Internal wiring and the effect on expected speed

I had FTTC installed when I moved into my current home 7 years ago. I purchased up to 71Mbs and was told to expect 61 Mbs (and am still paying for that). I had a non BT Openreach engineer install it, and he seemed to be struggling to make it work, referencing the internal wiring. He managed to get it working and I got something like 51Mbs at the outset. Over the years this has slowly dropped to 37Mbs (below the minimun 41Mbs that was often quoted on the 71Mbs service).

I believe that there is probably dodgy internal wiring causing the speed drops, and have considered changing ISP to get the installation to resolve that wiring (that I probably should have had during initial installation). However when I query any ISP they quote the max speed to be 37Mbs – which of course is what I am getting. I live in narrow terraced housing, yet when I query my neighbours addresses either side they offer the up to 71Mbs with an expected speed around 56-72Mbs. Does this indicate there is an issue with my internal wiring, as I suspect?

Thanks Adrian

Openreach monitor the line and downgrade the predicted speed as the real speed drops, what is annoying is that could be due to extra FTTC subscribers being added which can't be fixed, or the line is deteriorating with a fault which can be fixed. When I was on ADSL and had much the same issues I keep graphs of my connection stats and when the ISP told me the lower speeds I was getting where not below the threshold for action I emailed them the graphs to show my line stats with the higher figures. In the end I gave up with this battle every time there was a fault and now use 4G. If I check the BT Wholesale site now for my old line they predict 2mb, I was getting 8 to 10mb so there is really no sense in me ordering ADSL ever again when I get 50mb with 4G.

What BT master socket do you have, is it the later one with a test socket you can connect just the router to to see the line stats without the internal wiring interfering.

Thanks. I have the old master socket that connects to a BT Modem (I should have said). I then have Google Wifi connecting to the modem, which quotes the 37Mb as the speed. So when I say internal wiring ,I mean the wiring to that master socket from the outside.

thanks

The term "internal wiring" means wiring inside your house between your master socket and your router, or between your master socket and your extension sockets. No ISP will touch this; it's entirely your responsibility.

I think what you're actually talking about is last section of external wiring between the distribution point (DP) and your property; commonly referred to as the "drop".

In reply to a post by 1stAde:

have considered changing ISP to get the installation to resolve that wiring

Changing ISP won't make any difference. They won't make a new drop to your property unless you order, and pay for, a completely new line to be installed. If you've already ceased the old service then they'll re-use the existing copper pair, so you'll need the old service to remain active while the new one is installed.

There's no guarantee this will be any better, and it could be worse (if they pick a worse pair on the bundle back to the cabinet). If you really want to pay to try to squeeze the maximum out of your line, then talk to AAISP - they are an expensive ISP, but they guarantee to be able to fix any faults on your line.

In reply to a post by 1stAde:

when I query my neighbours addresses either side they offer the up to 71Mbs with an expected speed around 56-72Mbs

If your neighbours have never taken FTTC, then this will only show the estimate that the copper wiring model provides. In your case, since you actually have FTTC, then the estimate is updated based on the *actual* speeds seen on the line. So there's no guarantee that the speed they would actually get is any higher, unless you know for sure that they have a working FTTC service.

If you know (or search for) your neighbour's phone numbers, and enter them into the BT Wholesale broadband checker, and they *do* have FTTC, then it should show an "Observed Speeds" section showing what line rates down and up have been measured from Openreach's side a week or two ago.

Do you have any other internal telephone wiring coming from the master socket? Old extensions that are no longer used are a prime candidate for messing up your VDSL signal.