Price Hike

[#1]

Whatever you do or do not think of the checkers, they set the benchmark by which BTOP / BTw will decide if the line is operating within expected bounds.  There is no point belly aching if the benchmark is 1.5mbps and you are get 2.5mbps ... physics is physics - for ADSL if you are more than 4km from the exchange it will be very slow - for FTTC if you are more than 1.5km from the cabinet it could be as slow as ADSL.

If the line is not performing to expectations, then (given BTOR are only responsible up to the NTE5 back plate) the self checks are to minimise the possibility that BTOR will try to raise a NFF or user equipment call out charge.  This is not a matter of the purchaser sorting things thenselves, but rather one of ensuring that the supplier has no wriggle room to pass on charges.  Remember that it is BTw / BTOR who demand these checks before they will allow an ISP to raise a fault report.

To use your analogy, it is not dissimilar to you checking that your main stop cock(s) are fully open and there is no lime scale build up in the tap end ... after which indeed the water board might eventually come and replace the pipes / repair leaks ... assuming of course in your remote rural setting your are indeed on mains water and not something coming out of a well.

[#2]

Well yes, but when I checked mine at below 3mbps last year (I'm on FTTP now) a total of six engineers called (not all at the same time) with their fancy equipment and said they could find nothing wrong!

No well here by the way (not one that is used anyway) despite my rural location, just an old farm building which out-dates those water pipes.

Road due to be dug up next year by Dwr Cymru..... and a guy called Dai Leek!  

[#3]

We still don't have a clue as to whether the OP's slow speeds are because of his distance from the exchange or a fault (or even poorly working WiFi).

@murox2017 Please post what the availability checker (http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome) says you should be getting.

[#4]

ADSL Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Downstream Range(Mbps)	Availability Date		Left in Jumper
ADSL Max	Up to 1.5		--		1 to 2.5	Available	--	--
Fixed Rate	2		--		--	Available	--	--
Premise environment	Status
Bridge Tap	U
VRI	N
NTEFaceplate	N
Last Test Date	03-04-2018

[#5]

---

@murox2017 wrote:
Shame Plus Net doesn't, can't or won't  try to bring sensible connection speeds to all its customers.

---

There is absolutely nothing Plusnet or any other ISP using the telephone line to supply broadband can do. Have you checked if your council is doing anything to get you faster speeds?

[#6]

Welcome to our community forums @murox2017

I'm sorry to hear you're unhappy with your speeds.

Whilst it's unlikely we'll be able offer improved speeds until your exchange equipment is upgraded, if you would like to discuss a new deal from us, I'd recommend contacting our Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632.

They're here until 8pm tonight, and there's no wait time to get through to them at the moment.

Hope this helps.

[#7]

@murox2017

Have you considered a mobile 3/4g option ? If it is available to you.

Even 3g mobile data would be an improvement on the fixed line broadband you currently have.

Mobile data plans are getting more competitive with fixed line if your data requirements are  not excessive..

[#8]

Unfortunately for speeds as low as these, the exchange being upgraded to ADSL2+ would very likely make little to no difference to the speed.

[#9]

@murox2017

Which county do you live in?

[#10]

I have just read the long post of Jelv's.  I knew things had changed but had not realised just how bad the greedy monopoly of BT had become  nor how far that cancer had spread through what was, as Jelv pointed out , a very good little company.

I live in a rural part of Scotland in a community of around 200 houses plus a couple of farms a large international business and several smaller local ones,  around 4 miles from the biggest town around for many miles, parts of which enjoy very fast connections.- its not as though fibre is not in the general area!!

I understand the distance from the cabinet to my home is great (about 4km) and I understand the cost implications of bringing fibre to remoter areas. BUT what I find totally unacceptable is the unwillingness to place a cabinet or two, nearer to communities such as where I live; then at least we might have a consistently usable service of around 5mbps .

More amazingly a very small local company is now offering line of sight satellite internet for less than my current Plusnet  so called 'deal' , and its over 10 mbps for private customers and up to 40 for businesses. So I probably will cancel Plusnet in favour of the local company. I might even cancel my land line as well, again with Plusnet, and just use mobiles, no more copper to think about; just hope the satellite doesn't get knocked out of orbit !

[#11]

That small company, does it also apply the government subsidy I mentioned? As for that landline I wonder if you can go over to VoIP using a dish. Just a thought. 

Not sure if it's still on offer but either way it sounds like you have it sorted.   

[#12]

---

@murox2017 wrote:

I understand the distance from the cabinet to my home is great (about 4km) and I understand the cost implications of bringing fibre to remoter areas. BUT what I find totally unacceptable is the unwillingness to place a cabinet or two, nearer to communities such as where I live; then at least we might have a consistently usable service of around 5mbps .

---

FTTC basically doesn't work well when it gets so far from the cabinet that the speeds are down to 5Mbps. The cost is bringing the fibre out to the cabinet. Another option is for the community to pay some of the costs themselves via a Community fibre partnership.

[#13]

Does https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/where-when/# give you any useful information?