Are there any Ofcom guidelines as to what rights the customer has to cancel a broadband (and phone) contract if the service provided falls short of the estimate speed, or estimated speed range?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

AIUI the "Impacted" (B) range is allowing for imperfect home wiring. In the days of "engineer install only" that line didn't exist, and when it came in the A range was the same as the previous only range.

Um, no. Maybe that is "how you understand it" but it's not how BT ever explained it, nor how it works. The "B" range estimates allow for common types of problem with the physical infrastructure on BT's side such as, (as the site says right there for you to read) Bridge Taps.

You can't cure high frequency "echo" from a Bridge Tap by having an engineer install a new faceplate and eat your biscuits. BT doesn't factor in twenty metres of 1980s B&Q own brand phone extension wire running along next to the power lines to your back bedroom, because it's well within your power to rip that out and just plug the VDSL modem into the master socket like it says in the instructions. If they did want to factor in such sub-optimal installs they wouldn't need to do it on a per-line basis as they do with the checker's B estimates.

in my view downstream deteriorates way more than upstream. But i am mostly analysing those people on short D sides, maybe its different for those on longer D sides.

On my first pair my upstream attainable went from 36 to 24. Which is a smack bam on 33.3% drop. This includes power cutback applied so it wasnt all crosstalk.
The downstream went from 110 all the way down to 50. Which is over 50%. Much scarier. None of that loss was down to DLM, it was still fast path at 50mbit. When the engineer came who swapped the pair he could only manage 45 at my socket and only 50mbit at 120m from cabinet.

My clean estimate is 69.5 to 80. (was 73 when I signed up to plusnet). GEA test results report the low end of live clean range which mine was 69500 at time of GEA test.

On my new pair I had 73 down and 30 up. The up is still 30 and also with extremely low error count's (single digit per day), my down I am still synced at 73 but the snrm dropped a couple of nights ago and the attainable is now reported as 71.9. The error rate started out at just 1 10th of my old pair but now over the 13 days sync its averaged about 850 a day which is about 60% of my old pair, however the ES is still way lower I am just getting occasional bursts of errors, the frequency of ES or the MTBE is still way better.

Edited by Chrysalis (Thu 25-Sep-14 01:51:17)

Bridge taps are one of the main home wiring problems we see on these forums, particularly on FTTC after Kelly/Quinn's installations.

Openreach side should not have bridge taps. That part refers to in house, but impacted is a cover all manor of sins line

Plankton - my advice is to ignore the BT figures (they put a caveat on them, after all) Performance at your router will all depend on the state of the line to you from the cabinet. Results on our exchange range from as good as estimate to diabolical, especially on longer lines with 'intermediate' cabinets.

A few to start with:

• Aluminium or Copper
• Old wiring or new - basically the gauge of copper used
• Twisted or non-twisted pairs
• Damp cabinet or dry cabinet
• Damp or dry junction boxes
• Joints on line
• Worn through insulation
• Line under tension (causing thinning)
• Localised noise sources - inside or outside the property
• Actual physical length of cable

They can all cause a reduction in the "perfect" performance of the line. The chance of one or two factors affecting the line is reasonably high, the chance of all occurring is quite small but could happen. The line figures are a combination of calculation and experience of other local lines and probably includes a factor to allow for a real worst case scenario. One problem is that BT do not know which of those may affect a line and by how much.

I have come across people who have exceeded the top of the estimate and others sitting close to the lowest impacted figure.

No hard and fast and usual 'give reasonable chance to resolve issue' rules apply and the CISAS/OTELO schemes.

Is a "manor of sins" a large, old house of ill repute?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Bridge taps are one of the main home wiring problems we see on these forums, particularly on FTTC after Kelly/Quinn's installations.

Could you explain what a 'Bridge tap' is please?
Surely if the engineer fits a new faceplate filter to the NTE5 then the home wiring should all be fine?