the the underhanded way they do things.

[licquorice]

Nobody is deliberately reducing anything, its called the laws of physics. The fact that broadband works at all over the wet string copper network is a miracle in itself let alone the speeds achieved.

[sevans67]

You must work for BT? You cannot accept that the speed must be being reduced no matter what evidence I give you. You need to take facts and not the mumbo jumbo of physics and surprised it works over copper at all etc. Well it does and that's all we need to agree about and you need to take on board.

I am 28 metres from the cabinet (FTTC) point to point, when the engineer first installed the distance was 54 metres tested as the copper cable has to leave the cab, up the pole and into house. Now 58 metres of copper is not any significant distance agreed? But as you say there could be join faults, water ingress etc. from the cab to my main socket. I accept that. This also could be the case for full fibre, poor joints etc. etc.  This is not the argument. 

When initially installed I was getting 78MBPS and it worked fine for  years, I am not even suggesting I need more because there are other factors that need to be taken into account such as latency etc.. 

Now I only get 60MBPS, I cannot get an engineer to come out to check if there are joint faults or water ingress as the contract has been changed to reduce the min acceptable speed really without my knowledge unless I reviewed an 80 page document with type face the size of a pinhead. WHY HAS THIS BEEN DONE WHEN THERE IS NO NEED FOR IT, all I am saying is BT are a underhand untrustworthy company and the people who think their broadband is being reduced could well be experiencing the same as me. 

You keep repeating  yourself "why would the ISP reduce the speed they have no need to and nothing to gain", my argument is exactly the same why have they reduced min speed in the contract?