Speed drop

[somniac]

I have been a customer of bt for years and had problems to start with getting a decent speed.

I have had about 26-28 Mbps for the last year or so but in the last couple of days it has dropped to 15-18Mbps. My minimum guaranteed is 15Mbps.

This is costing me £43 a month. No extras. Digital voice.

Their new deals ( not offered to me of course) is £38 a month for 35-40Mbps.

Any thoughts on why my speed has dropped now? And why I am paying so much more for such a reduced speed?

[naylor2006]

If it is not anything in the house then could be contention/congestion. Could be a line fault causing some degradation somewhere.

Unfortunately if its not breached the speed guarantee there not alot you can do.

On a side note, yes the pricing is odd, Fibre prices are pretty much the same as older copper services, my parents pay for around 15Mbps more than I pay for 900 with the same ISP (BT) even with my March increases. I often just wonder if that maintaining the equipment that serves the different infrastructure cost the same anyway, looking after the older copper equipment might be more of a headache then the ease of fibre. 

[somniac]

Yes it does seem odd. Also odd is the fact that the speed drop came the day after major drilling in a neighbouring flat.

[naylor2006]

Probably a coincidence, you'd expect a total lose of service if a drill went through something!

[TimCurtis]

FTTC is supplied over 2 wires and if 1 gets damaged then it'll still work but at approx half speed.

[somniac]

Very interesting. Is there a way to check this without bashing ahole in the wall?

[TimCurtis]

@somniac 

If you didn't have Digital voice you'd know as you'd have no phone service.

Plugging a phone into the phone socket MIGHT give you a clue as if you hear no sound whatsoever that might indicate a broken wire but I couldn't be sure about that.

I have DV but with full fibre and if I plug a corded phone into my old phone line then I do get a continuos sound indicating I'm getting power coming in so both wires OK.

A corded phone is best as it's powered by the 2 wires , so 1 breaks - no power.

[somniac]

Thanks for that. I will try it.

[somniac]

I tried this and got the continuous tone so the wires must be OK. Thanks for that.