Openreach Records

[BigT]

I was wondering if someone who works with an ISP or Openreach might know the answer to this.

dslchecker comes back with the following results for me (and similar for all my neighbours)

however the actual speeds I get since a new FTTC enabled cabinet was put on our village green three months ago is this and I am delighted.

Now I used to subscribe to fibre before the new cabinet arrived and received a woeful 4Mbps in line with the dslchecker results above from our old cabinet miles away.

Ever since the new cabinet arrived the 'test date' shown on dslchecker changes every couple of weeks but the results don't much, if at all. For me this isn't a problem since the speeds just got better once we switched but for all my neighbours who now want to order fibre for the first time, any ISP is saying basically they'll get 4-10Mbps similar to my dslchecker results and they are put off. But I know they are connected to the new cabinet so am pretty sure they'll be pleasantly surprised. However until Openreach's records are updated it seems understandably very odd to them and they don't want to go for it which is a shame.

Any idea how/when these results should update?

 

[Deaco]

.. But I know they are connected to the new cabinet so am pretty sure they'll be pleasantly surprised. However until Openreach's records are updated it seems understandably very odd to them and they don't want to go for it which is a shame.

Any idea how/when these results should update?

I'd be careful with that statement, you are more than likely correct that most people will go through the new PCP, however having worked within the Openreach network nothing is guaranteed. I've been to customers that have a fibre cab a stone's throw from their door, but are fed 2km off a different PCP. Their neighbours are on 80mb whilst the other end of the road are only getting 10.

Regarding records, they'll be updated when they are updated. Normally once a new cab/AIO has been installed a scheme is done to migrate existing customers from the old fibre cab to the new one, but until those records are updated there may be a chance that new fibre connections will still be routed from the old cab.

 

[Caged]

Is that top BT checker the result of a phone number search or an address search?

 

[BigT]

Phone number

 

[BigT]

I'd be careful with that statement, you are more than likely correct that most people will go through the new PCP, however having worked within the Openreach network nothing is guaranteed. I've been to customers that have a fibre cab a stone's throw from their door, but are fed 2km off a different PCP. Their neighbours are on 80mb whilst the other end of the road are only getting 10.

Fair comment. I’ve sort of kept quiet with the neighbours because of that. I base my assumption that they are on it from the map that a BT Openreach manager gave the faster broadband team at my county council (we’ve been petitioning for this for three years) and also the cabinet number listed on the dslchecker is the number of the new cabinet for me and them.

Regarding records, they'll be updated when they are updated. Normally once a new cab/AIO has been installed a scheme is done to migrate existing customers from the old fibre cab to the new one, but until those records are updated there may be a chance that new fibre connections will still be routed from the old cab.

But here’s the thing I don’t understand. The date of last test has been updated six times since the cabinet went live, suggesting it’s already been tested half a dozen times. If they update the date of the test how come it isn’t showing faster results?

The actual cabinet was installed over a year ago and ground works done four months ago and migration date three months ago, whereupon everyone who was on fibre sudenly got a tenfold speed increase. One neighbour who wanted to take a leap of faith ordered a new fibre connection two weeks ago and despite being told she’d get 6Mbps got a nice healthy 70Mbps.

 

[Deaco]

Lines are tested peridoically to check for faults or if your provider requests a test. It doesn't update the speed/records just indicates when your phone line was last tested.

The speeds you're seeing when doing a DSL check are the expected speeds connected from the PCP to DP on the records given, it's not a real time check on your phone number. So until everything gets sorted it'll be squiffy, hopefully shouldn't be too much longer if already been in 3 months but have known some in our area to taken nearly a year and some records still aren't 100% after schemes like these.

 

[BigT]

That’s really useful insight @Deaco thank you. In practical terms, how do they do they calculate the speed ranges and the hand back threshold?

 

[Caged]

That test date is only for the things listed above it - service-specific faceplates, bridge taps etc. It's not meant to be an indication of when the sync rate was last read back from the DSLAM and updated in a database.

 

[BigT]

Thanks @Caged - What triggers the sync rate being read back from the DSLAM ? Anything particular, periodically or just at random?

 

[TJM]

Given that other people signing up for VDSL will increase the crosstalk and hit your download speed, I wouldn't say anything.

 

[BigT]

I can suffer a few Mbps loss for the good of the community. We’ve spent years campaigning and harassing the county council to get our village included in the faster rural broadband scheme and now it’s here it isn’t just for me.

 

[NutritioN]

@Deaco Hope you don't mind me dragging this thread back to life.

Wondering what my options are as I'm in a small apartment block and let's say I'm flat 1. My neighbour inside the building, as in we share the same internal corridor, at Flat 2. BT wholesale checker and Openreach say flat 1 only has basic DSL 8-16MB, but I think every other address in this building shows VDSL and FTTP on demand as available.

BT wholesale shows:
Address 'flat 1' on Exchange xxxx
Address 'flat 2' on Exchange xxxx is served by Cabinet xx

So doesn't have a cabinet for me at flat 1.

Is this likely that one flat, in a building of 35 flats doesn't get the same options? Building was repurposed as residential in 2015 so most of its infrastructure is new.

Obviously I'm hoping Openreach's database needs updating as I do in fact have something faster than 16MB available