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FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

drunkzombie
Grafter
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Registered: ‎05-06-2015

FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

Today the BT ADSL checker started to show that FTTC (VDSL) is available. However, the estimated speeds are horrendous!

Keep in mind that I currently get an actual speed of 10Mbps down and 0.4Mbps Up on ADSL 2+ (with an average ping of 11ms - Ookla speedtest)

I am about 450meters from the cab by road.

The house is less than 20 years old (16 years I think)

fttc .png

I would understand these differences in speed if I were a long distance from the cab.

I am very eager to move onto FTTC before all the lines get used up! But at these speeds I would be paying more to loose download speed (although upload speed could increase ever so slightly).

 

Is there any comforting news that anyone can share?

Would an option be to move onto FTTC and then see what the speeds are like?

Would I be able to 'downgrade' back to ADSL if the speeds fall short or are the same?

 

Please help Smiley

Thank you

15 REPLIES 15
MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

What's the number on the cabinet down by the road?

It may be that your not connected to that cabinet but a different one or that the cable takes a certain route.

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
drunkzombie
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

Sorry, connected to cab 6 and the one down the road has a 6 on it.

bmc
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

I would hope it's just a glitch on the OR system. Check again next week to see what it says.

 

Brian

Gandalf
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

Cheers for that. It looks like it might just be the cabling takes a longer route as Matt's mentioned.

Unfortunately the only definitive way of finding out might be to order fibre and see how fast your speed is. However if your sync rate does fall within those estimates you might be stuck with those speeds until the end of the contract.

It may be worth querying this with Openreach by filling out this form.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
drunkzombie
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

Thanks for the replies. The more I think about this, the less sense it makes.

My down Attenuation is 26.5dB. According to ADSL speed calculators my line length is about 1.9Km to the exchange via the cab.

If you reference the FTTC speed/distance graphs and you take the 8Mbps estimate, I would be 3.0km from the cab. So even if I had a direct line to the exchange, I should get around 15Mbps via FTTC.

 

I have filled in a form, I'm not to hopeful in a response.

 

I may order FTTC anyway and hope for the best, but I don't want to get locked into a contract which I pay more for with lesser speeds Sad

 

Thanks.

 

P.S I know EO lines are not FTTC enabled and these numbers are using best case scenario - just trying to get my head round it.

Gandalf
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

If you believe the records are wrong then when your circuit is upgraded to fibre, you should see more than what's estimated over at www.dslchecker.bt.com. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do beforehand. Sad

 

Let us know when Openreach get back to you on the back of that form.

 

It's worth bearing something else in mind, that your speed estimates are based on the quality of the line as well as the distance to the cabinet. It's possible that your line is made up of aluminium instead of copper.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
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jelv
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?


@drunkzombie wrote:

According to ADSL speed calculators my line length is about 1.9Km to the exchange via the cab.


How far is it from the cab to the exchange? If you look at the minimum straight line from cab to exchange and deduct that from 1.9 that would give you the maximum distance from you to the cab.

jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
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drunkzombie
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

@jelv wrote:

How far is it from the cab to the exchange?

As the crow flies, it is 360m from cab to exchange. That would give me 1.5Km from home to cab. Resulting in 15-20Mbps.

However, this 360m distance is over a river. Via road it would be 1.17km giving me 730m from home to cab. Which is 35Mbps.

I reckon that the cab to home cable length is about 600m - 800m. This gives me an estimate of 35Mbps - 51Mbps.

 

@Gandalf wrote:

It's possible that your line is made up of aluminium instead of copper.

 

Could aluminium cable from the cab to the house have such a great affect on FTTC but not affect ADSL as much along the same cable?

 

Thanks

Gandalf
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

Could aluminium cable from the cab to the house have such a great affect on FTTC but not affect ADSL as much along the same cable?

I know that distance can affect fibre more so than ADSL, so it's possible that the quality of the line can too.

A bit like how the quality of internal phone wiring has more of an impact on fibre.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
jelv
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

I presume the speed estimates you have posted were when you checked using your phone number. What does http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.AddressOutput give you?

jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
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Terranova667
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

My line sadly is aluminium and at 500m from the fibre cab my current estimate range is 40-57Mb, unless the line is in dire quality or is taking one hell of a long route to the cab I don't see why the OP estimate range isn't a lot higher. 

Whilst Aluminium isn't great and has more chance of degradation and issues than copper there shouldn't be a huge drop in what speeds it can do.

 

drunkzombie
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

@jelv What does http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.AddressOutput give you?

There is no difference between the two.

 

@Terranova667 My line sadly is aluminium and at 500m from the fibre cab my current estimate range is 40-57Mb

Thanks for that. May I ask what your ADSL estimated speeds were/are?

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Two posts released from Spam Filter and duplicate removed.

Terranova667
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

I'm pretty far from the exchange so my estimate was up to 4Mb on adsl2+ i got 5mb when synced so a little higher than they predicted, but exchange distance has no baring on fibre as it's all down to the distance and line quality from the fibre cab to the home.

drunkzombie
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Re: FTTC available but shocking speed estimate?

I got a reply from filling in that form.
Hello               ,
Thanks for contacting us about fibre in your area.
I’ve had a look at this for you and you are connected to cabinet: 6 of exchange:           .
I’m afraid the reason you can’t have Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) is due to the length of your line being over 1.8km from the cabinet. However, I can see that there is an ongoing project to have FTTP (Fibre to the premises) installed in the area.
My advice to you is to keep checking our website for updates. When the FTTP is available and orders can be accepted, this information will be given via this link:
Our website will also give the details of CPs who offer FTTP products to their customers.
 
Thanks for getting in touch,
 
Kind regards,
Deepika
Fibre Enquiries Team, Openreach
I still think there is something wrong. There is no way I am over 1.8km from the cab seeing as my ADSL line is 1.9km from the exchange as I have already talked about.
 
They say "wait until FTTP" but I already have the option of FTTPoD, so I doubt I'm going to get access to FTTP anytime soon (without paying for them to lay cable).
 
All that link says now is 'great you can get FTTC' It used to 'say we are exploring solutions/building FTTP'.