The BT exchange mystery and slow speeds

Between 5th March 2009 and today, I have had no broadband thanks to BT's systems showing that our phone line is connected to a different exchange to where it actually is.

We tried to connect to Sky after being on BT option 3 with 512mbps d/l speeds (ripoff if ever I saw one!) Sky were perfectly happy to take our order and said we should be getting something stupid like 14mb on their unlimited option. The connection was 'activated' but somewhere along the lines, it wasn't coming anywhere near my house and eventually they sent openreach out to investigate. They told me that our line is connected to a different exchange and Sky broadband would never get through.

Our line is connected to a remote MDF called Locks Health - Whiteley, which I think must run through the main Locks Heath exchange but I can't seem to find anyone who can confirm this. The remote MDF site is 5 minutes walk from my house (I have been to see it) but the main exchange is about 5/10mins drive away.

Apparently others connected to the Whiteley exchange are achieving 6mb speeds on BT, but when I called to ask them to reconnect us (apparently there are absolutely no other options but their [censored] service on our exchange/remote mdf) they told me that their checker was showing the exchange could handle fixed rates of 512, 1mb or 2mb. Not really sure what that means but not good!

Anyway, our connection has finally been sorted out today after weeks of messing around and hey presto, we are getting under 512kbps. I am determined to get to the bottom of this and do something as paying just over £15 a month for a sub-512k service is pretty expensive!

Without further ado, my stats:

Bt speed test showed 479kbps

Router stats as follows:


Connection information
Line state Connected
Connection time 0 days, 6:08:39
Downstream 576 Kbps
Upstream 288 Kbps

ADSL settings
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation ITU-T G.992.1
Latency type Fast
Noise margin (Down/Up) 29.4 dB / 10.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 41.0 dB / 24.5 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 16.5 dBm / 12.3 dBm

All help very much appreciated, the walls in our house are getting rather dented from my head being banged against them!

You won't get more than ~480Kbit/s on a 512 fixed profile (576 sync) in speedtests so 479 is about as good as you could possibly squeeze out of it.

The stats look good enough for atleast 4Mbit/s down stream tho - but not sure if your upstream would support the full 448 on ADSL MAX.

As for getting wholesale to move you to a fix 2Mbit or MAX... thats a whole different story. You might have to escalate the issue to high level complaints to get anywhere.


EDIT: You might want to look at the front page of the site at the not spots stuff as your getting less than 2Mbit.

Edited by deleted (Thu 28-May-09 22:52:09)

Thanks for your reply, I've added us as a slow spots to the not spots/slow spots map. I noticed a couple of other comments from people living in our area with the same odd connection from the main exchange through the remote mdf.

So what they've done is put us on 512 then? Sounds about right! I have some serious issues with BT anyway (when we cancelled our old BB package and calls at the end of the contract, they disconnected ous entire line and left us without any communication for a couple of weeks then made us sign up to another 12 month line rental contract to get re-connected - total con!

I've been to escalations a few times with both Sky and BT in the last few months for variou problem with mixed results. Maybe I should just start stalking the Openreach vans or chain myself to the remote mdf site! lol

As our silly little remote mdf exchange is pretty insignificant I guess the chances of them upgrading it above a fixed profile are pretty unlikely, but I guess I could try getting them to move us onto a 2mb fixed, though I should imagine it will be like getting blood from a stone.

We have 2 pc's here getting fairly regular use and my OH's ps3 which seems to have to update itself every time it turns on so 512 really isn't helpful! Nevermind the fact that we paid for Option 3 for 18 months and I didn't find out about the slow speed until it was impossible to get out of our contract.

I suppose I should just be grateful that I am only paying just over £15 per month now, but somehow that just isn't good enough!

Looking at SamKnows which is all I can do without the telephone number of the line, your exchange is one of a handful without an up to 8Mbps Max product. If you have people who for certain have 6Meg speeds, then would be interesting to know their exact telephone number so it can be checked.

What does the checker at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/btavailability.html say for your line? At that attenuation they should allow 1Meg, and maybe 2Meg.

Other providers should be available than BT in terms of retail providers, but many will be confused by their not being a Max product.

NOTE: There are no LLU providers so most of the less than £15 products will not be available.

If you had ADSL MAX, and dare I say ADSL2+ on the exchange then your line would do very, very well with those stats. With the attenruation that you got, id say around 16mbps+

But the reality is, your one of few unlucky ones in the remote valleys of the world! Govt to the rescue!!

Bearing in mind the downstream noise margin of 29.4db, when adslmax noise margin is usually set to 6db, you should be able to get a higher speed fixed service.

Might take some persitence on the phone though...

Fixed speed availability is determined by the checker, which works on attenuation estimates

The thing is, we don't live in a remote valley at all, if you look up Whiteley village, we are right next to the M27 motorway, and have a large business park 10 minutes walk away on the other side of the town and an outlet shopping village in the north of the town.

The trouble I think stemmed from when Whiteley was being built, BT did not plan ahead and houses went up quicker than they could find space for the lines, hence the remote mdf site which they clearly no longer care about.

Anyway, the BT checker gives this:

For Telephone Number ### on Exchange WHITELEY

Your exchange has ADSL broadband.

Our initial test on your line indicates that you should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line rate of 2Mbps, 1Mbps, 512Kbps or 256Kbps.

If you decide to place an order, a further test will be performed to confirm if your line is suitable for the service you wish to purchase.

Thank you for your interest.

Mr Saffron, if this is the case, if I rang BT technical and gave them my actual attenuation levels, do you think they would move me to a better fixed rate 1mb or 2mb?

Hardly a remote valley

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&g...