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Line Quality and maybe getting Plusnet.

MarkB
Grafter
Posts: 29
Registered: ‎01-08-2010

Line Quality and maybe getting Plusnet.

Hi there,
I question for the plusnet team, if possible. My girlfriend lives some 8 miles from Kilmun exchange in Scotland, and historically the phone line quality has been very bad. Currently she has no service, and hasn't for sometime. She uses Avanti for satellite broadband, but the standard of service is really bad. Meant to get a 512Kbps, but most of the time it's worse than dial up! Now the question becomes, can she get a plusnet service out there, even if it was 512Kbps more constantly that the current provider it would be better, and probably cheaper. By using the standard BT line checker it claims that 512 is possible, but then I tend to take that sort of thing with a pinch or two of salt.

Cheers,
4 REPLIES 4
MarkB
Grafter
Posts: 29
Registered: ‎01-08-2010

Re: Line Quality and maybe getting Plusnet.

Having read that, it's not too obvious what I'm asking.. oops, well that's what I get for doing while half asleep I guess. Allow me to rephrase slightly.
If my girlfriend was to try and get plusnet, and it was found at either sign-up or shortly after that the line quality was so bad that broadband ( or phone ) was so bad that it was really unusable, would she still be 'contacted in' with the usual penalties, or is there a way for all equipment to be returned etc. As it would be a waste of everyone's time and effort if we went ahead in getting everything only to find out the BT line was so crap anyway that it won't work.
There seems to be some places further up, around a mile or so that have broadband but we've not been able to confirm that as of yet. Since she live in an area of the country where broadband is the only form of media entertainment (no Freeview,FreeSat or Sky signal)we can get there, it would be nice to actually get broadband and not expensive dial up speeds.
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Line Quality and maybe getting Plusnet.

Quote from: MarkB
I question for the plusnet team, if possible. My girlfriend lives some 8 miles from Kilmun exchange in Scotland, and historically the phone line quality has been very bad.

By using the standard BT line checker it claims that 512 is possible, but then I tend to take that sort of thing with a pinch or two of salt.

I'm not a staff member so can't comment on what Plusnet might be able and willing to try. However it is likely to be Monday before a staff response is available. In the meantime the following background information might be useful …
Though the graph on this page is aimed at rate adaptive services you will see the right-hand edge of the plot (where speed is negligible) is at 6900 metres or 4.3 miles (line length). So 8 miles is really pushing it on that basis.
I think you are right to be cautious about the checker saying a 512 kbps fixed speed service is possible. The following paragraph quoted from the referenced BT document is worth noting …
[quote=http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/Industryanalysts/Industryanalystspresentations/BBinthefixednetwork.pdf]
In 2004 we investigated DSL performance on lines with loss of over 60dB and developed our understanding
of the impact of noise from home wiring. As a result, from September 2004 BT has offered service at
512kb/s without a planning limit, although there are inevitably a small number of lines that still do not work
for one reason or another.
I think one can interpret that to say at 8 miles it might work, or it might not. Possibly worth trying though.
David
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Line Quality and maybe getting Plusnet.

Hi there,
If you sign up and it turns out we can't supply broadband due to line length/quality you would be released from contract and all fees refunded to you. This is an automatic process as a result of a fault investigation.
MarkB
Grafter
Posts: 29
Registered: ‎01-08-2010

Re: Line Quality and maybe getting Plusnet.

Thanks for that, Mand. I'll pass it on to SWMBI.