Slow FTTC Upload speed

I have sky fibre and my current Tbb speed test results are 14.5 � 16 Meg download and 0.4 Meg upload. Reading the forums I think I am right in saying my upload should be within 22.5% of my download. Also the Openreach availability checker says I should get 19.5 Mbps downstream and 4.6 Mbps upstream. On this basis I have spoken to Sky and they have done some line tests which have come back as faults (inconsistent upload / download ratio), this has prompted them to report the fault to Openreach and I have had engineers to my property which went like this:

Engineer 1: �You seem to have a profile issue. If you were a BT customer I could sort it but as you are a Sky customer you will have to get Sky to sort it�.
Sky Reply: We have no control of the profile as this is an Openreach product. We will report the fault again.

Engineer 2: �I have checked your BB at the exchange and can�t find a fault; it�s as fast as it will go�
Sky Reply: Our line tests are still showing a fault with the profile we will report it again.

Engineer 3: �This is a profile issue that needs to be sorted by Sky, I am a field engineer I can�t do anything with it, I will call my office and see if they can get it sorted�. 1 hour later on the phone �I have spoken to my office and your neighbours are getting slower download speeds than you, so you should be happy with what you have got�.
Sky reply: The engineers report says the line is aluminium and is 1400 meters long so this is the best it gets. But the line test still shows a fault so we will have to report it again.

I still await any comment from Sky or Openreach.

I live 300M as the crow flies from the cabinet and 465M by road (and pole) quite why my line is 1400m long is a mystery.

My question is should I accept a 0.4 Meg upload speed or am I right in complaining about it, bearing in mind my Uncle-in-law who lives opposite gets 4 Meg upload on the same product?

Edited by AXL74 (Sun 13-Oct-13 01:44:15)

0.4 is not acceptable.

Sky Fibre allows speeds of upto 40mbps (advertised upto 38mbps) download and upto 10mbps upload - however this will depend on how far away you are from your local FTTC street cabinet.

Sky Fibre Pro (can only order on the phone) allows speeds of upto 80mbps (advertised upto 76mbps) download and upto 20mbps upload - however this will depend on how far away you are from your local FTTC street cabinet.

So you should be getting somewhere near the 10 or 20 mbps upload depending on which sky FTTC product you are on, at 450m from the cab, you should get 35-40mbps downstream and near the 10 upstream, or somwhere not too far away,

IMO if the D'side is ali then BT wholesale shouldn't sell broadband to customers on those pairs without at least informing them prior to placing an order that things could be problematic, as the line isnt fit for Xdsl services and should be replaced with copper

I wonder whether the engineer was giving you the Line Length to the Exchange, rather than to the Cabinet?

The BRAS Test may help clarify-

http://windows.mouselike.org/be/?DoAction=BrasChecker

I would also recmmend that you try the Quiet Line Test-

Connect a corded phone to the Test Socket behind the Faceplate, where the phone line comes in to your house.

If your Phone Service is bundled in with SKY-

Dial 17070, selecting Option 4 Quiet Test

If not with SKY

Dial 17070, selecting Option 2 Quiet Test.


Listen for noises, humming, "snap, crackle and pop", tones etc.

If you hear anything significant, report as a PHONE Fault to your PHONE Provider, do NOT mention Broadband.


If there are FAULTS in your Phone Line, particularly that last, exposed, overhead "pole" section, they could readily affect your BB Service.

In reply to a post by AXL74:

My question is should I accept a 0.4 Meg upload speed or am I right in complaining about it, bearing in mind my Uncle-in-law who lives opposite gets 4 Meg upload on the same product?

You would probably do better than that on ADSL, so I would stick at it.

I have seen a line running really low upstream which happened to be one of two FTTC lines in the same property, a couple of hundred metres from the cab one 20M up the other 1M up.

Interference in the relevant frequency band could be the issue, but in the case I had it made no sense with two lines off the same pole.

The exchange is approx 3 km by road so I don�t think it was the �to the exchange length�. I have done this morning, a facebook request for speed tests in the village and have sussed the following from people�s speeds:

The cabinet is at the top of the village on the main road. The main line must go down into the village centre then back up the back road of the village. People living on the route of the main line are getting good down/up speeds. I seem to be on a leg off the main line of about 50m along with my father-in-law in the next street down, as we are both getting upload speeds of less than 0.5 Meg on the same product.

As previously mentioned, my uncle-in-law who lives opposite, has a line from the main pole and has a good upload speed of about 4.2 Meg, whereas my cousin-in-law, who also lives opposite but at the other end of the road and off another joint box, has a slow upload of about 0.8 Meg.

