BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

[Caged]

It's almost like copying energy market regulation with a sole focus on price and the ability to switch suppliers is completely the wrong way to improve access speeds.

 

[jarvis82]

But no way to tell if it will be a month, six months or a year?

For the last 3 years I've lived about 250 yards from a BT exchange, so have had a FTTC connection of 76mb. Few months ago I bought a house only a mile up the road, and made the silly assumption that all would be well with fibre availability at the new address. Was shocked to find only 3 - 8 mb copper was on offer, due to the cabinet's fibre lines all being taken. Spent the last 4 months checking Openreach website every day. Fortunately a space opened up 10 days ago, and I was lucky to snap it up. I'm about 750 metres from the cabinet, and am now getting 30mb download and 8mb up. I read on a local Facebook group that one resident spent 2 years checking the Openreach website before fibre space became available. Should count myself lucky I guess.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Can someone help me understand SNR a bit better please?

Over the last 8 months or so, ours has gradually increased from 5 to almost 12, which has knocked 10mbps off our download speed. This has now dipped below the minimum speed given when we signed up so an Openreach engineer is coming tomorrow (after much arguing with BT)

Is there is possible genuine reason for this (line contention etc. perhaps), so does such a dramatic increase almost certainly indicate a fault / degradation somewhere that should be fixed?

Just don't want to be fobbed off tomorrow!

 

[V_R]

Could be errors, and the DLM system has raised the noise margin to compensate. The default is 6dB so if you're at 12dB that suggests either DLM has increased your margin or you're banded. (most likely the former)

Is the phone line noisy? Does it regularly drop out?

Would be good if you had some stats to look at.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Could be errors, and the DLM system has raised the noise margin to compensate.

Is the phone line noisy?

Would be good if you had some stats to look at.

Only have a BT Hub, so limited in what I can extract, but this is what is says:

Data rate:7.253 Mbps / 24.998 Mbps

Maximum data rate:7.254 Mbps / 38.836 Mbps

Noise margin:5.8 / 11.6

Line attenuation:28.2 / 24.9

Signal attenuation:28.1 / 22.5

Was in the mid 30's this time last year and the download noise margin was 5.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Have a call on your phone to check for line noise, dial to 17070, option 2, mute your set and listen if there is any noise on the line. If there's a significant amount of it, it can cause DLM to raise your SNR to high heck to keep the line stable.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Have a call on your phone to check for line noise, dial to 17070, option 2, mute your set and listen if there is any noise on the line. If there's a significant amount of it, it can cause DLM to raise your SNR to high heck to keep the line stable.

There does seem to be some yes - not sure if more or less than before though as rarely use the home phone.

 

[V_R]

Did you use a corded or cordless phone?

Data rate:7.253 Mbps / 24.998 Mbps
Maximum data rate:7.254 Mbps / 38.836 Mbps

Hmmm. That DS rate looks like it could be banded.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Did you use a corded or cordless phone?




Hmmm. That DS rate looks like it could be banded.

Corded - the speed has gradually dropped to that level, but I had noticed that where it is now seems to link to a band too.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

You shouldn't be able to hear anything on the line bar the very tiniest hints of very low volume high frequency like noise (which sounds a bit like the old modem dialling tones, but so low you can hardly hear it).

Which means there's either a fault with home wiring, or something along from the cabinet to your Master Socket that's the issue.

Have you done the Master Socket tests? Bypassing the outter socket to test whether it's the Master Socket? If you have, then the likelihood is that it's on the line, and the engineer will sort it out (for free). If it's found something is wrong within the home, you could be charged for the engineer visit. Make sure you check it all out.

 

[chris.tarry85]

You shouldn't be able to hear anything on the line bar the very tiniest hints of very low volume high frequency like noise (which sounds a bit like the old modem dialling tones, but so low you can hardly hear it).

Which means there's either a fault with home wiring, or something along from the cabinet to your Master Socket that's the issue.

Have you done the Master Socket tests? Bypassing the outter socket to test whether it's the Master Socket? If you have, then the likelihood is that it's on the line, and the engineer will sort it out (for free). If it's found something is wrong within the home, you could be charged for the engineer visit. Make sure you check it all out.

yep, done all of that, even had a BT "engineer" (I didn't know they actually had these) out last week who checked all of this and confirmed no issues in house.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

If the noise is audible on the quiet line test, then keep calling BT and telling them there's a line fault somewhere as it crackles when calling. Eventually, the engineer will get the right line fix done up and the line will be quiet. Once that happens your line should automatically come back down in SNR and the speed automatically increasing from that.

