Low Upload Speed

[#1]

Hi @acr,

Thank you for getting back in touch with us. I've reviewed the ticket on your account today and raised a response there. Please let us know once you've had the chance to read and respond to the ticket and we'll pick this back up for review as soon as possible.

[#2]

@TheMightyAJ  I am not sure I approve of you not addressing the many valid points made by @acr and hiding your response in a ticket which is not visible on the forum. Back in the not so distant past, ( I have recently returned to PlusNet after previously being a customer for many years) the forums were much more open and transparent and staff were much more likely to discuss problems and admit that mistakes had been made. Lately everything seems to be obscured by responding by a ticket so forum members are none the wiser. I suppose the main excuse is GDPR but this should not affect general problem discussion where there is no personal account information revealed. Many threads seem to be a ticket tennis matches which is very frustrating as no useful information on the problems are revealed.☹️

[#3]

To assist @RealAleMadrid and others who are interested in this thread the reply received was as follows:-

"Thank you for getting back in touch with us.

Regarding the degradation of your line estimates, unfortunately this is a known phenomenon, which can be caused by a number of things such as more people being connected to the same Fibre equipment over the years, or simply the quality of the line itself degrading. As my colleague, Anoush, had confirmed in his previous reply, there's a chance that booking a further engineer wouldn't necessarily be able to resolve the fault, but that's the only avenue we have open to us to continue our investigation at this stage.

In regards to changing the package you're on, it's true that you're no longer in contract and a potential resolution to this matter would be to downgrade you from Unlimited Fibre Extra to the Unlimited Fibre package. Obviously, this is something that's entirely up to you and you'd be paying a lower rate for the package as it offers up to 40Mbps down and 10Mbps up. If you were to downgrade, there wouldn't be any specific charges or fees as all we'd be doing is altering the speed banding for your line and since you're not currently in contract, there would be no contractual issues.

If you went through with this, there wouldn't be any way to know that the Fibre Unlimited Extra service had improved, other than by checking what your line estimates are from time to time. Also, if work is carried out on the cabling in the area then it may be an indication that the wiring has been updated, but not necessarily a guarantee.

It's entirely up to you and how you'd like to proceed at this stage and if you want to give it some consideration, please feel free to take time in sending a further response. Just let us know on the Community Forums once you've updated this ticket and we'll pick this back up for review as soon as possible.

Kind regards,"

If I have understood it correctly, the acceptable limits are not really worth having as they will reduce as line conditions deteriorate. So it does not matter how low your speeds get the line estimates / acceptable limits will quickly follow suit. Over the past year my download speed has fallen 28% and my upload speed has fallen 50% with the minimum speed line estimate falling with it. My actual speeds are currently below both the minimum download limit and the minimum upload limit with Openreach still not willing to fix the problem in the near future. If I did not know better they are just waiting for the line estimates / acceptable limits to fall further and cover the position.

Could a member of staff from Plusnet please answer my final paragraph as it is important to know (particularly if I chose to stay on Fibre Extra):-

"Finally, if my speeds continue to fall as a result of the cable not being replaced (as I was advised they would do by two BT Openreach engineers) then how much lower would my speed need to be before I should submit another fault. Would this be based on sync speeds or actual speeds being achieved ?" Following on from that, would logging another fault based on reduced speeds actually achieve anything ?

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[#4]

Thanks for getting back to us @acr 

It's not always the case that estimates will drop when your speeds do, but unfortunately it can occasionally happen especially if the problem is due to the lines degrading or cross-talk at the cabinet. 

Cross-talk is basically interference from other fibre connections as other people in the area go onto fibre and there isn't any fix for this apart from expanding the cabinet to make more room or building a new one.

I've read through the notes on your ticket again and at the moment in your case, there's outstanding cable work which our suppliers have advised is in their future plans and engineers have identified cross-talk at the cabinet. I didn't notice the notes about cross-talk earlier, with this 'new' information I kind of now wouldn't recommend another engineer.

If you downgrade to our basic fibre package 40/10 and at some point in the future if you get the full 10mbps upload speed then you'd know that something has changed with the infrastructure and you could try upgrading back to fibre extra.

Having said that if you do downgrade while it'd be cheaper, you'd lose around 20mbps of your download speed, so I think it's worth factoring that in your decision weighing up cost against the extra download speed.

If you choose to stay on fibre extra, it's difficult to tell at what point it'd be acceptable to report a new fault. Currently the minimum expectation is 51.5mbps but as you know, this can change.

There's no clear answer though as if your speeds are within the 'current' expectations but if they're below the 'minimum guaranteed' we promise you in your contract, unless it's obvious the estimates are correct, we should be arranging at least one engineer to see if anything can be done as estimates are just that, they're estimates and aren't always accurate. 

One thing's for sure that we can report a fault based upon your actual speeds (throughput) assuming you're getting slow speeds on a wired connection with no other devices using the broadband etc.

Let us know if you need any more advice or if there's anything you'd need clarification on.