This would therefore make my line about 1200m from the cabinet.

Ohh! and before you ask yes I am lucky I get on with my in-laws, and no they don�t all have cauliflower ears .

Interesting convolutions!

Even more so then, I suggest you try both the BRAS Test to get a clearer idea of the length of your phone line to the Exchange; also the Cabinet Number if listed-

http://windows.mouselike.org/be/?DoAction=BrasChecker


and the Quiet Test to establish the condition and likely performance of your line.

17070 Option 4 (SKY Phone) or Option 2 (others).

=============================

It would be interesting if you were to carry out the same tests on your in-laws lines etc, to give a fuller comparison - it could be advantageous to all of you and others in the village.

An interesting use of Facebook.

==============================

Do you know exactly which form of FTTx you are on, see-

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Can-I-ge...

Right so:

BrasChecker does not recognise my number, presumably as it is a Sky line.

Quiet test says no echo and line within limits. I must admit the line does not sound noisy at all.

And as far as I know I am on FTTC.

The in-laws lines show +1000m line lengths and same again no noise. Although father-in-laws speed test is now showing upload of 3.4 Meg since his next door neighbour has had a fault fixed on his BB (may be coincidence).

Not that any of this matters as Sky has informed me the Fibre was sold on download speed so they will not be pursuing Openreach any more about the fault.

I am now stuck in a contract for the next 9 months or so until I can go back to ADSL which gave me a 0.6 - 0.8 Meg upload.

Thanks for you help.......

You dont sound sure if on fttc. Do you have a white openreach modem AND a sky hub plugged in?

Yes

Normally I would expect the actual Line Length to be-

a) around the Road Length to the Exchange, with some variation if there are obvious "short-cuts" (eg overhead cutting across fields) or known "dog-legs" (eg to use a bridge to cross a river).

b) about 1.5 times the "point-to-point"/"crow-flight" distance to the exchange, say from 1.25 to 1.75 ratio.



Does your "+1000 meters" mean "up to 2000 meters" or are any significantly higher, approaching or exceeding your 3 Kms estimate to the exchange?



Prior to the SKY BB installation, was your phone number, especially the STD and first two numbers after, the same as your relatives and neighbours?

For example 01234 56xxxx.



And "Thank you" for co-operating and helping to build up a better picture of such problems for all of us - hopefully leading to finding solutions and improvements!

The in-laws lines are between 4200m - 4800m to exchange on the BrasChecker. As the crow flies we are about 2900m from exchange and 3100m by road although the main road would be more like 4000.

My STD and first 2 numbers are the same as everyone in the village but since getting broadband and line rental with Sky it has not registered on any opereach checkers, I presume due to LLU.

Thanks very much, AXL74 for those clarifications - it all makes much more sense now.


However, with your Download speed of "14.5 � 16 Meg", I would hope and expect that the Upload would be higher than 0,4 Mbps, approaching that of your uncle opposite.

And especially higher than whatever was achieved on ADSL, as it appears that your exchange line must be of similar length to your in-laws.



What speeds, both Download and Upload, did you get with ADSL (of any variety)?

Eclipse internet= DN 1842 Kbps - UP 376 Kbps with a 6 week spike of DN 2400 Kbps but then dropped off again.

Sky LLU = DN 3140 Kbps - UP 669 Kbps

Sky Has now agreed to put me back on ADSL as Openreach have said there is nothing they can do about the slow upload.

I still dont understand why 3 houses next to each other, off the same pole can have such different stats.

Next door (left) = (Sky 40/10) 8Meg down - 2 Meg up
Me = (Sky 40/10) 16Meg down - 0.4Meg up
Next door (right) = (Talk Talk 40/10) 14Meg down 3.2Meg up

Surely thats some screwed up network.

yeah it seems your local loop is in a dire state. probably wont get fixed until either someone steals some copper forcing it to be replaced or it gets replaced by fiber.

Get router stats here. The Sky Hub shows the speed the bt modem connects at and this would help greatly.

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/content/199-how-get-y...

Follow here

It will give a downstream and upstream speed only on fibre. Would be interesting.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 18-Nov-13 15:08:14)

Broadband Link
Connection Speed
Downstream
18352 kbps
Upstream
524 kbps

This is the highest it has been for a while, ironic it is being disconnected tomorrow.

Very bad upload indeed!!

Back on ADSL new stats

Broadband Link
Connection Speed

Downstream
4058 kbps

Upstream
645 kbps

PING is back in the 30s