I'm pretty sure the cabinet and PCP are next to each other on the street and would say easily within 200m from my house. I know the main BT cable comes up from the street through my neighbours garden to the pole just at the rear of my garden

That about 200 Metres does not seem to stack up against your actual speeds and the "Impacted Speeds".

It looks as though the phone line distance is significantly greater.

The Line Attenuation figures from your Modem would be useful.

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In one case I am aware of, the user thought he was about 250 Metres from his known and identified PCP and FTTC.


Measuring it, he was at least 650 Metres minimum, up to 950 Metres - possibly more.

Those distances tied in reasonably with his Line Attenuations.

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When talking to BT, make sure you avoid giving the impression that you are "cancelling" there and then - you could be left without Broadband for some weeks, partly depending how many of the slots in the FTTC are occupied.

If you do decide to change ISP, leave it to the new/receiving ISP handles that aspect.

Line Attenuation is 19.1dB

My Line Attenuation at a relatively accurate length of 300 Metres from the FTTC is 13.4 db.

Your Line Attenuation of 19.1 db, suggests that it is substantially longer, thus greater losses leading on to lower speeds.

So although there is little or nothing that you can do about its routeing etc, worth getting a more accurate idea of how it travels to get to your house.

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I know of two similar blocks of flats, basically each block being built on three sides of a rectangle, the fourth sides being unbuilt and facing one another across a service road.

I was parked between them and noted that each block had a central phone pole, with overhead wires to each of their respective flats, typical of such places.

The westerly block is about 150 Metres further from the PCP etc, than the easterly block.

So generally that Westerly block has slower VDSL speeds than the Easterly block.

I suddenly realised that there was a solitary overhead wire passing above my car, from the Westerly Pole to the flat in the Easterly block, directly - not via the Easterly Pole.

That one Easterly flat is likely to have a significantly lower VDSL speed than the Westerly flats; and significantly less than all the other flats in the Easterly block, given that the line must be approaching 300 Metres LONGER than those other Easterly flats.

300 Metres = 150 Metres going beyond to reach the Westerly Pole plus another 150 Metres to get back to that solitary Easterly flat.

No obvious reason for that routeing.

I also know of much worse, in another location - although there is a simple historical reason for it, affecting about 5 houses. Distances involved are very significant.

Edited by deleted (Tue 12-Dec-17 07:21:09)

BT weren't interested in downgrading my package and the best they were willing to do was £28.99 to recommit for another year so have now placed my order to move to Vodafone 38Meg Fibre their estimate is minimum 35meg with activation on 2nd Jan.

We won't be home on the 2nd so does anyone know if it's best to connect the router on morning of the 1st before we leave or wait till evening of 3rd when back?

So I've managed to move things around and when I connect my PC to the router by cable I'm getting 60meg down and 20meg up which is what BT reported I should get.

I understand the limitations of the powerline adapters but wonder why when literally a few feet away from the router using my mobile phone the wifi only gets around 30 down and 15 up?

Once I move to Vodafone on 38meg service do you think there will be much difference in speeds that I get with the powerline adapters or Wifi?

I think that you are unlikely to see much difference on the WiFi.

The WiFi is effectively a different comms link from the Broadband over the phone line.

Just as the Fibre to the FTTC is a different comms system technically from the electrical signals produced in the FTTC to feed in to the extended phone line

It is rather like travelling on a bus or train, and then having to change to a local bus service.

I almost said an express service; but depending on the quality of your phone line from the FTTC via the PC to the modem at your house, that part may be motorway or dual carriageway or a main road or ...

The phone line, although basically from another era when broadband did not exist, has known characteristics etc; and to a considerable degree, the equipment is designed around those - with surprising improvements already and more coming along.

Then looking at the WiFi, particularly in small devices such as laptops, it is specifically very low power, in the radio bands chosen to maximise absorption, so as to minimise interference with other services.

The Low Power also is to minimise the load and discharge of the battery when away from the mains - hence also being able to switch the WiFi off.

Try checking how far outside your house, you can detect your own WiFi signals.

You've already noted the variability within your house.

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Changing your ISP will not change your laptop's WiFi circuitry, in a small unit about 1.25 inches by 1 inch by 0.2 inches "thick" in size, generally feeding two aerials built behind the LCD screen, each only about 0.75 inches square.

The few WiFi "bits" I have extracted from scrapped laptops etc, all appear to be made by the one manufacturer.

That leaves the corresponding part in the modem - which I am less familiar with.

There may be greater variability there; and modems with obvious short aerials protruding are likely to be better than those with aerials similar to the laptop variety, inside.

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Then the permanent characteristics of each and every house varies.

Is it an ancient house with thick stone walls?

Is it a brick house with brick internal walls?

Is it a brick house with timber stud walls and plasterboard with metal backing?

Is it a concrete house?

All those aspects can drastically affect WiFi performance, before even considering the precise locations of the both modem and laptop within.

I obtained a WiFi Repeater for a lounge that we added on many years back, "outside" the original house.

There are only two locations within the lounge where the Repeater works successfully.

It is in the normally better location - but I noted that dropping a typical metallic foil crisp bag in a near-by waste basket, can cut off the primary WiFi signal from the modem!

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Re your mobile phone, assuming you are holding it, your hand and flesh may be absorbing the WiFi signal, just as meat in the microwave cooker absorbs the 2.4 GHz RF from the magnetron at the heart of virtually all microwave cookers (and most RADAR sets).

When used as a mobile phone conventionally, it works on a significantly lower frequency, less affected by such aspects.

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Only experimentation can prove whether you can improve your own WiFi.