Download speeds have dropped back below 1 Mbps

[#1]

I raised a call with Plusnet at the end of September as I was regularly seeing my download speed at <1 Mbps, after 2 engineer visits that found no issue with my line, the issue miraculously fixed itself on Saturday 20th October and I've had a week of no issues....only for the slow speeds to return today. So what could be causing this (Do they give you a week of decent speed when you threaten to leave)?

I'm reluctant to spend another 30 minutes or more in a queue only to be told to adjust my channels or whatever script the support people are following today ("proud to care" my ar$e)!

A wired test using the BT wholesale site has returned an impressive 0.66 Mbps....my minimum is supposed to be 14 Mbps.

Is my line banded?

Anyone got any suggestions...I can't see how a 3rd engineer visit will help?

I have FTTC and am paying for upto 25Mbps (in my dreams!)

[#2]

When you say the BT engineers found no issues with your line do you mean that they were seeing less than 1Mbps but said that this speed was fine?

I suspect that you are not giving us the full story.

Is your router plugged into the test socket via a filter and are you testing on a computer connected to the router via an Ethernet cable?

[#3]

When the engineers test the line they see the 16/17 Mbps rate that the router says it sees. When the second engineer was sitting in his van after all the tests he performed and I told him the line was testing at <1 Mbps  (yes, it was in the test socket) he just said he had no idea what the issue was.

I reported this back to Plusnet, but as I was using my own 5m adsl cable from the test socket to the router (not the supplied one), they fobbed me off with 'interference'....I then used the 'super' adsl cable that Plusnet provide, but the issues remained from the Thursday (18th) to Saturday (20th) but then, as I said, I've had 7 days of no issues.....now it is back to how it was...nothing has changed in my house and the cabling here hasn't changed

[#4]

Are you using wifi or an Ethernet cable between your computer and. The router?

[#5]

Wireless and wired tests produce the same output

[#6]

Have you.got or can you borrow another router to try? Alternatively if yours is less than a year old perhaps Plusnet could be persuaded to give you one.

[#7]

Already had the router replaced.

[#8]

You haven't mentioned this, so I apologise if I am repeating something you may have already tried.

I would test the landline for any faults, so plug a corded phone in. Nothing else into the master socket (if you don't have one buy a cheapo one), and either make a test call to someone to see if you hear any noise on the line.

You can also dial 17070 option 2 and do a quiet line test to be sure as well.

[#9]

@20min_wait_zz,

There's a lengthy ticket open on your account at the moment. As you've noted there's been a couple of visits now related to the initial speeds and to be honest the next steps would be another visit (there's not much that can be done remotely now). Initially as there had been two visits without the issue being resolved I would suggest booking another and raising an escalation, but then I checked the previous visits engineer notes.

The most recent engineer visit notes:

Eu has router set up on extension, I found there to be stability issues at extension, set up router at main nte and noted a improvement in sync and stability. Eu informed and he will monitor line over next few days. Ltok in sync pq pas.

The engineer before this stated:

Fault on customers router. Achieving good speeds hard wired but very poor speeds wireless. Fault also found with alarm system terminated on NTeface plate. Line tests cross talk with alarm connected and showed 28000 FEC's errors. With alarm disconnected the line tests no fault found with 593 Dec errors over 5min. Customer advised. PQT pass, HHT sync test comp, OGEA fast test LTOK

So I'm reluctant to escalate anything to BT Wholesale if there are internal things causing your problem. 

[#10]

You're correct, first engineer disconnected my alarm system after seeing lots of FECs but the issue remained (and my alarm is still disconnected). New router sent, issue remained.

After second engineer visit, router was connected directly into test socket - issue remained.

Then I get 7 days of consistent speeds around what is expected for my line.

Here's my theory....it's congestion, or over subscription or something like that.

I've asked several times if this could be the case, but have been told it's not.

Why do I think this?

1) Well the 7 days of working internet coincided with the half term holidays (20th-27th Oct) in my area and I'm guessing that demand on my little green FTTC cab (P50 - Medway exchange) was not as high with people jetting off to sunnier places?

2) Slow speeds returned around 00:30 on Sunday, so everyone comes back from their hols on Saturday and all their devices start updating apps, doing backups etc

3) Speed tests at 01:00 this morning (Monday) showed no issues, but at 07:00 I'm back at 1Mbps - again demand?

