Broadband Slower than Neighbours is it an Openreach Problem

[#1]

Hi,

I’m not sure how to best progress this issue, I’ve raised a call but not had any feedback yet and wondered what the best to approach would be when I call again – when I raised the call I had less of an understanding of the issue.
I live in a small road of just 10 terraced houses and we are all on the same cabinet.
My downstream and upstream rates are more than 50% lower than every other house which has resulted in an unhappy household. It looks like an Openreach issue as I saw a similar problem on the forum recently. How can I get this sorted out quickly, any ideas. (I’m not paying 50% of the price for a poorer service though).

I have attached a file showing the differences using the BT Broadband Checker.

[#2]

Those figures are very strange!

I assume they are figures using the address checker , is is possible to get figures using the phone number(s) as they are more accurate ? ( redact the number before posting the results though as its a public forum )

Strange that whilst your FTTC estimates are lower , the ADSL estimates are higher than neighbours. Either the results are wrong or your line is routed differently

[#3]

Thanks for your post @John35 and welcome to our Community Forums.

I'm sorry to see you're having speed issues.

I've tested your line and the tests are showing your router's getting around 26mbps, which is above the expectations of your line as your speed estimates shown on the supplier availability checker are between 16.5mbps and 23.9mbps.

From what I can see your line's around 1km long to the cabinet and looking at a distance to speed graph Here the speed you're getting is about right. Do your neighbours actually get the higher speeds the availability checker is quoting? 

If they do it's possible as MisterW's suggested, your line's routed differently or the pair quality within the cabling from the cabinet isn't the same as your neighbours. I've attached below a copy of our testing:

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID	[redacted BBEU]

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description	GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	26.7 Mbps
Upstream Speed	3.5 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	1050.6
Upstream Rate Assessment	Low
Downstream Rate Assessment	Reasonable
Interference Pattern	Regular Interference Observed Daily
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Interference Duration Longest Occurrence	From19:30to22:15
Interference Location	Customer Premise
Interference Observed In Days	10
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream traffic detected
Technology	VDSL
DP Type	External
Profile Name	0.128M-40M Downstream, Error Protection Off - 0.128M-10M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2021-11-04T09:00:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	26.7 Mbps	26.7 Mbps	26.7 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	3.4 Mbps	3.4 Mbps	3.4 Mbps
Up Time	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec
Retrains	0.0	0.0	0.0

Current and Last 15 Minute Bin Performance
Parameters	Last Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)	Current Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)
Start Time Stamp	2021-11-17T08:31:07.186+00:00	2021-11-17T08:46:07.186+00:00
Ingress Code Violation	0	1
Egress Code Violation	0	1
Errored Seconds	1	1
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

[#4]

Thank you.  The results I posted used my neighbours telephone number.  For the rest of the road I just used the address checker.  I agree the results are strange. 

[#5]

Thank you for your prompt reply. 

My problem isn't that I'm not getting the speeds shown in my contract with Plusnet.  My problem is that I should be offered the same speed ranges as my neighbours.  I have spoken to most of my neighbours and they all, without exception, get speeds in excess of 40mbps.

I agree with MisterWs comments that the problem probably lies in the cabinet.  Other posts I have looked at suggest a number of potential issues from wiring issues through to a restriction placed on the line itself.

How do I get this resolved since I cannot contact Openreach directly?

[#6]

Thanks for getting back to me @John35

I'm afraid it's not possible for our suppliers to offer everybody in a neighbourhood the same speed range, because each line is different though it is odd that your neighbours lines are widely better.

As you can see from the above test results, there's no wiring issues detected or artificial restrictions on your line. 

Are any of your neighbours with Plusnet? I'd be interested to test their lines to compare, if they are.

[#7]

Thank you for your reply.  Unfortunately, without explanation I can't see how this helps.  If the problem is within the cabinet itself I would have assumed you would have it checked by an Openreach engineer.  That is what has happened for people reporting a similar problem.  No, some of my neighbours were with Plusnet but left.

