What to do when Openreach downgrade speed estimate to make fault disappear?

[#1]

HELP...... 

Openreach original estimate was 11.1 Mbps high & 6.6 Mbps low, now after reporting an issue to Plusnet, Openreach have decided to downgrade the estimate to 4.4 Mbps & 1.8 Mbps low so now magically my line is within the estimate. 

I know my line length is around 2.6km (long) but in 2013 I was syncing at 6.3 Mbps and after recently moving from BT to Plusnet my speed dropped to 2.5 Mbps and I reported a fault. I'm now down to 3.4 Mps when using the Plusnet Hub One or 4.7 Mbps using a Huawei HG612. 

Openreach engineer visit today passed all tests, but was only able to sync at 2.2 Mbps with the EXPO? where as the previous visit a couple of weeks ago  was able to sync at 5.7 Mbps with the JDSU.

Where do I go from here, the speed drop is really noticeable. I think I need some more help from Plusnet to achieve the best sync speed I can get. It has been suggested that maybe my profile can be tweaked to maximise the performance of my line.

All suggestions gratefully received.

[#2]

Unfortunately fibre speeds can drop over time due to crosstalk which I can see our tests have detected.

This is where other FTTC lines can interfere with yours dropping the speeds overtime.

There isn't anything we can do remotely to increase your speeds I'm afraid,

[#3]

The Openreach engineer suggested that Plusnet might have the ability to adjust the SNR margin to a lower level and then monitor the connection to see if there is any improvement. Have I been fed false info regarding this?

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules

[#4]

As an ISP, we have no tools to remotely reset a fibre line. The engineer would need to call their support team (DCoE) whilst out on the job, to get that done.

[#5]

OK Thanks.....so misinformation from the Openreach engineer then, I did question it when they suggested Plusnet might have the ability to configure the SNR margin.

So one last question could you explain or direct me to something which explains the IP profile as I understand there is one applied by BT and another by Plusnet. Does the IP profile just config the speed or are there other things which can be config'd?

[#6]

The IP profile is based on your sync speed.

There's more information if you want it here

[#7]

The SNR margin can be adjusted on certain third party routers - I can adjust it on my Asus DSL-AC68U for example down as low as 2dB - I currently have it set to 5dB rather than the default 6dB to increase the sync rate from 72 to 75Mbps.  I believe the Mediatek chipset in this Asus is not recommended for long lines so you may want to find a router with a Broadcom chipset that allows you to change the SNR margin.

[#8]

Surely tinkering with SNR is simply masking a potential problem. The OP is reporting a degradation in line quality such that a previously stable line needs to have a higher target SNR margin in order to avoid more frequent router resyncs. At the same time the estimate gets reduced and the fault threshold lowers so further degradation doesn't result in a fault that needs to be fixed. 

Some router stats (in particular Line attenuation) would be useful to determine expected speeds.

[#9]

Sure, here's current stats....

xdslcmd info --stats
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Last initialization procedure status: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 1167 Kbps, Downstream rate = 3964 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 1167 Kbps, Downstream rate = 5257 Kbps

Link Power State: L0
Mode: VDSL2 Annex B
VDSL2 Profile: Profile 17a
TPS-TC: PTM Mode(0x0)
Trellis: U:ON /D:ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 4.2 6.0
Attn(dB): 37.4 0.0
Pwr(dBm): 9.0 10.5
VDSL2 framing
Bearer 0
MSGc: 90 26
B: 158 31
M: 1 1
T: 23 42
R: 16 0
S: 0.9617 0.8533
L: 1464 300
😧 1 1
I: 176 32
N: 176 32
Counters
Bearer 0
OHF: 9747961 1268068
OHFErr: 3990 0
RS: 672605204 739651
RSCorr: 268000 0
RSUnCorr: 9363 0

Bearer 0
HEC: 8234 0
OCD: 2381 0
LCD: 2381 0
Total Cells: 1631293365 0
Data Cells: 1194364663 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 3245 0
SES: 3 0
UAS: 20 20
AS: 162354

