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New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

thearmydee
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Posts: 11
Registered: ‎06-04-2018

New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

I recently moved from Sky Fibre ( left on 5th April 2018 ) getting a speed of 35-38Mb and wanted more so opted for the Fibre Extra with Plusnet. At the time I signed up I did the line check and as you can see from the image I was expecting to get 45-67Mb. I'm only achieving "about" 40-41Mb. This is incredibly disappointing considering the BT engineer installing my line last year confirming that my max speed would be 70-72Mb. I'm not even getting the low end - being 45Mb. So is Plusnet inflating the speed to get me to sign up or is my Plusnet router faulty?

I realise from other posts and the help pages that there is no such thing as a settling period so what gives? I have been experiencing drop outs - last night was every few minutes. I called Plusnet and a fault ticket was raised but I don't understand if this is related to the speed being so low. Interestingly I've not had a dropout today for approximately 6 hours. 

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rongtw
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

@thearmydee  hi you may have been incorectly put on wrong speed , one of our friendly staff here @Gandalf  hopefully will look at this for you Thumbs_Up

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thearmydee
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Fingers crossed it's that easy! Thanks. Look forward to hearing from @Gandalf Smiley

Gandalf
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Welcome to the community forums @thearmydee

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing speed problems since moving to us.

Our tests are showing your router in sync at 44mbps. Unfortunately it looks like your minimum estimates shown here have since dropped to 40.7mbps which means there's not much we can do to investigate further.

There could be multiple reasons why estimates drop, it could be due to the quality of the line/equipment.

I'll respond to your ticket with a bit more detail.

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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thearmydee
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Huh. Interesting. So I was partially right - Plusnet seems to have inflated the speed I was going to get. I spent a lot of time on various sites getting line speed checks done with other providers and all had a very similar story - the max was around the 67Mb mark. The biggest draw for moving to Plusnet was the high upload speed - now that's also slower than claimed. I'm a remote worker so the broadband is essential. A solid reliable high speed connection is essential when I'm deploying things to servers, download data, making VOIP, GTMs, etc. I'm quite annoyed actually ... I signed up for something and it seems like I've been swindled. I paid for a Big Mac but I'm getting a hamburger instead. Sad

Also you say that it could be down to the line/equipment - I'm assuming that as the line is showing no faults? (question as it's not something I can ascertain - phone line seems fine to me), that leaves equipment - the only difference between Sky and Plusnet being their respective routers. So could the router be keeping my speed down? Forgive me I'm not a hardware/networking guy I'm a software engineer. 

Moderator's note by Adie (Dvorak): Full quote of preceding post removed as per the forum rules
rongtw
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Thanks for picking this up @Gandalf Thumbs_Up

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thearmydee
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Interesting. Looks like my response was deleted. Thanks Plusnet. Not sure what I said but it just have struck a nerve.
dvorak
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Moderators Note.

Post that was caught in the spam filter released.
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Baldrick1
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

@thearmydee

If you need a good high availability broadband connection for your work may I suggest that a budget consumer service might not be the best choice. I understand that Plusnet also offer a Business service that can give higher priority responses. 

 

No doubt others would recommend companies at the other end of the market such as AAISP.

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thearmydee
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

But at sign up showing me my line speed and then the reality it being far less isn't right is it? I should be given accurate information at the beginning. Don't inflate the details before hand.

Also the constant dropouts no problems present before moving to Plusnet using a Sky Q router. Rather than saying the router might be faulty try a new one we'll send, it's a line problem - not helpful.

Sky, Plusnet use the same infrastructure so what gives?

I'm going to check my small print and see what my options are. Even if I can leave, Plusnet are saying my max is 44Mb, and that means any supplier apart from Virgin will have the same speed. So doesn't matter if I am a business user or residential.

Also I did a check on BT's site and as expected I can get up to 67Mb. The real speed might be 1 or 2 meg less. So is BT lying?
Mustrum
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Do you have a filtered Master Socket?

