SOGEA line issues and ORDI required?

[#1]

Hello,

Some time ago now (around 6 months ago), my contract for standard FTTC broadband ended and I was given the option to switch to SOGEA. I was interested in keeping my phone number but also staying with Plusnet (to maintain my Plusnet email address, and good service, etc) and I understood that Plusnet are not, directly, offering a Digital Voice solution. Therefore, I decided to port my number to a VoIP provider and then, immediately after the port succeeded, "reactivate" my line with Plusnet as a SOGEA connection.

This all worked fine but ever since my line speed has dropped dramatically. Looking at tickets on my account, I am able to see that my line was provisioned as SOGEA 80/20 and I would expect to get downstream speeds of around 55Mbs because this is what I used to get before and nothing about the setup at my house has changed. I also received an email from Plusnet, upon re-connection, giving an estimated speed of 48Mbs. However, I am unfortunately only seeing speeds of around 25Mbs at best, and often less than that (between 20 and 25 is most common). I believe that, since I ported my line out and then re-connected, my line was physically unplugged at the cabinet and then plugged back in to a different port which is now giving crosstalk?

Separately, my house does not appear to be registered with Openreach under it's actual number (the line goes to "New House" instead) which I discovered during the porting process. On the BT Wholesale DSL Checker, my address has an entry with no active Line ID and there is a duplicate entry under my postcode for New House - which seems to correspond to my actual line. I understand this can be fixed with an ORDI, so is anybody here able to advise how I could request one? I realise this is a very niche area.

I am happy to correspond via "tickets" on my account if a moderator could create one. I understand customers cannot create their own tickets any more.

I would be most grateful for any advice,

Thanks

[#2]

@lesleys 

Mods cannot create tickets as they are customers like ourselves.

You need to wait for a staff member to pick up this thread (which could be a while) or phone in to Support.

Brian

[#3]

Thanks for the reply.

I did not realise that mods were actually customers too. I understand official support members are here though and I do have realistic expectations, I think, that somebody who can help will see my post *eventually* - even if it is weeks later.

It is not a serious issue at the moment, as the ORDI probably only needs correcting before I re-contract again (which won’t be for a while) and I also have a working connection, even though it’s slower that it was previously. Therefore, I am prepared to wait if needed.

I really don’t want to have to use phone support as I find phoning quite difficult and also don’t believe that first line support will readily understand my problem at all, so I would have to be prepared for a very long conversation. That may be unfair, but regardless it is not my preferred “channel”!

[#4]

Please see the following link for results from the BT Wholesale Checker. There is no FTTP in the area, we are not in an FTTP priority area, and restrictions on wholesale line rental products (non SOGEA FTTC, etc) do obviously apply as they do now nationally.

So the only product available is SOGEA. The estimated line speeds, even impacted, are not being achieved now but were prior to my line switching to SOGEA.

[#5]

@lesleys 

Once you get the Address sorted out you will need to run the fault checkers to see what they say. There is a Text number that you could try now (unfortunately I don't have it). From the PN Help page

"Text HELP for broadband or Text PHONE for home phone to 07800008121 (charges may apply at your standard rate)"

Brian

[#6]

@lesleys Which Hub/router do you have?

Ignore @bmc 's phone link above, it does not work on SoGEA connections.

[#7]

I tried the BT Wholesale line checker (linked from the Hub control panel speed test page). It managed a speedtest but couldn't complete line tests and gave an error. I also tried the text system as the broadband part ought to work with SOGEA. It came back again with some kind of issue and suggested I text back ADVISOR. I haven't yet.

This is partly why I feel I need an ORDI as I'm not sure my line is registered properly in Openreach's systems, even though it's active, and this could be leading to problems?

I have a Plusnet Hub 2, and have done since around late 2022 - so long before these issues started.

In the old days I would have tried a Quiet Line Test, but of course you can't do that on SOGEA either!

