A "Kelly's" FTTC install... how do you think it went?

My FTTC service was installed earlier today (upgrade from ADSL2+), not too happy with the results. The contractors were certainly not suitable for the job, their technical competence was minimal, but that wasn't the only issue I found.

Felt like I was being lied to by one of them just for the fun of it, and the other just seemed to have no clue whatsoever. I know 17 years olds that could probably do a better job. Would prefer Openreach though, mind you.

• They aren't supplied with a data extension kit.
• Plusnet have set my sync speed at 47 meg (obviously the DSLAM)
• I couldn't connect my laptop straight to the modem and connect to the internet - I did, one of them was a little surprised
• There is no dial tone, it'll come on tomorrow - no, I'm pretty sure it won't, could be wrong though. My formal networking education was focused more around Cisco networking

To be fair my internet kept becoming unresponsive out up for the last week until a day or 2 ago since I changed the modem. So it's possibly not their fault.

How do I know my line is capable of more? I've had Sky fibre, I've seen my line stats on VDSL, you can see them... here, and here large data set of my speed tests taken from speedtest.net (.CSV). If you want just wanna see a pretty image then this should give you an idea.

Quick comparison:

Sky - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2886757749
Plusnet - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3322191039

Not plusnet's fault, but please can you send some kind of faults engineer out.

Ticket #81667369

Edited by deleted (Fri 21-Feb-14 16:47:41)

Hi gmk,

It doesn't sound like the best install. Can you send over your username and I'll take a look at that, otherwise you can run our troubleshooter - http://faults.plus.net and we'll pick that up from there.

Kind Regards,

Current line stats are what?

How far is the DSLAM, with 109Mbps max rate before I presume within 100m.

With the no dialtone it is possible you are surviving on a single leg (i.e. one out of the two wires) suggesting the jumper job at the cabinet has a fault.

Notice that in my area the "Kelly" contractors ignore "No Entry" signs in order to save them driving for half a mile when a fifty metre walk would be more appropriate!

isn't the ticket number he gave an adequate identifier

Yep it is, missed that!

Edit - A fault has been detected at the exchange, an Openreach engineer will be attending in the next 24-72 hours to resolve this.

I've updated your ticket and will check back on the progress of this.

If you're requiring the data extension kit we'll need to raise this as a separate issue to the phone fault detected.

Edited by deleted (Fri 21-Feb-14 17:29:12)

Nice! Not !

However, re the first - "They aren't supplied with a data extension kit", unless you ordered it from Plusnet at signup time that is correct.

Do you need one for the install to be as intended? (Once the rest gets sorted). If so, you need to make sure Plusnet know so if an engineer visits for the other stuff he is able to do that as well.

?
Was the Sky FTTC at the same address? What happened to it?

Ah - memory clicks in. Did you have to downgrade to ADSL2+ to migrate, then back up? In which case the engineers shouldn't have needed to do anything other than reconnect you at the cabinet.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Current line stats are what?

How far is the DSLAM, with 109Mbps max rate before I presume within 100m.

With the no dialtone it is possible you are surviving on a single leg (i.e. one out of the two wires) suggesting the jumper job at the cabinet has a fault.

I'm using the supplied ECI /r modem so I don't know, I do have an unlocked HG612 in the cupboard so I can get them anytime, and I'm waiting for a soldering iron to arrive so I can attach some header pins to my other ECI /r and get the stats.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Nice! Not !

However, re the first - "They aren't supplied with a data extension kit", unless you ordered it from Plusnet at signup time that is correct.

Do you need one for the install to be as intended? (Once the rest gets sorted). If so, you need to make sure Plusnet know so if an engineer visits for the other stuff he is able to do that as well.

I know, I did ask for one when I ordered, but thanks for your input. The router is upstairs so yeah it is required, I have compiled OpenWrt from source with hopefully working RFC 4638 support for my Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H. Right now I'm just running ethernet straight to my Mac because the router is running DD-WRT and is configured in a non-standard way for ADSL2+.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

?
Was the Sky FTTC at the same address? What happened to it?

Ah - memory clicks in. Did you have to downgrade to ADSL2+ to migrate, then back up? In which case the engineers shouldn't have needed to do anything other than reconnect you at the cabinet.

Yes, it's the same address; I've had ADSL2+ for roughly 6 months.

In reply to a post by chrispurvey:

Yep it is, missed that!

Edit - A fault has been detected at the exchange, an Openreach engineer will be attending in the next 24-72 hours to resolve this.

I've updated your ticket and will check back on the progress of this.

If you're requiring the data extension kit we'll need to raise this as a separate issue to the phone fault detected.

Alright, thanks.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Notice that in my area the "Kelly" contractors ignore "No Entry" signs in order to save them driving for half a mile when a fifty metre walk would be more appropriate!

They really don't seem to give two monkeys.

In reply to a post by gmk:

They really don't seem to give two monkeys.

Just two fingers.