Slow and unreliable Unlimited Broadband after OpenReach switched the line

[#1]

I had an issue with my PlusNet Unlimited Broadband, which was due to a faulty line outside my home. An OpenReach technician came and say the line couldn't be accessed because it's below ground so they'll have to dig. So in the meantime he told me he switched me to a different but slower line.

That was in April, and ever since my internet sort of work but is often suddenly very slow, or even disconnect for a few minutes (especially in the evening). Nobody contact me about this issue, so I have no idea if it's ever going to be fixed.

So I'm wondering what to do about this and who I should contact? Is it PlusNet that deal with these unreliable lines? Or OpenReach? Any information would be welcome.

[#2]

@laurent This does not quite ring true, unless everyone on that same underground section of the cable is also having problems - do you know if your neighbours also have the same issue? If it was only you, then the OR technician was either badly trained or spun you a tale, 'switching lines' is done at the local cabinet - green box in the road or underground chamber.

Personally, I would report a fault to Plusnet via the automated system from here: https://www.plus.net/help/report-a-problem/broadband/

[#3]

Thanks, I've just tried the link you provided, but I'm getting this when I submit:

---

Sorry, there's been a problem in reporting the broadband issue.

We're sorry there's an issue with your Full Fibre broadband service. Please fill in the form and try again.Click here to proceed.

---

And if I try to submit again, I'm getting the same error. Is there some issue with their support system?

[#4]

@laurent Sorry you are having problems reporting your issue. Unfortunately, I am no longer a PN customer, so can't check the support system for you, although as no-one else seems to have reported a problem, it looks like it might just be you.

If you give it a day or so, hopefully one of the online Help Team will respond to this topic.

That error message looks a bit wrong to me - you are on an FTTC connection, and yet that message mentions Full Fibre (FTTP)

EDIT - Checking as far as I can, it looks as though you clicked the Full Fibre help link, which won't work for you.

[#5]

@laurent did you try this?

Quickest way - troubleshoot by text

Text HELP followed by your landline number to 07800008121.
e.g. HELP 01234567891
(charges may apply at your standard rate)

• We’ll run tests on your connection to find out what’s going on
• If you need an engineer, we’ll text you in 15 mins to book a slot
• If you don't need an engineer, our award-winning UK based support team will call you within 30 mins to help sort the problem
• Service available Mon-Sun: 8am to 8pm 
• Outside of these hours please see our Help and Support guides, and if you’re still having trouble we’ll pick up your message when we’re open

[#6]

@Dan_the_Van I thought the link I provided guided the OP to that, but maybe not 😉. Looking at his original post, though, I suspect it may need a slightly more 'hand on' approach.

[#7]

@jab1 it does, but there is also a link to raise a fault for Full Fibre. (what ever that is 😅)

Dan

[#8]

@Dan_the_Van Full Fibre = FTTP

[#9]

@jab1 I was joking, it's very likely being 300 meters from the exchange I won't see it FTTP for some time.

[#10]

OK, Dan, get you. I'm ~2.1/2 miles from mine, and definately (according to current BT plans) won't see it till 2025 unless the couple of altnets in the area decide SW Sheffield is worth building out to.

[#11]

Good morning @laurent, thanks a lot for getting in touch and I'm really sorry to hear that you're experiencing connection issues.  

I've just had a look through your account though, and have teste the line, in all honesty, thins don't look too bad. I'll pop my tests below for you to see, the line looks relatively stable. Perhaps a cause for concern might be the incredibly low downstream SNR, given that the target SNR is 3dB, and the impact this might be having on your downstream MTBE. This might be having an adverse impact on stability, so increasing it might help in that sense, though a side effect of this might be a small decrease in sync speed. 

All in all though, I'd personally suggest maybe playing around with some of the wireless settings on your router first before adjusting any settings on the line itself. I can split the wireless SSID's and run a Smart Wireless Scan from my end, though this will drop your connection for a minute or two, can I go ahead? 

KBD

xDSL Status Check
Circuit ID:	CBUK62836774	Service ID:
Telephone NO.:	NA	Test Executed On:	08-06-2022 10:39:52

xDSL Status Test Summary
Sync Status:		Circuit In Sync
General Information
NTE Status:		NTE Power Status:	Unknown	Bypass Status:

	Upstream DSL Link Information	Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss:	11.8	26.8
SNR Margin:	6.5	1.3
Errored Seconds:	0	72
HEC Errors:	0
Cell Count:	856427	5048462
Speed:	1067	19260

Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS):	17024	Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS):	13619
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds):	85753	Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds):	2522
Indicative Line Quality:	A	Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds):	91
Custom Thresholds
MTBR_RED:	MTBE_RED:
MTBR_GREEN:	MTBE_GREEN:

Radius

[#12]

Good morning @adam945 and thank you for looking into this. When I run speed tests the results are roughly as expected, but the issue is more about random disconnections, or the speed being suddenly very slow, usually in the evening (just loading a simple web page for example would take a very long time).

I'm happy to tweak the wireless settings if that can help - in that case please could you let me know what I should change and what value I should set?

And yes please go ahead and run the Smart Wireless Scan from your end.

[#13]

Thanks a lot for getting back to me @laurent, again, I'm really sorry for the problems that you appear to be having at the moment. I'm going ahead with the changes now. 

Basically, I'm splitting the SSID's, this means that going forward, you'll be able to connect to either the 2.4GHz band, or 5GHz. I'd troubleshoot between the two and see how you get on with your different devices. I've also run the Smart Wireless Scan, this scans your local environment for the best wireless channels, and sets them accordingly on your router. 

You don't need to do anything on your end, but see how you get on over the next few days, let us know whether the problems still continue  

[#14]

Unfortunately this did not solve the problem. For the past few days the line keeps going down randomly (light flashing red on router) and it seems to be getting worse and worse. Today it's been down half of the time.

So it seems to be a problem with the line rather than the router's performance. Can anything be done about this?

[#15]

Hi there @laurent, I've just taken a look into this and tests have picked up on a line fault (earth contact fault) I've reported this to Openreach for you and have added further details to an update on your account here: https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=225600475