Thinking of switching to fibre - puzzled by how it connects.
@bin wrote:
the cab is ADSL2+ and gets 16-19Mb and so we will not see any improvement.
Is this regarding a different account that's not connected to your forum account? As I'm quite surprised to hear you're getting 16-19Mbps based off your estimates.
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Featured Products |
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) |
Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) |
Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps) |
WBC FTTC Availability Date |
WBC SOGEA Availability Date |
WBC FTTC 18x2 Provide Availability |
WBC FTTC 18x2 Sim Availability |
Left in Jumper |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | Low | High | Low | |||||||
| VDSL Range A (Clean) | 56.7 | 40.5 | 15.5 | 10.1 | 36.8 | Available | -- | -- | Yes | -- |
| VDSL Range B (Impacted) | 44 | 25 | 12.7 | 6 | 20 | Available | -- | -- | Yes | -- |
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Featured Products |
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) |
Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) |
Downstream Range(Mbps) |
WBC FTTP Availability Date |
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| FTTP on Demand | 330 | 30 | -- | Available | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||
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ADSL Products |
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) |
Upstream Line Rate(Mbps) |
Downstream Range(Mbps) |
Availability Date |
Left in Jumper |
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| WBC ADSL 2+ | Up to 7.5 | -- | 6.5 to 8.5 | Available | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||
| WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M | Up to 7.5 | Up to 1 | 6.5 to 8.5 | Available | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||
| ADSL Max | Up to 7.5 | -- | 6.5 to 8 | Available | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||
| Fixed Rate | 2 | -- | -- | Available | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||
If it is the account connected to your forum account, then judging from the estimates, you should certainly see an increase in speeds by moving to FTTC.
While it does sound like a big drop in speeds from what engineers have reported at the cab vs what makes it to the house, you're still around your estimates for ADSL, so while it can only really be an educated guess at this point, the estimates for FTTC still suggest a big increase from around 6Mbps to around 40mbps on the low end.
I think the concept of Fibre is usually to cover the longest distance (exchange to the cabinet/fttc) but from the cabinet to the premise is covered by copper which would not be very far. There is a maximum distance which they must not exceed from the premise to the cabinet, I think. In effect, your speed from the exchange to the cabinet is the speed of light.
We experienced a drop from 2Mbps to 0.60Mbps (maximum) on ADSL line, the difference doesn't seem a lot but for loading pages and streaming, it was impossible. There was no obvious fault detected but when we switched to Fibre, our speeds only just over exceeded the maximum for our area. The speed has dropped to 25Mbps now but that is expected as more people probably joined fibre/the cabinet and Plusnet use traffic prioritization too.
There is a minimum which the speed must not drop below in every area otherwise an engineer should make a visit when you raise a fault.
I can not guarantee this is the most accurate resource but use speedtest.btwholesale.com and carry on through the process until you reach a screen, with your results, that displays a button "Further Diagnostics." This will give your current speed and estimate speed range which, I think, it must be within.
Hope your issues get resolved soon. 
Too true. ADSL we used to get about 1.5mb. Fibre, 60plus Megs as a min. As you say if you fall below the minimum OR will do something about it. Just been there myself - seems I had HR joints on the line. I doubt if they would ever have been fixed on ADSL, whereas on Fibre (and dropping below the minimums) OR spent quite some time out here fixing the line. And the difference, with problems and after they were fixed
But the distance to the fibre cabinet is critical as to how fast the line will eventually be. The exchange in my case is 7.1km away. The fibre cabinet is much more nearer. The other thing to bear in mind is that as the cabinet fills up, crosstalk can become an issue. I've yet to see a return to the good old days of getting over 70megs. Best thing to do is junk the speedtests (unless things have obviously slowed down) and just enjoy what speed you get!
And interesting to read that ADSL performance tailed off. I used to get a solid 2mb on ADSL, which plummeted as soon as the Fibre cabinet went live. No reason ever given.
Couldn't tell you for sure. All I know is BT (who I was with at the time that the ADSL speed dropped) didn't seem too bothered. Funny enough I used to notice things much more readily on ADSL than I have ever done on fibre.
With fibre, as long as your speed is above the hand back threshold, even OR don't seem to do much. Drop below it though and the ISP seems to be able to get OR involved much easier.
I've always thought though that ADSL was always an 'up to Xmb/s' product with no minimum.