[#5]

@acr Thanks for posting PlusNet's reply to your questions, not that it tells you anything new. The falling speeds may be a mixture of crosstalk and the suspect cable. Openreach engineers will tell you anything to get away from a job, the trouble is they have no power to get a cable replaced unless it is a complete service failure, replacing cables is expensive work so generally doesn't happen quickly.

[#6]

Thank you for your reply @Gandalf .

My contract for Unlimited Fibre Extra shows estimated speeds of 54.9 Mbps down and 16.2 Mbps up. These were also the lowest speeds estimated on the BT Availability Checker at the time with the highest speeds shown as 74 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. I took out Fibre extra because I have a need to often upload large numbers of files (mainly photographs) and it enabled me to start an online backup. 

Currently my actual speeds as shown on a BT Speed test on a wired connection with no other devices using broadband are in the mid to late 40's Mbps down and about 7 or 8 Mbps up and are therefore below the estimated speeds in my original contract. I do not know if it is correct or not but I was advised by one Openreach Engineer that with the levels of crosstalk on the line the IP Profile will always be significantly lower than the sync speed with the actual speeds being even lower. I was seeing a difference of over 10 Mbps between the Sync Speed and the IP Profile at the time. Currently it is not quite as bad with a sync speed of 59.2 Mbps down and an IP Profile of 52.25 Mbps. 

I have decided to stay on Unlimited Fibre Extra for the time being and will continue to monitor my speeds. There have already been at least 6 different engineers working on this problem over the last 3 months and I see little point in arranging for another at this stage. If my speeds continue to fall then I will log another fault and/or change to Unlimited Fibre.

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to us @acr 

No problem, I'm sorry this wasn't the ending to the fault we'd have wanted and fingers crossed the infrastructure in your area improves in the non too distant future.

Feel free to post back if anything changes or you decide to downgrade or if there's anything else you'd need help with.

[#8]

Since my last post, in November, I entered into a new two year contract with a minimum guaranteed speed of 40.7Mbps. Unfortunately my speeds (upload and download) have continued to reduce and a recent speed test is reporting a download speed of only 26.53Mbps and an upload speed of 0.99 Mbps (see attached). The IP Profile for the line is shown as 34.99 Mbps. My router is currently synching at 36 Mbps down and 0.8Mbps up with a noise margin on 5.7 down and 4.8 up.

Based on previous investigations by multiple Openreach engineers the fault is caused by crosstalk on the line and it will not get better until the cable coming onto the estate is replaced (the cable requiring replacement has already been identified and marked). When I first had fibre I was getting 76 Mbps down and 18 Mbps up. 

I know that Openreach have the replacement of the cable in their future plans but is there anything that can be done to bring that date forward or at least find out when the planned date is? What happens now that Plusnet's guaranteed speed is not being met ? 

[#9]

My previous post was made out of frustration with Openreach and their lack of action in resolving an obvious fault. However, my line has just dropped again and speeds are now back above Plusnet's minimum guaranteed speed.

I will continue to monitor the speeds but for the moment there is no need to reply to this post.

[#10]

@acr This is shocking.

I see you started this thread almost a year ago!🙄

I had never heard of the DSLAM, so I'm learning, what an issue maybe. 😐

Was it  resolved?  What is the upload speed now?

On a personal level, I'm also concerned with the upload speed too on my Fibre Extra contract. 

It also once worked, like it should and when Openreach replaced the old copper cables, with fibre ones from the green box to the telegraph pole outside, it just got worse. (see wired speed test for example).

A typical wired speed test result

[#11]

Hi there @Leapy

Together with our network partners at Openreach we will try to provide you with the best speeds possible. If you feel this is not the case, please raise your speed fault online at faults.plus.net

[#12]

@tinytaco Thank you. Please correct me if I get this wrong.

Talking to the Plusnet Engineer today....

1. I understand the phone line (on Plusnet Fibre Extra) has a "possibility" of up to 20mb upload speed.

2. Plusnet does not guarantee any upload speed.

So, if I report it as a fault, it may not be a fault and just the normal for my area?

Looking a testmy.net it would seem that I'm above the Plusnet download speed but below the upload average of 9.5mb.

 

[#13]

@Leapy the fault from 2019 has never been fixed. My actual speeds are now about 46 Mbps down and 8 Mbps up compared to speeds of about 75 Mbps down and 18 Mbps up before the fault. All that has happened is the estimated speeds that BT Openreach show for the line have fallen in line with the actual speeds being seen. 

I did have another fault on the line earlier this year which was quickly fixed despite the lockdown. 

You are correct in saying that there is no guarantee on the upload speed which is a constant source of frustration to me as uploads now take twice as long to complete. My actual download speed of about 8Mbps is below Plusnet's estimated upload range of 10-16  Mbps but there is nothing that can be done about it. My minimum guaranteed download speed is 42 Mbps which I am achieving.

If you think that there is a fault with your broadband then you should start the Plusnet broadband troubleshooter. Make sure that you go through all the steps to rule out your internal wiring. You never know BT Openreach / Plusnet may find a fault that they are willing to quickly fix.