Changed ISP - Speed dropped to 0.6Mb !

I was with Madasafish for years getting a reasonably smooth 6Mb on ADSL1. In the last few years(?) that upgraded automatically to ADSL2 since which I've been getting 16Mb no problem.

Madasafish are closing down so a few days ago I switched to Fast Co UK

Speed tests showed about 16Mb first day so I was happy. As the days passed I noticed sluggishness so checked again. Download speed now about 0.6Mb and often lower! It's slower than the upload speed which is about 0.8Mb.

Contacted them and they say copper line test failed so I have to contact my phone provider.

So my first question is why would changing to a new ISP fail my copper line connection which has worked fine for years and years?

Second, I did a phone line test on the BT website and it said no problems with my phone line.

Anyway, decided to contact BT. How? On my phone bill it gives a number for phone and another for broadband. But does that mean BT's own broadband service or any broadband problem over their phone lines?

I tried the normal phone number it gave. A robot said because of bad weather there are long delays. Try again later.

So my second question is, does anyone know for the sure the correct phone number for a slow broadband connection over a BT line when one's broadband ISP is not BT? Or is there a better way of reaching them?

Any other help/suggestions would be welcome because currently it's like dial up in the 1990's when you consider how much bigger many web pages are these days compared to then. I mean, some take half a minute or longer!

In reply to a post by Fidcal:

Anyway, decided to contact BT. How? On my phone bill it gives a number for phone and another for broadband. But does that mean BT's own broadband service or any broadband problem over their phone lines?

They mean what they say. Contact your telephone provider. If you're paying line rental to BT that means dialling 151. Do not mention broadband. Mind you if their faults website can't see anything wrong it could be a bad idea trying to get Faults involved. You can get them to send an engineer but if they find nothing wrong you will be charged.

So my second question is, does anyone know for the sure the correct phone number for a slow broadband connection over a BT line when one's broadband ISP is not BT?

The correct initial contact is your ISP and in theory your ISP should then be able to deal with BT on your behalf. In practice the cheaper ISPs may try to fob this duty off onto the customer. It's annoying but that's how the bottom of the market survives. Mind you the 'not quite at the bottom' like Plusnet struggle to provide a decent customer service experience as well.

Anyway before getting an engineer out it'd probably be wise to go through some basic fault finding.

* If you are running your tests over wifi, use a wired connection instead.
* Make sure it's not a device on your network - turn off or unplug everything but the machine you are testing with.
* If fully wired connection still exhibits the issue does it happen at all hours or just peak hours?
* If the speed drop is constant connect your modem directly to the test socket ( http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_... ).
* Post your modem connection stats here ( http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php ).

Edited by Andrue (Thu 17-Dec-15 12:01:35)

If the only problem is the broadband then that falls upon fast.co.uk, BT if you phone up with a broadband fault will simply say not our customer.

The first step as the other poster suggested is to establish when speed the broadband hardware you have is connecting at i.e. check the status page embedded in the router you have at home.

Mmm.... the reply I posted earlier has vanished without trace! Maybe because I posted to the main thread the forum treated it as a double-post and deleted it? If so, I can't see how to respond to two users without posting on both replies - which really is double-posting!

Oh well, best as I can remember, I said, my modem stats still show the line is rated at 17Mb.

Plus Net (who own Madasafish) phoned me. Apparently Fast Co UK never informed Madasafish of the change of ISP so I now have two broadband accounts! I logged into Madasafish and sure enough, it works! 0.6Mb now though. PLusnet said it was extremely unlikely that my copper phone line would suddenly become faulty when I joined Fast Co UK if it's been a smooth 16Mb all this time.

I see no way forward except to abandon my contract payments and switch to PlusNet. I assume ISPs cannot actually prevent that, can they? I mean, they might charge me for the 3 months contract but they surely can't withhold a switch to another ISP?

In reply to a post by Fidcal:

Apparently Fast Co UK never informed Madasafish of the change of ISP

... and they wouldn't. Fast place the order which then triggers the task that BT will then notify the losing provider. There is never any direct provider to provider communication.

What has likely happened is that notification was sent and it wasn't processed by Plusnet/MAAF as has been reported on this forum a few times.

Whilst logins for two ISPs can work on the line at the same time, the old one will usually stop at some point. Normally after a day or two but it can be longer.

Plusnet/MAAF should be able to check the tags on the line via the Openreach/Wholesale portals and correct their records

Matt

Whilst I agree it's possible Plusnet failed to action the completion of the migration, I can't say I'm impressed by the lower part of this Fast page. About Market classifications.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 17-Dec-15 23:29:33)

That link goes to a completely unrelated site....

Matt

Hmmm. I fixed it in preview ...

... why is it the only times I forget to check every link in post are the times I have one wrong?

It definitely works now. Thanks .