Reins issue and FTTC

Hello everyone,

Very soon I hope that my home will be able to connect to a FTTC service. I intend to join Plusnet after good reviews from a friend. Before I sign up, I would like to know about how reins issues affect fibre broadband.

I live in a flat, there is a reins issue caused by the lift that runs through the block. My current sky broadband service has to have a noise margin of between 8 to 11db so that when the lift is in use the line is not disconnected each time (movement of the lift causes the noise to drop and if this drop causes the noise to drop below 1db the line drops). There is nothing more that can be done to address the reins issue so my question to you all is thus;

With fibre broadband can the noise be set just as I have now?
If fibre doesn't involve noise, is there something else that can be adjusted to prevent the reins issue affecting the line?
if i sign up with plusnet is there a team I can talk to who can adjust my link so that it can be resistant against the reins issue? Fyi, Sky have a team who do this and helped implement the fix above.

Forgive my first time post, not sure if anyone has asked this before as I couldn't find any posts on the subject. Any advise would be most welcome

many thanks

James

The DLM system that runs on FTTC services will increase the target noise margin to compensate for issues, but as the frequency range is very different the lift may not be an issue - or it may be worse.

There is little the ISP can do, the systems are pretty much in the control of Openreach, but they do ere on the stability side of the fence, so likely to slow you down if their is an issue rather than leave a flapping line.

Thanks @MrSaffron for your reply. i don't mind if the ISP want to reduce the speed down (this is what sky currently do). Stability is my biggest requirement.

In the experience of the forum users, will fibre make a reins issue like this worse than it is now? I don't want to move out of the frying pan and into the fire so to speak by moving from a (slow) 4mb broadband to say 40mb fibre. Currently I disconnect once or twice a day, normally in the middle of the night. I wouldn't want to move to fibre if that was going to lead to more disconnections each day.

At a guess all the phone lines come in to a small room, possibly in a 50 pair cable and from there distributed to te various flats through a service duct - am I correct.

If so, is there any way that you could get the modems installed at that point and then have you phone fed on the existing wiring and an Ethernet cable run from the modem to your flat where the router would be?

I came across something like this an a mixed business/residential block and it worked well.

With a spectrum analyser running in the flat to analyse the noise environment it is almost impossible to say.

If you have a short wave battery radio that can use the 1 to 17 MHz bands you might see if you get lots of interference when the lift is operating.

It is a very much try it and see, or spend money to get someone who understands RF and DSL to look at it, or try the shortwave self research.

@MrSaffron, BT have already visited with equipment connected to the phone line to analyze the noise. There was also a lift engineer with him as well as my shared ownership landlord. 3 hours of tests showed it was an electrical surge from that lift that was causing my line and others in the block to drop. A larger resistor was fitted and since then the drops have been 1 or 2 a day rather than hourly drops I was getting.

I appreciate its try and see, just hoping that there might be someone out there who has had a similar situation. I don't mind if the experience on fiber is the same as it on broadband, I just dont want it to be worse!

With regard to the lines, we (the residents of the block) looked into having the lines moved. I was told that the phone lines come into the building through a network that also houses the power lines for the lift and so cannot be separated.

Ty again for your replies, all advice and comment will be very welcome

Any idea what the estimate for FTTC speed will be ?

If it's a nice high estimate (ie a short line to the cab) then there should be snr 'in hand' on a 40/10 circuit, this may well be enough to tolerate the intermittent REIN issue.

@Zarjaz the estimate speed is 63mb down and 20mb up. I have friends on the other side of town who already have it and they get around 40mb down and 10mb up. I would be more than happy with that

unless the REIN is extreme you should tolerate it easily I think on a 40/10 service.

@Chrysalis I'm not sure if its extreme as i've not had one until I moved here. On average I drop about once or twice a day depending on how much the lift is used. Not sure if thats a bad problem or not, its just annoying. As long as fibre doesn't make that worse I can live with that