Plusnet - Apparent lack of interest in maximising line speeds

[#1]

Greetings  -

Short Summary of events ( sorry if it rambles on)

Phone line Multiple faults identified (which translated to deteriorating Fibre Extra Speeds ) - 3 pavement digs and many engineers later  - phone line issues resolved

B/ band Fibre Extra speeds stabalised at  data sync of 20/74 mps - and corresponding test site speeds ( fast.com) have given typical speeds of approx 18-20 /66-68 mbs - -( Ok many would kill for these speeds )  - but at original signing up at this property was being quoted as d/l expected speeds 72-75mbs - - this 4 yrs ago before MGS became the norm.

At  time of contract renewal in Jan 2019 MGS was stated as 53.5 mbps  however at recent renewal July 2020 ( 18mnth later )  MGS further reduced to 44.5Mbps ( Account had been showing that reduced MGS for some time prior to renewal  without my agreement and despite raising it with PN  stoney silence ensued)

Post recent phone issue  I posted router stats on a forum here  and responce was that potentially my service was banded 

DSL uptime:

3 Days, 8 Hours 0 Minutes 54 Seconds

Data rate:

20.00 Mbps / 74.00 Mbps

Maximum data rate:

21883 / 86971

Noise margin:

7.3 dB / 9 dB

Line attenuation:

17.3 dB / 26.3 dB

Signal attenuation:

17.3 dB / 26.3 dB

I mentioned this potentail banding to PN Cust service - But they advised that my line was not banded

On sending them the above stats ( prior recent line issues my SNR levels were at the 6.0 level or lower for d/l ) they have advised as follows  - Which seems to indicate they are not interested in optomising the line / Speeds.

"Having carried out some tests on your line, your line seems to have stabilised and your line speeds are above the minimum guaranteed speeds. If the issue on your line is resolved as it would seem, do not reply and this ticket will automatically close"

Having renewed my contract ( many would argue foolishly ) and being fortunate to have recieved my promised £75 prepaid card - with minimum hassle  -  Guess i'm going to have to sit this out and watch router stats like a hawk  - I  invested in a BT hh6 business  hub  which came with the BT assure Dongle ( 4g sim pre installed) - Hub  consistently shows Data Rate of 74Mbps versus original  PH HH One  of 70Mbps - Unfortunately No 4 g signal at the house despite  coverage maps  showing it should be.

While I did look at Virgin B/B only option  up to max 500 mbps ( depending on package/price ) - Cable is already installed to the house - I could not leave Phone with Plusnet - and NO WAY was I going to let Virgin get there hands on that after issues my sister had with them.

Cheers folks

[#2 · Accepted solution]

74Mb is the upper limit of a 37 to 74 banded profile so it does look like its banded. However given the 9db margin you will be getting very few errors and so you would likely not see much improvement in actual throughput if the line was allowed to sync at 80Mb with an associated reduction in snr ( and more errors )

As to the BT Assure dongle, as far as I am aware, they are locked and highly integrated with the associated Bt business account in that somehow when the broadband fails the dongle connects with the same IP as the bb connection.

Bottom line is that even if you had a 4g signal it wouldn't be usable as a backup in your case

[#3]

MisterW

THanks for the info re my Fttc speeds  - guess it's what I suspected

FYI - just disconnected the dsl cable to simulate a DSL failure and the BT Assure  has kicked in  and picked up a connection - only 15mb d/l  and 6 mb upload as I dont have 4g signal here  ( two bars out of five )- but looks like it will provide a workable backup so it looks like the HH6 Business Hub is doing what it advertises ( not sure how long before BT realise they are providing internet to a non BT customer )

Dongle states it's  an EE Sim card / LTE

Cheers - guess i'd better stop moaning now 

[#4]

@moansalot  very interesting!

I knew the dongles were EE ones. I suppose it makes sense for BT to use EE since its part of the group.

We actually have a BT Business line with BT Assure in the office. We were informed that when it went to 4g backup it would use the same static IP as the FTTC connection. Not sure I believed it at the time and I'm unsure as to whether anyone has actually tried it. I haven't been into the office for a year now (semi retired) and so haven't had the chance to try it myself.

I would guess that your Hub must be associated with a live BT account somewhere...

[#5]

hi Hub was bought as a Ebay item ( new in original packaging including the Assure Dongle)

So doubt that it had a prior BT associated - I dont recall any account info "preloaded" when I set the hub up  - I didn't do a reset on it  prior entering PN details - but it works for now so I wont complain

Cheers