20CN >21CN...

[#1]

I've been with Plusnet for quite a few years now and, being around 200 metres from our village exchange, am getting a downstream connection speed of 22710 kbps on BT wet string which I'm very happy with. However, I set up my elderly next door neighbour with Plusnet around 4 years ago and suspect she's still on a 20CN connection as her speedtest result was showing around 3MB download speed yesterday and was somewhat erratic despite turning her (Thomson) router off for a few minutes.
An acquaintance who works for another ISP (ICUK) posted this on a conferencing system I use yesterday and I wonder what will happen to those still on Plusnet 20CN at the end of the month where the exchange is 21CN-enabled, particularly regarding his second paragraph?
"OK, so I was chatting a fair bit to BT Wholesale yesterday at a
conference in Manchester, and asked them about 20CN and what's happening
with it, as I know one or two CIXen are on 20CN broadband (either
through us, or AN Other ISP).
Essentially, if you're on a 20CN connection and your exchange is 21CN
enabled and your ISP hasn't switched you over, then the connection will
cease at the end of this month automatically.
Exchanges will keep being upgraded until June 2014. After that, if
you're on a 20CN connection, you're likely to remain so for a little
longer until BTW decide if there's enough demand to upgrade you to 21CN,
but they say it's unlikely they will, and 20CN may hang around in those
exchanges indefinitely (effectively, there will no plans to upgrade
them).
However, some 20CN connections might be able to get 21CN Fibre as BT has
been given grants by the government to upgrade their exchanges so people
can get FTTC, which will continue after June 2014.
If you're an ICUK customer or a via an ICUK reseller, then we've already
switched all connections from 20CN to 21CN. If you're not an ICUK
customer, it might be worth checking with your ISP if you were/are on
20CN and if they have switched you to 21CN. Chances are, if they've been
sensible, they will have switched you over as it's beneficial to the ISP
to do so.
Anyway, that's the latest news. To sum up, if you're on 20CN now and
can't get anything except ADSLMax on 20CN, then you'll probably still be
on 20CN for the next few years."

[#2]

If your neighbour is as close to the exchange as you are then I'd expect a solid 8Mbps sync (on 20CN), so there is either an issue on the line or faulty internal wiring, or a large chain of extensions with the bell wire attached (I had the latter problem, I fitted an iPlate and that resolved it)
You can find the planned termination dates for 20CN on your exchange at https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/static/Community/Broadband_Community/Coverage/ADSL_Availibility_Ch...

Quote

The Stop Sale date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2012; the Formal Retirement date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2014. The Stop Sale date for IPstream is from 31-May-2014; the Formal Retirement date for IPstream is from 30-Nov-2014.

Is what it says for my exchange which was only upgraded in 2013-12.
PN do submit bulk transfer requests for exchanges once they become enabled, it is possible that your neighbour has been provisioned on ADSL1 on 21CN rather than ADSL2+.

[#3]

Post the information requested in http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,96155.0.html for your neighbours line. The BT diagnostic speed test will tell you if they are on 21CN - on 20CN it doesn't report the upstream IP Profile.

[#4]

Quote from: avatastic

If your neighbour is as close to the exchange as you are then I'd expect a solid 8Mbps sync (on 20CN), so there is either an issue on the line or faulty internal wiring, or a large chain of extensions with the bell wire attached (I had the latter problem, I fitted an iPlate and that resolved it)

Unfortunately I posted my query the day before her husband came out of hospital after a 3-month stay, so it's likely to be next week before I can do any further tests on her line. However, I too was expecting to see a faster download speed, even if she is still on 20CN.

Quote

You can find the planned termination dates for 20CN on your exchange at https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/static/Community/Broadband_Community/Coverage/ADSL_Availibility_Ch...

For both her and my numbers that gives the same Datatstream dates as yours, but the IpStream dates show:

Quote

The Stop Sale date for IPstream is from 31-Oct-2013; the Formal Retirement date for IPstream is from 28-Feb-2014.

I know that her router is plugged in the other side of a wall from the master socket and she's in a bungalow with a hands-free phone and no other extensions, but I'll have a closer look and post some decent diagnostic results here next week.
Thanks.

[#5]

I'll try do do some proper tests next week, but see my reply to avatastic.
Thanks

[#6]

Quote from: johneason

I know that her router is plugged in the other side of a wall from the master socket and she's in a bungalow with a hands-free phone and no other extensions, but I'll have a closer look and post some decent diagnostic results here next week.

If the phone is plugged in to a different socket to the router the quick simple check is that both are filtered.

[#7]

Quote from: jelv

If the phone is plugged in to a different socket to the router the quick simple check is that both are filtered.

I think that the filter is plugged into the master socket and the lead through the wall just feeds the router from the broadband side of the filter, but I'll check next week.
Things have become somewhat more complicated since I did the speed check because they had a personal alarm button installed yesterday and that too is connected to the master socket now...