[#8]

OK, @lesleys , I asked just to make sure you were using the supplied kit and not your own, as that would make some of the below meaningless/pointless.

For Community members to be able to help, information from these sites, as screenshots, posted as pictures within the topic, not as attachments:-

BT Broadband Availability Checker (obscuring your phone number), where a landline phone is no longer supplied or known use the address version BT Broadband Address Availability (obscuring your address)

BTW Performance Tester - Over a wired (Ethernet) connection if at all possible, please report the 'ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTICS'- if it will run. This test is recommended to be performed with only one device connected.

Sight of the broadband connection status from your Hub (with the 'Username' obscured) would also be of help.

For the Hub One -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Troubleshooting > Helpdesk

For the Hub Two -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Advanced Settings > Technical Log > Information

Where the phone line is still active, it may also be a good idea to report the results of a Quiet Line Test - dial 17070 option 2 from a (preferably corded) phone. After the confirmation of your phone number, there should be total silence apart from the regular 'Quiet Line Test' announcement. Any other noise - report a PHONE fault first.

If you are unsure about any of the above, please just ask - I am happy to help.

(Sorry this is a script written in the days before SoGEA).

[#9]

Thanks jab1 - I must be on the right track if I have done most of that already! Quite amusing!

Here is the log page from my Hub. As you can see, it's not that I have poor line uptime, as my connection has stayed consistent, but the sync speed is much lower than expected (and lower than previously).

[#10]

When running a test on the Wholesale performance tester, I get the following:

Summary Advanced Test

Your speed test has completed and the results are shown above, however during the test an error occurred while trying to retrieve additional details regarding your service. As a result we are unable to determine if the speed you received during the test is acceptable for your service. Please re-run the test if you require this additional information.

It doesn't matter how often I try re-running the test, I can never get the advanced test to work!

[#11]

Thanks for that, @lesleys . The only thing that makes me 'raise an eyebrow' is your downstream SNR at 7.5dB - it does suggest there is an underlying noise issue on your line which may be difficult to trace, but will be affecting your achievable speeds. From memory, at a 10/21 attenuation, I would expect an achievable somewhere in the high 60's Mb/s.

[#12]

The BTW tester is dying a slow death, I think - a very high percentage of people trying it get that message. I know I used to 9 times out of 10 before I switched to FTTP.

[#13]

Interesting, I don't have a saved copy of the Hub Technical Information page from "before", but I seem to recall a sync speed that was around 60Mbs (63Mbps, I think it was) and regularly achievable speeds of high fifties (more like a speed that hovered between 55-60Mbs than what I get now, which tends to however 20-25Mbs).

I'm technical enough to do the basic troubleshooting and check my hub easily, but not interpret the noise ratio as you have done so thank you very much for that!

Regarding the BTW checker, I didn't realise that - perhaps it has bugs and doesn't work properly with SOGEA, so potentially normal. I just didn't know if my address issue may be coming into it. I have never bothered with the address issue, because I don't intend to switch away from Plusnet and it didn't appear to be impacting me before, but I would just like it fixed anyway for "neatness", if that makes sense.

The only other thing that could be relevant, is that my BBEU number was changed when my line moved to SOGEA, so is it possible that something was "reset" on Openreach's systems at that time? I also realise that a fresh round of Dynamic Line Management would have started to allow my line to establish a profile, and I think there may have been a couple of overnight powercuts during that time (quite unusual, but they were working on the grid locally). This could have caused atypical line drops.

[#14]

Suggest you follow the broadband speed fault process. See HELP in the user portal.

[#15]

No problem, @lesleys , that is what us unpaid support staff are for. 😉

I don't know if it still works and can't test as I'm no longer a PN customer, but it might be an idea to try reporting a fault using

https://faults.plus.net . Probably won't get you far, as the BTW page says you are 'within spec', but your D/S SNR appears high, so it might just work if a clued up agent gets hold of it - no promises.