Had 76 Mbps fibre once upon a time, can now only get 55 Mbps - WHY?

[#1]

Hello,

I've been with Plusnet since 2013 and used to have Fibre Extra once upon a time at 76 Mbps download, but decided it was too expensive at the time and downgraded to the 38 Mbps Fibre.

Now with all the streaming taking place in the family, I decided I wanted to go back to 76 Mbps, but have been told that the maximum I can get is 55 Mbps.

I decided to go ahead with Fibre Extra and try and get Plusnet to help figure out why I can't get the full speed.  But all I get from technical support is that I am getting the advertised speed (55 Mbps) and there is no line fault so there is no problem.

Another consequence of the upgrade is that I am now getting slower upload speeds (from 7 Mbps to 5 Mbps).  This is important as I work from home.

Can anyone explain why I can't get the 76 Mbps download anymore and why my upload is lower?  Is my BT cabinet full or something?

[#2]

Hi there.

I've just ran a check on your land line number at DSL Checker, and it is showing that the best available on your line is 55Mbp/s. Was you actually receiving 76Mbp/s before, or just on the up to 76Mbp/s package? If you still have the original email from when you signed up your should be able to see the maximum speed that was available in your area at the time.

Unfortunately though, we can only provided what is possible in your area, and Openreach are stating that 55Mbp/s is the fastest on your line. You should receive the fastest that you can get down the line, however, as you are on our Fibre Extra package.

[#3]

Hi,

I can't find a relevant email, and my upgrade/downgrade was done over the phone if I remember correctly. 

I can't view any "Help Assistant" closed questions before October 2015 either as they seem to have been purged?

Distance to the cabinet shouldn't be an issue as I am about 50 metres from cabinet 30 that I am connected to.

[#4]

From what we can see you are around 700 meters from the cabinet. Whilst you might only be 50 meters from the cabinet in a straight line it's likely the copper cabling goes a different way.

Fibre speeds can drop over time due to crosstalk which essentially is interference from other lines that have moved onto Fibre. As mentioned above your speeds are within the estimates so I'm afraid our suppliers wouldn't accept this as a issue

[#5]

what are bt doing to prevent the crosstalk issues its crazy nothing ever seems to work properly ever i read the same thing over and over from people that there speeds have dropped and then they get told they are in the threshold of what bt say u should get between which is a massive margin from the bottom to the top end so there is always never a problem when obviously there is somewhere within the bt hardware they supply its just all so crazy why dont they fix the problem of crosstalk and make it all better for the customer whos paying for this shoddy degrading service all i read is excuse after excuse but dont get a fix for the customer

[#6]

Matthew,

So what would have happened if I had stayed with 76 Mbps and not downgraded?  Would my speed have degraded over time?

Why has my upload speed dropped from 7 Mbps to 5 Mbps? I connect to my office from home via a VPN and this drop of nearly 30% is probably going to be just important to me as not being able to get 76 Mbps.

Can you do a GEA Test so I can see the stats?

[#7]

Hello @shah2000,

Thanks for getting back to us. I can see there has been a bit of confusion over the speeds you should have been receiving on the contracts you have had with us. I have looked into this for you and replied via your account here, to shed some light on the matter. I can assure you the maximum you line can handle is 55Mbps and I have run a GEA test shown below to show you the speed we are seeing at hour side.

Please can let us when have carried out the request in the ticket and the results you see.

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	58.5 Mbps
Upstream Speed	5.5 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Target Fix Time
Fault Report Advised	N
Interference Pattern	Regular Interference Observed Daily
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Interference Duration Longest Occurrence	; 00:00 to 23:45
Interference Location	Customer Premise
Interference Observed In Days	5
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream Traffic Detected
Technology	VDSL
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Bridge Tap	Not Detected
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Profile Name	0.128M-55M Downstream 6dB, Retransmission High - 0.128M-10M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2018-06-25T11:15:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	48.1 Mbps	61.1 Mbps	53.7 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	4.2 Mbps	6.0 Mbps	4.8 Mbps
Up Time	856.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	899.8 Sec
Retrains	0.0	1.0	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	2018-07-08T09:44:45Z	2018-07-08T09:59:45Z
Ingress Code Violation	0	2
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	0	0
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

[#8]

Hello @iangilf

Thanks for getting in touch.  Unfortunately there isn't anything Openreach can do to prevent cross talk as it is a type of line fault that can happen to any line. If a line fault has occurred, we work closely to our supplier to get this resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The reason we provide Mgals is because you line performance can vary over time.

