ISP Review Questions ISP's Over ADSLMax Problems

******: No impact on our Network, we planned for MAX services by installing additional pipes and capacity before the launch on 31st March, and as we were on the original trail in the first place we knew what to expect.

Vispa: This is a difficult question, some have, some have remained exactly the same and others seem to have dropped. I think once the initial ‘woo’ factor has worn off then traffic will remain at normal levels. We saw exactly the same thing when BT released the Home 1000 and the Home 2000. I think though that consumption is going to go through the roof when all the new media content becomes more wide spread. And when this happens we will see people complaining about the Caps they didn’t realise they were on with some of the ‘larger’ ISP’s.

NewNet: MAX is increasing the demands on all resources!

11) We understand from one ISP that BT has been rejecting a lot of faults based on an assumption that the issue is either the ISP or customers fault and not their own, despite users not having suffered poor connection quality pre-MAX. In such a situation, what recourse, if any, does a customer have?

******: This is only the case if the user does not undertake the correct BT fault reporting procedure. Which is to do 3 speed tests on the BT speed tester in a 24 hour period for 3 days. All 9 of these speed tests must show poor speeds - if this is the case BT will investigate the fault, otherwise it is rejected. This is the criteria and the procedure in place for BT to investigate MAX speed faults. Perhaps other ISP's are just unaware of this.

Vispa: This is not a DSL MAX related question. BT are always rejecting faults because the automatic checking system thinks all is fine. The Clear has to be rejected by the ISP before a human will look at it. We at Vispa accept that this is a matter of course and respond accordingly. We hold the hand of the fault as it goes through the system.

NewNet: There have been some suggestions that faults are due to incompatible customer equipment (in most cases a red-herring as most equipment is already MAX compliant), poor or low quality local wiring (extensions), missing or low quality micro-filters.

A high proportion of faults reported to BT are closed as ‘Fault not found’. In many cases the original fault report had been due to slow speed performance – lower than that quoted by BT in their throughout range (400-8000). Checks against the BT speed tester may show some tests as above 2 Mb – and this appears to be enough to close faults.

12) Any comments you yourself would like to make about ADSLMax?

******: Were it has been successful it has worked really well, often raising lines that could previously only offer 1mb services to 5mb or even 6mb speeds. There has been some teething problems - but then, look at the scale - 5500 exchanges upgraded across the country on day one – with nearly 250,000 lines now upgraded to ADSL MAX the failure rate isn't actually that bad.

Vispa: I personally do not think that the DSL MAX product is ready for general release. I think a much wider trial with a specific number of ISP’s was needed. I do think that they will resolve these issues but the problem we as ISP’s have got is when? BT do not have to face the poor customer, we do. We are the front line and it’s our reputations on the line here not BT’s because the customer sees this as a problem with the ISP not BT.

NewNet: No comment.

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ISPreview would like to thank ISP’s NewNet, Vispa Internet and ****** for taking the time to answer our questions so informatively.

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