Hi all,
I logged a fault with Plusnet a few days back because my ADSL2+ connection is working a lot slower than it used to. Now I have a BT engineer scheduled to do a site visit in a couple of days and I wanted to get some advice before he/she visited.
I've been with Plusnet for around 10 years so have seen my ADSL connection increase in speed over that time as new packages became available. A year or two ago I was moved on to ADSL2+ and was getting consistant speeds of around 14 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up. I'm on a business package so could achieve those speeds all times of day, day after day, for months, no problem.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago (I'm not sure of when I first noticed) and I see my speeds maxing out at approx. 6-8 Mbps down and 300-440 Kbps up. I've never seen my speeds get above this since. It's now slower than when I had ADSL1 with Max Premium, years back! And on top of all that, the connection now drops once or twice a day too.
Plusnet's test results appear to confirm there's some kind of line issue, with the following pasted from their report (I can post more details if needed):-
Problem Explanation: [EPP30] An LTB issue has been identified with poor Indicative Line Quality (RED ILQ).
Resolution/Recommendation: Please confirm all CP and End User checks have been completed. KBD tests indicate no BTW network fault. This is a CCSFI enabled outcome.
Summary: Line is banded, but not chronically. LTB issue and poor line quality.
I'm concerned the BT engineer may say that my slow speeds are within limits and I'm stuck with that. Is that a possibility? Or is the fact that I used to get much faster speeds, enough to require it be fixed?
These new slow speeds (8 meg down / 0.4 meg up) seem eerily close to standard ADSL1 limits; could it be there's a setting that BT / Plusnet could have accidentally triggered a few weeks ago to put me on ADSL1 speeds? There was an outage at my local exchange a few weeks ago, possibly around the same time my speeds dropped - I don't know if that's just a coincidence or maybe what triggered the change.
For what it's worth, I've used two different routers, different filters, leads, and tested at the master socket. I've included my DSL Connection details as reported by my Thomson Plusnet router.
Uptime: 0 days, 10:37:01
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,152 / 16,804
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 443 / 14,328
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 82.51 / 1.39
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 11.5 / 18.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 10.0 / 19.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 28.5 / 9.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 3 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 65,625 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 40 / 4,918
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 26 / 2,043
