Does BT have any obligation to improve line quality?

Hello

I was wondering how far, if at all, are BT obliged to improve the quality of the line from the exchange to your home since that's what I'm renting from them. I'm around 800m from the exchange and am getting around 10Mbps download speeds. This has been consistent with 3 suppliers I've had this year! I've shopped around extensively and used many ISP line checkers and always get the same predicted speed back, that is, between 12Mbps and 19Mbps, with a predicted speed of 15Mbps. I have my router as close to the point where the BT line enters the house. The only other telephony device is my landline phone, so have no extensions or splitters (just the ADSL filter). I've had two different routers and tried a different ADSL filter. Of course, I appreciate that the actual line length is going to be longer than 800m to the exchange, but I live in an old Victorian house and have no idea how old the telephone wiring is (or whether it degrades over time??).

So:-

1) Does BT have any obligation to improve the line speed?
2) Am I expecting too much and that 10Mbps isn't that bad for 800m?

Thanks for any advice

1) No
2) No

re 2) post your line stats, see http://kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

In reply to a post by Square:

1) Does BT have any obligation to improve the line speed?

None whatsoever, sadly.

2) Am I expecting too much and that 10Mbps isn't that bad for 800m?

No - should be more like 20Mb/s from ADSL2. Maybe even higher.

Thanks for any advice

The most likely culprit is your internal wiring which is your responsibility. Having posted your stats have a read here while you wait for a response:

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

Edited by Andrue (Tue 21-Jun-11 11:04:49)

As well as posting your router line stats as has been requested, see here for help finding them, and checking for the ring/bell wire as has also been suggested, are you connecting wired or wireless to the router?

IIRC they have an obligation to improve noise on the voice line, so if you have that, you can get them to fix it and perhaps in doing so it will improve your BB.

Thanks everyone

The stats are as below:-


Link Information

Uptime: 0 days, 4:04:21

DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,135 / 12,284

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 18.5

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 5.5 / 11.5

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.5 / 12.0

Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM

Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 33 / 0

Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 3 / 0

Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0

Loss of Link (Remote): 0

Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 3 / 0

FEC Errors (Up/Down): 12 / 889

CRC Errors (Up/Down): 12 / 0

HEC Errors (Up/Down): 3 / 0

This is a wired connection (not over wifi). I've not modified the BT socket at all and the previous owner was here for 40 years (so way before broadband ) so it looks quite old and has been painted over several times. Is it worth investing in a new socket (as shown in the link on one of the replies)?

Edit: I realise that this is only a 12Mbps connection, but my previous ISP (Zen) had me on up to 18Mbps....but still never got much past 10Mbps :/ I would probably pay for the next package up if I knew I could get a better speed (I'm on BE Broadband Value package at the mo - which is LLU at my exchange).

Edited by deleted (Tue 21-Jun-11 19:30:12)

The line must meet the mystic criteria of SIN349.

At 11.5db downstream attenuation, yes, I'd be expecting a much higher sync rate. The snr looks a little high, any chance you might ask Be to reset this to 6db ? This would speed things up a tad. Is there any audible noise on the line ?

I suggest you ring Be support and ask if they could just try you on Be Unlimited to see what connection speed you get. I believe they will do that.

Zarjaz is right in saying the noise margin is high, but in my opinion that will be either because you have a problem somewhere, (their default is 6dB), or the way they limit you to 12Mbps causes the noise margin to rise to the level it would have to be to restrict you. (BT ADSL Max works that way - on lines that can sync above 8Mbps the noise margin shoots up).

In reply to a post by Square:

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,135 / 12,284

Hello? You're on BE Value which is limited to 12Mbps. What did you expect?