I swithed to FTTC because the ISP claimed I would get between 32.5 and 36 megs, I get 19 megs. It (FTTC) is in my opion, over rated! Not worth the extra payment.

@tweak.
Have you double-checked with the ISP that everything is properly wired and set up correctly?
Have you run the bt wholesale test including Further Diagnostics to see what your profile is?
Have you tested with a wired connection to your router?

There are cases where an estimate over 30Mbps gives speeds under 20Mbps even when everything is correct (apart from the estimate), but they are pretty rare.

Update: So following a conversation with Sky regarding available options, I opted for the 40/10 service.

This went live at 5.30pm today (19th) and I am currently getting the following with their router:-

Text
1 23 4	Broadband Link     Downstream      Upstream Connection Speed   39998 kbps      5999 kbpsLine Attenuation   23.3 dB         0.0 dB Noise Margin       15.4 dB         6.6 dB

Speed test give me around 30Mbps down and 5Mbps up.

Going to leave it for a few days (as on the night shift at the moment) but am I likely to see the upstream increase from 6Mbps or will that be it?

In reply to a post by aquilla:

I've uploaded a Google Maps screenshot with all the house numbers pin pointed and also a spreadsheet containing all the FTTC (Clean) results from the BT Wholesale address checker for all 67 properties.

The blue line on the map is the route I think the BT cable takes from the High Street however I will try and check later.

http://athena.tokenbay.co.uk/Estate.jpg
http://athena.tokenbay.co.uk/FTTC.xlsx

Ah - blocks of flats, mixed in with houses.

A previous property I had was in a 1995-built estate, with a mixture of individual homes (many detached) alongside buildings with 9-10 flats in each.

In every case, the FTTC estimates for the flats were *considerably* better than the houses on either side. I never knew if the actual speed in any of the flats matched up to the estimates, but the one for my house was spot on.

The best explanation I had was that BT chose to deploy lines to the flats using thicker copper. Those would then experience lower attenuation, and higher speeds.

From the links, it doesn't looks like this has happened to you - quite the reverse, even.

One other point to remember is that BT creates the estimates by measuring the attenuation to the DP, and then making a standard allowance for the drop line between DP and the home. This means that every home connected to the same DP gets the same estimate ... which might be artificially high if the drop line is longer than allowed for.

That explains why the estimates come in batches.

For houses that distance from the cabinet, there is no real reason to have used thicker copper anywhere ... unless the lines are a long distance from the exchange - but your previous speed suggests this isn't the case.

Ultimately, it seem hard to fathom the difference in speeds - particularly the high-numbered houses running across the bottom of the map.

In reply to a post by aquilla:

Update: So following a conversation with Sky regarding available options, I opted for the 40/10 service.

This went live at 5.30pm today (19th) and I am currently getting the following with their router:-

Text
1 23 4	Broadband Link     Downstream      Upstream Connection Speed   39998 kbps      5999 kbpsLine Attenuation   23.3 dB         0.0 dB Noise Margin       15.4 dB         6.6 dB

Speed test give me around 30Mbps down and 5Mbps up.

Going to leave it for a few days (as on the night shift at the moment) but am I likely to see the upstream increase from 6Mbps or will that be it?

That's really not a good speed upstream, but the noise margin suggests there isn't much more to be squeezed out of it. It's a bit suspicious being a nice round 6Mbps - almost as though DLM has intervened ... which shouldn't happen in the first couple of days.

Having around 9dB spare on the downstream suggests to me that you can perhaps get another 25Mbps out of the downstream; by comparison, only getting 6Mbps out of the upstream is very paltry.

I would definitely be looking at your internal wiring with that upstream figure. Are you using a faceplate filter or the dangly filters from Sky? If the latter, are you plugged in on an extension? Can you try the test socket on the master socket?

At the moment it's connected to a dangly filter in the master socket as this was a self install. There is just one extension in another room. I'll try the test socket over the weekend however I have a feeling it won't improve (based on the 6dB SNR on the upstream figure).

I think the point is that perhaps the SNR is being suppressed by bad noise on the upstream.

When you try the test socket, also try to have one or two other filters to try out.

It'd do no harm to double-check that, when you have taken the faceplate off, none of the extension sockets can get dial tone.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

I think the point is that perhaps the SNR is being suppressed by bad noise on the upstream.

When you try the test socket, also try to have one or two other filters to try out.

It'd do no harm to double-check that, when you have taken the faceplate off, none of the extension sockets can get dial tone.

Yeah I have a couple of spare filters and I'll try these when I get a chance over the weekend.

I think you may have to see if your router shows a 'max attainable' rate to see if there's any improvement doing what has been suggested.

There's plenty of extra snr on the downstream, so I reckon loosing the current bridge tap being caused by the extension may well pay dividends.