Slow download speed, high sync and IP profile?

[#1]

Hi britvic,
I've just received the reply...
[quote=email]Hi Joanne,

The Vp  for this circuit has been checked and has been found to have breached a trigger threshold instigating congestion relief.  A regrade is scheduled, however there are delays published preventing this work. We should have further information when the next report is published on
26/11/2010
So I'll update you once they email me tomorrow.
Jojo

[#2]

Hi britvic,
I have just received the email and our suppliers are looking to move you to another piece of kit at the exchange but at the moment there is nowhere to put you until it is upgraded. TBH I can;t see it being this side of Christmas.
Jojo

[#3]

that is disgusting treatment  so the poor chap is going to have to wait till xmas is past to get a decent bb.
That really takes the piss

[#4]

Joanne has given the facts, the information that is available to her. Unfortunately if there is no equipment at the exchange to move someone on to all we can do is push our suppliers to upgrade the exchange, this isn't instant and can take time, hence Joanne saying that it may be after Christmas.

[#5]

txs chris  its a real shame that dc staff are so often messed about by bt.....pity there wasnt an alternative supplier

[#6]

Thanks Jo for giving me the updates on this. I know it's not your fault so I'm not getting at you, but I do think it's pretty poor that BT are so useless at getting the capacity upgraded - it's quite a large flaw and something needs doing about it, as this has been a problem since September and (probably) isn't going to be fixed at least until after Chrismas.
BT must've been aware of the problems also, but haven't had the decency to contact the users about it (the plusnet exchange checker is showing the capacity as green and always has), and I don't know how BT can get away with having the whole population of Bangor on ridiculously slow broadband for such a long period of time.
Anyway I do really appreciate you looking into this for me, I just think it's disappointing that we have to pay the same amount for on-going slow speeds, when we should be getting speeds that are 10x faster - when it's nothing to do with our line quality.
If you could keep me updated when you hear anything else I'd be extremely grateful.
Thanks

[#7]

Britvic, I sympathise. I live 3 miles from a village in Aberdeenshire and had no broadband until a couple of years ago. Even though, the best they can offer is around 500kb on a fixed line. BT have no plans to upgrade the exchange or upgrade the lines to the exchange which have been repaired so many times, it is unbelievable. No wonder my broadband is hardly ever working correctly. When bad weather starts, wet gets into the repaired joints and causes problems.When we have dry weather for a prolonged period, there are hardly ever problems.  My only course of action is to complain to my ISP, to whom I pay the money. It takes a VERY long time for them to do anything, and if it had not been for Joanne calling me the other day to help, I would still be in the same position. Plusnet ioffers the best prices, but I have to pay the highest rate at 11.99 because of the exchange being so small, and get a crap service. It all boils down to BT, but I cannot deal with them. I have to do it through PN, who seem to take forever to move things forward.

[#8]

Hi britvic, I've just been reading this thread and unfortunately it sounds identical to the issue I've been having. I live in Bangor as well and got my broadband activated with Plusnet in Aug/Sep. Since day one the speeds have been roughly similar to what you've seen (0.5mbps at best). I've had a support ticket open since 6th October and have seen no improvement at all even though there has been mention of a number of regrades. The only improvement I saw was when students started leaving to go home over Christmas which clearly indicates its a capacity issue.
The question I have is whether moving to a different broadband supplier would make any difference? I've been really happy with the price I'm paying at Plusnet and the support has been helpful (even if they haven't been able to solve the problem yet) so I'm reluctant to leave. So is this a BT problem affecting all broadband at the Bangor exchange or just the Plusnet broadband at the Bangor exchange?

[#9]

Thought I'd drag this up again as there has been NO improvement - it's been over 3 months since I joined plusnet, this is ridiculous! And "dant84", it will affect everyone who is on the BT Bangor exchange through BT Wholesale - that's everyone in the Bangor area EXCEPT talktalk (and sky I've just noticed), who has their bit of the exchange unbundled. I don't know what they are like so cannot advise you to switch - they probably have as much congestion as BT due to lack of competition! Anyway I was wondering if we could have an update on the regrade? It is listed on the plusnet exchange checker as being "Amber" for the virtual paths - but no "ETA fix time" is listed.
Thanks
(My speed on 17th Jan 2011):

[#10]

HI britvic,
I'll email BT for another update for you.
Jojo

[#11]

It's been 5 months now since the poor speeds, things have improved during the day, but after about 6pm-past midnight speeds are still poor:

Any update from BT? This, in my eyes is still exceedingly poor considering the exchange is >0.5km away, where is the investment in the exchange?!
Thanks

[#12]

Hi britvic,
I've emailed for another update, I'll let you know when I get a response.

[#13]

Quote from: britvic

, where is the investment in the exchange?!

Probably in some 'fat cat' BT executive's back pocket.

[#14]

Looks like more of Wales suffering the same problems (Newport):

http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/?exchange=Maesglas&exact=2915
"VP capacity at this exchange is currently showing as Red.
BT have advised that no current planned date for WBC on 21CN exists"
4/5 of the previous weeks are Red, I assume the one Green week is an error!
Getting < 0.5Mbps despite having a connection speed reported by modem (Draytek) of over 2.3Mbps and IP profile of 2000k.
I should add that when I first got ADSL at this address about 5 years ago I got > 4Mbps consistently (line speed and throughput), since then the line speed has slowly degraded over time to its current 2.3Mbps and the actual throughput has gone through the floor. I talked to BT before and they indicated that the more subscribers on the exchange the more interference and cross-talk so the lower the line speed.
This is great, the Government wants everyone to have > 2Mbps, but if things continue this way I'll go from having over 4Mpbs to below 2Mbps, I don't think the target is very realistic when they can't even keep the people who could get this speed receiving it!