topic Fibre Speed - Cable length issue? in Broadband

Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

pmccee — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 10:00:07 GMT

Experienced a few prolonged (over 12hrs) service drop outs and an open reach engineer attended to review the line. He mentioned that the cable run is a comical distance away from the house - over a 1km - and that would at least explain my terrible download speed (12-15Mb) - There is a cabinet around the corner that he mentioned would make more sense to connect to. Do I have any recourse in getting connected to something a bit closer to the house to help imrpove dl speeds? Or is that a a fanciful idea? Struggling when both working from home video calls etc and need to try and sort it out.

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

bmc — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 10:30:00 GMT

@pmccee

While it is possible for a line to be moved to a different cabinet it is a complicated (read expensive) job so OpenReach tend not to do it.

First thing to do would be to have a look at the following to see expected speeds.

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

Brian

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

pmccee — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 10:46:25 GMT

Thanks Brian,

Using that link it tallies up with what the plusnet checker tells me I should be expecting and the actual speeds i'm getting. We've been putting up with it since we moved in 6 months ago but it's unmanageable going forward with both of us working from home full time video conferencing simultaneously. Looking at alternatives (virgin 😑) it seems like I could be getting a much better service. Frustrating as we retained plusnet after we moved due to the great service we previously received, looks like I'll need to plead my case to the c/s team to allow me to break contract if there is no chance of moving cabinet.

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

bmc — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 10:50:09 GMT

@pmccee

Changing ISP won't improve your speed if PlusNet are providing what the line supports.

Unless WBC FTTP is shown in the results you're probably stuck with what you have for the time being.

Brian

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

Baldrick1 — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 11:23:28 GMT

@pmccee wrote:

.... looks like I'll need to plead my case to the c/s team to allow me to break contract if there is no chance of moving cabinet.

If your speed is within the range specified in your contract then I'm afraid that you have no case to plead.

Are you getting the best out of the bandwidth that you can get, for example, connecting to your hub over an Ethernet cable rather than wireless or can you use lower definition for video links?

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

bmc — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 13:50:24 GMT

@pmccee

Sorry, didn't see you'd mentioned Virgin. If their service is available then you'll receive much better service.

You could check if OR have anything planned for your area but no definite dates will be shown.

https://www.openreach.com/

Brian

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

Gandalf — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 19:55:15 GMT

Hi there,

I've just checked and FTTP isn't available in your area sadly with seemingly no plans yet according to Openreach's fibre checker > https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband#fibrechecker

Appreciate the slow speeds make it hard to work from home (I'm WFH right now) but I'm afraid I can't waive termination fees if your speed is where we'd expected at the time of agreeing the contract.

I've just tested your line in case there's anything wrong or broke I can get fixed which may improve your speed further, but line tests are passing unfortunately. I also can't ask Openreach to move a line from one cabinet to another, as mentioned above, this involves an immense amount of work and something they'll generally only do as part of a "Live To Live migration" moving lines in bulk that'll need the co-operation of all service providers and careful planning.

They'll only do this though off their own initiative and not from a request from us as a service provider.

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

newagetraveller — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 09:05:48 GMT

"While it is possible for a line to be moved to a different cabinet it is a complicated (read expensive) job so OpenReach tend not to do it."

I don't know what criteria are used for a cabinet swap?

There is a cabinet in my village which became fibre enable. Superfast Staffordshire were involved with FTTC provisioning and the new cabinet. OR or their contractor, installed it all. I thought that must be "my" cabinet (9) being a couple of hundred yards away. It wasn't, cab.1 served some of the village, and is situated about 3/4 mile away.

When fibre became available, 17mb/s download suggested, I contacted Superfast Staffordshire and they advised that those connected to cab. 1 will be changed to cab.9.

That cab. provides 80 down, if required.

Possibly because this was a taxpayer funded initiative through Superast Staffordshire the cab. change was carried out?

Re: Fibre Speed - Cable length issue?

Townman — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 12:11:12 GMT

@Gandalf wrote:

They'll only do this though off their own initiative and not from a request from us as a service provider.

What gives rise to BT Openreach taking initiative?

Might complaints from ISPs that their "Customers are getting a not very fast 'Superfast broadband' ... which will not do!" make a difference?