FTTC First impressions

[#1]

I requested the trial on Feb 24, the ticket did not get picked up until I posted on the forum.  Stephen picked it up and progressed it but came to a halt when BT's order system spat the request out.  Apparently this was a known issue with some ADSL lines.  The solution suggested by BT was to upgrade the existing service to ADSL2+ and retry.  Success! The order went through with a 2 week lead time.  During that period the Netgear WNR1000 router arrived.
As expected for Netgear it was easy to set the router up.  I noticed that there was no diagnostics page cf the DG834 series and that the statistics pop up from the router status page does not give any idea of sync rate cf DG834,
On Monday 28 March the BT engineer rang an hour into the installation time  window.  He was at the street cabinet 160m away.  He said he would be with me in 15 minutes and he was.  The master socket face plate was quickly changed, following which he plugged his test kit in.  I saw a 40Mbs rate on his gear.  The BT Openreach VDSL2 modem (Huawei see http://www.patrickcornwell.com/life/a-closer-look-at-the-bt-fttc-hardware/) was then plugged in and after a few moments the DSL light came on.  We connected the Netgear which took a couple of minutes to connect to PN.  Low and behold http://www.speedtest.net showed a download speed of only 2Mbs so I called PN and got through quite quickly.  I was assured that my IP profile would be uprated within minutes but it might take hours for it to work through.  In fact 10 minutes later I was connected at 34Mbs down and 7Mbs up.
All was well for the next 6 hours after which the connection failed.  On Tuesday morning there was still no broadband so I rebooted both the modem and the router.  After several repeat reboots a connection was achieved.  This stayed active for a few hours before dying.  More reboots, pressed the modem reset button, checked that it was not getting hot.  Noticed that the modem power LED was flashing but both the DSL and LAN LEDs were steady green.
I tried a connection from my laptop directly to the modem cf PN recommendation but still no joy.  Rang PN, the young lady said she would inform the FTTC team.  I was called back and told that due to the flashing modem power light the modem was most likely faulty.  There was no manual with it so no info on fault conditions.
Wednesday am still no connection and modem power light flashing so I took my laptop elsewhere to get an internet connection.  I saw that the issue had been logged in a ticket and BT contacted to look at the problem.  I added a request to the ticket for the free dial up number to be activated for me and requested confirmation by text.  I also checked the web for info on the Openreach Modem (Huawei Echolife 612HD).  Nothing apart from a certificate of CE conformity on Huawei's web site so it this device seems to be a real 'black box' except it is actually white.
Thursday am no change and nothing from PN.  I rang PN again to get the dial up number activated and enquire when BT would do something.  Simon (I think it was)  said that he could activate the dial in and would pass on my questions about the FTTC.
After talking to some neighbours I learned that at least half a dozen folk nearby who are all on the same  BT cabinet as me, had been having phone & broadband issues (none on FTTC though) and that a BT engineer had been out that morning and found problems in the cabinet resulting from the recent changes in its wiring following activation of the adjacent FTTC cabinet.  Clearly I don't know if that is correct but afterwards a connection was re-established and has now been up for almost 24 hours and the modem power light is no longer flashing.
It would be nice to know if the modem is actually to blame perhaps due to some intermittent fault of if the problem was upstream with BT.  I guess I shall never find out though.
If anyone else has seen the modem power light flashing please post.

[#2]

Hi there,
I will look into this ASAP for you and see what we can do to move things along. We have had another report of issues with the BT fibre modem, does any of this match up with your experiences?
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,94723.0.html

[#3]

Hi Adam
Thanks for your interest. 
As I said those were first impressions.  Since I posted around mid day on Friday 1/4/11 the FTTC connection has been maintained with no evidence of flashing power lights on the Huawei/BT modem.  Mindful of comments on the web & on the rear of the device  about these modems being susceptible to overheating I have mounted it on the wall using the screw slots on the back.  I have taken the precaution of using a couple of stand-offs which locate the modem about 1.5cm off the wall thus allowing a good air space all round.  The modem feels slightly warm but by no means hot.
I am still suspicious of what BT may have been doing in the local FTTC & standard cabinets c.f. my comments about other folk losing standard ADSL and phone lines over the past few weeks and all on the same cabinet.