Speed now slower on FTTC. Can anyone advise why?

[#1]

When I moved up to 80Mbps FTTC about a year ago I was excitedly taking screenshots of speedtests every day and mailing them off to my mates (as you do), but after a while you calm down and just enjoy your new fast broadband.
Consequently I haven't done a speed test for months, but I did one at the weekend and it appears my speed has dropped by about 20%.
Previously I had been getting speeds of around 69-72Mbps.  Now it appears I'm down to 53.  The BT Speedtester tells me my IP profile is now 56.39, so presumably this is why.
The only thing I don't know is when this happened and why.  What could cause such a drop?  I have noticed the odd disconnection in my router stats, but normally it reconnects a few seconds later.  Is this the reason?
-Dave
EDIT: Actually I've just checked my logs and I had three disconnect/reconnects on Sept 30th - 13:20, 17:20, 17:21.  Would this have been enough to cause it?

[#2]

Hi there,
I've checked over your connection and can see the decrease, I've also checked you estimated speed and can see that it's at 57.4Mb/s

It's more than likely down to more uptake at fibre at your cabinet, this can reduce your speeds due to crosstalk.

[#3]

Oh well.  The hazy summer days of the early adopter are a thing of the past then...

[#4]

Plusnet are trying their hardest but BT wholesale are the real villains here
Seems this speed drop is happening allot on install last Nov 2012 my line speed estimate by BT wholesale checker was 55Mbps it's now 36.9Mbps. Seems BT are revising estimates down so that if you have a speed problem they can quote the new lower estimate as your line speed. I was getting 55Mbps speed tests down until April this year when it started dropping and even losing connection and other strange things like modem lights off but still connected to internet.My speed dropped and I was referred to my new BT speed estimate which I was getting, this went on until the end of August then as the other problems still persisted  a BT engineer visit was arranged. They swapped out my BT modem and did some line checks at my house and reset something and low and behold my line speed is now back to 55.6Mbps and been there for the last four weeks since engineer visit. If I'd not had modem problems I would have been stuck with lower speed as BT quoted I was within my new lower estimated speed.
All I can assume is BT are lower estimates as more people are connecting to your cabinet, which is a bit naughty are we took up the service based on those estimates. If you bought anything else and then it did not work at the advertised specifications you'd been getting for months then you'd have a claim. With BT wholesale it's just your getting your estimate speed even thought they have lowered it without warning they say what you complaining about.  I was informed by the Plusnet fault team member who called me re my fault and I had a long chat with before the engineer visit was arranged that the estimate speed on your line was an average of all the lines connected to your cabinet. So the estimate goes down if some of the new customers are along way from cabinet. So in effect BT wholesale line estimate is meaningless to a specific line as it's an average of all lines connected to a cabinet.
No matter what happens BT wholesale are the winner all the time they change rules to suite there needs regarding line speeds to fob the great British Mugs (opps sorry customers) off regarding line speeds. This puts Plusnet who from my experience try very hard to get you the best speed in a very difficult position with their customers as BT keep moving goal posts lowering line speed estimates and saying your within your line speed estimate.



.

[#5]

Speed estimates by BT Wholesale  or the Queen  are exactly that  & nothing more,
but fortunately BT do also use  the history  presumably of your ip profile/sync  rates of the previous month when investigating FTTC  faults,
And there is also this http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/12/when-slow-speeds-become-a-fault-on-bts-fttc-superfast-b...
In the grand scheme of things these BT wholesale estimates are often inaccurate , and how BT or anyone else can use them as a way of dismissing what could be a potential fault with the line it's self,beggars belief ( 3 disconnects within a 4hr window ,)
Any audible noise on your line at all,(crackling ,buzzing ext)?
To me some are a little too quick to diagnose a DLM intervention as crosstalk,BT remote tests can't be wrong ,or can they?(Even though they have improved over the years)
To me this is a convenient  way of doing nothing about things , i have little doubt it's what BT want as it will save them money repairing/upgrading copper line plant, I am not saying that cross talk doesn't  exist or, never is the underlying cause for DLM intervention Of course in some cases it will be,
But IMO i think it would be doubtful that crosstalk would cause loss of sync events,That's if those 3 disconnects are losses of sync with the cab,  they could also be PPP session time outs or other network issue's  causing you to loose internet connectivity but not sync between modem and FTTC Dslam/ linecard  

[#6]

I've now raised a ticket for this.  Here's my history from Speedtest.net:

My speeds were pretty consistent through March to May, then I stopped testing until September, when you can see my speeds have dropped considerably.  Up until I stopped in May my profile was always about 72Mbps.  Now it's about 56.

[#7]

Your ticket is now with our faults team, let's see what they find.

[#8]

Quote from: deathtrap

Speed estimates by BT Wholesale  or the Queen  are exactly that  & nothing more, but fortunately BT do also use  the history  presumably of your ip profile/sync  rates of the previous month when investigating FTTC  faults, And there is also this http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/12/when-slow-speeds-become-a-fault-on-bts-fttc-superfast-b... In the grand scheme of things these BT wholesale estimates are often inaccurate , and how BT or anyone else can use them as a way of dismissing what could be a potential fault with the line it's self,beggars belief ( 3 disconnects within a 4hr window ,) ...

Well I went for the upgrade from 40/10 to 80/20 on the strength of the BT/PN estimate of line speed at the time, which told me I'd be looking at round 67Mbps. If it had said I wouldn't get much more than 40, I'd have stuck with that.  So I went for the upgrade and what I actually got was pretty much in line with the estimate (in fact as you can see from my previous table, slightly more).
BT now estimates I'll get around 57Mbps. I'm assuming that's not based on my existing profile, because if I was a new FTTC user, I wouldn't have an existing profile!
But I am curious as to why my line was capable of over 67 last year, and was getting it, whilst now it's capable of 57...and getting that.  Sadly I am surrounded by dull and somewhat elderly neighbours who have ADSL and only drive it on Sundays., so I can't see if anyone else is getting the same speeds.
I wonder if it might be worth approaching houses around the vicinity of our cabinet and just starting up a loose network for comparison of notes...  If everyone on fibre had noticed their speeds dropping by the same amount, it might indicate a fault with the cab.  Maybe I should start a facebook group...

[#9]

It does help if there has been several reported cases as we can put this to our suppliers, I can see you're still waiting for our faults team to pick your ticket up which will be soon and see if it is just something specific to your line.

[#10]

The thing about fibre is that even with a 20% speed drop, it's still perfectly acceptable for most users, especially those who have seen the jump from 2Mbps ADSL to 40Mbps FTTC.
If I was still on 2Mbps broadband and I'd had a 20% drop, I'd be down to 1.6 and I'd notice it, but 70 down to 56? Well most users probably wouldn't have noticed it. In fact if any of my neighbours are on fibre and have taken a similar speed drop, it's questionable whether they would even have reported it.
I could be surrounded by users experiencing a slowdown and because none of the others have put in a call to their ISP, BT would conclude there was no problem to answer!
Of course as content increases in size and media streaming more popular, fast fibre will become the norm and old ADSL a distant memory, in the same way as our old V90 modem speeds.

[#11]

I'm in exactly the same boat although not as extreme....YET. I started with 45M down which gradually decreased to 37 although strangely enough over the past couple of weeks it has increased back up to 40-41. As lorisar.whatever.......says, for the majority of users who, like myself, aren't anal about speeds, it makes little difference. My main concern is that the internet is available when I want it which it has been continually for the past 18 months since I joined PN, for which I'm eternally grateful.