Is my fibre line capped?

[#1]

When I originally upgraded to Fibre Unlimited number of years ago it was on up to 55mb product. Being close to cabinet router would show max of 70+mb, so it would sync at max available speed 55mb. Speedtests would always be 50mb or so. This was case for few years, happy days after coming from 2mb adsl line.

A few years ago after couple minor line issues sync speed dropped to around 45mb whichever routers used. Usually use BT hubs (currently Hub 6), keeping PN router for comparison or use if PN need it for stats etc. Line is usually rock solid.

End of Nov upgraded to Fibre Unlimited Extra as cost substantially  less than already paying for Unlimited. All the automated  line/speed info predicted same speeds as before.... no increase....fair enough. What I don't understand  is how line can go from 70-72mb capability down to 45-47mb without any problems being apparent. Surely such a drop can't  solely be down to cabinet congestion?

I realise I can't  raise issue as fault because I'm getting what automated  checkers predict. Could the line be incorrectly  capped/banded by Openreach? 

Have asked couple neighbours  about their speeds....either don't  know or on lower speed products like BT up to 38mb.

Be grateful for any opinions & if anyone from PN can pick this up. Am awaiting Hub 2 from PN which hopefully would give them more access to line info. 😀

[#2]

Just to add router now plugged into test socket few hours ago. Re connected at 47mb as usual.

[#3]

Me again.

From what I can see your line's not capped as you're on a full unbanded profile "Downstream: 0.128M-80M with no error protection. Upstream: 0.128M-20M with no error protection" though I can see your sync speed is 47mbps below where we'd expect of between somewhere 60mbps to 77.6mbps as shown Here.

I'd like to arrange an Openreach engineer visit to investigate further. Could you reply to the ticket I've logged on your account Here with when you'll be available? If you can post back once you've responded, I'll make sure we pick this up and book the engineer for you as soon as we can.

[#4]

Thanks yet again Anoush! I've responded to the ticket. Look forward to receiving engineer date 👍

[#5]

Hey @Grezzer61,

Thanks for getting back to us. I've had a look at the account and I can see that our Tech Support Team have already picked this up and booked an appointment in. Please let us know if there are any issues and we'll be happy to pick this back up for review

[#6]

Thanks Alex.....yes engineer booked for tomorrow  morning. Will advise you of any developments soon as engineer has been 👍

[#7]

That's great, we look forward to hearing back from you

[#8]

BT engineer  came 8am. Very thorough, changed socket etc. No faults showing, thought line probably capped, tried to uncap it but no with his system so probably wasn't  capped. Changed ports in cabinet etc. Got bit extra speed out of line. I've  reconnected old Hub One at 52Mbps & 18 down. Was still only getting 47 &13 with BT Hub 6 for some reason.

Engineer said being only 260m from cabinet higher speeds would be expected. He checked neighbours lines at cabinet & found mostly similar speeds. Only couple higher & they're  on GFast products that should give speeds much higher than they're  getting. Reckons speeds being lost from cabinet to houses due to mainly being old aluminum cabling from cabinet . Line has checked out OK in every other aspect.  Engineer spent around 2hrs on job. The automatic system estimates of 60-70+Mbps for my line appear to have been over optimistic due to quality of line. 

So unless anything else can be done at PN end looks like my line is maxed out at just over 50Mbps. Will connect Hub 2 as soon as it arrives.

I will reply to ticket re: my account options👍

PS: Any chance of update being pushed to connected Hub One as still on software ending ...263 from Oct 2019. Never updates when I connect it.

[#9]

Cheers for the detailed update, it's disappointing the engineer wasn't able to increase your speed further but it's good to see they've carried out a full investigation into the problem. Unfortunately there's nothing we can do at our end as you're on the fastest DLM profile at the cabinet and your speed's not banded. 

I'd be tempted to agree with the engineer that the speed estimates are overly optimistic if part of your line's aluminium, and if other lines in your area are about the same, they'll likely need to do a lot of work to replace the cabling & upgrade the infrastructure, and we'd struggle to raise this as the request would have to come from an engineer. 

I think for now you may be stuck with what speed you can get but hopefully things change in the future.

I've just taken a look at the ticket 220246199 and I agree with what we've said on there, you'd be best calling our Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 to see what we can do. 

Let us know how it goes once your new Hub Two arrives!

For a firmware update on your Hub One, you'll need wizardry of a man like @bobpullen. If he doesn't spot this post, I'd recommend posting in the topic Here.

[#10]

Thanks Anoush.....yes it is disappointing especially as so close to cabinet, but as long as things stay stable🤞.  Hub 2 arrived today. I've  just set it up & it's  synced back at BT Hub 6 speeds of 48Mbps & 16. Hub One synced at 52 & 18 this morning. Might it be because it's  peak time & quite a few neighbours xmas lights blasting away. I'll  try daytime re sync in few days. Don't  want to do too many in case DLM sets in.

Engineer said things here won't improve  until they replace all the aluminum round here. He said it is being done but I haven't  seen any signs of it happening around Chester yet. 

I will try to get through to Customer Options in due course see what they say.

Am I right in saying that there is no way of splitting the 2.4 & 5 ghz WiFi bands on Hub 2? Couldn't spot an option. 

[#11]

Hey @Grezzer61,

Thanks for getting back to us and I'm glad to hear the Hub 2 has arrived. You would be right in saying that there isn't a way to split the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels on the Hub 2, however this shouldn't be as needed as it was in some cases with the Hub One. Regardless, please let us know how things go over the next few days and we'll be more than happy to help wherever we can

[#12]

Their is still a discrepancy of 4 - 5Mbps on connection speeds between  my old Hub One & new Hub 2. Compared them again one evening this week. Hub One again synced at just over 52Mbps down & 18 up, whereas Hub 2 stayed at just over 47Mbps & 15. Hub 2 seems to sync at same speed as BT Hub 6 I previously used. I know such a discrepancy in down rate will hardly be noticeable in the real world but is it likely just to be down to differing  chipsets etc?

Though the down speeds did not improve following "upgrade" from "up to 55" legacy product my upload speed has doubled as expected. Would that be expected despite the "aluminum etc" reasons previously mentionedI was given by BT for not getting any higher download speed?

[#13]

Thanks a lot for getting back to us @Grezzer61

When you say "syncing" can you clarify how you're measuring this? Is it via a wired or wireless connection? Also, are you finding this information from the helpdesk ta on your hub Manager? In regards to chipsets, i wouldn't like to misinform you either way, so I'll sit on the fence here, but again, our products team @bobpullen might be able to shed some further light on this here.

Your new broadband product has uncapped your upload speed, which was previously between 8-10Mbps, whereas it's now up to 20Mbps.

[#14]

It's possible the line rate difference is due to chipset technology. The Hub One has an Intel/Lantiq SoC, whilst the Hub Two (and probably the BT hub) are using Broadcom.

[#15]

Thanks Adam........just to confirm I was not  referring to speedtests but line connection stats from both  router's line status pages.