Help, Inifnity FTTC slower than regular Adsl

I have just switched to BT Infinity FTTC. Engineer out about two hours ago and and I have seen a significant drop in my broadband speed. For the last year and a half I have been getting approx 6Mps down and consistent 0.4 Mps up. Today on FTTC i'm getting approx 3.8-4Mps down and consistent 0.9Mps up. I have tried to get my router stats but am I right to think thats not possible via FTTC? Should I expect speeds to increase or is something wrong? I am about 1.8miles from the exchange and the engineer said he was surprised I even got FTTC at all? (Not that BT said anything about that when they were encouraging me to get it!). When testing with his own speed tester the engineer was getting some conflicting stats, sometimes around 1-2Mps down up to 10-12Mps. Thinkbroadband speed test once gave 12Mps down but only once all other times 1-4Mps. Would appreciate any advice/ thoughts or help.

Your distance from the exchange is irrelevant to FTTC performance. It is your distance to the cabinet that matters. Did the engineer mean you are 1.8 miles from your telephone cabinet?

Apologies. Yes I think it must be cabinet not exchange.

If 1.8 miles from the cabinet then this sort of performance is to be expected

What was the estimate given when you ordered?

What does this checker say about your expected speeds?

To answer previous questions, I was quoted much more than 4Mps!! I was with BT Option3 already and quite happy with that service. I even said to the(local) sales rep on the phone that I would ONLY be interested if speed would be better. He assured me they would be much better. I cant remember what exactly the speeds he was quoting but thought if I even got the lower estimate I would be happy.

Below is what the checker states about my line. The Adsl estimateseem strange to me as I have consistently got approx 6Mps.


For Telephone Number xxxxxxx on Exchange NEWTOWNSTEWART

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 2Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 1Mbps and 3.5Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 24.9Mbps and upstream line speed of 5Mbps.

The ADSLx speeds are nearly always very low compared to what you get.

The FTTC ones are usually quite close.

From what you said about the engineer's tests, it sounds like a bodged installation. He shouldn't have left it below 15Mbps solid connection speed with a minimum 12Mbps actual download. Probably one of the new half-trained, (if even that), recruits.

He did say he had only been working with BT for a very short time. He seemed pleased with 3.5Mps on FTTC because iplayer and youtube were running?! I was thinking ahh NO. But where does this leave me?

In reply to a post by Speedchaser:

He did say he had only been working with BT for a very short time. He seemed pleased with 3.5Mps on FTTC because iplayer and youtube were running?! I was thinking ahh NO. But where does this leave me?

You could report it as a fault (technically i may be representative as such )
As you have just gone live, you should have a short time(cooling off period) to cancel should you hit the BT brick wall and see that you are getting nowhere or they are too stupid to see that you have a fault, due to the blundering untrained engineer they employ who thinks An FTTC connection is ok if giving under the 15mbps figure ( which should IMO be set to at least 24mbps)

I am about 1800 meters from cab and mine connects at 12down and 0.6up.

Ive had 3 engineers come out to see why the upload is so slow, even when they phone up openreach control and force it to connect at anything above 0.6 upload the line will not sync.

The last engineer basically told me that he thinks it may be a defective port in the CAB but his bosses told him he is not allowed to change me to another port to test because there is only 100odd in the cab and they didnt want to waste one on me even if the one i am currently on is infact faulty!!

Even when they force my connection to 5mbps download the upload still will not go above 0.6mbps otherwise is just does not sync!

I was getting 1.2mb upload on ADSL2 at 2x the line length!!


It basically after 3 engineers sounds like im going to just have to live with 0.5mbps upload because open-reach don't want to use another port up in the DSLAM or actually get to the bottom of the problem. The line tests ok no CRC or line faults.

So I am expecting a phone call from the man I am dealing with at BT retail probably going to tell me that the "line just cant take more than 0.6mbps upload" as i expect that is what open-reach will say to him. (The man (Darren) at BT retail has been super helpful in trying to get this fixed for me so massive respect to him for that, excellent customer service on his part.) and hes got 3 engineers sent out for me, but if open-reach go back to him and just say there is nothing they can do, then there will be nothing more he can do for me either, which is a real shame.)

Edited by deleted (Sat 20-Oct-12 16:17:21)

If I can believe what I was told, the rep said he would place me on the 3month (NI roll out) trial period where I could cancel anytime during that period, but an email the other day said I had a 12month contract. I guess the next port of call is to ring and hope they send someone with more experience to see if anything can be improved.

Have you switched anything off, and on again? if not, turn off the Home Hub and the modem and leave them for ten minutes.

While they are off, disconnect and reconnect at both ends the cable between the modem and the VDSL2 socket. Then turn on the modem and wait until it shows DSL. Then the Home Hub.

Don't do this more than once!

I don't really expect this to solve anything, but there's no harm in trying. It's called "clutching at straws".

HaHa! Will that interfere in the settle in period? Does FTTC have a 10 day period where max speed is determined?

BT (Retail) may try to tell you so, but for several reasons that's irrelevant in this case. The main one being the Openreach description of what happens after installation of an FTTC connection.