 

[chris.tarry85]

If the noise is audible on the quiet line test, then keep calling BT and telling them there's a line fault somewhere as it crackles when calling. Eventually, the engineer will get the right line fix done up and the line will be quiet. Once that happens your line should automatically come back down in SNR and the speed automatically increasing from that.

I have an Openreach engineer coming tomorrow - just wanted to make sure he doesn't fob me off...

 

[Meddling-Monk]

So long as there is noise on the line and your call was about the noise on voice calls, they should be bug hunting if nothing clear on their detection devices. Believe me, my line took nearly 3 years to sort out, with each call out fixing one thing until it all became clear. Just keep going on until you've done all the obviously detectable faults.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Actually had a sensible engineer luckily who after arriving at 8:30 checked everything thoroughly including going up the pole, down an adjacent manhole and to the cabinet!

He ended up replacing the entire run from the pole to the house and into the master socket - finally left at close to 2pm!

The result is that we are now syncing at 43mbps - a massive improvement from yesterday.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Excellent result. It took me near 3 years before the final engineer also did a replacement job on a patch of cable in between my place and the cabinet. That took care of the line issues.

Assuming they didn't also issue a DLM reset, you'll just need to wait for DLM and xdB to take it's course and slowly increase your speed. But at least it's improved for you I hope.

 

[V_R]

Nice results.

As he's on BT then he could request them to perform the DLM reset. Since them and Plusnet have been given the trial to perform them independently of Openreach.

He'll need to be on a Huawei cab and have G.INP active to get xdB. Do you know what kind of cab you are on Chris?

 

[andy_mk3]

Actually had a sensible engineer luckily who after arriving at 8:30 checked everything thoroughly including going up the pole, down an adjacent manhole and to the cabinet!

He ended up replacing the entire run from the pole to the house and into the master socket - finally left at close to 2pm!

The result is that we are now syncing at 43mbps - a massive improvement from yesterday.

I had BTO do the same when I had a line fault, he also switched the pair of wires from the pole to the cab Doubled my internet speed.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Nice results.

As he's on BT then he could request them to perform the DLM reset. Since them and Plusnet have been given the trial to perform them independently of Openreach.

He'll need to be on a Huawei cab and have G.INP active to get xdB. Do you know what kind of cab you are on Chris?

It’s gained another couple of mbps with a reconnection overnight, so it seems DLM is doing it’s thing, we’re only on infinity 1 though so I’m more than happy with what we are achieving now.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Well, I've had the exact opposite experience

Called Plusnet 2 weeks ago as my FTTC dropped to 521kbps on the upload and was randomly disconnecting. There was also noise on the line (intermittent) and I could see the statistics in the modem dropping when I picked up the phone which is never a good sign.

A week passed with no update so I called them on the weekend to which they said they'd done a remote test and couldn't see an issue (despite me telling them to book an engineer). I asked the guy if he could see how many times it had disconnected to which he responded "oh, lots... more than... I can't even count".... sigh.

Anyway, I demanded that they book an engineer to resolve the problem as this was getting on a bit now. An OR engineer was swiftly booked and arrived at 8:25am yesterday (great stuff as I planned to go to work after he'd been). This is where the problems started as he spent an hour and a half trying to test the line, including behind on hold to a help desk somewhere, only to find out the leads of his JDSU were knackered. I understand that these things happen, but I was more annoyed that he'd taken the entire socket off the wall and stripped back the cables to test despite already trying his plug-in device AND replacing the master socket.

The irony was the line was showing all green on his test (when he got it working) and because the job was booked as a voice fault (which came back clear) he said he couldn't fix the broadband problem, despite saying he suspects its a faulty card in the DSLAM and a simple "lift and shift" would resolve it. I asked why the line intermittently makes noise and why my speed drops when I pick up the phone and he said he'd need to test it properly to find out.

So now I'm at the mercy of their BS job booking system that means I have to take more time off work today to wait for the same guy to come back with a broadband job reference so he can resolve what he diagnosed yesterday.

Typically, I got home from work yesterday and the line sounded like the phone had been put inside a paper bag... so I suspect an intermittent fault that is going to take an age to diagnose and fix.