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Low download speed on Unlimited BB

arjay
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Registered: ‎14-12-2016

Low download speed on Unlimited BB

I have always had excellent service from plusnet until recently and I’m frustrated to say the least.

I am on unlimited 10mbps.

A couple of days ago, Openreach were doing something with the line connection box on the telagraph pole. Since then I have had intermittent slow downloads, 1.95mbps which were resolved by restarting the router and pc. Today that doesn’t work and I’m stuck with 1.95mbps.

I upgraded to fibre and after problems with the order, Plusnet’s end, it should have been up and running today.

Among the answers I get on the chat line is,

Problem Explanation: [NF03] The Copper Line test has failed. MFL :- (CA)

Resolution/Recommendation: BTW cannot progress this fault as the root cause is the PSTN failure. Please report to your Copper Line Service Provider.

What does this mean and who on earth is my copper line service provider, who is BTW, what is a PTSN failure and why can’t it be progressed?

I thought the copper lines ran from the exchange to the house and were the responsibility of BT Openreach not me, but I’m told I may get a £65 charge.

All I know is how to use the on off button, nothing technical and surely problems with the service are up to Plusnet to resolve, or am I expecting too much.

18 REPLIES 18
jab1
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

@arjay

To take your points in order (those I can safely answer, anyway). (1) The work up the pole may have nothing to do with you, or it could be in connection with your transfer to fibre - more knowledgable individuals may answer that. (2) Who do you pay your line rental to - if that is not PN, then they will have to report a phone fault to Openreach - there is a problem with the phone side of your connection (that's the Problem Explanation/Resolutions bit) (3) See (2) for your 'copper line service provider' explanation), BTW is BT Wholesale. A PSTN failure is a fault with your phone service (see 2 again), and any broandband problems cannot be progressed until the phone problem is resolved.

The copper lines do run from the exchange to your house, and are the responsibility of BT up to and including the test socket on your master socket. The warning about a possible charge is because should an engineer be sent out and s/he find that phone problem is due to anything your side of the test socket, you telephone service provider will be charged by OR, and they will then pass this charge to you.

As a side note, have you received the fibre modem/router, and if so, have you connected it up?

 

HTH

John
arjay
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

Hi jab1 (Aspiring Champion) thanks for your reply.

It just seemed a coincidence that problem started after they worked up the pole.

I pay PN for line rental so I expect it’s up to them to get it sorted, I hope

I’ve just found my phone can make outgoing calls but does not receive, so that seems to be the problem, I suppose

Have connected fibre router.

Will I need to tell PN about the phone or do they automatically arrange engineer.

I’m 81, not the brightest bulb in the shop but I still have most of my faculties, the technical jargon is lost on me, as I suspect it is on most people. Most of what is the norm today was science fiction when I was a lad. Call a spade a spade PN then I will understand and perhaps become less frustrated

lol

jab1
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

@arjay

It may have been coincidence, or it may not, I honestly can't say.

If you pay your line rental to PN, then yes, it is up to them to arrange for BT to rectify the problem.

Strange you can make outgoing calls but not receive - are you sure your phone number hasn't changed, or just maybe the men up the pole have connected the wires wrong? Easiest way to check that is to dial 17070 and see what the system thinks your phone number is.

I'm a little younger than you, but spent most of my working life around computers - my employers were among the first in Sheffield to have an internal computer system and I was quite involved in developing the projects - although I was never into the programming side, so I've kind of carried that experience into my retirement.

As the tests were obviously run by PN, going on the comments in your original post, then they should make the necessary arrangements.

John
arjay
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

LEOLEO

Hi jab1 (Aspiring Champion)

I did a line test as did PN and detected fault, engineers visit arranged. The good thing is I’m not getting those pestering calls. 17070 confirms my number.

In my younger days I worked with computers in a roundabout way. I worked for J Lyons at Cadby Hall and dealt with their teashops, it was the first commercial computer in the country, called LEO, Lyons Electronic Organisation. Each day the manageress’s would phone in and make changes to their orders for the next day depending on the weather. Girls in the phone room would punch the changes on Hollerith cards which would be sent to the comp room. A room with rows of large cabinets full of valves, in the summer fans had to blow over them and when it was extra hot they would blow over blocks of ice. The print out would come out to us and we would make up the orders for the departments and despatch notes. There was a 6pm deadline on the last print out coming off, if it was after six we would be paid up to 9.30 even if we finished at 7pm which we usually did. It was quite a competitive thing, on one occasion the time  was tight and the comp operators phoned TIM and it was 5.59 and 50 seconds, so we didn’t get the extra loot. On another occasion when it was tight we called TIM and by coincidence it was 6.00 and 10 seconds, they argued about it but we got paid.

It’s amazing to think that all that power can now be held in a small device you can almost hold in your hand

Sorry to rattle on but just an interesting, for me, part of my life.

jab1
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

Yikes! That wa slightly before my time, although I vaguely remember reading about LEO somewhere.Smiley

When I started work in 1972, I seem to remember some of the larger lathes and turning machines were 'computer-controlled' by similarly created tapes, but can't be certain as I worked at the other end of the site - about 2.1/2 - 3 miles away if I recall correctly.

OK, if PN did the tests, detected the fault and arranged an engineer, all we can do now is wait and see what they find - keep us up to date.

John
notmyname
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

Sounds like a "rectified loop" to me. Usually a fault with the NTE (phone socket), dropwire (cable that comes to the home) or internal cabling.
arjay
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

Hi notmyname

No idea what a rectified loop is though it sounds ominous. I don't have any extensions from the main box, no fancy bits and pieces connected, everything the same as it always has been except for a new phone 9 months ago but no problems with that previously. No building work going on, no problems with damp. Are you trying to put the heebie-jeebies up me re a charge lol

notmyname
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

No, not at all Smiley

The NTE is typically Openreach demarcation and remit, as is the dropwire leading to your premises. May I ask, is the cable coming from the pole grey in colour? May look like speaker cable.
arjay
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

It looks kinda grey

Jonpe
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB


@jab1 wrote:

@arjay


Strange you can make outgoing calls but not receive ...

 


I was in that situation about five years ago when I was with BT.  I rarely get calls so I don't know how long the problem had existed, and wasn't too bothered about having it fixed (internet was fine), but it was back to normal shortly after I discovered it.

notmyname
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

Somewhat like the following link?

https://goo.gl/images/zmt4UW
arjay
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

No, I see what you mean now, it's just a round sort of cable 

arjay
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

Hi Jonpe, I certainly don’t miss all those pesky calls but as I’m housebound I really need the internet so hope they get it sorted. It keeps dropping out today but when it’s running it’s at 1.95mbps, seems sufficient for this and emails, but I use a conferencing site which needs some decent bandwidth.

arjay
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Re: Low download speed on Unlimited BB

Hi jab1

1972? By that time I had been at work twenty years and done National Service. MY HOW TIME FLIES Sad

I have a nephew, a ne’re-do-well in his younger days. Stole golf balls off the green and sold them back to them outside the nineteenth, spent a time away for pinching cars, nicked a Ronson Varaflame lighter out of my pocket as he was sitting next to me, never saw it again. It was always said he would come to no good. He finished up as the head instructor for a company on Cincinnati Computer Controlled machines, travelled the world Instructing other company’s instructors. Turned out to be a great family man and brought up his children to be a credit to him. His brother, not a lot better, had his own food machinery business and made specialised sausage linking machines some of his own design, one of only two manufacturers in the world. Sadly passed away now. You never can tell how well a sapling will turn out.

Strayed away from the subject but I do like a chat