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BT fibre finally available -18mb line?

Hello. As above, the maximum line speed available for the newly available BT fibre is 18mb.

I was wondering if this is likely to be because of issues on my line or just because the exchange is incapable of better.

Any input appreciated as my current provider and BT have been of no assistance.
 
There is a news item floating around that this is a product for people with very slow ADSL speeds; not sure what tech they are using, as they are also talking about a new 10Mb fibre product to meet the governments minimum internet speed requirements; although I think they are being very stupid, as by the time they finish rolling it out, the next but one government will want a higher limit, and they will have to roll out something else - at even more expense.
 
The new 18Mbps FTTC "fibre" profile isn't due to become available until 15th June 2016, so it's not that. Instead it's probably just the case that you happen to live too far from your local street cabinet and the speed of FTTC/VDSL breaks down over distance due to signal degradation on copper lines (either that or there's an issue with poor home wiring or some sort of damage).

You can find a simple explanation of how FTTC works here:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/broadband_cable.php

Also you can review BT here:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/products/7.html
 
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Thanks for the reply.

I live approx 2 miles from the exchange, and the nearest cabinet is approx 1 mile away, which I assume I am connected to.
I have put the phone number of a friend into the bt availability checker, who lives a few hundred yards from the cabinet and their line high is 80, low 62.

With mine being 18 high 1 mile away from their house and the cabinet, there has to be a serious issue on my line, so what is my best course of action to get it sorted?

Will BT be interested without being a customer of theirs?
 
At 1 mile from your street cabinet (1609 metres as the crow flies, but probably more due to how the copper cable can loop around on its way to you) I'd say that 18Mbps is actually about right or possibly even faster than you could expect. We have seen cases where somebody 2000 metres away managed to get a shade over 15Mbps, but that really is rare.

You definitely aren't going to get 62-80Mbps like your friend who lives much closer to the cabinet as his/her signal won't be breaking down as much over distance.
 
At 1 mile from your street cabinet (1609 metres as the crow flies, but probably more due to how the copper cable can loop around on its way to you) I'd say that 18Mbps is actually about right or possibly even faster than you could expect. We have seen cases where somebody 2000 metres away managed to get a shade over 15Mbps, but that really is rare.

You definitely aren't going to get 62-80Mbps like your friend who lives much closer to the cabinet as his/her signal won't be breaking down as much over distance.

Thanks for your reply.

Well that is really disappointing to say the least, but not unexpected with bt involved.

I find it quite surprising that such a loss is considered normal. At present I get 3mb on adsl with the theoretical max being 8mb, so I would have expected a similar ratio with fibre.

Incidentally, I entered another phone number of a relative who lives further from the cabinet and their line speed was 24mb.
 
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Thanks for your reply.

Well that is really disappointing to say the least, but not unexpected with bt involved.

I find it quite surprising that such a loss is considered normal. At present I get 3mb on adsl with the theoretical max being 8mb, so I would have expected a similar ratio with fibre.

Incidentally, I entered another phone number of a relative who lives further from the cabinet and their line speed was 24mb.

I was going to ask what ADSL speeds you were getting; for that line length, 3Mbps seems very low; my sister gets 6Mbps on a line length of 2770m (with EE).
 
Captain is correct, at about 2000m from the exchange (note: ADSL comes from the exchange, while FTTC/VDSL comes from the cabinet) I'd expect a best ADSL1 speed of about 7Mbps+ or 12-14Mbps on ADSL2+ when supported. Mind you the copper line length could be double the distance underground and your home wiring might not be fully filtered, so you never know.

Do you plug directly into the house Master Socket and do you know if the master has a filtered faceplate installed?
 
Captain is correct, at about 2000m from the exchange (note: ADSL comes from the exchange, while FTTC/VDSL comes from the cabinet) I'd expect a best ADSL1 speed of about 7Mbps+ or 12-14Mbps on ADSL2+ when supported. Mind you the copper line length could be double the distance underground and your home wiring might not be fully filtered, so you never know.

Do you plug directly into the house Master Socket and do you know if the master has a filtered faceplate installed?

My current adsl is only a theoretical 8mb max and I am 2 miles or so from the exchange (although strangely, a few months ago I did a speedtest for someone near to the exchange that was getting 12-14mb :confused: )

I currently use an extension cable from the master socket to the router, but for the sake of a few 100kb I haven't seen any point in getting anything different.

I don't have a filtered face plate, no. But the BT checker suggests a max of 3mb anyway which I assume anything inside the house wouldn't be able to increase.

I was wondering, even though they wouldn't want to actually do anything to serve the public properly, if it would be theoretically possible at least, for bt to change out the copper lines for fibre, so those of us who don't live next to a cabinet don't have to suffer pathetic speed, or is it not as simple as that?
 
How long is the extension cable as you ideally want that cable to your router to be as short as possible.

Now it depends upon what type of Master Socket you have, but if it doesn't have an Openreach logo on it and looks like this..

