Trying all avenues to improve speeds

Hi, I'm in the middle of moving to a rural location and trying everything I can think of to get decent speeds. I don't mind paying properly for this but seem to keep hitting one snag after another. Hoping the experts on here can help!

I'm connected to GOLDHANGER exchange, cabinet 1. This only has ADSL. Annoyingly cabinet 2 was upgraded to VDSL a few years back, just not the one I'm on. I queried this with the SuperfastEssex team and was told that originally another service provider was going to offer something in my street so they couldn't fund the upgrade, but subsequently the other provider pulled out, leaving it on ADSL.

Trying that connection out on the current owners WiFi (stood next to router) I got 6.5Mbps/0.7Mbps which seems slow given I'm <200m from the cabinet. I've ordered a dedicated modem to tweak the SNR, and have asked BT for a new line install... is there anything else I can realistically do to max that out? Anything special I can request in terms of location or setup when the engineer comes?

Cabinet 1 still doesn't appear to be schedule for any upgrades, at least not from my own digging. Aside from "registering my interest" is there anything more to do to bump it back onto the list?

The village also has a wireless service, connecting to the top of the local church tower. I can't install it just yet but they quote 30/10Mbps service and tell me I have a good line of sight. Better, but I still worry about latency. I'm also annoyed they don't offer any tariffs above this, but were happy if I wanted to order multiple antennas / services at the same time. Seems a strange approach when presumably they could just flip a switch on the first one. Ideally I would ask them to run a line (if possible) from the church to my property but they didn't want to entertain this. In the real world are these wireless services ok or do they flap out every time there's a bit of British weather?

Lastly I've had 2 quotes for a dedicated ethernet circuit, both coming in around £500/month. Ouch. The reason being they tell me they need to run a long line from the top end of the village where there is the right equipment/capacity to the bottom end to my property and the install cost is therefore high. It's about 750m following the road according to google maps. Any recommendations for providers to try would be welcomed, assuming not against rules to ask for these? I can't seem to find this equipment on the BTOR sites so am I right in saying its something else?

Sorry for long first post, but tried to do as much background work as I could before brain dumping. Thank you!

As your are talking about ADSL, the distance to the cabinet is not the limit, it is the distance to the Exchange you need to look at. If your cabinet has a fibre twin, then you will need to order an FTTC (VDSL) service.

Have you consulted the BT wholesale checker?

Have you considered line bonding? Effectively you take a number of broadband lines (usually 2-4) and combine them together to provide an aggregated line. You need to source the lines yourself and then there is the additional requirement of a new piece of hardware (purchased outright or leased), plus the line bonding service. Here's two companies I am investigating for myself. Seems that the hardware purchase comes with 12 months of bonding service...then after that it's about £120 per line per year, which isn't too bad.
https://www.broadbandbonding.co.uk/broadband-bonding...
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/33806-shared...
Also worth checking here to see if you are due to fall under the new roll-out:
https://www.gigaclear.com/about-us
Hope this helps.

ADSL relies on the exchange, so you have distance to cabinet and then distance from cabinet to exchange.

Wireless - generally they can provide what they say they do, latency need not be terrible usually inline with ADSL type speeds. As for not offering faster, this can increase the cost of hardware and might lead to ability for one person to use all the backhaul from the tower to the main point. Weather wise generally OK, i.e. in same way mobiles keep working when it rains.

Ethernet circuit - expensive per month and unlikely you will see much at a lower than £500 cost.

What's the mobile signal like? Unlimited 4G is possible, might have to try different network sims to see which works best.

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/ether...

Edited by witchunt (Wed 19-Aug-20 10:13:04)

They already said their cabinet doesn't have VDSL/FTTC.

Sorry just posting very quick between meetings but thanks for advice so far.

In no particular order:
- Cabinet that I'm on is only ADSL, no VDSL option unless I can somehow get them to move me to the other cabinet (but I've been told this is a big no no)
- Whatever the reason the 6.5Mbps seems terrible. I'm hoping that better equipment and new line will improve it. I'm pretty sure current owner has various extension cables because her SmartHub was sat right in the middle of the house away from an external wall
- I have looked into bonded ADSL lines briefly. Seems that less and less providers are offering it, but that Sharedband solution might work across different providers. Haven't got my head round this one yet.
- In any case I'm getting my own load balancing router so even if I don't do true bonded I'll have resiliency and extra aggregation, just not as good as proper bonded
- I'm also getting a 4G card and will try this as well

Whether 6.5 is good or bad for ADSL2+ all hinges on where the property is

Majority of cabinet 1 is close enough to the exchange that speeds of 15 Mbps should be possible, might be low for this house if outside Goldhanger

Extension cables will not be helping possibly, and might explain a drop in what is possible.

As above if in house wiring is iffy you can lose 50% + of the speed coming into the house , only a few weeks ago i saw 3 go up to over 36 just by sorting in house wiring.

In reply to a post by edwardpadmore:

Have you considered line bonding? Effectively you take a number of broadband lines (usually 2-4) and combine them together to provide an aggregated line. You need to source the lines yourself and then there is the additional requirement of a new piece of hardware (purchased outright or leased), plus the line bonding service. Here's two companies I am investigating for myself. Seems that the hardware purchase comes with 12 months of bonding service...then after that it's about £120 per line per year, which isn't too bad.
https://www.broadbandbonding.co.uk/broadband-bonding...
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/33806-shared...
Also worth checking here to see if you are due to fall under the new roll-out:
https://www.gigaclear.com/about-us
Hope this helps.

Unfortunately nothing in the pipeline with Gigaclear. On the bonded side I'm looking at Evolving Networks but will look at the alternative you suggested too.