FTTC Speed Estimates

Thinking of upgrading to FTTC. I'm currently with talktalk LLU ADSL (business, wholesale) for broadband and phone line rental is Primus (Fuel Broadband). I'm about 2 miles from the exchange, and I think I'm connected through a cabinet about half way between. Current sync speed is in the range of 6 to 8Mb.

The Talktalk website availability checker (when logged into my account) gives me estimated speeds of 6.26/1.0Mb for ADSL, and 6.41/0.76Mb for fibre! Why would their fibre speed be lower than regular ADSL??

If I go on taltalk's public availability cehcker (i.e. without logging into my account), that gives a speed estimate of 6 to 16Mb down, 2Mb up.BT's availability checker, gives a speed estimate of 15 to 21 Mb. FTTC has been available for a couple of years here, and BT's speed estimate has always been around 15Mb.

Am I right in thinking that all the stuff between the my premises, the cabinet and the exchange is all BT/Openreach? I guess they have separate pipes to the exchange. But surely the limiting factor is going to be my FTTC line speed, which is way below the 38Mb max? Why are the speeds they estimate as so different?

I'd like to switch the phone to talktalk, and have the FTTC from them as a package, but not if the speed is going to still be 6Mb! If I take it out, and the speed does turn out to be no faster than ADSL!

Also, I've just bought a Draytek ADSL/VDSL router, so I don't need ISP supplied hardware, assuming it will work well enough with the FTTC supplier?

What is teh FULL BT DSL Checker output ... copy and paste whilst removing the phone number.

Do you know the actual route the cable take to the cabinet? And if so, how far is it, in metres.

I would take the BT checker results with a pinch of salt. Results for my line are as follows:

High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 55.3 35.7 13.9 8.3

However, I am and have been since installation of fibre, been sync'd at around 67800Kbps down and 16845Kbps down.

What I'm saying is, you may very well see speeds above what you've been predicted. Similarly, you could also see speeds closer to the Impacted estimates too

In reply to a post by WelshWArrior:

I would take the BT checker results with a pinch of salt.

Maybe but it's better to be pleasantly surprised when things turn out better than predicted than it is to be disappointed when things turn out worse

hahaha I like your reasoning

In reply to a post by MHC:

What is teh FULL BT DSL Checker output ... copy and paste whilst removing the phone number.

Do you know the actual route the cable take to the cabinet? And if so, how far is it, in metres.

Sorry, but that's all it's giving me:
You could get
15Mb - 21Mb Estimated download speed range*

Do you have a link to the 'full' BT checker please?

I don't even know which cabinet it is for sure. The nearest one that I think it could be is 1/2 a mile away as the crow flies, but I think the route the lines take is more like a mile away.

In reply to a post by mbdcs:

Do you have a link to the 'full' BT checker please?

As you're on LLU you might not be able to use it. You might have to go by the postcode checker which can definitely be dodgy.

Don't use the post code checker but instead use the address checker.

This one: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.address do it for your house number, post the results and then for the neighbours

And if you know an immediate neighbours phone number try using: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ to see how they compare.

With FTTC the distance is much more critical, and if the cabinet is actually around 1.8km to 2km away (1.2 to 1.3 miles) then those estimates would be about right.

ADSL2+ works better over longer lines due to using lower frequencies and some areas suffer a cross over where ADSL2+ can perform better than FTTC.

Estimates vary as there are four figures providers have to work from and they all use different ways of combining them.