Transparency, please, with estimated FTTC speed

[#1]

Quote from: pieplanter

Be interesting to know what all the other residents are getting, perhaps with a group of you applying pressure, you might get somewhere.

[#2]

@pieplanter
Clearly the cable needs replacing, if your neighbours have that bad a performance.
Anyway, he's a Line Manager you said, hardly the bossman. Whilst I can understand the issues surrounding setting precedence, if there's a pole there then some customers must be connected to it.
But apart from which, that doesn't detract from making sure that your line performs at the best it can, which it can't if it's got faults, irrespective of spare pairs.
So OR need to get out there and fix any poor joints and replace any faulty cable, may be even install a new cable if there are no spare pairs. What are they going to do if other customers lines go faulty, leave them without service? Seems some  already have very poor service.
Yes it's going to cost OR money, that's why they charge the extortionate prices they do to the providers,so they need to get on with it.
OpenRecth obviously have a significant network problem and need to get it fixed instead of trying to fob everything off and brush it under the tarmac!
Edit: A "class-action" might also apply further pressure.

[#3]

Quote from: knowdice

In your first post you said: Quote from: pieplanter   When fibre broadband was actually installed, the first speed test showed 35Mb down.   So what has changed? Were you always on a 1800m line?

Yes, the line has always been the same.
The way one of the BTOR engineers explained it to me was that when they first blast the superfast stuff down the line, the line will sustain it until the 'computer' realises the line won't sustain that speed and shuts it down to something it knows the line can handle.  This is why we've had 'spikes' as high as 35Mb then 25Mb, but not for very long.  I'm not a techie mind, so this is laymans speak.
Edit:
I see vultura has the right speak

[#4]

Quote from: pieplanter

I see vultura has the right speak

Just my thoughts on how it might work, based on my (limited) knowledge and personal experience of ADSL.
The one problem I can foresee is that your situation is likely to get worse as more people connected to the same cabinet as you order FTTC.  I might be wrong though, I hope so actually.
dick:green Quote fixed.

[#5]

@chrispurvey
Hello Chris
I've pm'd you.  Have you seen the latest response on my support ticket?

[#6]

Yeah I got that, I've replied to you, engineer is still scheduled for tomorrow.

[#7]

Good luck tomorrow.

[#8]

The BTOR (Boost) engineer has just left.  He's reporting that his findings are the same as his colleagues; our line is a 'sub-15' long line and there is nothing he can do to achieve the estimated speed of 33Mb or anywhere near it.  We're stuck with 15Mb down max and around 0.7Mb up.

[#9]

Did you ask him if it was Aluminium cable?

[#10]

Yes, I did. He seemed to think it was copper but couldn't give a definite answer; he's not a local engineer and he didn't go out to the fibre cabinet (to see the tails)

[#11]

So it sounds like he made no effort to get his Hawk tester out and start checking the various sections of your line to see if any iffy bits could be pin-pointed. In view of the previous supposed remark from a Line Manager, I am coming to the conclusion that there is a significant network issue and OpenReach don't want to spend any money either putting in a new cable or fixing the current one.
If this issue isn't already at Account Manager level, it should be, and IMHO questions should be being asked at CEO level about why OpenReach aren't replacing/repairing defective cable and where they have such cable why the speed estimates being provided only reflect the performance that you would expect from a good quality cable.
In my mind, and no doubt in many others, if high speed Broadband is to be successfully provided across this country, to bring us into the 21st century, OpenReach need to do the job properly and stop wasting money.

[#12]

The chap said he had read the notes left by his colleagues, which he said were fairly comprehensive, and was satisfied there was nothing more he could do.  And being 'a 'boost' engineer, he pretty much said there was nowhere further to escalate the problem to.  I don't have the knowledge to challenge anything he said/did/didn't do, but I did say that Plusnet were expecting him to remove any 'banding' and leave us with better speed.   With regard to the banding, he explained about BRAS(?) and my eyes glazed over.  After testing the line and sync speed with his 'multi-level' testing kit, which reported no faults other than excessive length, he left; the line was syncing at 14.5Mb. I showed him my speed profile (attached, from since 27th October); he couldn't explain why we previously had speeds of 25Mb or why that soon dropped but did express some concern about the dip in speed to around 1Mb.
Edit:
But otherwise, no, he didn't do any testing outside the house
Edit:
You've been extremely helpful in this thread and, clearly, we would like better speeds but is it not a matter of fact that on an almost 1800m line length, you can't get more than 15Mb?

[#13]

No it isn't, is the simple answer. There is a very good chance that either you have an intermittent fault and only meticulous testing when the fault is not obviously showing may pinpoint the potential location (and there could be several), or the whole cable (or a section of it) has been damaged or is faulty and a number of other lines are suffering, probably being unbalanced as a consequence and the resulting crosstalk between lines will be horrendous and periodically causing all sorts of errors with the consequence that DLM will drop the sync speed in an attempt to reduce the errors, this directly results in a lower profile (the bRAS profile that the engineer mentioned).
Bearing in mind you achieved 2Mbps on ADSL(2) and the uplift was supposed to be x10 you should be able to get 20+Mbps, which you did for a period.
IMHO, as he was a boost engineer, he should have been more pro-active in checking even just basics, like checking you are actually on a "pair" throughout the length and not on a split pair anywhere which would have a devastating effect. Also, bearing in mind the first engineer's findings (reply #10) I would have thought your line to the DP would have been thoroughly investigated, where he got 20Mbps at the time you were getting 12Mbps. But then I am basing my comments on what you have put in the thread, I have no idea what the 2nd to 4th engineers actually did, but the impression I've got is all that every one of those engineers has done is pretty much the same thing and just  quickly carry out a few, mainly Broadband tests from your premises, and it seems, at times when no obvious fault was showing on your line.
The other thing that we don't know, to see if it's been ruled out as a problem, is whether a Lift and Shift has been done at the DSLAM.
IMHO Plusnet have done everything possible to get engineers out to resolve the issue you are seeing, however they've been let down by OpenReach who don't seem to have taken a logical systematic and methodical engineering approach into discovering the exact cause of this poor performance, they've simply shrugged their shoulders and said it's a long line. This isn't engineering, it's pathetic.

[#14]

Yes, I would say you summed that up pretty well.
You know, the ironic thing is, the BTOR boost engineer actually admitted he was representing Plusnet on the visit and not BTOR.  Yet, it would appear, he hasn't done them any favours.  Anyway, chrispurvey should be back in tomorrow and it will be interesting to see what he has to say.

[#15]

Hi Peter,
I tried to call you earlier, I've sent you a PM.