Estimated line speed - opt out

[#1]

Even if the "not recorded" message if fixed, it is still the case that the "Estimated line speed" (taken from BT) is demonstrably inaccurate.
Why not just remove the "Estimated line speed" from the portal?

[#2]

Quote from: Bob

Anyway, a problem has been raised to have it looked into (ref: 66515) but it's not particularly high on the list of priorities at the moment.

Right, here goes...
We needed to make some database inserts in preparation of the launch of our fibre products next week. Unfortunately the size of the tables made this a little troublesome so we had to remove all but around 500,000 line check results.
Now I'll hold my hands up here in saying that we didn't really approach this in the best way.
Whilst you can't see them in the Member Centre, our internal systems actually store historic speed estimates. This is why the tables were so big. It would have made sense from a customer experience perspective to have removed the historic results and left all the current ones intact. Doesn't look like this is what happened though and I'm guessing we just removed the 'x' oldest records instead
Another thing that clearly wasn't considered was the messaging that's left in place where there's no estimated line speed on record - that's something we'll need to look at getting changed as there's a possibility that the system will be modified so that the results expire after a predetermined amount of time anyway.
For those that have lost their estimated speed check, it's pretty easy to get this back. All you need to do is log into our website and navigate to the Member Centre > Product Change and click the 'Change My Products' button. Don't worry, you're not committing to anything and you can abort the account change process once you've done this.

Quote from: linux

Why not just remove the "Estimated line speed" from the portal?

Interesting. What are other peoples' thoughts on this approach?

[#3]

"Why not just remove the "Estimated line speed" from the portal?"
That should never happen. It's a reminder of what you signed up for,  what should be attainable, and whether your in house line has possible minor faults that need improving.

[#4]

That would be perfectly true if the estimate was accurate. But it isn't.

[#5]

Quote from: linux

That would be perfectly true if the estimate was accurate.

I think that by wildly under estimating expected speeds BT are getting themselves 'off the hook' with Ofcom over the previous wild over-estimates that most ISPs were guilty of.
Accurate or not, I'd still like to see the info.  If it cannot easily be 'restored' then perhaps a link on the page to the BT source would suffice.

[#6]

Bob provided an explanation for this disappearing and a simple way to restore it in Reply #31.

[#7]

Yes it is simple to restore. Which begs the question why not just restore them all in the first place?
Interesting to get an estimated range of speeds now in addition to the new estimate.
I have to say the new estimate is more realistic.

[#8]

The requirement for a range of estimated speeds was introduced in version 2 of Ofcom's code of practice. However I think a single value is allowed if the range is +/- 0.5Mbps (or is it +/- 1Mbps?).

[#9]

Quote from: spraxyt

Bob provided ..... a simple way to restore it in Reply #31.

Sorry , I missed this - I get lazy reading longer posts, attention reduces after the first sentence......

[#10]

My estimated line speed has not disappeared BUT I just tried looking at the product change since billnotben said 'the new estimate is more realistic', this gives a single figure (3.5) with no + or - range, back to the portal and it is currently saying '2.5Mb (This may vary between 1.5Mb and 5Mb) - Checked on 2011-04-17 10:07:56', my current sync speed? - router says 8439, BT speedtester says 8436, my line profile is 6500 (due to intermittent issue) and throughput just tested is 6486 down / 721 up.
If I average my up and down figures then I get close to the estimate.

[#11]

Then I suppose it's still much the same. Realistic for some and pure fantasy for other. Just a change around on the musical chairs.