More interesting facts emerging after a bit of research.

If your sync speed drops to below 15Mbps, allowing for time to rule out a glitch (my words!) then your ISP (or CP as they call em now) may report a fault..

From "Conditions for Generic Ethernet Access Schedule 2B � GEA-FTTC Service"
Open reach PDF

If the downstream speed on a line falls below 15Mbit/s at any time after a suitable period is allowed for stabilisation following provision of the GEA-FTTC Service, the Communications Provider may report a fault.

This is obviously for those whose estimated speeds were above 15Mbps in the first place.

It also seems that on installation, if the engineer sees a sync of less than 15Mbps then he will revert back to the old ADSL service. (Unless the customer was told it would be slow and has knowingly ordered FTTC at <15Mbps).

I hope you are all following this

the problem is, the user is bound by the retail isp's t&c's not openreach.

Have you seen that clause in any retail isp's?

I also think 50% is a huge window of variability.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 15-Mar-13 05:57:31)

[Moderator please move this post to somewhere more appropriate if I have posted in the wrong topic]

I "went live" on Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Broadband [with "Pro" add-on] yesterday.

I was quoted a speed of 51Mbps Download and 19Mbps Upload when signing up for the service.

The engineer said the line was "testing at" 76Mbps Down and 18.5Mbps Up yesterday. The Plusnet tech support also told me that the line was showing the same earlier this evening.

I have tried the Speed test on this site and it says I have an average speed of 26Mbps Down and 17Mbps Up. I have tried it both on my wireless enabled 54Mbps laptop and on the 100Mbps LAN-connected PC connected via Eth. cable directly to the router and the speed result is the same.

Plusnet tech. support said I'd never get full speed on my laptop due to the Wireless Card only being 54Mbps (I thought it would at least go up to the speed of the card NOT 1/3 of it!)

I have a WNR2200 Netgear router using the newest firmware. Should I be worried about not getting higher speeds in the speed tests?

Incidentally, I tried the speed test with the Netgear WNCE2001 Wireless To Wired adaptor connected to my laptop and I did get approx. 38Mbps Down 14Mbps Up, but it's certainly not the 51Mbps (Or 76Mbps!) Down and 19Mbps Up that I was promised! (The Upload speed isn't really an issue with me, I regard this as within acceptable limits).

On the USwitch speed test site it says I am 839 metres away from the exchange and that average speeds are 100Mbps Down and 33Mbps Up.

Edited by deleted (Sat 16-Mar-13 02:30:15)

Plusnet tech support are right here - a Wireless G connection (ie 54Mbps) will tend to limit around 25-27Mbps. Although Wireless G is sold as 54Mbps, that value comes from adding together both up- and down-stream, and include all overhead. It is also a shared medium, so you are dependent on what is going on around you, and easily reduced by both distance, interference, and other devices.

If you get the same speed when plugged in to ethernet, you should be suspicious that you are actually using the wired connection - make sure that wireless has been fully disabled!

On top of that, you might find that your speed is being limited by either the Windows OS (especially older XP versions) or the browser you are using.

If you want an idea of what the sync speed actually is, use the BT wholesale speedtester, run the test, then choose the "Further Diagnostics".

That will then display your IP Profile value. The downstream value will be about 3% lower than your actual sync speed. The upstream will probably say 20,000 no matter what the actual sync speed is.

If the speedtester on here doesn't give good results, you can always try the one at Speedtest.net too.

BTW 1 - you *almost certainly* don't need the Pro add-on alongside the unlimited fibre package.

BTW 2 - the distance to exchange is irrelevent for fibre, it is only the distance to the cabinet that matters.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

BTW 1 - you *almost certainly* don't need the Pro add-on alongside the unlimited fibre package.

BTW 2 - the distance to exchange is irrelevent for fibre, it is only the distance to the cabinet that matters.

BTW 3 - "On the USwitch speed test site it says I am 839 metres away from the exchange and that average speeds are 100Mbps Down and 33Mbps Up"
is obvious tripe.