Moved from Infinity to Plusnet, and it was a huge mistake

[#1]

I switched to my old BT Router and still see speeds lower and less stable than on BT. The router is in the same physical location and connected to the same phone point on the wall. It should be providing identical speeds to BT, but it isn't.

To be fair, speeds are better now than they were last week, with the average around 40mbit. Looking at the few speed tests I have on my phone (I'm at work now) I see the lowest was 18mbit and the highest 51mbit. As I've said, BT was a pretty solid 61mbit. Upload is lower than BT too, although by far less. BT gave me 20 up, Plusnet is 15-18 up, and spiking and dropping continually.

I know PlusNet are cheaper than BT, but if that had been qualified as being cheaper because the service was poor I wouldn't have switched. The guy I spoke too at the weekend said I may have been physically moved to a different, worse connection at the cabinet. Funnily enough I remember an OpenReach guy telling me when he installed Infinity that BT got all the best connections and left the junk to other ISPs. I thought he was joking at the time, but it seems he wasn't.

A wired test to my PC is never going to happen. I've run wired tests to an Apple TV and see identical speeds as on wifi. I also ran some wired PS4 tests and it reported 35-40mbit.

I've logged a complaint already. The wait time for a response was given as 10 hours. It's been around 48 already and I've heard nothing. Release me from the contract, I have no desire to waste any more time on such a poor service.

[#2]

I can understand why the chap who was on Sky is having difficulties - Sky equipment is separate to what everyone else uses and that may explain his problems.

@Moroboshi and myself both transferred to PN simply because BT are too expensive, the equipment at our home, at the exchange and in the cabinet has not changed, we are simply directed to a different DNS because of the new network password we use.

This isn't a wiring fault, it isn't local contention, as far as I know there is no one else on Plusnet running to my local Cabinet and as this is fibre there will be no further issues until the fibre reaches Plusnet (in theory).

 I've since restarted my rooter ant the line speed has increased

6. Data rate:	19999 / 74372
7. Maximum data rate:	28162 / 74088
8. Noise margin:	14.9 / 6.2
9. Line attenuation:	17.2 / 15.1
10. Signal attenuation:	17.2 / 15.1

However BT Profile is stuck on 71.1, this for me is the problem that I have had before, I hope tech sort it out for me, then I might just get the full speed I should be getting 100 ft from the Cabinet.

[#3]

Still no response from Plus net to my complaint. Well done, you have the worst customer service I have ever encountered. I thought BT had set the bar so low nobody could be any worse, but you're on an entirely different level. An official complaint to CISAS will be going out tomorrow. 

[#4]

Hello there. Sorry to hear you haven't had a response to your complaint yet.
If you've raised this yourself online the lead time for our complaints team to get back to you is 5 working days.

[#5]

Use a wired device to run a TAP3 test, would be the protocol. Get the data before blaming random stuff.

[#6]

My PC is a huge desktop and on a different floor, so it's never going to happen.

If CISAS don't sort this out I'll just cancel the direct debit.

[#7]

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@Moroboshi wrote:
My PC is a huge desktop and on a different floor, so it's never going to happen.

If CISAS don't sort this out I'll just cancel the direct debit.

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This is bit weird in this day and age -  I have been borrowing a old laptop from work indulge in my new forced hobby of wired speed tests to confirm what I already know (that my Internet service is underperforming)  

-  Now that one laptop I had access to is no longer available, So basically that means because I have no access to a legacy device with a LAN port, I'll not get any support from Plusnet!   

[#8]

The problem is that there are so many variables with WiFi, and FTTC can easily exceed 2.4GHz 802.11n single-stream throughput even before we consider interference, congestion, manufacturer chipset incompatibilities, access point firmware issues, Windows driver issues (especially around WiFi power management), and so on.

So really using a simple Ethernet connection eliminates all of that and enables proper fault diagnostics with actual facts.

[#9]

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@Moroboshi wrote:
My PC is a huge desktop and on a different floor, so it's never going to happen.

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Long ethernet cable. e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371565007348

[#10]

@Moroboshi - Or you could invest in a set of Power Line Adapters like these

[#11]

I've now filed a complaint with ISPA and will do so soon with CISAS too. Plusnet "customer service" are refusing to help now, which isn't surprising at this point given their appalling attitude so far.  Hilarious really to contrast the difference between their adverts and the reality. I can't wait to be shot of these thieves.

[#12]

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@J1mbo wrote:

The problem is that there are so many variables with WiFi, and FTTC can easily exceed 2.4GHz 802.11n single-stream throughput even before we consider interference, congestion, manufacturer chipset incompatibilities, access point firmware issues, Windows driver issues (especially around WiFi power management), and so on.

So really using a simple Ethernet connection eliminates all of that and enables proper fault diagnostics with actual facts.

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Frankly OpenReach FTTC is a steaming pile of you know what. It's a joke. With BT it's at best tolerable, but still feels like internet from 10 years ago. Through Plusnet it's borderline unusable.

Before I moved house I was with Virgin Media (sadly not available where I live now). Virgin have reliability issues for sure, but when it's running properly it's a different world entirely. 150mbit down, now up to 200mbit down. I just wish Virgin had the coverage BT do, as if they did I doubt Infinity would exist. I wonder why when OpenReach engineered their  FTTC offering they aimed so low and left themselves with no route for growth. 

[#13]

Sometimes I think it's a case of helping yourself before blaming everything and everyone else; FTTC does work well for a large number of businesses and domestic circuits providing speed and latency that is comparible to a £550pm leased line from 3 years ago or so obviously at a fraction of the price.

if you are however determined to blame someone for the UK not having pure fibre to the premises, this was in hand by state owned British Telecom in the late 80s/ early 90s, but it was cancelled by Maggie Thatcher who didn't see the need for fibre optics and the cost arising. The business making the fibre was asset stripped and I think sold to a Chinese company, and here we are 25 years later with the same copper in the ground as before.

The next evolution is FTTP which BT will likely deliver fibre to just outside the property boundary using existing ducts, then use a kind of PoE powered media converter onto copper for the last 5-10m up the drive into the property, providing up to Gb speeds.

The Virgin network was in the most part paid for by military funding through Telewest IIRC.

[#14]

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There has been plenty of time to remedy the situation. FTTC is a poor product, missold as "super fast" when that notion of a lumpen 50mbit connection with hopeless lag and terrible pings would trigger hilarity across east Asia. 

Virgin Media is super fast, when it works. It's depressing that when I first signed up for Telewest many, many years ago it was a far superior and faster offering than Plusnet gives me.  It's as if I've gone back in time by a decade or more. The final hilarity, I get 80mbit on my phone through Three's 4G. It wipes the floor with my wired connection. Maybe it would have been better just to sack FFTC cabinet off before they wasted any money on it. 

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules

[#15]

More anger, more emotion, but nothing helpful in understanding whatever the issue is at hand.

Comparing with Asia isn't fair because they didn't have the legacy of a copper network in many areas. FTTC is what it is - the most cost effective way of delivering 20-80Mbps services *in the UK* and many other places. 10ms Ping is OK for most use cases - browser, Citrix, RTSP or whatever. Remember this is designed to be a CHEAP service.