4) Plenty of other posts on these forums about congestion and that a drop in speed is expected at peak times.

There is obviously a finite amount of traffic that the green box can cope with and as we're located a fair distance from the FTTC cab (approx 1500m) I'm guessing that those nearer and who can achieve greater speeds get priority over us - is that true?

If it's not the FTTC cab, is it congestion at the exchange? 

What speed does the actual fibre from cabinet P50 to Medway exchange actually run at? How many links are there? Are these links at capacity during peak times? Has anyone actually looked at this?

[#11]

Sorry to hear you're still having issues.

I've checked your line and there are no capacity issues reported in your area.

We'll update the open ticket on your account shortly

[#12]

Well I'm reporting it as an issue, how many people have to complain?
For info, my speeds were below 1 Mbps last night until 23:15 at which point they return to the levels I'm paying for. At 05:00 and 06:00 this morning speeds were still ok but at 07:15 speeds drop off again.
I have installed some software to capture my speeds every 15 minutes and will share with you my awful customer experience

[#13]

I know you're probably very miffed about the whole experience so far, that's a given, but some of the stuff you're saying and the way you're putting that across to the staff is kinda wrong.

Do they give you a week of decent speed when you threaten to leave)?

No, ADSL / VDSL does not work like that so even suggesting that is just silly.

Here's my theory....it's congestion, or over subscription

Again highly unlikely, if this was a Virgin Media forum, probably would be!

If the engineer saw lots of FEC errors, did he do a DSLAM reset as your line would have been capped due to all the errors, mine was when my FEC error was through the roof, he did a lift and shift in the cabinet and the FEC errors went away, still low speed, did a DLSM update, and then went away, with in a few days the line saw no issues and raised the speed gradually to the max the line could take. So, it takes a little time to things to get back to normal, but if in that time you've moved you're router back out of the test socket after the second engineer visit, things might have been okay until things started to get unstable as per the engineer notes and automatic line management has kicked in, bringing it back down to lower speeds, and in turn will require another reset and keep your router in the test socket. If you want to use the extension wiring, it will probably need to be shorted / replaced.

[#14]

Appreciate some of my comments are flippant but as I reported my issue over a month ago and nothing has changed I'm becoming increasingly frustrated. Also annoyed that Plusnet support has added details about my ongoing issue on here which is misleading people away from what I'm after. What I want to know from all the geeks and telecoms experts out there is what should I be asking Plusnet to do to resolve my problem? Let's assume for one moment that there is no issue with the wiring in my house (which I'm 100% sure is true) - what could cause the symptoms I see? I have prolonged periods of very poor speeds (<1Mbps) followed by periods where the speed is back up to >15Mbps. This was true for all of October except for the days from 20th - 27th (half term) where I didn't see any issues.

[#15]

Download Speed test performed about 22:30 on BT wholesale site with a wired connection just came back with 5.81 Mbps (max achievable 20.62 Mbps). This is actually good for this time of day compared to what I've seen over last few days, can nearly watch All 4 without buffering.

I've been running JD's auto speed checker at 15 minute intervals since 07:00 today, so will pass this on to PlusNet support once I have a day's worth of data

Questions: From the info I've found on Kitz, my cabinet (P50 on Medway Exchange) has 517 'properties passed' which I assume is the number of copper connections, but a FTTC cab only has maximum of 384 ports (6 x 64), does this mean lots of people still just have ADSL or use Virgin? I guess the FTTC cab that serves P50 must be utilising nearly all the ports - Would Plusnet know this info? 

Datasheet I found on MA5603T shows they have upto 4 (2x2) GE or 10GE upstream connections - Would Plusnet know what this cabinet has? 4 x GE connections back to exchange would only cope with 200 ports running at 20 Mbps before maxing out? (My FTTC cab went online in 2013 so was it designed to cater for the demands of 2018?)

Do businesses and residential properties share the same FTTC cabs?

I live on a fairly new development of 60 houses (built in 2012), we're about 1500m from the cabinet, I was told by engineer that our brand new cables are patched into the really old existing cables - would this be true? Could there be issues here causing my problems (ie, a patch panel of some sort) ?