Upgrade to 'up to 20mb' network

[reab]

Silly really - small home network running ok and never any real problems with with BT running up to 8mb, so I took advantage of the offer to upgrade to 'up to 20mb' after bt transferred me to the 'new' higher speed network now available in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

BT's website didn't make it clear exactly what steps needed to be taken such as to resign for a new contract period and what the implications were (I was on option 1).

However, I've resigned to option 2 apparently as I opted for a 12 month contract thinking the price would be the same but . .  yes its a higher cost, plus my static ip address and ip phone.

BT seem to think I'm upgraded but after several days my hub seems to be stuck on the same speed (its also got a different interface than that shown in bt's help). My ip profile also states 'up to 8mb' and that hasn't changed either.

BT say 10 days to settle down before contacting engineering support - so is this normal behaviour during an upgrade or am I expecting too much?

Ah yes . . tried the speed tester

Results are:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 7115 Kbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 1000-7150 Kbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :8124 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 7000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 12.9:23.07:64.03 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

Any help appreciated as the initial tests indicated that I should receive up tp 13mb!

Roger B

[Alun]

I do not know what the difference is sorry.

[richardman]

I read this thread and it is the mirror image of my story....

I upgraded to 20mbs and the speeds I get (download) are about the same as 8mbs product.

I have asked whether the router makes a difference, but I believe not...I have upgraded firmware as well so should be adsl2 compatable.

The speed checker on BT site is odd....one day it says 3 mbs for my number today it says 10mbs (this is the tel number checker, not the speed test for router).

This is not a problem at my end it is the tel exchange....it is inconsistent.

[reab]

So . . .  it may be asking too much but does anyone know a name/direct phone number of technical person who can give answers and sort this type of problem other than the normal routes?

Roger B

[Alun]

Hi Roger,

There are no direct numbers sorry, the only number would be that of the Broadband Technical Helpdesk.

[reab]

As I have a residential line with business broadband I rang the normal BT faults, received a call back with 3 minutes and had a line check done within another few minutes.

Unfortunately they gave the all clear and said that the line was OK and to contact the broadband team.

Hey ho, here we go . . progress is progress however and I'll update this if it helps anyone later on!

[reab]

So, I explained all my little problems to a young lady who actually knew what to do, BT residential responded fairly quickly and checked my line. Unfortunately they stated that they could find no problem with the line up to the master socket. Advised me to do two things, plug the business bub into the master direct socket to eliminate the extension (work done by BT) and to contact the broadband team for any other problems.

Haven't done the extension check yet as it's installed in the back of the loft, but called the broadband team anyway.

Interestingly the young lady I contacted then told me the following:

Her speed test tallied with mine at this end so she said I would have been better on the 8mb cap as it virtually guaranteed the 8mb speed, now being uncapped up to 20mb meant that the speed would fluctuate depending on conditions locally. I do the line speed check every so often and it varies from 3 to 7.7mb.

In any case my line speed was within the speed band indicated by the speed tester.

OK - but my point is that being with a half mile or so of the exchange I should get a better speed than I am - am I wrong? Why doesn't my line support a higher speed, is there any other tests that can be done?

Roger B

[Alun]

Hi Roger,

If your line was half a mile in length (line will most likely be longer than straight-line distance from the exchange) then you would expect the speed to be higher. However, if the broadband is unstable for whatever reason then the speed of the broadband would drop to try and compensate for the instability and this could be what is happening with your line.

If the line is testing ok with residential then it is not likely to be the line that is causing the issue, which would then indicate a possible internal equipment issue (internal extentions, filters, adsl cable, router, telephony equipment, un-filtered used sockets etc). It did appear that the line was not the most stable when was checked before and was why I asked how stable your connection had been.

[reab]

Thanks Alun,

Well, I've changed the filter, connecting cable and plugged directly into the master socket by removing the front panel as suggested by residential when checking the line. The master socket and approx 5 metre extension were done by BT in an effort to get the best results from broadband. The only other device on the line is a new BT freestyle dect telephone.

If anything the line speed has decreased by +5% and I'm leaving the router on 24/7 at the moment.

I've also checked a few other peoples line speeds in my local rea (within 100 metres or so) and they are all showing much the same in expected speeds - according to BT's line speed test (not bt.speedtester).

From this I can only assume that the line that supplies me arrives in a most convoluted route hence the low line speed. Is there any way to track this?

The interesting point is that you thought the line unstable although residential said all was OK - in which case what can I do now?

Roger B

[Douzeper]

The regrade to 20Mbits is only a ploy so that you renew your contract, copper pair wire cannot cope with 20Mbits.

I'm stuck with a contract and the fastest I get is 1.5Mbits

[Alun]

Hi Roger,

Residential may be able to check the length of the line from their line tests.

In regards to the line stability, Residential would be looking from the PSTN point of view whereas we would be looking at the broadband side (which is more sensitive to line conditions).