cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

less than the stated minimum download

FIXED
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,839
Thanks: 9,487
Fixes: 155
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: less than the stated minimum download

There is a difference between there being a port available and there being a working port available.

Cabinets working at the margin have a reputation of the ports being indicated as being free, being found to be non-functional.  I would suggest that given the history here, Plusnet is being ultra cautious by suggesting that nothing is assured until the engineer attempts to use a port listed as being unused.  What you can be certain of is that there are ports listed as available - if there were none, Plusnet could not have placed the order.

What has been known to happen is for an order to have been placed against an available port.  Between order and provisioning another user on that cabinet develops a fault and a port swap is done, thereby utilising a working port and leaving a broken port awaiting remedial action.  Sometime later an engineer comes along to commission the new service and they find no working port available.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

nw677
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎10-09-2020

Re: less than the stated minimum download

Thank you. Your infrastructure knowledge is impressive and light years ahead of mine! I see loads of green cabinets around our village, so it's not beyond the wit of man to share ports? Do they fill each cabinet with sufficient ports for the number of houses they serve? The provisioning team lady (who was lovely) said it is a permanent frustration for Plusnet to not know what's actually available until someone opens up to have a look, which I find a bit odd. I can only assume that back when my ADSL service was commissioned, a working port was not available. (I'm at a Meccano-level of understanding these things, so go easy with the terminology 😁)

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,839
Thanks: 9,487
Fixes: 155
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: less than the stated minimum download

In most cases the wiring in fixed, especially if it is underground.

A (copper) trunk cable called the exchange side (or e-side) runs between the exchange and the green cabinet (usually) nearest to your home.  Between the cabinet and your home runs a copper pair called the distribution side (or d-side).

Together the d-side and e-side deliver your voice service and ADSL broadband.

With FTTC a fibre optic 'pipe' runs from the exchange to the the cabinet.  In some circumstances the exchange might not the the same as the one delivering voice services.  In the cabinet the fibre pipe it terminated onto equipment which presents FTTC connection ports.  Not everyone has broadband and not everyone has FTTC, so there are rarely enough ports for every phone line passing through the cabinet.  Generally there is not enough room and there would not be the need for such.  FTTC port provision is phased, provided in blocks as and when required, though upgrading can take a while and is completely outside of the control of any individual ISP.

When an engineer "upgrades" a line to FTTC two things are done...

  1. The d-side is "patched" into a FTTC port in the cabinet (uses up a FTTC port in the cabinet)
  2. In the exchange the ADSL patch pair is removed from the line (frees up an ADSL port in the exchange)

 

The scenario of there being no working FTTC port to support a new order has been seen on a multitude of occasions here over the years.  What has also been seen is that on the ground the d-side pair does not run to the cabinet recorded in BTOR's database ... then things get really messy!!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Baldrick1
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11,586
Thanks: 5,154
Fixes: 414
Registered: ‎30-06-2016

Re: less than the stated minimum download

Fix

@nw677 

If you look at the dsl availability checker and look at the top line WBC VDSL (ISPs incorrectly refer to this as fibre) and scan to the right hand column it says available.  As far as I am aware this would only be in error if when going to connect the Openreach technician found a faulty port.

If you look at your help desk output it says that the modulation is G.992.5 Annex A.

 G.992 is the ADSL standard, fibre (VDSL) starts G.993.

Sorry to repeat @Townman , I hadn’t noticed that a new page had appeared.

Moderator and Customer
If this helped - select the Thumb
If it fixed it,  help others - select 'This Fixed My Problem'

nw677
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎10-09-2020

Re: less than the stated minimum download

@Baldrick1 @Townman Success! Downtime was about 15 mins and I twiddled my thumbs, desperately trying to avoid nipping out to have a chat with the engineer who was fiddling in the green cabinet. My new Helpdesk summary shows G.993 and the current down speed to the router is at 40 Mb. Now to raise a ticket and get that refund! Thanks again for all the help. 😊

 

bb update.jpgbb update2.jpg

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,839
Thanks: 9,487
Fixes: 155
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: less than the stated minimum download

Well you are getting your money’s worth out of the 40/10 service. Did you chose that rather than Fibre Extra 80/20) because that is all you need … or because that is all that was offered as the guarantee was way below 40mbps?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

nw677
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎10-09-2020

Re: less than the stated minimum download

...ermmm... probably the latter, although I don't recall being given much of a choice. It's been superfast all afternoon and we're very happy with it, so all's well that ends well.