Have you tested using the hidden test socket behind the bottom plate of your master socket?

Anoush
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

It’s possible that the estimates we provided you initially would’ve been against your address instead of your landline telephone number which would be more accurate.

It’s likely that we couldn’t provide you with estimates against your landline number before the line was transferred to us, because it may have been connected to Sky’s equipment at exchange (Known as LLU) so the BT Broadband Availability Checker wouldn’t have any records until the line was moved onto BT Wholesale equipment.

As I’m not in the office this weekend, I can’t check your account but have you considered my offer I made you?
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Web-Dude
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Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

Actually, if someone really depends on internet access then having two ISPs is not a luxury.  As @Baldrick1 suggests, some might suggest AAISP or to use Zen, but any single ISP solution can run into problems, whether at the ISP end or just on your phone line.

 

I'd suggest considering a second phone line and separate service, and these days it is possible to get an "up to 38 Mbps" for about £20 - £25 (and you may find you can get free installation from someone like Now TV).  As an alternative, you could consider using a mobile or MiFi as backup.   I've used Three in the past but not everyone likes them...  so it may be worth checking if PlusNet Mobile will handle tethering without penalty...   I used Three and was getting 15 GB/month for £7.50 / month (it was a reduced price deal that started back in 2008, but I kept using them for 4 years before moving home and getting PN again on a landline). 

 

Recently, I had PN Mobile for a year or so but switched to Smarty.co.uk (owned by Three) which doesn't charge for unused data...    So after the first month at £10 (giving you unlimited texts and minutes, plus the option of up to 4 GB), if you used none of their data, they'd refund £5, and would keep doing so, until you actually needed to use their data connection...  In some areas it might be faster than a landline, and it would certainly be cheaper than the typical landline broadband (whether ADSL 2+ or Fibre - the pricing is getting fairly close at the budget end, and let's face it, as a backup, that's all you'd really need).   At £1.25 per GB  (and only charged by the MB not whole GB) the Smarty option as a backup might suit some people (they don't offer international roaming, or various other "expected" features, and they allow you to "suspend" your account for periods when you don't need it, so it might even be possible to run for 1 month in 4 (assuming it would be on a mobile dedicated for backup /tethering not for making voice calls and texts)...

 

Switching to Zen or AAISP cannot "guarantee" continuous service, because everything is dependent on what the Openreach engineers get up to, if not intentionally on your line, they may still mess up your connection if seeking a "working pair" back to the exchange.   I've seen an engineer locally, testing pairs because of the old aluminium wiring (explained they can take up to 3 hours to find a working pair, because so many of the wires had broken at a 90 degree turn where the estate I am on meets a main road [along which the cabinet is located].  With 350 flats and another 50 or so homes, you can imagine there are quite a lot of cables and while I doubt every household has a phone line, there's no Virgin Media option unless outside the estate.

 

So, if the benefit of working from home saves more than £250 / year in convenience and travel costs, a second phone line, or using a mobile, could easily be considered worth having, and while it may be a little more than a niche ISP, it gives you a second link, just in case.   I have a fixed IP and a second connection with a dynamic IP, and split some traffic onto the second connection.  I might mess with the spies and snooping brigade sometime by diverting DNS searches to one ISP and getting traffic from the destination sites via a VPN on my second ISP  Smiley

 

(Sorry about the length of the post...   I tend to try things out myself so I can recommend options to clients - hence have multiple phones, computers, etc.)

thearmydee
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎06-04-2018

Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

I have responded to the ticket with my concerns/questions in relation to the offer and why my connection drops.

I'm away for the week myself but have access to emails.
thearmydee
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Registered: ‎06-04-2018

Re: New customer to Fibre Extra - not getting advertised speed

I'm a remote worker so I'm always home. I just needed a good connection with good upload speeds. Plusnet seemed to fit the bill. Not really keen on maintaining multiple lines and providers.