Reduced Downstream Handback Threshold (Mbps)

Hi everyone,

In a bit of a situation at the moment!

I'm looking to get BT fibre instead of TalkTalk, however the quoted speeds on BT are slower than I am receiving at the moment.

I have been recently monitoring the ASDL BT Checker, and noticed that my Downstream Handback Threshold (Mbps) has been reducing over the last month or so.

My next door neighbour who lives further up the stree (further from the exchange) t gets 35 MB/S downstream (which I used to get previously), whereas I now only get 29. I used to get 35 so I am unsure what is happening!

My contract is up in two days and I am not sure how to go about any of this.

Would a new line sort this? Would BT do this upon new contract?

Thanks

In reply to a post by KyleDalt:

Would a new line sort this? Would BT do this upon new contract?

No a new line wouldn't make any difference to the downstream handback threshold.

The DHT is technically nothing to do with an end user (you, the customer).
It's just the figure at which OpenReach will allow the ISP to terminate their contract with OpenReach if they are unable to get the line syncing above the DHT.
The DHT isn't necessarily the minimum guarantee an ISP will quote you.

How an ISP uses the BT Wholesale estimates is up to them.
Some will quote the Range A (clean) estimates and Range A downstream handback threshold, some ISP's quote the Range B estimates and DHT, and other ISP's go somewhere in-between.

The only difference that the DHT being lower could make is that an ISP might give you a slightly lower minimum guaranteed speed when you next sign a contract.
It makes zero difference to the speeds you actually achieve though.

It's normal for estimates and the handback threshold to reduce over time.
This can happen as cabinets fill up with users and crosstalk has a bigger impact on what lines can achieve.

The checker users various pieces of info and measurements (attenuation of the line or the DP?) to calculate the estimates for each line.
The algorithm used to calculate the estimates also changes over time.

There's nobody that can change these estimates for you. They make no difference to what you actually achieve.

Edited by j0hn83 (Wed 19-May-21 01:32:39)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

In reply to a post by KyleDalt:

Would a new line sort this? Would BT do this upon new contract?

No a new line wouldn't make any difference to the downstream handback threshold.

The DHT is technically nothing to do with an end user (you, the customer).
It's just the figure at which OpenReach will allow the ISP to terminate their contract with OpenReach if they are unable to get the line syncing above the DHT.
The DHT isn't necessarily the minimum guarantee an ISP will quote you.

How an ISP uses the BT Wholesale estimates is up to them.
Some will quote the Range A (clean) estimates and Range A downstream handback threshold, some ISP's quote the Range B estimates and DHT, and other ISP's go somewhere in-between.

The only difference that the DHT being lower could make is that an ISP might give you a slightly lower minimum guaranteed speed when you next sign a contract.
It makes zero difference to the speeds you actually achieve though.

It's normal for estimates and the handback threshold to reduce over time.
This can happen as cabinets fill up with users and crosstalk has a bigger impact on what lines can achieve.

The checker users various pieces of info and measurements (attenuation of the line or the DP?) to calculate the estimates for each line.
The algorithm used to calculate the estimates also changes over time.

There's nobody that can change these estimates for you. They make no difference to what you actually achieve.

Makes sense mate, thanks!
It still doesn't quite explain how my speeds into the box have been getting slower over the last few months, yet when I check the neighbours next door his seems to have remained, surely it would affect everyone?

It could be a degradation of your physical line - there might be a joint in it that is corroding or being affected by water that is slowly reducing the speed your line can attain. I have always found it a little odd that rather than trying to fix these things Openreach can just gradually reduce the expected speeds and each time you renew your predicted speeds could be a little lower - ultimately you could end up with very low speeds and Openreach just say "but that is what we predicted so it's fine" rather than "oh, there is a fault that has developed over time so we will fix it".

This actually crossed my mind!
Just renewed with TalkTalk so we will see how we get on further down the line,
Not holding my breathe!

Mine was the same as the checker can changed estimate speed every weeks. Use to be 80-79 / 20-19 but now 80-73.4 / 20-19

So basically the same.

When I used the copper line for ADSL the line degraded over time and the predicted speeds on the wholesale checker followed this, however I kept graphs of the attained speeds going back to when I had my first line fault using the routerstats program. I used these several times to get around an ISP telling me my line was performing as expected. I also showed them to the OR engineers when they tried to tell me the same. More than once they tried more tests and found faults or swapped me to a different line with better stats. In the end there were no good lines left and I went 4G, neighbours are still suffering but FTTP comes next year.

In reply to a post by KyleDalt:

Would a new line sort this? Would BT do this upon new contract?

I had a similar thing, I felt my speeds were getting worse, I did actually order a new line - I was going from TalkTalk to BT, when the engineer turned up I explained why I had ordered a new line, now from memory there wasn't a spare pair so he was going to have to run a whole new line, but instead we decided that he would use the existing pair and just leave my old line to cease BUT at the same time he was going to check all of the connections on my existing line, I gained nothing really speed wise, although it was more reliable - but then that could just be the router.

The benefit of requesting a new line is that you will see an engineer and you can explain why you have done it this way and if he's in a good mood he may help make sure you are getting the best you can, if you just migrate then you won't see anyone.

oh and you'll have to have a new phone number.

> oh and you'll have to have a new phone number.

Unless instead of asking the provider to cease the first line, you transfer the number to a VOIP provider - which will trigger it to be ceased.

This approach lets you keep your number, and from then on it becomes independent of your broadband service.