[#9]

You must excuse my ignorance but this is my interpretation of these results:

There is regular interference on the line and as a result the line has had its profile reduced (banded) so that it is limited to 55Mbps.

Is this correct? If so is the banding just a way of BT not being bothered to investigate the cause of the interference? To band the line such that the interference does not cause problems then say the line is working properly looks to me to be a cop out.

Some-one please educate me if I've got this wrong.

Edit

This reply has just crossed with the previous post. Can crosstalk really get that bad that speeds can reduce from 76 to 55Mbps?

[#10]

I connect to my office from home via a VPN and this drop of nearly 30% is probably going to be just important to me as not being able to get 76 Mbps.

https://www.plus.net/help/legal/terms/ [Plusnet Standard Terms]

2.1.3. use the services for personal use in the UK (so don't use the services to run your own business, but a couple of work emails or occasional home working are okay) and in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy;

What kind of work are you doing?  Back in the day I worked from home on company provided ADSL services … without any difficulty.  Are you actually encountering issues or because your line is a wee bit slower than it used to be, you are fearing something which has not yet happened?

If you have an actual issue, it might not be the FTTC sync speed - it could be your home network - it could be the back haul from the exchange to the internet (SVLAN).  5Mbps is more than enough for most office type activity, 55Mbps (in the absence of other issues) is more than adequate.

Note I have recently moved from ADSL to FTTC and though the internet connection is 8x faster for most use there is little discernible difference.

[#11]

@Baldrick1,

I think it is fair to say that it is complex!

As I understand things (and that might be flawed) there are a number of issues...

The higher speed (and the associated higher frequencies) of FTTC intrinsically generates more electrical noise.

Such noise interferes with other FTTC circuits AND also with the lower speed ADSL circuits.

See here half-way down the page and follow the links of FTTC cross talk history items. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/01/bt-testing-co-existence-g-fast-vdsl2-17-6mhz-spectrum....

[#12]

I understand that crosstalk will invariably be present due to the multicore cables from many subscribers being bundled together with nothing but twisting to provide any form of isolation. The coupling will be greater at higher frequencies but I am surprised that there should be such a large drop (allegedly from 76 to 55Mbps) caused simply by crosstalk.

Roll on vectoring being introduced more widely?

[#13]

You will get Vectoring if your lucky enough to have Gfast in your area as it's a requirement for Gfast to operate, if you dont have Gfast then your screwed because openreach have no intention of having vectoring on it's own.

[#14]

Crosstalk can have severe effects on a line as this thread from the Kitz forum shows.

[#15]

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@Townman wrote: 

https://www.plus.net/help/legal/terms/ [Plusnet Standard Terms]

2.1.3. use the services for personal use in the UK (so don't use the services to run your own business, but a couple of work emails or occasional home working are okay) and in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy;

What kind of work are you doing?  Back in the day I worked from home on company provided ADSL services … without any difficulty.  Are you actually encountering issues or because your line is a wee bit slower than it used to be, you are fearing something which has not yet happened?

If you have an actual issue, it might not be the FTTC sync speed - it could be your home network - it could be the back haul from the exchange to the internet (SVLAN).  5Mbps is more than enough for most office type activity, 55Mbps (in the absence of other issues) is more than adequate.

Note I have recently moved from ADSL to FTTC and though the internet connection is 8x faster for most use there is little discernible difference.

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I connect to an office network via a VPN.  Most of the time, I am looking at emails and I am simply RDP'ing to a PC in the office so the upload speed is not critical.  But sometimes I am copying files back and forth so that I can work on them locally and if the files are large then there will be a delay compared with my previous speed.  I was also hoping to get the higher upload speed with the upgrade.

But in the grand scheme of things, my office use is probably a tiny fraction of the household's Internet usage when streaming is taken into account.