In reply to a post by Billward:

I'm just over 10 km from it as the cable goes.

I partially retract my comments elsewhere in this post regarding my statement of:

In reply to a post by mixt:

I refuse to believe that some lines are so long and interference becomes that bad that they just cease working and are unable to carry any signal at all.

10 km is an insanely long line, and I now appreciate why there may no longer be any scope for any ADSL signal on it, at all, even a ridiculously minimal one, like therioman's 160 kbps.

I guess at that kind of line length, the only workable frequency range is back in the narrow band spectrums of ISDN and dial up!

In reply to a post by mixt:

I guess at that kind of line length, the only workable frequency range is back in the narrow band spectrums of ISDN and dial up!

I think its why there is a specification for ADSL over ISDN, but only Germany has ever used it.

They used that because their phone lines were basically ISDN based, nothing to do with range

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

They used that because their phone lines were basically ISDN based, nothing to do with range

Ok, thanks!

Okay in which case you are one of just a handful we've seen with a line working out at that sort of length, longest ever was 11km.

No requirement at present to repair or uplift you, for now all can see is check at https://www.homeandwork.openreach.co.uk/when-can-i-g... and see if there is FTTP work underway, as some parts of the exchange are scheduled to get FTTP.

In reply to a post by mixt:

10 km is an insanely long line, and I now appreciate why there may no longer be any scope for any ADSL signal on it, at all, even a ridiculously minimal one, like therioman's 160 kbps.

I guess at that kind of line length, the only workable frequency range is back in the narrow band spectrums of ISDN and dial up!

10km is indeed a very long line.

But length of the line is not the only factor that affects the attenuation (which is what really matters). The gauge of the copper matters just as much ... and it matters just as much for voice circuits too.

0.9mm copper has a much lower attenuation per km than standard 0.5mm copper, and so gets used for very long lines - allowing service over lines 2-3x longer than expected.

In reply to a post by huwwatkins:

I think you misread. The latency and speed have been getting better not worse over time.

Sorry, yes I did. I misread the dates of the posts as my brain assumed the oldest would be listed first so didn't take in the fact the first is actually the latest post.

Again, thanks everybody for your comments. I've learnt a bit even if I've no solution yet.
An engineer is due tomorrow but I'm not optimistic.
It is frustrating - cabinet 6 on the Llanymynech exchange is fibre enabled but the line is too long for Superfast speeds. That doesn't bother me - I just need any speed. The fibre coils have been hanging from the telegraph poles since October and carry on for another km past my house. In fact I suspect the problem has been caused as a result of work that has been going on over the last 2 or 3 three months rather than just because the line quality has gradually degraded. I might be wrong but there is history.
Yesterday I spoke to BT, originally to try and get some idea of fibre timing but that was a waste of time. Interestingly, after giving them my details, phone no, etc., and explaining the current absence of broadband I was given a quote for BT supplying broadband at a quoted speed of between 1 Mbps & 3.5 Mbps!!

Just to clarify the past - over the 11 years broadband speed has increased from around 0.2 Mbps to 0.75 Mbps, reliability has been generally good apart from the odd incident of an underground cable being ploughed or the squirrels using the overhead cable as a highway and finding the outer insulation nice to chew. Service has also been good and the issue of line length has only been raised once as far as I can recall.

billward

So you have fibre at the pole!? Or do you mean the telephone wires?

Have you tried connecting the router without the samknows box directly into the TEST socket within the master socket to check for any improvement in speed?

Test socket

What router are you using just now, on my long line connection to the exchange the routers with Broadcom chipsets do best.