Speed drop - not recovering

[#1]

Hi All,

I have been experiencing slow speeds recently, and checked the line speed.

BTW speed tast and my speed log shows current speeds to be about 20% slower than when I first signed up.  The drop seems to have started in August, but has not recovered since then.  My neighour recently joined with standard fibre rather than fibre extra and is getting pretty much the same speeds as I am at present.

BTW's diagnostic said 'The Performance Tester is disabled to support TAP3 for your broadband connection' when I tried to run it.

Can the line be looked at to see if there's a fault please, or the DLM needs to be retrained?

[#2]

Hi @MPC,

Please accept my apologies for the issue with your broadband speed.

After testing the line, your connection appears stable but the speed has decreased over time and it is still within the estimates.

I'm afraid that no external fault has been detected and the tap 1 / 3 results did not reach our server. Could you kindly connect to the test socket and let us know when you have it set up so we can retest the line.

Thank you.

[#3]

Hi Jubby,

Thanks for the information.  I had a go at the test socket, but I have a two socket master socket.

This has the small square (RJ11?) connector for the model, and the larger BT connector for the phone below it.

I tried removing the lower plate, then various combinations of connecting the RJ11 to the modem without the lower plate connected, and then using a BT to RJ11 in the loose front plate or test socket, but the modem appears to only connect using the top connector with the master socket assembled.

Any other testing that you would like me to do?  Or a more detailed page on testing with the 2 socket open reach master?

[ Centre master socket of the first row of sockets on https://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/57214/c/346/ ]

Mark

[#4]

Hi @MPC, is that the same on both sockets in your house?

Just to confirm, when removing the faceplate, are you connecting using a microfilter to the test socket and then the dsl cable from the microfilter to the router?

Would you be able to attach a photo of how you're connecting this up.

Having said this, there may not be much, if anything, we can do as the services seem to be in sync at around 42Mbps which is well within the 32.4-46.9Mbps estimates for the connection.

[#5]

Hi Harry,

Using a microfilter wold have been sensible, but no - they're in the loft.  I'll grab one and try again.

The house was new built in 2014 and the other extension sockets are just wall flush BT-connector single outlets.

I'll attach photos once I've tried with the separate micro-filter.

Mark

[#6]

Hi Harry,

Find attached a picture of the overall setup - BT master socket and the PlusNet router.

Then the front lower plate removed - the modem was still working at this point.

Then with a microfilter and the DSL cable moved to the microfilter - the modem showed orange with red flashing indicator.

I've left the lower plate disconnected and the modem plugged into the top.  It's very rate I use the land line so there's little lost here.

Thanks,

Mark

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to us.

We've retested the line and I'm afraid that we aren't seeing any improvement in the speed.

As mentioned above your current speeds are within the estimates for your line and above your MGALS so we'd struggle to get our suppliers to accept this as a fault.

[#8]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for taking a look.  Given this is 10% over the standard fibre speeds that my neighour is getting (38/7) with PlusNet, is there scope for me to step down, even though I'm within contract for another 6 months?

I didn't mind paying the extra when speeds were higher, but given the current speeds are 20% down on what I had at the time that I signed up, the cost delta feels a bit much.

Cheers,

Mark

[#9]

unfortunately this seems to be wat plusnet does ....u start on a decent speed then over time they throttle u down to just within your minimum guaranteed speed we started at 73 down 19 up at the beginning of our contract at the end now and were down to 53 down 13 up , to me thats a big drop... to plusnet its absolutely fine or really dont care .....

[#10]

Hi @MPC - My colleagues in our Customer Options Team would be happy to discuss your current contract and where you can go in terms of the downgrade - they can be contacted on 0800 328 4624.

@traceyunderdown - I can see that we've investigated the speed of your account extensively - particularly on this fault ticket here. As things stand, your speed is just above the minimum guarantee for your line, but we're happy to ask our suppliers to take a look at this for you again if you'd like to raise a new fault here.

Best wishes

Dave

[#11]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that.  I spoke to the phone support team today, and the unfortunate message is that there's nothing to be done until I'm within 3 months of the end of my 18 month contract which is around April, except to pay a buy-out fee of £69.

Whilst I appreciate everyone on the team's help looking at this, feedback into the PlusNet management team is that this scenario feels like one where a material speed reduction should be grounds for the possibility of some consideration.  I'm effectively paying over double for fibre compared to my next door neighbour.

Cheers,

Mark

[#12]

Hi @MPC,

I'm sorry to hear that our customer options team would not look to downgrade your account.

While I appreciate there has been some reduction in line speed shown in the graph below and previous profile history, this is between the estimated speed provided at the point of sale.


24/01/2018 - Speed profile: 50000
25/01/2018 - Speed profile: 49400
05/08/2018 - Speed profile: 40400
30/01/2019 - Speed profile: 41400
16/02/2019 - Speed profile: 41000
18/02/2019 - Speed profile: 41200

This could be indicative of a fault in your service, lowering the speed you are able to achieve. If you would like us to progress this as a fault, please raise one here. However, after some consideration, I would be happy to add a note to your account confirming that you can downgrade to a lower package without early termination fees as a one off.

Let us know how you would like to proceed.

Thanks again.

[#13]

Dear Jubby,

If you would like to add that note to the account, I'll give the team a call again (and await the availability of FTTP for going faster).

One thing that strikes me though - if I was contracting for the standard fibre service, what is the minimum speed guarantee for that level of service?  Is that still 32mbps, or would it be lower?  Worst case scenario for me would be swapping to the standard service, and then having that drop 20% from there.

Is there a 3rd way?  Could the line speed training be reset?  It took a long time to drop down, so if a reset can be done occasionally, then perhaps the line will remain closer to the initial speed.  The graph in my first post showed that the majority of the drop seemed to happen in one hit and it just hasn't recovered from there.  ( Maybe this was tried already and it is a real line degradation rather than the system not judging the line to be good enough to try higher. )

Thanks!

Mark

[#14]

Fibre lines can't be reset by an ISP, a line can get reset if a fault is found and repaired by an Engineer but even then it's up to the Engineer to choose to do it.

The only other time is if the line is Banded down to a lower maximum profile in which a request from the ISP has to be made for a reset to happen, other than that your at the mercy of DLM's automated process.  

[#15 · Accepted solution]

That has been added for you @MPC, you can now quote ticket: 187714349 when calling the customer options team.

The minimum guaranteed access line speed is 29.2Mbps and the main reason I suggested a downgrade is due to the estimates of 32.4 - 46.9Mbps being more appropriate on a 40/10 package.

As @Terranova667 has advised, a full DLM reset is performed by an engineer if they choose to do so. I'm afraid the only reset we can perform on fibre is when a line is banded, your circuit doesn't appear to be limited in speed due to banding.

Let us know if you require any further assistance.