Orange Broadband Service Improvements

Just received an email that Orange will be working on my bradband connection over the next week. I am currently on the ADSL2+ connection - Home Select 8Mb (Orange state that this is the fastest my line will take).

Router Stats:
ADSL firmware version : A2pBT009c1.d17d
Connection mode : ADSL2+
Type : Fast
Noise margin (dB) : 11.4
Attenuation (dB) : 37.0
Attainable download rate (kbps) : 8091
ADSL status : Connected [0]

Downstream Upstream
Rate (kbps) 8053 1023

Here is the link as to what work Orange is carrying out:

http://www1.orange.co.uk/changes/

1. Anyone received such notification and has had the work completed?
2. What improvements if any?
3. Anyone know any further details of exactly what Orange is doing - am I being moved off LLU?

Sounds like a move from their LLU hardware to the BT WBC 21CN network

"In order to establish your optimal line speed, you may notice occasional re-synching activity within the first day after the maintenance work and some minor speed fluctuations for up to 10 days. This allows us to determine the best possible speed for your line. "

The best joke of the day

1. No & No
2. None, but 1 great deterioration - the imposition of the BT laggy IP Profile system + possibly more contention at peak times.
3. As a consequence of the collaboration with BT, they plan to eventually move everyone off LLU onto either BT's up to 8 Meg IPStream @ 20 CN exchanges or BT's up to 20 Meg WBC @ 21CN ones.

I intend to see how it fares and then possibly migrate. My Orange LLU connection has always been fast & reliable

@ MrSaffron: What's the joke? Isn't a training period quite usual with all ISPs? Or are you just being blas�?

Well I think I've been switched as IP search now shows Orange Home WBC instead of Orange LLU. My sync speeds have gone from 2268/285 to 5186/845 on my laggy line but we'll have to see what the BT DLM makes of it.

I think the "joke" is that Orange have never employed their own broadband engineers, so they don't know and whether you end up with the same, better or worse speeds will be hit and miss. I hope the Orange optimists can prove me wrong.

No e-mail from Orange. Oh [edit] and my discounted line rental/broadband charge has increased by £0.51 (the amount of the VAT increase? which is now specifically mentioned on the invoice) for the first time, this month.

Edited by deleted (Sat 09-Apr-11 10:05:36)

Just checked my Orange email account and nothing there, my LLU connection is rock solid too so if they change me over to the IP stream then that is breaching thier T&C's in my veiw which would mean i could leave...saying that this is the only LLU provider at my exchange so i will not be better off, just principal really.

As in my case I think the switch is to BT's 21CN with up to 20Mbps speeds (not IPStream/20CN), as long as it's available on your telephone exchange. Academic for me, but very important for those with speeds over 8Mbps.

EDIT: Just though I'd do a follow up with the BT speedtester results on the Orange WBC:
Reminder: connection rates are 5186/874
Profiles as expected: 4500/874
Although the measured upstream is good at 707, the downstream is 3375 of the lower than the profile maximum achievable rate of 4000kbps. This might presumably mean that Orange have set things up to take a very cautious view of stable speeds (or just be the DLMs response to errors)? On Orange LLU my speeds achieved could be within 500-700kbps of the connection rate.

Edited by deleted (Sat 09-Apr-11 21:14:22)

Good luck to you mate - when Orange "improved" my broadband, I ended up with no broadband / no telephone / no nothing .... for 10 days, during which their offshore support people came up with cretinous suggestions like "clear the cache" / "re-instal IE" / "re-instal Windows" / "replace all your hardware, cabling, telephone line etc. etc. "

I'm now with Zen.

In reply to a post by savamac:

when Orange "improved" my broadband

But was that part of this latest exercise to move from LLU to BT WBC?

Please put your statement into context.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by savamac:

when Orange "improved" my broadband

But was that part of this latest exercise to move from LLU to BT WBC?

Please put your statement into context.

"context" - good or bad ISP - Orange are rubbish - not just my experience, check out the Which surveys.

In reply to a post by savamac:

"context" - good or bad ISP - Orange are rubbish - not just my experience, check out the Which surveys.

Hi, I think you are a bit out-of-date M8. What speeds do you get with Zen then?
I get 20 Meg on Orange LLU, have been with them for 11 months and never found the network to go down.

View Broadband Link Details
DSL Connection Details
DSL Line (Wire Pair): Line 1 (inner pair)
Protocol: G.DMT2+ Annex A
Downstream Rate: 11248 kbps
Upstream Rate: 875 kbps
Channel: Interleaved
Current Noise Margin: 9.7 dB (Downstream), 13.4 dB (Upstream)
Current Attenuation: 30.0 dB (Downstream), 14.8 dB (Upstream)
Current Output Power: 19.0 dBm (Downstream), 12.0 dBm (Upstream)
DSLAM Vendor Information: Country: {0xB5} Vendor: {BDCM} Specific: {0x9662

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1245257199.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1245256429.png

http://www.pingtest.net/result/38548735.png

http://www.pingtest.net/result/38548662.png