There is no earthly reason why we should be restricted in this way.  This is the speed range advised by Openreach and I would like an explanation as to why it is different to the 10 houses in my road who all share the same cabinet and telegraph pole.  I note that the person quoted underneath had an almost identical problem.  Perhaps you could explain the difference as I'm not technical.

RandomNameGener wrote the following quite recently:  

I'm wondering what I am able to do in this situation:

I have a telephone pole in my front drive, both my neighbours and I are connected to it. We are all on Plusnet and when I check my max speed online (via address) it says 20-25, and when I check theirs it's 50-70.

When checking speeds on site he get regularly 45-50, I get circa 20. We are all on Unlimited Fibre Extra.

I'm wondering what could be different that means the expectations and real speeds are so vastly different between the two houses? Where can I follow this up to make my speed to reach the same as theirs?

Appreciate some pointers, I've contacted Plusnet who weren't able to help (focussing on my WiFi instead) and Called BT who don't control the phone lines any longer and just tried to sell me their broadband (I forgot that's now Openreach).

Your response on that occasions was:  

Thanks for your post @RandomNameGener and welcome to our Community Forums.

I'm sorry to see you're having speed issues. I'm a little disappointed to be honest with how we've handled things when you've rung. I've tested your line tonight and I'm seeing a range of problems. I've arranged for a bit of feedback to be passed onto the adviser so they'll know what to look out for next time. 

Your speed is firstly artificially restricted by automated software at the cabinet (the green box in the road) at 27.4mbps. There's what's known as a bridge tap detected along with a line issue. 

In addition, the estimated speed range for your line according to Openreach is between 35mbps to 51.4mbps, so just based on this your line's definitely under-performing below where we'd expect.

I'd recommend we arrange an Openreach engineer visit to investigate further. Could you reply to the support ticket I've logged on your account Here with when you'll be available?

If you can post back once you've responded, I'll make sure we book the engineer as soon as we can.

[#8]

Thanks for getting back to me @John35 

In that other user’s case, line tests detected problems. As per the test I’ve run on your line I’ve attached above, there are no issues nor is your speed artificially restricted. 

While the issue may seem identical to yours, it absolutely isn’t the case due to what tests were picking up.

Again though your line may likely take a different route between your property to the pole to the cabinet and/or the quality of your individual line inside the cables may not be as good but that doesn’t always mean there’s a fault. 

We can’t tell you definitively unfortunately due to the way the infrastructure works, but if we were to compare line stats between other lines, this may give some clues. I’ve asked if other people in your area are with Plusnet for this very purpose because we can’t test a line that’s provided by another internet service provider.

Openreach have an estimated speed range for each line where if the speed falls below this or a line test shows a problem, they’ll investigate.

Also we can only arrange an Openreach engineer to investigate externally if a line test pinpoints the location of an external problem otherwise we’d have to book a visit to carry out an investigation.

We could arrange an engineer visit but I very much suspect based on the above, there may be nothing they’d be able to do but I’m happy to be wrong.

If you’d like to query this further with Openreach, you can fill out this formwize https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-availability---customer-form to their fibre enquiries team.

I hope this helps.

[#9]

@John35.given that @Anoush can't do a comparison between yiu and your neighbours, what may be useful is a post of the Helpdesk page from your Hub one ( redact the username before posting). That will give us an indication of what the hub believes the line quality is. It may be possible to get similar reports from one of your neighbours ( although their hub will have a different link to get the information which may make it difficult) . Do any of them use BT as their routers are similar?

[#10]

@John35  It would help if you re-posted the checker results where you used the phone numbers, any which are showing the Observed speeds line which you have just missed on your previous pdf and also including the top line showing the cabinet number  (don't show the phone number). These might give more information to help understand the problem.

[#11]

Looking at the observed speeds for the neighbours is a good shout. It doesn't look like that shows up when you search by address, so it'll be something they'll need to do via their neighbours phone numbers.