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BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

Reddog
Grafter
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Registered: ‎21-03-2009

BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

So i got a phone call the other day from BT, they wanted us to sign up to them.

 

I told them, sorry i have just signed a new contract with Plusnet and it's a 24month deal so joining BT is out of the question.

 

He said the reason he was phoning is because BT are getting upgraded speeds for free and only BT customers will get the increase.

 

I said i was happy with my speeds @ PN and he asked how much speed was i getting with them. I told him i'm on the 80/20 package and that i nearly max it out. Getting 78megs and 18 up or 8.9mbps.

 

The day after that call my internet speed has been reduced by about 10megs so in my mind BT are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

 

Meaning PN users lose out because BT needs the bandwidth for their customers? It's a bit of a worry that they can just do that. How low is it going to get?

 

Can you please look into this and give me an honest answer as to why we have to suffer for BT customers to get their upgraded speeds.......

19 REPLIES 19
npr
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

I'm a BT customer and am not aware of any upgrade being offered.

I assume he was referring to BT changing their Infinity 1 product from 38/10 to 52/10, that's only any good for people with very good lines which rules me out. I really can't see that taking bandwidth from non-BT customers.

Have you tried restarting the router? If that fails to improve thing's I would phone support.

HarryB
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎25-03-2015

Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

As NPR has said, I can only assume he was referring to the change from 38Mbps to 55Mbps on their lower packages.

If your speeds have dropped this would be unrelated and it would be best contact our support team (I'd have a look for you but unfortunately in not in the office at the moment, sorry)
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Harry Beesley
 Plusnet
Reddog
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

I have reset the router and my speed has changed to a lower one. I just find it funny that this only happened after that call from BT.

 

My line/internet has been @ those speeds since i signed up to PN but maybe it's something else that is causing it.

Latency and upload speeds have remained the same just a loss of 10megs somewhere and i just wanted to know why this is.

Andrue
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?


@Reddog wrote:

@I said i was happy with my speeds @ PN and he asked how much speed was i getting with them. I told him i'm on the 80/20 package and that i nearly max it out. Getting 78megs and 18 up or 8.9mbps.

 

The day after that call my internet speed has been reduced by about 10megs so in my mind BT are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

 

Bandwidth at your exchange (and your cabinet though less likely to be an issue) have always been contended with other ISPs. That's just a fact of life with residential broadband (which is why it's so much cheaper than a leased line). It has always been the case that increased use by customers of another ISP could impact the throughput you see. More correctly all users attached to a given exchange (or maybe cabinet) could experience throughput drops if traffic is really heavy. It's pretty much the same scenario you get on busy roads. The difference being that BT are usually pretty quick to increase capacity to remove the congestion. There is the possibility that by increasing the speeds available to BT users (who are often in the majority) your exchange/cabinet might come under pressure for a while but that would be a gradual thing.

 

I also suppose that if one of your neighbours has changed to that package it will modify the crosstalk situation and might adversely impact you but that seems a little unlikely. In any case that's just the way it is with xDSL. Any time any of your immediate neighbours change their FTTC package you run the risk of getting a worse connection (though you could also get an improvement in theory).

 

Whatever the cause I can assure that there is no 'robbing Plusnet to pay BT' going on here. I doubt it's technically possible and it would land both ISPs in hot water with the industry regulator.

MattyC
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

Was this on May 2nd by any chance? Let me assure you that it was coincidence either way.

Having tested your line, it seems that your sync speeds are slightly lower than when you were originally with us. I'd probably put this down to crosstalk.

Matty

ex-Plusnet staffer. Any posts after 28/07/2017 aren't on behalf of Plusnet
Reddog
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

Yes Matty i think it was. I understand that increasing all BT users speeds in my small local exchange from 30ish to 52megs will mean a loss for someone like me who basically max's out a 80/20 line.

 

I'm still happy with my speeds but i just hate it when my solid connection suddenly changes and loses 1/8th of it's speed overnight. Makes you think that you have an issue with ya PC or Modem when you all of a sudden get less speed.

 

The phone call from BT wasn't a coincidence and the analogy Robbing Peter to pay Paul was probably incorrectly used as i do understand about crosstalk/contention but still going from 77megs to 67megs is a bit annoying to say the least.

aesmith
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

I understand that increasing all BT users speeds in my small local exchange from 30ish to 52megs will mean a loss for someone like me who basically max's out a 80/20 line.

I thought all that BT were doing was replacing the 40/10 product with 55/10.   If that's the case then someone formerly or currently on 40/10 but only getting 30 would not see any change. 

