EE Brightbox Restricted to 283kbps

I've been with Orange/EE for the past 6 years mainly due to the price (£5 for unlimited) but over the past few months my Livebox was consistantly dropping connection (especially when the house phone rang) and about 2 weeks ago my connection was stable however I was only receiving 283kbps download speed and around 440kbps upload speed. Up until then I was getting 6Mbps. I've ran several speed detectors to confirm. I contacted Orange and they said it may be due to old equipment so they sent me out a Brightbox but after 2 days being online with the Brightbox my upload and download speeds have stayed the same although my connection is stable. I've done a BT line test but they haven't detected anything unusual. Is it likely I'm somehow being restricted by Orange? I've tried connecting the router to the hidden socket on the BT master but I get the same results. I've attached the router details below:



Status

Configured Current
Line Status --- SHOWTIME
Link Type --- Interleaved Path
Operation Mode --- Automatic G992.5(ADSL2+)

Data Rate Information

Stream Type Actual Data Rate
Upstream 440 (Kbps.)
Downstream 283 (Kbps.)

Defect/Failure Indication

Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 28.8 dB 23.0 dB
Line Attenuation 16.5 dB 29.0 dB

Indicator Name Near End Indicator Far End Indicator
Output Power 12.8 dBm 0.0 dBm
Fast Path FEC Correction NA NA
Interleaved Path FEC Correction 6736 0
Fast Path CRC Error NA NA
Interleaved Path CRC Error 0 0
Loss of Signal Defect 0 0
Fast Path HEC Error STR NA NA
Interleaved Path HEC Error 0 0
Error Seconds 0 0

Statistics

Received Cells 4202435
Transmitted Cells 1485855

Edited by deleted (Sun 14-Apr-13 22:47:25)

In reply to a post by kevmcfad:

Operation Data Upstream Downstream
Noise Margin 28.8 dB 23.0 dB

That's you problem! Orange are notorious for holding Down NMs unnecessarily high.

you should be getting about 16 Meg Sync on a 6 dB NM on ADSL2+.

You say you have been with them for years but only got 6 Meg. Are you on an "Up to 8 Meg" legacy package? Perhaps they are trying to cap you to that but are doing it badly.

BTW: Orange/EE were never "unlimited" until 1-2 years back.

I can't remember which package I signed up to but it was the one they practically gave away if you had a pay monthly orange mobile tariff. Will I just contact them tomorrow and ask them about the noise margin?

It's not necessarily EE restricting your speed because they want to: I had this six months ago.

Because noise is being detected on the line (and I found hanging up a call would cause the broadband to drop), the line speed gets restricted until the line will hold a connection.

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between EE tech support and Openreach, I ended up with a new master socket installed, and then Openreach also found a fault between the exchange and my house. I did not have to pay any call out fees.

After all this had been sorted, you still need EE to set the line to re-synch.

After they had done this, my download jumped from the same 283kbps you are getting to circa 15.9mbps

A set of line stats taken just after rebooting the modem would help to see what the settings the line probably has set on it.

The most likely scenario is that the sync rate has been banded to impose stability. The removal of that would be by EE asking BT Wholesale who run their service to remove the banding.

See what it calls your package under "change your package" at your Member Centre, such as:

Your current home package is: Home Select - £12.26 a month, up to 20 Meg speed, wireless router, unlimited usage allowance (fair use policy applies).

(Also)
We've checked out your line and your estimated speed is 13.0 Meg.

Chances are it's the free 8 Meg BB they gave away with mobile phone contracts once, now discontinued. You may need to take out a new contract to get your true speeds.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The most likely scenario is that the sync rate has been banded to impose stability.

Yes, it looks like it is in the lowest band:

In reference to www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/IPprofile.htm:

WBC Banded Profiles
Banded Profiles
160 288

OP will need to ask EE to remove banding, but the Q arises why it is in place over just the last few months. Prior to that it looks like he was getting full 8 Meg capped speeds.

With the discons when phone rings looks like an HR fault has appeared.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

See what it calls your package under "change your package" at your Member Centre, such as:

Your current home package is: Home Select - £12.26 a month, up to 20 Meg speed, wireless router, unlimited usage allowance (fair use policy applies).

(Also)
We've checked out your line and your estimated speed is 13.0 Meg.

Chances are it's the free 8 Meg BB they gave away with mobile phone contracts once, now discontinued. You may need to take out a new contract to get your true speeds.

Your current home package is:
Broadband Unlimited - with your Orange phone - £5.11 a month, Livebox wireless modem, Talk service and unlimited use (fair use policy applies)

We've checked out your line and your estimated speed is 10.5 Meg.

I've checked my online account at my.ee.co.uk and it doesn't mention anything about speed. Also I've just switched off my router, connected my home phone to the hidden socket in the master and done a "quiet line" test where I can hear constant quiet hissing.

I've tried doing a line test on the BT website but I'm getting this error message:

Consumer fault reporting - Error notification

Sorry we cant complete your request at the moment due to technical error. Please try again.

Who is you landline provider? As RobertoS suggested report it to them as a voice fault w/out mentioning BB.

In reply to a post by kevmcfad:

I've checked my online account at my.ee.co.uk and it doesn't mention anything about speed.

As a matter of interest where on EE site did you login to your online account? My EE? Doesn't it take you to the same Orange "Your Account for home broadband" login page?