Could BT Openreach work have reduced my broadband speed?

[#1]

Hello, newbie query I'm afraid.
Living in rural Lincolnshire, four miles from the exchange, I don’t expect super-fast broadband, but I’m very puzzled by the deterioration in speeds in recent months after a considerable improvement last year.
Some typical results for my connection from Speedtest.net over the last couple of years:
April 2013 1.22 mbps
Aug 2013 1.67mbps
Sep 2013 2.18 mbps
Oct 2013 2.05 mbps
Dec 2013 1.95mbps
Sep 2014 1.52 mbps
11 Nov 14 1.33 mbps
today 0.65mbps
Here are the details from my Technicolor router:
Uptime: 0 days, 3:52:14
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.3
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 711 / 1.440
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 127,57 / 526,46
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12,8 / 0,0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 34,9 / 61,5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5,4 / 8,3
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 375 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 382 / 474
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 166 / 495

The very recent problems have followed some work done by BT Openreach outside my property, which also involved them making some adjustments to my ADSL master box; I wonder if that might have caused the issues?
The BT Wholesale checker suggests that my maximum downstream rate is just 1mbps but, as the results above show, I’ve had much faster speeds than that during the last 18 months. Would BT have reduced the line capacity?
Over this weekend I tired disconnecting everything for half an hour then reconnecting, but it has made no difference to the speeds. Streaming video is now impossible and even simple audio streaming is very unreliable.
Any suggestions?

[#2]

Your line is connecting at 1440, this in turn gives a profile of 1200. So I'd expect to see faster speeds than you've had there on a speed test.
Can you run through the BT Speedtester http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/
Once you've done the first test, go through the 'further diagnostics' test and let us know the results.

[#3]

OK results were
Download speed 1.10 mbps
Upload speed 0.56 mbps
Ping latency 58.32 mbps
Further diagnostics:
Max achievable download speed shows as 1.4 mbps.
So it says it's within the acceptable range & there are no problems with performance...but I was getting more than 2 mbps last year? Can this change over time?

[#4]

There may be more of an underlying issue, can you run through the steps at https://faults.plus.net so w can take a deeper look please.

[#5]

I looked at that earlier but it seemed more relevant for connections that are completely down rather than slow.
I went through the process of disconnecting & reconnecting everything over the weekend and it made no difference to speeds. We have no microfilters etc, just the one ADSL line into the router. We run everything off wifi, there is nothing directly connected to the router.
The overall setup has not changed at all since we were getting 2mbps plus last year. We were getting 1.6mbps as recently as September.

[#6]

ewerby,
Welcome to the forums.  In answer to your question, a bad line can vary through the year if for no other reason than dampness in bad joints.
If the attenuation reported by the router can be depended upon then you ought to see a synch around 2112kbps.  That should give an IP profile of 1.86Mbps.
The SNRM at 8.3dB suggests a number of possibilities - the target SNRM has been elevated to 9dB (suggesting the DLM is attempting to manage stability at the expense of speed) - or the target SNRM is 6dB and at the time of the last resynch the line was experiencing noise which has abated.
Keep an eye on the stats - look for variability of SNRM and synch speed.  Will be interesting to see what the PN faults guys find.
Is there audible noise on the line?  Dial 17070 option 2.
is the router plugged into the master socket?  Are there any other sockets?

[#7]

Thanks townman.
Did the 'quiet line' test and there is an audible buzz.
The master socket is awkwardly placed on the wall in a rear boiler room, there's an extension running to another BT socket in the kitchen where the router plugs in.

[#8]

Ah interesting news - we have some things to look at!
What kind of socket is the master?  See here - https://portal.plus.net/support/broadband/master-socket-guide.shtml
Can you look and find out how many wires are connected to the master socket and the extension?  There only needs to be 2 on pins 2 & 5 - in old installations you might find pin 3 (bell wire) connected as well.  This can cause problems for ADSL and can be removed.
Phone noise - this needs to be reported to your phone provider - is this PlusNet as well?
Kevin

[#9]

The master socket is an ADSL faceplate.
BT Openreach engineers were in the area a few weeks back & made some adjustments to the socket (i was not around at the time) so I presume that they would have 'upgraded' the connections, although I am somewhat suspicious that the speed has really degraded since their visit.

[#10]

If BTOR has been in the property recently, it is somewhat surprising that they have not updated your line to a modern NTE5 socket with a removable faceplate.  If the installation has a ADSL faceplate and the extension is wired directly off the back of it, then there is a good argument that the whole of the installation is the responsibility of BTOR as there is no test socket which acts a responsibility boundary point.

[#11]

Quote

Did the 'quiet line' test and there is an audible buzz.

This needs reporting to your phone provider, however when doing so I'd suggest not mentioning broadband issues as they'll likely point you back at us! Focus on getting the noise fixed first and then if you're having ADSL issues afterwards let us know.

[#12]

Everything is much worse since yesterday's network outage:. The BT Wholesale test now suggests my maximum speed is 0.25mbps! How can this have declined so much?
I view contacting BT as the absolute last resort so any other suggestions most welcome.
Router details.
Uptime: 0 days, 1:23:57
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.3
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 715 / 288
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 19,97 / 49,97
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12,7 / 0,0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 34,9 / 61,5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5,8 / 11,0
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 6 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 213 / 9
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 79 / 11

[#13]

Hi,
The line is banded currently which is more than likely caused by the phone line fault. We can remove the banding, but I'd need to know that the phone fault has been resolved first. If it isn't the slow speeds are likely to return quite soon.
If you can post when your telephone provider gives the clear message, we'll pick it up again for you.
Tony

[#14]

I don't understand, what does 'banded' mean? Has PlusNet imposed a limit? If so please remove it as I am trying to work & it is seriously hampering my business.
The fault on the line was fixed some weeks ago, speeds have been slow since then but they are unusable now. The line is a bit noisy but no worse than in the past. I don't have time to deal with BT at the moment.

[#15]

OK I think I'm beginning to understand...would the banding have been imposed when the fault occurred i.e. early November when we had no phone service for three days?
If so, the fault has now been resolved (was fixed on 6 November) so the banding can be removed. I've run a BT line test today and it reports no problems. The 'noise' I refer to up the page was nothing more than a faint hiss.
We've had no connection drops...other than yesterday of course when everybody else had the same problem! Thanks.