[FTTC] 80/20 Expected Trial Speeds

[#1]

Hi,
I have recently upgraded to Plusnet's FTTC Fibre extra product and have just got to the end of the 10 day training period. Considering things seems reasonably stable I have been considering joining the 80/20 trial but was curious what my expected speed would be. BT's availability checker says:
"Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 31Mbps and upstream line speed of 5.7Mbps."
From what I have seen in the forums here others have used the same checker and received results indicating possible speeds in excess of 40Mbs. Does this mean that the checker has not been updated for 80/20 speeds in my area? I suspect not. I'm aware that FTTC speed depends on the distance from the street cabinet so does the above result effectively mean, as I strongly suspect, that I'm simply too far from the local street cabinet to see any speed improvements from 80/20 (other than a few extra Mbps in upload speed)?
Is there anyone out there in a situation like mine who has tried the 80/20 trial? if so what speeds did you get? BT's speed checker site currently gives me the following:
"Download speed achieved during the test was - 27.2 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 12 Mbps-29.67 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 29.67 Mbps"
Speedtest.net gives:

Also do Plusnet have any firm plans to offer a 40/10 product as opposed to the current 40/2? I'm aware that some initial FTTC trialists received, and still have, a 40/10 product. It's looking like that's going to be the best option for me currently. I'm sure there must be others who seem to be in my situation, or those that don't want to pay what I'm sure will turn out to be quite a premium for 80/20 over 40/2 when a commercial product is launched if the only real benefit is going to be a few extra Mbps in upload speed. Hopefully Plusnet will bear this in mind when the product refresh comes along.
Thanks.

[#2]

I have the same sort of problem as you and I am no 80/20 trial.
The highest speed I can gt is about 45mbs download and 6.5mbps upload.
If this were 40/2 then the download spped would be halved! leaving me at the about 23mbps.
Yet BT before having FTTC said I should get 40 dowload and 9 upload.
I think it depens how far you are away from the cabinet- I am about 2/5 of a mile away or 700 meters,
Some are much closer to the cabinet and they get faster speeds.

[#3]

If you can't get anywhere near the full speed on 40/2 you won't see any improvement in download speed on 80/20. You would probably see a significant improvement in upload.
For you 40/10 would probably be ideal - but that's not something that Plusnet offer (other than the selected few who got on to that as part of the original fibre trials).

[#4]

Thanks for the responses, certainly sounds like 80/20 is not going to be of any real benefit to me. I can't see any great need at the moment for 80Mbps download speeds but it would have been good to know that I could get it in the future if needed but it sounds like I'll be stuck with these speeds for the foreseeable future.
It's especially annoying given that there a 2 street cabinets near me, one is just on the next street probably 100-200 meters away but the BT engineer confirmed what I already suspected that I'm connected to another one that's much further away, must be about 700 meters I'd say...
I'd certainly be interested in a higher upload speed as 1.69Mbps isn't even much improvement on ADSL2 speeds. I'm assuming though that the figure from the BT availability checker of 5.7Mbps is about the best I could hope for either on 80/20 or 40/10?
On the 40/10 front perhaps there is some hope Plusnet will offer this option as on the 80/20 trial feedback thread http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,105070.msg895572.html#msg895572 a number of people are making the point that they wouldn't be prepared to pay a lot extra for 80/20 but would be prepared to pay a small amount extra for 40/10 as opposed to 40/2. Hopefully if there is sufficient demand Plusnet will at least offer the option.
I do hope as well that there will be more publicity about 80/20 speeds only being of real benefit to those close their street cabinets, even the BT engineer that installed my fibre connection stated that my speeds should double with 80/20.

[#5]

Quote from: pdfryer2

I do hope as well that there will be more publicity about 80/20 speeds only being of real benefit to those close their street cabinets, even the BT engineer that installed my fibre connection stated that my speeds should double with 80/20.

Depends how you define close, you should get some benefit up to around 600m, but this engineer clearly needs educating, 80/20 does not double your speed, it just increases the speed caps.

[#6]

Quote from: Alfred

If this were 40/2 then the download spped would be halved! leaving me at the about 23mbps.

No it wouldn't, as explained in my post above.

[#7]

Quote from: pdfryer2

On the 40/10 front perhaps there is some hope Plusnet will offer this option as on the 80/20 trial feedback thread http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,105070.msg895572.html#msg895572 a number of people are making the point that they wouldn't be prepared to pay a lot extra for 80/20 but would be prepared to pay a small amount extra for 40/10 as opposed to 40/2. Hopefully if there is sufficient demand Plusnet will at least offer the option.

In suspect PN may only really wake up to this when significant numbers start asking for their MAC in order to move to ISP's that do offer 40/10.