How to choose fibre speed?
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How to choose fibre speed?
08-04-2016 11:45 PM
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As I understand it PlusNet offers two fibre products either "upto 36MBit" or "upto 72MBit".
I'm in a rural area with a new fibre enabled cabinet but none of my immediate neighbours has fibre yet so I don't know what to expect in the way of performance.
How do I work out which to go for? If I sign up for 72MBit and the local infrastructure is only good for 36MBit am I locked in for a year before I can downgrade?
Re: How to choose fibre speed?
08-04-2016 11:53 PM
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The checker at www.dslchecker.bt.com will give you a reliable estimate
Re: How to choose fibre speed?
09-04-2016 9:21 AM
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And be aware your upload speed will be limited to 2Mb on the 36Mb package, if your line supports more that 2Mb upload and you want faster upload, you have to sign up to the 72Mb package
3Mb FTTC
https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer_speed
Re: How to choose fibre speed?
09-04-2016 9:30 AM
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Note that if the estimate from the link given is low then Plusnet won't let you order the 80/20 product
If it allows you to - the estimate is OK - but you don't get those speeds then, after investigation via a raised fault, they will allow you to downgrade to the 40/2 product
Re: How to choose fibre speed?
09-04-2016 5:54 PM
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I'm also in a rural area and we got fibre about six months ago. Before that I had ADSL at 5.5M down and 448k up on a fairly good line - it ran reliably at 4-5db SNR.
I was a bit concerned about the low upload speed on the PlusNet 40/2 offering, and considered both switching to BT who offer 40/10 or biting the bullet paying extra and getting the 80/20 product and living with whatever the modem could squeeze from the line. My current router tells me I COULD get 55/15 based on the achieved SNR.
However I have not as yet found the 40/2 product in any way constraining. I run a VOIP phone and have PlusNet TV. That said I rarely use cloud services, don't inhabit social media (except this one!) and only intermittently upload material to other people, and I don't have teenagers living here!
40/2 was a x7 increase in download speed and a x4 increase in upload speed over ADSL.
I guess it will depend on your usage. If you (or your family) upload a lot now (at what I presume is 448k) then I suspect you might find 2M up a bit constraining as your use grows (and it will). However if you rarely upload much then the 40/2 product will probably be just fine - at least for the first couple of years until your usage pattern changes.
I would talk to PlusNet and check that they will still do what they said I could do. If the 40/2 was constraining, by paying the difference between the two products I could upgrade.
If you are an existing PlusNet customer and on a Market 1 exchange (which I guess you will be) then make sure you get the best prices from a couple of alternative providers, then talk to the customer retention team.
Re: How to choose fibre speed?
09-04-2016 8:04 PM
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Thanks for the advice folks.
It turns out several of us in the village have a direct exchange lines that go through a fibre enabled cabinet but don't connect into it yet. Openreach are due to fix that next week so hopefully we will be able to order fibre before the end of the month.
I have a security camera system so might be interested in better upload speeds. Will have to think about that.
Currently we have ADSL BB from Plusnet but our voice & line is still with BT so I will be looking to rationalise that when fibre is available. Not yet sure if we will move everything to PlusNet or BT. Will depend on the deal we can get I guess.
I have my own Fibre ready router from Billion which works well and hope to stick with that if possible.
Re: How to choose fibre speed?
09-04-2016 8:12 PM - edited 09-04-2016 8:13 PM
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Thanks for sharing your data wisty.
We currently get around 3-6MBit down and perhaps only 200-300K up but as I said our line is direct to the exchange. When it's connected via the cabinet the distance will be perhaps a third of what It is now.
Quite a bit of noise on the line. A few months back we were loosing connections regularly in the evenings with SNR going negative! Currently have my modem targeting 12db. The noise issue is something else I may have to get addressed once Openreach do their thing.
Re: How to choose fibre speed?
09-04-2016 9:23 PM
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Your phone line will still be connected to the exchange, so that you can still call 999 during a power cut.
Fitting a fibre connection may not reduce your line noise, so you need to raise a voice issue with BT ASAP.
"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."
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