cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

prayme68
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎06-06-2013

Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

I've been with PlusNet since October 2012. I signed up for their £19.99 Fibre package. I was told that the maximum available speed would be 48mb/s from my Haywards Heath exchange.
My fibre was installed in October 2012 and it has been running a 48mb/s up until a month ago. The ping rate has doubled and my speed tests reveal my connection is running at 37mb/s.
Having raised this with PlusNet they have advised that the maximum available speed has now been reduced from 48mb/s to 37mb/s. Currently they are not able to tell me why this is the case other than it is likely to be line degradation.
Don't get me wrong 37mb/s is a good speed, it's more the principle of the matter that the speed I'm now getting is not what I was promised and been getting through PlusNet over the last 8 months.
PlusNet made it clear when I signed up that my connection speed would be much more reliable and the speed quoted is the speed I would get, +1 or -1 mb/s.
Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have a view as to the above?
Thanks
7 REPLIES 7
Scottishlad79
Grafter
Posts: 31
Registered: ‎09-04-2013

Re: Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

Someone from the support team would be best to answer for your individual case.
It could be a number of things tho most likley due to crosstalk.
When fttc is launched in an area if you are one of the first customers to be activated you will receive faster speeds, as more and more customers signup the broadband signals begin to interfere with  those of other lines in the same cable causing the speeds of all lines in that cable to drop, this eventualy tails off at a reduction of arround 20-25% i believe on longer lines, i have paperwork on this ill look out for the weekend and post some of the "important facts".
Just just to confirm this drop is normal. For instance im port 1 in my cab, i was estimated at 32 meg, when it was installed i was getting arround 60, my cabs now about 20% full and my synch speeds dropped to arround 50 meg i expect over the next few months it will drop to close to the 32 meg quoted.
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Re: Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

Hi prayme68,
I've given our faults team a nudge regarding your line, we've asked the question to our suppliers why it has dropped as there seems no apparent reason for it.
Our faults team will be in-touch.
chrisgould23
Grafter
Posts: 25
Registered: ‎01-06-2013

Re: Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

This line thing is an absolute cop out. I had a similar thing when I was with Orange. It turned out that there were too many customers on the connection so they had to reduce everyone's speed just to accommodate the demand.
They had to put it back to what it was, but boy oh boy was it an argument. A line won't suddenly degrade overnight, after all it's only 2 strands of copper inside a plastic jacket. If there's a dodgy joint then that's a different matter but either way it should be restored / repaired, so don't take no nonsense from them.

Chris
vimesuk
Grafter
Posts: 98
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎18-03-2013

Re: Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

I had posted about my concerns recently as when my FTTC connection went live on March 25th I had a great and solid connection of 67.8Mb. It ran well and achieved those speeds with a very stable connection.
Then around a month or so ago it dropped to 57.74Mb, as noted also in the BTW performance test line profile, and thus my download and upload speeds dropped accordingly. My pings are around 30ms. The line has and still is perfectly stable, checking my router now and I have had over 20 days solid connection with no drops.
Chris exchanged my router for me and that seems fine, it had an issue where the web interface would slow down considerably when accessing it, and Plusnet have done a line test and it passed ok and they confirmed that my connection is very very stable. Chris posted an image to show just how stable it was.
But as my BTW line profile states...
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 16 Mbps-57.74 Mbps .
.... I was told on the phone by a Plusnet support advisor that as long as my speed is in that range that it will be indeed acceptable, which didn't really impress me much...!!!!
According to Plusnet.....

Telephone number:
    xxxxxxxxxxx
Phone exchange:
    ASHTON
Estimated line speed:
    57Mb (Accurate to within +/- 1Mbit) - Checked on 2013-03-18 16:07:31
Current line speed:
    67.8 Mb
and I suppose as I was estimated 57Mb when I joined I could not complain when it dropped one morning by the amount noted with no reasonable explanation. Maybe it just is line degradation / noise etc but I was more disappointed to be told that it would be acceptable by Plusnet if my speed did drop to the "16 Mbps-57.74 Mbps" bottom of that range...!
So the Plusnet page still shows : Current line speed: 67.8 Mb, which is what it was but now my BTW profile shows 57.74 Mbps.
Anotherone
Champion
Posts: 19,107
Thanks: 457
Fixes: 21
Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

The situation is likely to be pretty much as Scottishlad79 has explained.
The Current Line speed (Login required) should match the BT IP Profile, but there are some problems which are causing some updates to fail, yours sounds like one of them, vimesuk.
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Re: Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

@prayme68
I can see that we have an engineer appointment arranged for you, let us know how it goes.
@vimesuk
I've changed your profile to match your IP profile.
vimesuk
Grafter
Posts: 98
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎18-03-2013

Re: Max Available FTTC Broadband Speed decreased by nearly 25%

Tongue that signals the end of my 67.8Mb hopes  Grin