Bearer 0
INP: 0.00 0.00
INPRein: 0.00 0.00
delay: 0 0
PER: 16.65 8.99
OR: 46.11 28.46
AgR: 5302.92 1195.33

Bitswap: 130098/130099 0/0

Total time = 1 days 21 hours 6 min 14 sec
FEC: 268000 0
CRC: 3990 0
ES: 3245 0
SES: 3 0
UAS: 20 20
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 6 min 14 sec
FEC: 3850 0
CRC: 13 0
ES: 13 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
FEC: 8827 0
CRC: 71 0
ES: 43 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Latest 1 day time = 21 hours 6 min 14 sec
FEC: 149844 0
CRC: 1859 0
ES: 1528 0
SES: 1 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Previous 1 day time = 24 hours 0 sec
FEC: 118156 0
CRC: 2131 0
ES: 1717 0
SES: 2 0
UAS: 20 20
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Since Link time = 1 days 21 hours 5 min 53 sec
FEC: 268000 0
CRC: 3990 0
ES: 3245 0
SES: 3 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
#

[#10]

I'm not sure Openreach would be willing to do any further investigation on my line as it's now passing all the tests they perform. The line is 2.6km long and I'm pretty much one of the furthest connections, I see ADSL tones cut almost fully back and there appears to be fair amount of cross talk on the line. For an ideal line at 2.6km the max rate is maybe 12-13Mdps and the original estimate given was max of 11.1Mps which has not been downgraded.

Back in 2013 I was seeing a fairly consistent 6.3Mbps using a BT home hub, so it's annoying that my speed is gradually declining and nobody is willing to do anything about it. It seems where there are few connections nothing gets done to improve services as it's not profitable, hence the UK lacking woefully behind pretty much the rest of the world when it comes to connectivity.

I have had loads of issues of the last 4 years and have now almost lost the will to complain any more and kind of accept what I have, hence asking for ways that I can to maximise the performance such changing SNR margins or buying better hardware. It's a shame the ISP's won't work with their customers to help in cases such as this. Not a dig aimed just at Plusnet as BT were just the same.

There is at least 1.5 Mbps speed difference between the Plusnet Hub One and the Huawei HG612. I've even swapped out the cable between the Master socket 5C MK4 and the modem with a cat6 DSL lead from ebay which actually made a slight difference. Currently keeping my eye out for aZyXel VMG8924-B10A which is supposed to work well on long lines.

[#11]

Everybody likes a few graphs as well..

[#12]

I'm no expert, but according to Kitz's checker

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

your line should achieve up to 9.5 Mbps on ADSL2+

Are you on fibre?

[#13]

Yes fibre.

http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance

[#14]

I'm not sure Openreach would be willing to do any further investigation on my line as it's now passing all the tests they perform. The line is 2.6km long running VDSL and I'm pretty much one of the furthest connections, I see ADSL tones cut almost fully back and there appears to be fair amount of cross talk on the line. For an ideal line at 2.6km the max rate is maybe 12-13 Mbps and the original estimate given was max of 11.1 Mbps which has now been downgraded.

Back in 2013 I was seeing a fairly consistent 6.3 Mbps using a BT home hub, so it's annoying that my speed is gradually declining and nobody is willing to do anything about it. It seems where there are few connections nothing gets done to improve services as it's not profitable, hence the UK lacking woefully behind pretty much the rest of the world when it comes to connectivity.

I have had loads of issues of the last 4 years and have now almost lost the will to complain any more and kind of accept what I have, hence asking for ways that I can to maximise the performance such changing SNR margins or buying better hardware. It's a shame the ISP's won't work with their customers to help in cases such as this. Not a dig aimed just at Plusnet as BT were just the same.

There is at least 1.5 Mbps speed difference between the Plusnet Hub One and the Huawei HG612. I've even swapped out the cable between the Master socket 5C MK4 and the modem with a cat6 DSL lead from ebay which actually made a slight difference. Currently keeping my eye out for aZyXel VMG8924-B10A which is supposed to work well on long lines.