Ever slowing FTTC

I signed up for FTTC when it was launched in our area and use to get 30Mb about 5 years ago. Since then the speed has dropped down steadily to around 20-22Mb. Is there anything I can do to improve the speed? I have the EE smart hub - Would a better quality VDSL router help? I am no longer able to use streaming TV whenever I download anything on my PC (even with speed limiters on and all connected via ethernet).

Alternatively is there anyway to find out when my area might get an upgrade (gfast/FTTP)? Most of the tiny towns in my area appear to have gfast based on this sites map but my larger town has not. Hampshire broadband have declared my area as superfast and therefore no need of help. There are no business on my estate so no chance of any help with fibre to the property. I've been googling for hours but don't seem to find anything but the existing state for my postcode. I cannot afford FTTPoD but would happily pay for more. I get very poor 4g too so that is not an option (8Mb max on phone).

For the record I live in Dibden connected to the Hythe (hampshire) exchange via cabinet 15 (as discovered by the www.dslchecker.bt.com site).

Am I just going to have to wait until openreach magically decide to do something?

What estimates does the address option on that checker give you for neighbours? The easiest way to check is put just the postcode into the address option and submit that, which gives you a drop-down list of all addresses on the postcode.

I'm asking because if they all get around the same as yourself that means you are too far away from the cabinet to get G.Fast even if it is enabled on it.

If they are far higher, and still on cab 15 as there may be more than one serving your postcode, that suggests a problem with your home wiring.

Could you give us your router stats please?

I've just checked using address and my neighbours are near identical. Guess that means I've got to wait for FTTP sometime in the next 10 years or so then?

I can't get router stats at the moment as I'm at work but I'm guessing it won't reveal much as I'm getting what can be expected. I just wasn't expecting an almost 1/3 drop in speeds over 5 years.

Thanks for your help.

That's a pity .

By the by, an old ship mate of mine lived in Dibden. Many moons ago.

And many a time over the years, I used to go fishing on Hordle lakes. Not that far away.

Nice part of the country down there.

That drop is highly likely due to cross talk, the more people take up FTTC the more interference from other lines, the slower they get. When I had FTTC my upload went from 12 to 6, and my download fluctuated up and down, best I ever had was 60 very briefly, worse I think was mid 30's, hence why I took Virgin when it became available.

Another option is to get a second line and bond them together - potentially doubling your speeds, there are different ways of doing this, with differing pro's and con's.

Yeah beautiful but isolated. Crazy how close you can be to Southampton and have zero facilities! Just eat has zero options, 4g is barely operating and no one interested in running fibre as it's basically a dead end! Guess it's the cost of having the new forest on your doorstep and reasonable property costs. Totten just north of us has virgin but I doubt we ever will.

That was my guess. I found a website that covered it and suggested a newer router would help but the page was dated about 5 years old so I'd assume my one year old EE smart hub (re branded BT smart Hub 1 I believe) would have the latest VDSL tech.

I'd consider the cost of a second line if I wouldn't have to pay not only double cost for someone with a decent VDSL service (which just does seem fair to me) but also have to pay for a new line to be installed just to get 40Mbps... I know its not FTTPoD levels of cash but its still not going to be cheap!

I just hope it doesn't get any worse.

Unfortunately BT have stopped selling ADSL where FTTC/FTTP is available and they are actively moving customers from ADSL and sending them a new VDSL router so over the next year you may see increased crosstalk as even more people are connected to your cabinet.

Oh goody. Hopefully if it gets too junk enough people in my area might club together and do something (FTTPoD) but i'm not hopeful - most of the road is retired people who seem to be very happy with sky via satellite.

Thanks to a helpful guy at work (who frequents these forums - small world) I've discovered that the cabinet I'm connected to was upgraded to handle more connections in 2018 which is rough when things started deteriorating and confirms crosstalk is likely to blame. Its looks like just a few roads from the cabinet don't get 30Mb so my area is probably low on the list to get FTTP - https://www1.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm?xid=...

I've tweeted openreach help in case I can get anywhere but looks like its second line, FTTPoD or sucking it up

Do you have a filtered faceplate?

Running a VDSL service on an extension and/or on a master socket that does not have a filtered faceplate or if a standard socket does not have the bell wire removed can certainly impact the sync speeds.

To quantify this, I have an old style BT master socket, the type without a filtered faceplate. Initially the bell wire was connected (the orange wire) and my VDSL was running on an extension elsewhere in the house.

Since cleaning up the wiring, remove the bell wire and plugging the modem into the master socket I gained about 8Mbps. I actually also gained another 2Mbps just by switch out the supplied modem for a highly stable TP-Link TD-W9970. I even noticed about 1Mbps gain just for using a very short flat RJ11 modem 26 AWG cable.

So there are plenty of small wins IF you have the old style socket. If you have a filtered faceplate then of course the gains are limited.

P.S. just this week I realised my home plugs that I use caused quite a bit of interference. I have always been on fast path, but since using the home plugs over the last year, I was switched to interleaved, loosing about 5Mbps. This week I stopped using them, SNR Margin is now rock solid and I suspect I will be back on Fast Path soon, with a nice speed bump.

Edited by oldskool (Tue 11-Feb-20 19:25:28)

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I do a modern spilt faceplate with built in filter. It was installed in 2014ish when my cabinet was fttc enabled. The VDSL cable is little poor so maybe could be replaced but is only a year old like the router? I've recently read power line adaptors can mess with VDSL when they get older. Mine are 5 years old so I'm going to try without them for a bit.

I too have had a slowing FTTC. Our cabinet was upgraded to FTTC about 3 years ago, and I had a solid 30-32 mbps download speed (with a'guaranteed' 28-30 mbps speed from BT). Then about 3 months ago it started dropping - when it got to 26mbps I raised a ticket with my supplier, who stated they could see a fault on the line and that BT/Openreach would deal with it. An Openreach engineer then visited my house, ran the BTW test (which I had also been using) and told me everything was fine and that I shouldn't expect more than 23mbps anyway due to my distance from the cabinet. The fact I had a solid 30+ speed (plus the stats to prove it) was waived away as an anomaly. Within 3 days that speed has fallen further, to give 20 mbps (just). Another engineer visit - this time by a senior engineer - and I was told I could only expect 18mbps (as shown by the latest BTW testing) due to distance. However he had a look at the cable outside the house, and found it full of dead spiders, moisture and bare wires. Cleaning it up gave me back 26mbps, and he went off to do further work on the cabinet. Then my phone line went off - so no broadband at all either. Two days later I got my phone, - no apology - and speed back up to just under 30mbps. BTW also shows an expected speed of 28mbps. SO......... Speed seems to be lap of gods stuff - and openreach have no more idea what should be happening than I do!