No wonder people are confused

Was doing a little digging to see how some of the package prices and speeds compare and came across this Gem from BT broadband.

BT Ultrafast Fibre 250

Download Speed
Average 300 Mbps

Upload Speed
50 Mbps

Technical maximum speed
314 Mbps

Included allowance
Unlimited

What possible reason is there for this package to be Fibre 250 ? Even the speed guarantee is 150Mbps.

I think BT have a cunning plan to lower peoples speeds over time (Joke) LOL

But I can say when I was on FTTP I was getting 314Mbps 24/7, as soon as I move over to Ultrafast 2 it instantly dropped to 309Mbps 24/7, then when I was moved over to that Ultrafast Fibre 250 I am now getting 280 to 290Mbps 24/7, notice the pattern here

So give it a few more renames and I might end up on 250Mbps

Jokes aside, you left out Halo 1 and 2 etc, but that is basically the old Plus feature.

Paul

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

I think BT have a cunning plan to lower peoples speeds over time (Joke) LOL

But I can say when I was on FTTP I was getting 314Mbps 24/7, as soon as I move over to Ultrafast 2 it instantly dropped to 309Mbps 24/7, then when I was moved over to that Ultrafast Fibre 250 I am now getting 280 to 290Mbps 24/7, notice the pattern here

So give it a few more renames and I might end up on 250Mbps

Jokes aside, you left out Halo 1 and 2 etc, but that is basically the old Plus feature.

Paul

That's quite concerning Paul, although you joke about it there is obviously some truth speeds are getting slower and not just the naming.

In reply to a post by busterboy:

That's quite concerning Paul, although you joke about it there is obviously some truth speeds are getting slower and not just the naming.

Yeah, when I spoke to BT on Twitter they were a bit concerned about the drop, sadly they said they are not trained in FTTP and said to phone them up and ask about it.

The thing is its more like a cap is in place or an IP with issues and you can see in this >> image from SamKnows Box << where you can see it at 306Mbps (when on Ultrafast 2) and when they moved us over to Ultrafast Fibre 250 when I phoned for a better deal and resubbed, yes you guessed it, it was on the 19th of November 2019.

You can also see the top cap being hit before then drop by 10 to 20Mbps for no reason.
I am thinking its an IP issue, just not an issue to reset my connection to see, I might check a neighbours connection when I see them.

I just find it strange when you speak to BT and they do anything to do with your connection your speed drops, but like I said its not an issue, but I will be keeping an eye on it.

Paul

A change of Openreach product resets DLM, so it sounds like there is one also on FTTP.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

A change of Openreach product resets DLM, so it sounds like there is one also on FTTP.

I am not too sure that FTTP has one, plus I never changed products, I just renewed the sub to get another good deal and that's was it, then over night the speed just dropped.

If only I could see the connection stats of the ONT LOL

Paul

I also don�t believe there is �DLM� on Openreach FTTP products. It is not required.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I also don�t believe there is �DLM� on Openreach FTTP products. It is not required.

That's what I thought, I was under the impression that I connect up at the speed that I am paying for, and if you look at that graph I took from my Sam Knows box you can see its seems capped at that speed 24/7 and before I resigned up I was at my normal speed.

I am glad BT are not calling this package Ultrafast Fibre 10 LOL

Paul

Were all the various FTTP packages you have been on (e.g. Ultrafast 2, Ultrafast Fibre 250) all advertise the same top speed?

I *suppose* that as these new speed products become more the �norm� the core of these networks needs to improve proportionally too.

Has anyone checked if QoS is enabled on any BT Hub used?

With FTTP we are receiving 2.5Gbits/sec regardless of the package speed sold. Elsewhere they limit the speed of data sent to us to match the package bought and this also helps share that 2.5G out amongst the 30 or so properties on the same splitter, so it is an artificial limit under someones control somewhere.

I suspect they are tweaking these hard limits on different packages. It used to be FTTP was 330 down, but now it seems it is sold as 300, hence 314 has dropped around 30M. Guessing here but could they be trying to create a bit more leeway for higher speed packages, by limiting the maximum speeds on the existing ones.

The naming convention might be something to do with average speeds and not over selling it?

Naming conventions are just marketing to include the new Openreach tiers and make it easy for them to market it.

i.e. 100, 250, 500, 1000

That would be pointless as it would show 2.5/1.25Gbps for everyone with a working FTTP connection from Openreach. It either syncs and you get that speed or it does not and you get nothing. You might be able to read the loss in dB for the link (you can on a standard ethernet SFP/SFP+) but it is only of academic interest. Now if you had a line issue you might see some TX/RX errors but I would have thought Openreach would be monitoring that on the OLT anyway and would investigate if it became an issue.

On the otherhand they oversubscribe the service so it may just be you are now competing with other users on the same GPON link and are stuffed.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

On the otherhand they oversubscribe the service so it may just be you are now competing with other users on the same GPON link and are stuffed.

Could be but I can add that I was expecting something around 315+ download speeds(assumed 330 product) but only get around 290 as well, this is on a recently completed FTTP on Demand order and that is with only me connected currently. Paperwork from Cerberus states 300 as the download speed, I think it used to be 330. So I can't complain and not complaining, but it does suggest speeds have been reduced a touch.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

On the otherhand they oversubscribe the service so it may just be you are now competing with other users on the same GPON link and are stuffed.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I also don�t believe there is �DLM� on Openreach FTTP products. It is not required.

However, whilst I agree with that from the Openreach side of things, once it gets through the cable link at the exchange it is at the mercy of the BT Wholesale systems ....

For instance, the IP Profile on FTTC is set by BT Wholesale.

It shouldn't be doing anything, but maybe it is. It's a plausible suggestion, nothing more . Do BTW FTTP products have an IP Profile? Has anyone ever gone to Further Diagnostics on the speed test to find out?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Has anyone ever gone to Further Diagnostics on the speed test to find out?

Some 2013 screen shots:
https://community.bt.com/t5/Archive-Staging/IP-Profi...

Begs the question, are there any ISPs (yet) that take an Openreach FTTC (oops: FTTP) cable link and hence avoid the BTW systems?

Edited by jchamier (Sun 09-Feb-20 14:01:58)

Several small providers such as Sky,TalkTalk,Vodafone don't use the BT Wholesale links

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Several small providers such as Sky,TalkTalk,Vodafone don't use the BT Wholesale links

Ha, of course. I also typed FTTC when I meant FTTP

Those three are on the cusp of selling FTTP openly, its being an under the counter thing for a while now.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I also don�t believe there is �DLM� on Openreach FTTP products. It is not required.

Careful...never trust Openreach. They might have DLM secret for FTTP for residential customers except the business grade.

Thanks.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Has anyone ever gone to Further Diagnostics on the speed test to find out?

Some 2013 screen shots:
https://community.bt.com/t5/Archive-Staging/IP-Profi...

Thanks James. I did think it might be the case.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Careful...never trust Openreach. They might have DLM secret for FTTP for residential customers except the business grade.

Okay that is ridiculous.

There is no 'dynamic line' to manage. You connect to the FTTP network at full speed, in the case of GPON roughly 2.5 Gb/s down, 1.25 Gb/s up, and then get a slice of that depending what you're provisioned and paying at, or you don't connect at all - end of discussion.