Sorry to intrude on this thread , I was wondering if a Exchange in which SKY have enabled LLU would tend to be a good candidate for FTTC? (I assume SKY cherry picked the most adsl populated exchanges)

My Exchange is the Port Talbot exchange SWPTB.

I live in a large villiage (with Primary School) around 3 KM from the exchange. Average attenation is 53db.

Any info would be appreciated

Hi Lunarjetman,

I'm in Hilton and have a straight line from SamKnows of 2.71KM. However given the roads round our villages I wouldn't be surprised if the cabling takes a circuitous route to Hilton. I'd be interested to know what speed you get on MAX (I'm currently running at 2meg, someone in the next road runs at 1.5).

Fingers crossed we get considered for FTTC but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Check out Heather Wheelers blog and also the minutes of various meetings for South Derbyshire District Council. They've been in discussion with BT about the poor speeds across the county - but unfortunately for some reason (perhaps saturation... or could it be that's where the council offices are?!) they've promoted Swadlincote as an exchange they'd like to see included in the improvements.

It's a shame as although there must be long lines in Swad, they've at least got the option of LLU; I know it may not bring faster speeds due to line/length and attenuation, but at least they have a wider choice of providers/pricing.

If you feel up to the challenge I'd suggest contacting Heather Wheeler (I had a go) and raising your concerns - it seems lobbying is the way forward if we'd like to see changes to our exchange - there isn't an obvious carrot for investment be it LLU or FTTC.

Hi Colin,

I used to get a speed of 3.5Mbps on an attenuation of 57db which I thought was pretty good. However, for the last year the line has been deteriorating and it will now only manage 2.5Mbps. I'm a whisker away from being able to raise a Fault Threshold Breach with BT; in fact I've already syncd below my fault rate, 3200Kbps, once but I figured that because my next sync just raised its head above that level I couldn't report it to plusnet.

It's this deterioration that prompted this thread really. I've done all I can feasibly do to improve my stats, and yet I'm left powerless with a line getting worse and no clear prospect of anyone finding a way to sell me higher speed broadband packages that I'd gladly buy if only they were available. To my untrained eye I would have thought that almost 4000 lines on the Etwall exchange would have offered a decent return either BT or for someone to unbundle. Just a couple of miles away from Etwall the Mickleover exchange has been unbundled so surely LLU operators backhaul must be easily reachable.

Thanks for the pointers to the blog and SDDC, I'll check them out.

I could probably get 2.5/3mb if I hadn't slipped back to a 9db SNR. Stuck on it now - it was rock solid for 30+ days then I resync'd as I was moving some wiring around - but sadly no move back to 6db.

I can't recall seeing this in the post - but you've checked the test socket, disconnected the ring-wire or fitted a filtered faceplate already? I made sure I filtered out my extension wiring before I came onto max (attenuation is reported around 57 by my 2wire business hub).

I didn't realise Mickleover had been unbundled - haven't checked the stat's but I expect they have more appeal to the other providers.

From reading another post by ADEBOV it seems that whilst ADSL2 won't hold much hope of a speed improvement due to distance, at the least it may provide some increase in download speeds due to the difference in the way LLU operators implement the system (no profiling). However they've got to provide the services to our exchange first.

I too would be tempted to pay more than I am now if I thought I might actually see some of the bandwidth. So at present I'm more interested in the price point. It'd be a nice decision to have to make - price vs speed!

Colin

In reply to a post by cjbell68:

I can't recall seeing this in the post - but you've checked the test socket, disconnected the ring-wire or fitted a filtered faceplate already?

Yep, got all that sort of stuff covered. Router is connect to a filtered faceplate by a .5 metre ADSLNation RJ11 shielded twisted-pair cable. Ring-wire is disconnected. Tried many routers with no appreciable difference between them.

The line used to sync as high as 4300Kbps so it's really frustrating watching it slip further and further backwards and not be able to do anything to arrest the decline. Throughout all this my target SNR has remained 6db, so I'm not looking at BT's DLM slowing my line down. I'm actually at the point now where DLM would be unable to raise my target margin above 6db as it would cause a Fault Threshold Breach in itself.

In this part of Egginton the line is fed from underground, so there aren't any drop cables running near trees or faulty street lights. My wife is fed-up of seeing me walking round the house with an AM radio tuned off-station!

I've tried it all to no avail; I'm left hoping that someone finds an economic way to sell me better speeds but it seems a slim hope.

Fingers crossed the time of year is having an impact on your speeds, I've read that they're supposed to pick up during summer months.

As for FTTC, I was hoping that something good might come of the Digital Britain report, but it doesn't look promising right now.

So fingers crossed somehow our exchange gets added to the list of FTTC candidates.

Good luck with sorting your line quality.

As more people in an area get DSL based broadband you can experience more cross talk, the end result is that speeds may slow down, generally only a little, but 200-300Kbps will be noticeable if you are looking for it.

200-300 Kbps will probably be very noticeable to most people on the exchange, apart from those who live in/near the centre of Etwall perhaps!

In reply to a post by cjbell68:

200-300 Kbps will probably be very noticeable to most people on the exchange, apart from those who live in/near the centre of Etwall perhaps!

You're getting Kilobits and KiloBytes confused?... *edit* notice the change in capitalisation - (b) = Bits and (B) = Bytes

200 Kilobits is only equal to around 25 KBytes/s (without overheads)

So it's not noticable at all in regards to throughput.

Edited by phantom66uk (Tue 10-Feb-09 16:33:06)

200-300 kilobits = 25-30KBps? Which I THINK is ~12% or so of my total downstream bandwidth with a 2mb profile?

Let me know if I've that wrong though, stranger things have happened
In anycase I'm inclined to say even if its kilobits every little helps! Albeit maybe not much to some.