isp behaviour

first job is to say hi to everyone as i am new to this forum. i have quite a question that i am hoping to get some answers and help with. here goes!

i live where we only have 4 ISPs to choose from, all of which use Openreach, decades old equipment. basically, that means that a problem encountered through 1 ISP is still there if the change is made to one of the remaining 3 ISPs. our local exchange is, however, unbundled, but as far as fibre is concerned, we are stuck with it being as far as the street cabintes only.
last year i eventually went to the Ombudsman Services because i was constantly getting router reboots, connection dropouts ans slower speeds. these are pretty poor anyway, being 'expected to be between 27mbps and 38mbps'. in my case, being about 1.2 km from the exchange, getting 30mbps. then things changed and this figure was changed from 'Download speed' to 'Downstream speed', giving ISPs the excuse of 'your speed is in our limits, so no repair or anything is needed. i was told by Openreach that the issue was definitely nothing to do with their equipment, leaving the ISP, Plusnet as the only alternative, which i then assumed were throttling the connection. i later found out this was NOT the case and appologised to Plusnet, eating humble pie at the same time. all was then settled and the issue corrected by Openreach. no problems for 4.5 months.
in April of this year, things went pear-shaped again after having no issues and speeds of 30mbps +. despite trying various things, i am now in the position where the speed went up to 30.7mbps for 36 hours, then has dropped twice since, now at 26.5mbps, the third drop in speed happening yesterday at 22:18 while no computers were on, let along connected to the 'net. i lost the plot a bit and sent a complaint about what had been happening for over 4months to Plusnet boss and i have now been threatened by Plusnet with complete disconnection from the Internet, contract termination etc etc. considering i am a disabled, 70 year old pensioner who relies on the Internet to keep in constant contact with various hospitals (i have chronic lung disease, arthritis of the spine as well as other ailments, i am obviously concerned.
as i said earlier, there is no point in changing ISP because any problem with one just gets transferred to the new ISP. my obvious question, having given quite a bit of info is can Plusnet simply cut me off the Internet just because i complained about what kept happening? i cant complain to Openreach, only to Plusnet but they have absolutely no interest whatsoever in going to Openreach on my behalf, being concerned only with completing it's obligations as given by Ofcom and the Ombudsman Service.
i have not complained about not getting speeds up to the max of 37mbps, only that the speed is continuously falling, that the expected speeds miraculously have been reduced and they bear no resemblance now to the guaranteed minimum speed which has been dropped to 20.3mbps, not much better than ADSL 2. so, can Plusnet simply cut me off for complaining?

i'd be grateful for any advice

If anything they may give you the option of cancelling the contract and walking away. They only terminate if you break their terms and conditions e.g. non payment or using it for illegal purposes.
As for your limited choice of ISP, there must be literally dozens to choose from even excluding the unbundlers like sky and TT.
You say your 1.2km from the exchange but you have FTTC, so how far are you from the cabinet, if you know where it is?
What are the stats from the router?

What exactly did the message from PlusNet say? It is more likely that they would have said something along the lines of "we are unable to do anything more to resolve the issues with your line and therefore would allow you to cancel your contract without penalty". This is essentially what they say when they feel they have done all they can with resolving an issue.

It is possible another ISP could help more - Andrew's and Arnold (A&A) tend to have a good reputation. But, if it is line degradation or crosstalk causing the drops in speed then it is likely that no-one will be able to do anything - generally if the speed drops below the minimum speed you were given at start of contract then they may just offer a free contract termination. Starting a new contract with another ISP would likely reset this minimum to somewhere below the current line speed.

What makes you think only 4 ISPs are available? Unless there is something very special with the exchange (possibly going back to exchange activate days) then all ISPs that use OpenReach should be able to offer a connection (barring possibly some of the LLU providers such as Sky and TalkTalk who may not have a presence at the exchange).

As you say changing ISP is likely not to make much difference (unless A&A are willing to take up the cause). Have you checked out if 4G providers might be able to offer you a better service - there are some decent deals out there these days from all of the major mobile networks that might give you good speeds if you can get a signal.

there was no message, it was spoken by the executive service rep. your right, ian72, that there was nothing else they could do etc etc was also said but plusnet hadn't done anything apart from try to get openreach to update what was happening. customers cant complain to openreach, only to their own individual ISP. i was told that it's in my contract that i mustn't complain and that they are within their right to terminate my broadband. he even openly stated that broadband is NOT a human right. i just copied this text from Lifewire website:

United Nations: Broadband Access is a Basic Human Right
Disconnection from the internet is against international law

i wonder what plusnet will say about this?

as i said previously, changing ISP is of no use at all as openreach is the only option for equipment.

i did a check on distance but it's in miles. from my home to the cabinet (the road follows the same route as the cable) it's 0.3miles (0.48km). continuing to the exchange, the distance from my home is 0.9miles (1.448km)

as for the router stats, what do you wanna see and on what dates? i'll try to get them for you

Router stats of the connection may indicate if there is problem with connection to the cabinet. If they look OK speedtests may indicate if there is a congestion problem, but nothing yet says where the issue may lay so hard to say if changing isp would help or not

People complain to openreach every day. There is a team that deals specifically with customer escalations. Often people just email the CEO directly. Best to make sure the problem is with openreach 1st

In reply to a post by allkno:

i was told that it's in my contract that i mustn't complain and that they are within their right to terminate my broadband. he even openly stated that broadband is NOT a human right.

That sounds like utter twaddle by whoever told you it. Or you misunderstood what was said.

I suggest you read this page of Plusnet Terms and Conditions, and any links in it that apply to yourseld. Mainly dependent on when you joined or changed service.

Those pages comprise your contract, and I don't recall any such terms as you say you were told.

Edited by pluralist (Wed 01-Sep-21 19:05:50)