When is fibre not fibre?

[#1]

Answer: When you change your phone line to Plusnet.

The background; My parents and I have used Plusnet for years. indeed, the last couple of years we've had unlimited fibre internet. Good speeds as you'd expect, no problems.

Recently, Indeed, only around 10 days or so ago, we changed our phone line from BT to Plusnet, so now we get phone and internet from them. With me so far? Good.

When switching over, a new Plusnet Hub 1 was supplied, and duly fitted and it worked. For a while.

Then the speeds dropped. Dramatically...

If that hasn't worked as it should, that's a download speed of 2.13 Mbps and an upload of may-as-well-not-bother.

I had heard that it can take some time for a new set-up to come up to its full performance, so we went away for a while so I could do some filming and work with my clients (Freelance TV producer see, all over the place. I also run a YouTube channel). Returning home, we found that the speeds were still disappointingly slow.

Now, a speed of around 2Mbps is, frankly, pathetic and not what you'd expect when you're paying out for Fibre internet, so I called a pleasant fellow who I think was called [CSA Removed], the line was awful - and he ran some tests, inadvertently getting cut off twice in the process.

What he discovered is that we aren't getting fibre at all. At some point during the switching of the phone line, we've been put back onto ADSL. [CSA Removed] could see what we'd ordered, and agreed that we should be on Fibre, but was at a loss as to explain why this change had occurred. He advised us to contact the provisioning team.

Which is what my mother's doing now, or at least trying to do now, but I thought I'd post here as well to find out if anyone else has experienced this issue? If so, how was it resolved and how long did it take?

It's highly annoying (to say the least) to, as far as I know, still be being charged for fibre when the only ADSL is being delivered (and very slow ADSL at that!). It's especially annoying when you have a few videos to upload to YouTube which for most people may indeed be a bit of fun, but for me it's very important as it's my shop window for getting more work, and that's before we go into all the other things we use the internet for. 

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

[#2]

My theory

What went wrong? Somewhere along the line someone selected the wrong option.

How is it resolved? By reconnecting you to fibre.

How long does it take? That probably depends on Openreach engineer availability.

Seriously though, if you need the Internet to maintain your income you should consider using the business service where the rectification of problems is given higher priority.

[#3]

I think that your theory is pretty sound. Although why we need an openreach engineer when we were previously connected to fibre (read on, actually for there is an update) to come and re-connect something that is already connected is beyond me.

At the moment, I'm annoyed enough with the home offering, although up till now it's worked with no issues whatsoever. I have no intention to change package within PlusNet at all at the moment.

Anyway, an update. Mother did get through to provisioning team agent, who informed us that she would arrange for the connection to be reconnected (still at a loss as to why this is required). But could find no record of us ever being connected to Fibre in the first place. Which is odd as for the last two years we've had a fibre connection, high speeds, had the guy come around and install the line etc. So what on earth have we been using for the last couple of years? 

It's all highly odd and I'm not sure anyone truely understands it.