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?

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

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?

My landline provider is BT.

I access my EE online account via my.ee.co.uk the clicking on the "Broadband Login". After i login the address on the address bar is https://membercentre.orange.co.uk/MCPres/

You should be able to report voice fault to BT online, but it must be down at the mo'. Keep trying! I have used it a few times. BT's reporting and monitoring of voice faults is excellent. Hence I will always keep my line with BT for the sake of a few pennies.

In reply to a post by kevmcfad:

After i login the address on the address bar is https://membercentre.orange.co.uk/MCPres/

Ah,OK! That's exactly the link I gave you. Thanks! Orange site still handles all Orange/EE BB account stuff.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

You should be able to report voice fault to BT online, but it must be down at the mo'.

By which I take it you mean the online fault reporting service was/is down. For someone not knowing what to do it's possible to read it as saying the user's phone line must be down.

For general information the OP has replied in the old thread saying

Just tried this and I can definately hear some quiet hissing. I've have problems talking on the house phone with louder hissing in the past.

Oh, come off it! You can be overly pedantic.

Come off what?

I was only recording here what he said the results of a quiet line test were, in a thread that probably only you and I know about.

It semed likely to be relevant to the other posters here.

I don't know, either, what I said that you consider pedantic. Maybe best PM'ed rather than derail the OP's thread.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 15-Apr-13 11:38:20)

Well I called BT earlier who did a line check and confirmed that there was an issue with the line. They said the line would be fixed within 3 days. At 5pm a BT engineer turned up and after a while he informed me that there was a problem with the master BT socket. He replaced it free of charge (apparently it's covered under my rental agreement) and he said my broadband will gradually speed up over the next 2 days while a stable connection is established. Just done a speed check but it's still currently at 283kbps..

My downstream speed has stayed the same so I called Orange earlier and they told me to disconnect my printer and plug the brightbox into the hidden test socket behind the faceplate for 24 hours. After 6 hours the speed has still stayed the same.

And will do until the banding has been removed which bt wholesale or EE support can do

Hello Kevmcfad,

Please PM your broadband line details to me and I will have this escalated for you.

Regards