I'm connected to Congleton exchange via cabinet 2 and DP994 - as is my neighbour who is also a Plusnet 40/10 FTTC customer. We talk to each other.
There are about a dozen broadband users connected to the same DP and with a couple of exceptions we all get approximately 14 down/1 up, irrespective of ISP/provider. The cabling on the "D" side of the DP is all copper; the "E" side is aluminium for approximately 150 metres, then copper for the remainder of the trip to the cab.
Last Thursday in response to a long running service problem on my neighbour's circuit, Openreach attended and resolved my neighbour's problem by swapping his cable pairs with mine at the cab and at the DP. He now sees "my" 14 down/1.1 up and I now have "his" 2.5 down/0.6 up with frequent disconnections.
I duly opened a ticket with Plusnet and Openreach arrived yesterday; ran a few tests only to confirm that there is a cable issue between my premises and the cab. Unfortunately there is no spare capacity, so they don't reckon anything can be done about it. The Openreach engineer checked the circuit records and confirmed that my routing had been swapped with my neighbour's for which she apologised.
I'm now awaiting a visit from the Openreach U/G team who I expect will confirm that they can do nothing about the problem.
During a previous speed problem investigation on my (old) circuit, the engineer could get 38 down/2 up at the "E" end of the short section of aluminium cable.
One customer on the same DP manages to get 31 down and 6 up, so better can be achieved with a bit of effort. I think he has the "golden pair" in more ways than one.
Has anybody had similar previous experience of deliberate "fault swapping"?
Phil
