Upload speeds have suddenly dropped.

[fenixriot]

I am on full fibre 500, and all has been fine for nearly a year, however the other day the internet seemed to just stop working, despite all lights on super hub and ont showing internet was fine. 
After several resets and waiting till the following day, the internet did start working again, the download speeds were the same as before however the upload speeds have dropped from 70-71mb to 49-50mb, now I know that is still above the speed guarantee but I would love to know why it has dropped. The actual download speed from the cabinet to the premises has dropped and not just on my end. Any help or info appreciated.

 

[iniltous]

You are obviously on FTTP if on a 500Mb service, so there isn’t a ‘cabinet’ involved in your case ( that’s FTTC ) 
You share bandwidth with all the other users on your splitter ( 2.4Gb download , 1.2Gb upload ) , this can be upto 30 users , perhaps a new customer has joined , not necessarily with BT but any ISP that uses Openreach and  they use the upload ‘channel’ at lot , or a longstanding customer ( again not necessarily a BT customer) has changed their usage pattern and  the upload bandwidth  is being used more than before , perhaps one of your neighbours has started hosting a ‘webcam show’ and is constantly uploading content 😉.

TBH , if your upload has reduced but is still above the minimum guarantee, it’s not really a fault , so won’t be looked at as if it were , chances are the upload is just being used more  intensively than it was previously.

[fenixriot]

Thanks for the explanation, that’s all I really wanted to know, as I know BT would never see it as a fault. What could explain the internet not working despite all lights on the hubs showing it was though?

[iniltous]

TBH , it could just be a coincidence that after a short period where you had no internet access ,( though all the lights on the ONT and router were normal) when service was ‘restored’ this upload issue appeared, or it could be linked , but it would be a difficult to know what set of circumstances could result in that .
In a way the ONT lights indicate the health of your optics between the ONT in your home and the headend , these can be normal , but a problem ‘downstream’ from the headend into the ISP equipment could result in no internet access , with the ONT lights showing normal , but your router light by staying ‘blue’ indicated no issues downstream either , but that’s not to say there couldn’t have been an issue , they are only indications.

Unfortunately there is no way to know for sure, if it is ‘local’ congestion, ( so someone or a few intense users on your PON ) the usual ‘test’ is to try a speed test at what would normally be a quiet time ( late evening , very early morning) , but if someone were streaming their own content constantly, there may not be a quiet time to check .