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/adsltips/uk_phone_mastersocket_NTE5.gif

..(may have the old BT piper logo on or simply be blank) then you could consider fitting one of these as it could really improve your connection:

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/pro...PVxViFHITisfAKjg-6xBdsltT9iztr0hZtRoCdv7w_wcB

[video=youtube;UNUMwZQ-lbk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNUMwZQ-lbk#t=56[/video]

Basically you just unscrew the two faceplate screws, pull the faceplate out gently (so that none of the coloured little cables behind flick out of their connectors [at this point I'd take a few pictures of the wiring]) and then put the filter in-between the socket and faceplate by lifting the faceplate and its wires through the bottom gap of the new filter. However this won't work if you have several phone numbers / lines for the house as the wiring could be too bulky / complex to do it.

Otherwise do you know how to post your router stats (SNR margin, attenuation etc.) as we can often see from those if interference might be a problem.
 
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Thanks for the reply again.

The extension cable is a fair length. It basically goes up the stairs and across the landing. I could put the router by the socket and use wifi but that would likely lose speed, or running some ethernet cable up the stairs would probably be a better, but ugly option. It is handy to have the router where it is, really.

Those iplates look worth a go. I found a cheaper one here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BT-I-Plat...16c73fd&pid=100005&rk=1&rkt=6&sd=221858051301

Does that look legit?

Router stats below. I looked the snr up which fell into the 'fair' bracket, so hopefully that can be improved.

fnzbpl.jpg


Would improving any of these issues make potential fibre speed any higher, or is this just for adsl?

Regards
 
PM me your number/address I'll be able to tell you your (estimated) line length, which may be able to explain why the estimates for your FTTC speed are so low.

Also, even though the checker states your line is only capable of 3Mbps, this is a 'live' check, so will use your existing speeds alongside it's own estimates to provide a speed estimate.

If you were to make changes to your home environment, and the speeds increased, the checker will increase over time, too.
 
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Using a really long extension cable that runs through your house from the Master Socket is akin to putting up a big copper aerial and shouting "COME TO ME OH ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE OF THE WORLD! COME!". It's not a good approach :).

Definitely you want a short (no more than 1 metre if possible) cable to connect with your router near the Master Socket and then, as Kits says and assuming your downstairs and upstairs power plugs aren't on separate circuits (they might be), you could use a HomePlug / Powerline solution to essentially extend the Ethernet / LAN network through your power cables. Some related devices will also act as WiFi extenders to kill two birds with one stone.

Also if you want to try the Faceplate thing (personally I would not buy one off eBay as you can't be sure of the quality) then you can also test out if it helps before buying anything. All you do is unscrew the master socket’s faceplate, remove it gently and let it rest on the floor and then plug your Microfilter / Splitter directly into the exposed test socket behind. This cuts out common causes of interference, such as the ring/bell wire, and allows you to test if the new faceplate filter would help. I'd suggest testing for a couple of weeks. But as I said before, if you pull out the master socket’s faceplate and find masses of heavily clumped wires then it may be best to leave well alone (usually there should only be a clean setup with 2-4 wires connecting to the faceplate).
 
Thanks gents.

As I said, the router is where it is for practicality - I need several ethernet ports to hand. I would probably need a switch to give me the same options if I used powerlining.

I appreciate that extension cables reduce speeds, but when your line speed is a maximum is 8mb anyway I see little point in buying various kit for such a small increase. I will probably try the iplate though as it's cheap.
 
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I have a friend that has a modem next to master socket then runs ethernet to router in his office in loft this way also works.
 
I have a friend that has a modem next to master socket then runs ethernet to router in his office in loft this way also works.

This. An ethernet router isnt expensive, you can pick them up on Amazon for under a tenner, and a 10-15m length ethernet cable for not much extra.

You say WiFi is too slow, but the real limitation is your ADSL speed; even an old "G" spec WiFi connection is going to be ten times faster than your ADSL connection. From the front to the back of my house my .ac router gives my PC 71Mbps out of the 79.995Mbps fibre connection.
 
Checked my master socket and actually have an iplate. Can't remember if I fitted it myself or not but it's there either way.

Also got a reply back from BT regarding why my line is so slow and got the predictable slippery answer basically telling me I would have to sign up first. So, if it was a car I was buying and I had noticed it had a wheel missing, the BT dealer would tell me to buy it first and then he might look into it.

How do these people get away with such an appalling service?
 
No ISP can improve your line to its max while you run a long extension lead upstairs to run the router off, best speeds are by having the router as close to master socket as possible. The slippery slope is internal wireing which BT do not have control over.

As I said modem downstairs connected by ethernet to ethernet power plugs second plug in room where you want the router then connect router via ethernet to powerline adapter then ethernet to router.

My daughter can download games at 50Mbps over these powerline adaptors in her room, had we used router upstairs over extension lead she would be lucky if she got 20Mbps.

It is your choice if you decide to stay connecting via extension leads when there is alternatives out there. even running two routers would give faster speeds connecting wirelessly from downstairs to upstairs.
 
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