Why has my download and upload speeds have been reduced in the last couple of month?

[#1]

I just received the Report Card from Samknows for the month of March and I have noticed that my download speed has decreased from over 16+Mbps to around 12 Mbps and upload speed has decreased from 1.0Mbps to 0.5Mbps, my line SN margin has gone up from 3.0dB to 13.1dB. For the past 10 years or more I have had a download speed of around 16+Mbps and a SN margin of 3.0dB first with O2 and then with PlusNet when O2 was sold to Sky.
I live around 850m from my exchange and the distance from the exchange to cabinet (2) is 700m and from cabinet (2) to my house is 150m. I do not have any telephone boxes extensions. I have done a line noise test and there is no noise on the line. So I am no wiser as to why this decrease in download speed and increase in SN margin has occurred since February this year and what can be done to return to my original download speed and SN margin.

Any suggestions as to why this has happened?
Past Flash Speedtest Results
Thu 20/04/17 00:08
12.28 Mbps 12.22 Mbps 0.52 Mbps 143.159.xxx.102 PlusNet
Wed 04/01/17 22:51
16.66 Mbps 14.98 Mbps 0.80 Mbps 143.159.xxx.108 PlusNet
Mon 30/11/15 14:25
16.88 Mbps 16.88 Mbps 1.04 Mbps 146.90.xx.105 PlusNet
Fri 06/11/15 13:49
16.91 Mbps 16.87 Mbps 1.04 Mbps 146.90.xx.105 PlusNet
Sat 24/10/15 14:18
17.04 Mbps 16.92 Mbps 1.02 Mbps 87.115.xxx.105 PlusNet

Prior to February 2017After 22nd February 2017Day speed droppedProof when SN Margin changed

[#2]

Hi, scopio1,

Feel free to send me a PM with your username and I'll run some diagnostics from our side of the network.

[#3]

What on earth is happening to my line?
After three days when the SNRM and sync returned to what it was last February today it is acting erratically again!http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6268904760http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=149385016607615870926

[#4]

I am sorry to hear of this.

Please can you private message me with your username and I will be happy to run a few tests.

[#5]

Hi Scopio1,

Anoush forwarded your username on to me. Tests are pointing towards a line fault.

Please report this over at http://faults.plus.net and drop us a reply back here when you have please and we'll follow that up.

[#6]

Hi Adam,

I have had a look at http://faults.plus.net/ and this is what it says "Thanks, you've given us all the information we need to investigate your problem
A Ticket has been raised to our Faults Team with these details. We'll contact you as soon as we have more information and let you know what happens next.
In the meantime, we'll run some more tests on your telephone line over the next 24 hours.
You can help us by:
Leaving your equipment plugged in and switched on.
Making sure you've given us a contact number we can reach you on. If you've given us a mobile number we'll text you to keep you updated.
Please contact us if you need to provide a different contact number, or if there's any change to the problem you're having."

When the engineer came on Monday he was adamant that the line was fine and set the SNR to 6dB down and bandwith 440kbps up since then the SNR has dropped to 3.1dB the down sync has gone up from 19964 to 20043 kbps. At his moment my downstream has reverted from 12.4 to which it had dropped last February to now at 17.22Mbps which is near to what I have had for the last ten years and the upload was a constant 1.1Mbps but now that it is capped it has dropped now to 0.31Mbps.

The problem with the line becomes obvious when the bandwith up is uncapped.

At the moment the system is on the 10 day training period started last Monday. I will ask for it to be uncapped Tuesday or Wednesday next week to see what happens.

[#7]

Today Friday there was a lot of crackling on the phone line when I received a call. I then did a quiet line test (17070) and there was a lot of crackling!

[#8]

This has all the hallmarks of an intermittent fault ... which was not there when the engineer looked ... or did not look hard enough for. A raised (target) SNRM (lower synch speed) is indicative of the exchange equipment trying to mitigate the effect of line noise.

[#9]

Thanks Townman, I quite agree with you as I had this with O2 before joining PlusNet and the fault was traced to the exchange.

Today Friday 12 May @ 12.56 I received a phone call and there was a lot of cracking on the line I then did a quiet line test (17070) and there still was a lot of crackling on the line. I repeated the quiet line test @ 14 15 and the line was quiet so it seems as the crackling is intermittent.

[#10]

This might need to be progressed as a voice circuit fault. If plusnet probers your phone line, try the phone fault reporter - see link below.

[#11]

Hi Scopio1, I'm sorry to hear that this is happening, can you Pm me your account user name & I will run some checks for you - Tony

[#12]

I have done the quiet line test as per the video with a corded phone the problem is that when the engineer came to test the line there may not have been any noise and what should happen now is for another engineer to test outside equipment such as the junction box on the corner of the building, the pole, the cabinet and at the exchange which is what happened three years ago with O2 when they found the fault at the exchange.

[#13]

I understand where your coming from, it's just normal process for me to run a few checks my self, can you pm me your account user name please. Tony

[#14]

Hi there @scopio1

It looks like you were unable to raise a fault to us, because your original fault ticket is still open on your account. I've tested your broadband connection, and I'm seeing your router in sync at 18.3 Mb/s and your connection is stable.

Testing your line is identifying no issues, so any fault we raise with our suppliers is likely to sent back to us, requesting an engineer appointment to visit your property.

Test results below if you're interested...

	Upstream DSL Link Information	Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss:	7.0	19.5
SNR Margin:	32.0	6.1
Errored Seconds:	0	0
HEC Errors:	0
Cell Count:	2946005	67772160
Speed:	440	18327

Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS):	15904	Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS):	12723
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds):	86400	Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds):	86400
Indicative Line Quality:	G	Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds):	6300

Copper Line Test
Circuit ID:	CBUK DELETED	Service ID:	BBEU DELETE
Telephone NO.:	NA	Test Executed On:	15-05-2017 17:15:35

Status:	Pass	MFL:	OK	OR Test ID:	DELETED
Test Outcome:	CIDT LINE TEST OK - ALL SOCKETS UNPLUGGED			DTR:	DELETED

Copper Test Details
	A to E	B to E
Capacitance:	171 NanoFarad	174 NanoFarad
DP Line Length Estimate:	901 Metres	DN Line Length Estimate:	934 Metres
Celerity:		Line Loss:
Line Stability:	Stable
Fault Report Advised:	N
Service Level:	2

Let us know if you have any further issues.

[#15]

Hi Gandalf,

The connection as you say is stable at the moment whilst the Up bandwith is capped at 44o kbps but the issue returns when the Up bandwith is uncapped. At the moment it is on a 10 training period as per email from [CSA Removed] received today "

Dear Mr Almeida,

I have tested your line today,
Your circuit was set to an SNR margin of 3 decibels on the downstream, because the lines are very sensitive and that margin is to low for the line to cope with, this will reflect in either disconnections or slow speed.
To fix this i have done two things:
I have reset the line which will return the SNR margin target to 6db instead of 3db. Please restart your router after 4 hours to allow the reset to fully complete. After this the router will need to be left on permanently.
I have modified your circuit to prevent the SNR margin from being changed in future automatically by the Dynamic Line management system at the exchange, unfortunately we cant guarantee the settings will stick as this piece of hardware is automated.
The two orders should take a total of 24 working hours to complete and for the new settings to initiate on the line. Following this it will take up to 10 days to the line to settle back down
If however you still experience connection issues after these have completed then please get back to us so we can investigate further."

 So again I shall have to wait for the 10 training period to complete and the ask for the Up bandwith to be uncapped and see what happens.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): CSA name removed as per Forum rules.