In mid August I had an FTTC connection activated. The estimate from my ISP was 30 Mbits down but the actual was 9.5 Mbits. During the last 16 weeks I have been visited by 14 engineers and a range of causes have been given, starting with REIN, then aluminium (since ruled as unlikely after checks), then distance from the cabinet (1400 metres), then cable joints, then A/C balance resulting in a the final length of cable to the property being replaced, then an 'old' modem.
It was established that 30+ Mbits was available at the junction box immediately across the road from me (1k from the cabinet) and that the speed dropped getting the 400 metres around the perimeter of the close to me. At this time it was explained to me that the estimates did not take into account such things as line length from the cabinet.
A couple of weeks after connection the download speed dropped to around 7.4 Mbits and stayed at this until one engineer swapped some pairs in the cable nearby and the down speed jumped to 16 Mbits. It stayed at this level for 3 weeks. All this time the upload speed had been 0.5 Mbits and the ISP asked BTW to look into it. Then an engineer swapped the 'old' HG612 modem for an ECI and, as far as I could make out, had some adjustments made by colleagues elsewhere. The download speed promptly fell from 16 to around 11 Mbits where it is has been for a couple of weeks now.
Apparently Openreach have now said that there is no fault on the line and there is nothing they can do about the 11 Mbits down, 0.5 Mbits up. From what I have learnt during the recent weeks I do appreciate that distance from the cabinet can be crucial and that I am not going to get the 30 Mbps indicated by my ISP unless a cable is run under the road from the junction box where 30+ Mbps is available, to the junction box outside my place (a distance of only 7 metres). The engineer who suggested this did say that Openreach were unlikely to do this due to the cost. I understand that they have a scale of charges for work they consider to be other than faults - is this likely to apply in this sort of case?
