Hi all,
I've just been having a discussion with Jonesy, and he's mentioned something that I figured would be worth passing on.
He's been looking at some sites that give an indicator of line length in addition to the BT Wholesale Checker stats, and it turns out that at least some of them are only showing the estimated line length, for example if you look at the A&A website it shows this:
http://www.aaisp.net.uk/
The problem is that the estimated length of line can be significantly different, as Jonesy found out at one of his sites. According to the checker he had a 1.2 km line, but when they looked at the actual length it was over 3km.
It's worth bearing this in mind if your speed on a checker looks really slow. Use Google Maps (or something similar) to check the approximate route your line is likely to take. If you live in a more country area then remember that the line is more likely to follow roads and bridges, rather than going through fields.
And even if you live in a residential area you may be affected by limits on availability. Jonesy's issue is that many of the green cabinets between him and the exchange are full, so his 'line' has to go round town before coming back to him, which is why it's so long. It also means that there are more potential points of failure on the line, which can affect signal strength and quality.
Me? I'm lucky. I'm about 3km and roughly in a straight line from mine. /smug 🙂
Hope that helps.
Cheers.
Dave A
