Want to upgrade to Fibre, have a dodgy old master socket though?

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Soldato
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Hi guys. Looking for a bit of advice here. We currently have Plusnet 15Mbs ADSL in our flat and generally get about 11Mbs. When they first connected it they said there were two phonelines. There is infact about 6 different extension boxes, and (we think) two master sockets. Unfortunately once they connected us up with the phoneline and internet we realised that they seem to have chosen the line that comes in via a really sketchy old GPO master socket. The wiring is super-dodgy, in fact when my girlfriend was on a dusting rampage she slightly knocked it and took down our phone and internet! We have infact held it together with some masking tape.. gotta love a rented flat..

So I'm a bit worried about upgrading to Fibre and not actually getting anything any better. As I understand FTTC it still does use the phoneline at the very end. Is that correct? :confused: Anyway, I've put our telephone number into the BT checker and it comes back with up to 80Mbs, and on Plusnet's upgrade page it's estimating 68Mbs. So that's fine.

So, I have two questions. Can I force them to use the 'other' telephone line coming into the house? We have another master socket which is a 'proper' one (i.e. not from the fifties!!). And will they charge for that?

And, what happens if they connect me and I'm still stuck on 11Mbs? Will I have to pay BT to come out and sort it out? Surely not if it's faulty hardware..

Any advice would be great, bit of a Fibre noob here! :)
 
You could ask for an assisted install involving an Engineer visit and he will more than likely replace the socket and disconnect any dodgy wiring but there may be a cost for this.
 
AFAIK PlusNet still provide a full engineer supported install.

Assuming they do (ask PlusNet) then the install should be included in the cost they quote and any necessary remedial work (including fitting a new master socket) will be done at the same time.
 
Hmn ok thanks. I would have asked them but according to their phone service they had an outtage last night so the lines are exceptionally busy :p

I've just realised that the current master socket/gpo actually is extended around practically the whole lounge. Probably a good 5-8 metres around. Whereas the other master scone is actually right next too the router. Do you think they'd change to the other phone line for free?
 
Well I had Plusnet fibre installed on Wednesday and safe to say that did not go well. Poor girlfriend was left at home to deal with a ridiculously moody and unhelpful contractor for BT, so much so that we will probably find out how to make a formal complaint.

Apologies for copy/paste from email:
Showed him to lounge and he asked where current router was. I showed him that and then started to explain where master socket was. He said he was just going to plug in modem and then started to look at current router.
I asked him about the master socket and that I understood he was to assess it, explained it was very old and ran all the way around the room and through two other socket boxes but he wasn’t interested. He said if we wanted a new line, we would have to arrange that and it would cost £170.
I explained that Plusnet had told us that the engineer would assess the master socket, we were getting fibre and we were not paying for premium service to have it drop as it hit the ancient master socket. He said that it wasn’t his responsibility. I said I understood that everything up to and including the master socket was BT’s responsibility.
He begrudgingly replaced the incoming connector box with a new one (I could have done this) and then rang an extension rounder shorter side of room to an existing socket box, he appears to have replaced the front of the socket box. The modem and router were then connected to this.
Click to expand...

He basically replaced the old GPO socket thing with a slightly newer looking one. I was expecting him to put an NTE5 master socket in it's place. What we have now is a new 'GPO'-esque socket, an extension running round the lounge to what looks like another master socket, then the modem is plugged into that. I'm paranoid he's ****ed it up.. initial speed tests are showing around 48Mbs, but we're only about 200m from the exchange and were quoted nearly 70Mbs!?

We'll give it a week to let the speeds settle down, but I'm not happy to pay for 78Mbs, only 200m from the exchange only to have it slowed down by BTs crappy lines coming into our house!
 
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