Andrue
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?


@Reddog wrote:

Yes Matty i think it was. I understand that increasing all BT users speeds in my small local exchange from 30ish to 52megs will mean a loss for someone like me who basically max's out a 80/20 line.

It might have that consequence for some users and you might be one of those users. A package change for a relatively large group of customers such as BT is slightly more likely to have a detectable change that's all. But this could be something else entirely. Residential broadband, especially FTTC, is always subject to change as customers come, go and change their usage patterns.

The phone call from BT wasn't a coincidence 


Yes, it was. They don't have any way of knowing what your sync speed is nor how it might be affected by their package change. Your number just happened to pop-up on the screen of some BT marketing droid that's all.

There really is no good reason to 'blame' BT for your change in sync speed. It is adequately covered by 'stuff happens' and my suggestions should be thought of as pure speculation Smiley

If that's the case then someone formerly or currently on 40/10 but only getting 30 would not see any change. 

That's true but there are quite a lot of people who choose the 40Mb/s packages even though their line can go faster. It's one of the reasons why people demanding faster connections for all need to be cautious. The evidence from BT (and VM) is that most people are not crying out for speed. Only a minority of people choose the fastest package their line can handle.

I don't know how many people are going to benefit from this uplift but it could be quite a few. Whether it's enough to have a noticeable impact on the rest of us is speculation. I might pop over to Thinkbroadband and see if anyone there thinks it's possible. I could be talking utter rubbish (surely not, I hear you cry. Don't I?).

 

southerner
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

I lost ~10M on my downstream about a year ago I think for no apparent reason. BT came out and moved me to a different cab port and my missing ~10M magically reappeared. BT were quite dismissive of it at 1st though and I had to moan a lot to get the engineer to look at it. I remember they commented the reason was the port I was on was only offering ~10M lower going forward for some reason and that most wouldn't be able to synch high enough to notice the change.


5342910234

 

 PS. Interesting Speedtest is seeing my connection as BTGS. Is that something related to the new network maybe?

Andrue
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

Well for what it's worth the pundits on TBB haven't dismissed my theory as stupid, yet Smiley

SpendLessTime
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

What gateway are you on?

 

http://users.plus.net/@gateway_custom?debug-ip=yes

 

If it has the letters  IR (for internet router) in the gateway name then that is the new network

Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT
Reddog
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

I'm not pointing fingers @ BT and saying they have targeted me specifically, i'm saying it's not a coincidence i get a call from them saying all my area is getting a free speed boost for BT members only but i don't really care because i have an 80/20 with PN. Obviously what i do care about is the impact this free BT boost has on my PN connection.

 

Who's to say that the next free upgrade for BT members to say 80megs might bring me down far more were it wouldn't be worth it for me to be paying for an 80meg connection with PN. If it gets any lower i might as well just go for a lower package instead.

Andrue
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?


@Reddog wrote:

Obviously what i do care about is the impact this free BT boost has on my PN connection.

Who's to say that the next free upgrade for BT members to say 80megs might bring me down far more.


 

There's no evidence that BT have anything to do with your speed drop! If I'd known you were going to get fixated on the idea I wouldn't have mentioned it at all and I'd have told you flat out it had nothing to do with them because it almost certainly doesn't.

I only speculated on the possibility because I thought it was a more accurate and honest thing to do.What you need to understand is that all FTTC connections slow down over time. It's inevitable. Every time one of your neighbours takes the service your line speed could suffer. The fact yours happens to have dropped now when another ISP is rolling out an upgrade is a coincidence for all we know.

Certainly it's just one of those things. It is pointless to mention BT. You just have to accept that like hundreds of thousands of people all over the country over the last five or six years you are seeing your connection deteriorate. It may drop further over the coming years - and yes it may drop sufficiently to make 80/20 a waste of money. It may even recover though that's unlikely unless some of your neighbours decided to cancel.

But forget I ever suggested that BT's new package could have anything to do with it. It almost certainly does not.

aesmith
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Re: BT upgrades means PN downgrades?

Who's to say that the next free upgrade for BT members to say 80megs might bring me down far more ....

Conceivably it might, then so might a load of rich neighbours moving in and paying for 80meg at the current prices.  You can't really expect to prevent neighbours signing up to the same service as you, in order to protect your own speed.
 
More positively, what's your speed estimate?  Plusnet have said they work off the low end of the clean estimate, so if you dropped below that then Plusnet should take action.