Conflicting statements from Plusnet about speed

My speed on fibre dropped from around 65meg to 20meg a few weeks ago. I have been in contact with Plusnet support about this and on the first occasion, the tech I spoke to said he would make some adjustments and if I rebooted my kit in a few hours time I should see an increase. I rebooted, several times but nothing changed. So I called them back again and the tech I spoke to today said that Plusnet dont have the ability to make such changes - only their provider (Openreach?) could do this.

Just wondering if there are any experts here who could clarify what I should expect Plusnet can and cant do! so I when I call them back I am armed with knowledge!

It depends why the speed has dropped.

PN can ask openreach to move you onto a different product but they can't control how fast your modem will actually connect when you are on that product. Since it's unlikely that openreach have changed your product without telling them we can rule that out. Your modem is doing the best it currently can and PN have no direct control over it.

They could, if they felt it worthwhile, raise a fault with openreach and if OR agree then after a few days you might see your normal speeds return.

A third possibility is that the problem isn't actually with your modem. It could be congestion or some other fault within PN's network. In that case they could potentially resolve the problem then and there by modifying the way your data flows across their network.

In practice (and I used to be a PN customer and was for nearly three years) I imagine you were just being fobbed off. I wouldn't ever believe anything a PN rep said on the phone and would only consider the possibility of an honest and accurate answer from their forum staff. And sadly (the reason I eventually left them in June) was because even that was getting harder. If you haven't been told something by Bob Pullen or MattyC then you can probably assume that it's wrong.

Edited by Andrue (Fri 06-Oct-17 16:47:43)

Thanks for the info!

Who did you move to after PN? I'm out of contract right now and am considering my options.

PlusNet wont have reduced the speed, a line fault will have caused this. Likely need an openreach engineer to fix the fault before speeds will go back to normal.

PlusNet wont have made a change @ their end and they can't fix a fault by pressing a button.

In reply to a post by quanticate:

Thanks for the info!

Who did you move to after PN? I'm out of contract right now and am considering my options.

I went back to IDNet. They aren't cheap but then you get what you pay for. In my case that's knowledgeable Support that gets back to you within 24 hours and can fix things. Also a network that has supported dual-stack IPv6 for several years.

Are you talking about speed test results or are you able to see the sync speed from your modem?

Every PlusNet line has a speed profile set at their end to limit your throughput to just below the line sync speed. It is supposed to automatically update to align with the profile set by DLM, but has been known to get stuck and support can indeed reset it.

You can confirm the current value using this link: https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer...

After it has changed you need to reestablish the PPP connection for it to take effect, which can be done using a reboot of the router.

A drop in sync speed would be a result of DLM intervening in response to errors on the line. If the fault is ongoing then an engineer would need to correct it, and they have access to reset the DLM so the sync jumps back to the 'default' for your line. If the fault has already cleared then you just have to wait for DLM to notice and it will begin to increase the sync speed over time: stability is key to decrease the time for full recovery. My own line had a problem and it took 3-4 weeks to get back up to normal sync.