2.2 User Network Interface - General
2.2.1 Dynamic Line Management
Dynamic Line Management (DLM) is employed in GEA-FTTC. DLM constantly manages lines to maintain a target link quality (speed and stability). It does this for as long as the product exists.
At provision, the line is put on �wide open� VDSL2 line profiles allowing the upstream and downstream line speeds to run at the upper limit of the product option selected.
On the first day of operation, DLM will intervene if severe instability is detected. Otherwise, DLM will wait until the day after provision before deciding if it must intervene, provided that the line has been trained up for at least 15 minutes during the preceding day.
If DLM intervenes it will set a profile with a maximum rate and a minimum rate, where the minimum rate is set at approximately half of the maximum rate.

Then BT Wholesale have their DLM sitting on top of that, but it has nothing at all to do with determining the connection settings. (That's for the purposes you are concerned about. There are micro-management features it can pass through from the ISP to the OR DLM, but these are not relevant here). It manages the connection from the point it is handed over to them in the exchange from Openreach. It does set the IP Profile, but that resets every time you reconnect anyway.

The point is there is something badly wrong. I just suggested that on the very slim off-chance there is a wire loose or dodgy, before you join battle with the call centres.

What does the BT Performance Tester say? (The diagnostics one, not the Beta). Please copy/paste the full contents of the two results text boxes. (Down and up). We don't need the graphics.

After resetting the hub I tried to run the non beta test but it did not seem to work. Running the beta showed 12.89 down 0.94up with 40 ping. Thinkbroadband now showing 12.2 down 0.9 up Hope this will last.

In reply to a post by Speedchaser:

After resetting the hub I tried to run the non beta test but it did not seem to work. Running the beta showed 12.89 down 0.94up with 40 ping. Thinkbroadband now showing 12.2 down 0.9 up Hope this will last.

Sounds better. Are you using a wired connection to the Hub or a wireless connection? Worth trying a wired ethernet connection if you haven't yet.

Where you ran the beta test, was that the 24Mbps one? If you scroll down a little to to what appears to be the FTTP entries, the beta there is designed for fibre and runs fine on FTTC. I've just used it.

Will give it a go after tea and post results. My spped seems to be very unstable and fluctuating as some tests are now giving 2,8, and 11Mps!

Here were the results obtained from the FTTC (non beta) test (It worked this time)



1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
12.41 Mbps

0 Mbps 13.28 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 12.41 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 12 Mbps-13.28 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 13.28 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
0.93 Mbps

0 Mbps 10 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 0.93Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10 Mbps


We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time.
It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly.
If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance.

Speeds still seen erratic though.

From that it looks as though you are on the 40/10 product, not the 80/20? Is that correct?

In your situation I would definitely do a single power down, wait a few minutes, and restart of the modem. With the cable from it to the socket removed and reconnected while it is off.

My reason is the downstream IP Profile, indicating a connection speed of ~14Mbps. That will not change without a restart of the modem. It is just possible that he left things in a mess, and restarting it may sort things out. Not likely, but I would do it.

Yes I'm on the slower of the two Infinity packages. Can I ask why a one off turn off/on , disconnect/connect? Is it just if it dosent work it's no point doing it again or can it affect things? Latest speed test showed 9.3Mps down and 0.9 up.

Yes - if it doesn't work there's no point in doing it again.

Yes - doing several could affect things. One will not affect things.

After a dissconnect -reconnect speed shows 10.5down 0.9 up so pretty much same as prior. Will see if these sppeds stay stable. If I don't get any higher would that be considered outside of expected speed enough to have BT look into the problem.

Definitely. The installation was botched. He's done something wrong, or not done something he should.

In a recent case very similar to yours, the user's phone extension wiring and the siting of the modem in that were utterly wrong. Would you like to describe what sockets you have where, and what is attached to each? Do you know which is the master, and is that where the modem is?

You guys helped me out about a 1 1/2 - 2 years ago. It was the botched wiring by the sparky that was causing speed to be 2-3Mps but after much discussion problem was fixed and sppeds went to a solid 6Mps ish. Here is a link to that discussionI described in detail my set up. Nothing has changed except that BT engineer put a cover with inbuil spltter on my old socket with the broadband going to the Home Gatway Echolife thingy and from that to my home hub with my Ethernet line running from the hub to my computer. I also have a line from the hub to a home plug.

Edited by deleted (Sat 20-Oct-12 23:16:23)

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated WBC FTTC Broadband where consumers have received downstream line speed of 24.9Mbps and upstream line speed of 5Mbps.

that is what he said and hes getting half that, I would contact BT as it's not good enough.

I contacted BT yesterday and explained to them the low speed. He took some time at running a test and confirmed the 24.9 and 5Mps speeds as what I should be getting close to. His reply though was that there is a ten day stabilization period and that I should see my speeds rise to those estimates over that time. When I questioned if this was the case with FTTC as with an ADSL line he said it was and that he could not action/escalate the complaint until after the ten day period. My speed though has seemed to stabilise but at around 8Mps down and 0.9 up.

Edited by deleted (Tue 23-Oct-12 10:15:49)