Hi guys i'm going to pitch in - I also live in EX4 region of Exeter like the original poster.

I had/have O2 broadband which gives me 4mbps and has now switched to Sky I believe (been bought out). I am also looking at a better package for speed and was considering Virgin cable. Also considering Sky but as with the other chap the checker indicates I also cannot get the fibre service.

Interestingly enough after the sky checker tells me I cannot receive fibre it indicates to me that instead I can get Broadband Lite or Broadband Unlimited with speeds of ...
12.2 - 19.0 Mbps

A bit confused that if my O2 is now 'Sky' why am I only getting 4mbps?

As someone else mentioned I ran the BT wholesale checker and just used my address
results were (a bit jumbled but experts will know pretty much whats what)

WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 3 -- 2.5 to 6.5 Available
ADSL Max Up to 3 -- 2 to 5.5 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available

yet I run the test under my phone number instead of address and get

WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 17 -- 10 to 19.5 Available
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 17 Up to 1.5 10 to 19.5 Available
ADSL Max Up to 7.5 -- 6.5 to 8 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available

both tests say
Telephone Number 01392****** on Exchange EXETER is served by Cabinet 33

If I got between 10-19mbps I probably wouldn't be looking to change - I dunno whats going on

You are currently with O2 Broadband and your line with them supports 4M a download speed.
Sky have bought the O2 Broadband company so O2 Broadband the company is now part of SKY the company.
You continue to have and use the O2 Broadband physical "wire" service, which is now owned by SKY the company.

The Address checker is an estimate of the BT Broadband "wire" service you can get
The Phone number checker is a better estimate of the BT Broadband "wire" service you can get
Normally the O2 Broadband "wire" service and the BT Broadband "wire" service would have the same speeds. So getting >4M on any Broadband service is unlikely, unless something is wrong with the "wire" coming into your house or indie your house and can be fixed.

You could move to a SKY Broadband "wire" service and I assume you would get around the same 4M download mark. Same for moving to a BT Broadband "wire" service.

You can not get a BT FTTC fibre "wire" service as this is not connected to your local street green cabinet.

To understand your speeds for ADSL and ADSL2+ based services the attenuation, noise margin and connection speeds from your router will show if you are running slower or faster than expected.

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc can give an estimate of where you fall in the range.

That will give a better idea than the database look ups which may have your location confused.

Okie dokie. Can you get us router statistics from your router? We need line attenuation, sync speed, noise margin.

Here's an example of the kind of thing we would like: See it has down and up speed, line attenuation and noise margin


Line state: Connected
Connection time: 126 days, 02:42:30
Downstream: 7.594 Mbps
Upstream: 448 Kbps

ADSL Settings

VPI/VCI: 0/38
Type: PPPoA
Modulation: G.992.1 Annex A
Latency type: Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up): 6.2 dB / 24.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up): 39.9 dB / 20.5 dB

Here you go - still a bit confused lol

Link Information
Uptime: 4 days, 10:47:15
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 884 / 6,173
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 858 / 4,968
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.5 / 19.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 34.0 / 54.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.5 / 6.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 16 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 890 / 12,159,647
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 890 / 3,446
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 867 / 2,484

Looking at those stats I can see that the line is performing as well as possible.
If you switch to Sky on that line it will not go any faster. That's the best it's going to be. So 4.9Mbps is all you're gonna see.

Also you haven't moved to the Sky network just yet although sky do now own the o2 broadband customers lines. Sky haven't migrated anyone over to their own network just yet as far as I'm aware, unless the customer has subscribed to a specific sky package. In time you will go over to the Sky network but your speeds will be around the same.

Well I did the test on coolweb that was mentioned - my router says the following in its DSL connection page

O2_ADSL
View more...
Link Status: Disconnected
Type: PPPoA
Last Error Message: None

O2_ADSL2plus
View more...
Type: ETHoA
Uptime: 4 days, 10:59:41
IP Address: 94.blah.blah.blah
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 616.59 / 6.01

O2_Static
View more...
Link Status: Contacting DHCP server...
Type: ETHoA

Does this mean I am on ADSL2+????

If so I did the coolweb test and got results here - I selected ADSL2+ on the test as thats what the router says I'm on (??)

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc/calculator.php?par...

The test says
ADSL2+ (G.992.5)
Normal speed range at 19.0dB attenuation is 18400 Kbps to 20100 Kbps

My router says

DSL Connection
Link Information
Uptime: 4 days, 11:06:59
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 858 / 4,968
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00

Edited by deleted (Tue 13-Aug-13 20:10:29)

Normal speed range at 19.0dB attenuation is 18400 Kbps to 20100 Kbps

Where are you getting 19.0dB from? Your attentuation is 54.5 and your lines already over performing believe me.

I would only expect between 2.5 and 3.5Mbps on a line like yours typically.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 13-Aug-13 20:19:59)

Keep calm.....

I entered wrong figure from the results page. I can now agree with your statement!

So to sum up, I get 4mb with O2, switching to Sky or whoever will still mean roughly the same speed. As according to the BT checker my line is 'Exchange EXETER is served by Cabinet 33' does that mean I can get fibre if I read your other post correctly??

At the postcode where you live around 90% of properties do not go via a local green cabinet. 90% go directly to the local telephone exchange... So the cable goes directly to the telephone exchange bypassing a cabinet. These are called exchange only lines.

Is cabinet 33 what I connect to rather than direct to the exchange or am I making another mistake

So to sum up, I get 4mb with O2, switching to Sky or whoever will still mean roughly the same speed.

Yep precisely.

As according to the BT checker my line is 'Exchange EXETER is served by Cabinet 33' does that mean I can get fibre if I read your other post correctly??

Nope it just means that your line goes via a cabinet. You can only get fibre if the cabinet you are connected via is upgraded to fibre.

The guy earlier, his line didn't even go via a cabinet. So even when the whole area was fibre upgraded (which it was) they still couldn't get fibre as their line never touched a cabinet.

Your line needs to go via a cabinet AND that cabinet needs to be upgraded to fibre for you to get fibre services.

You can check if you can get fibre here http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broad...

Is cabinet 33 what I connect to rather than direct to the exch.nge or am I making another mistake

It sure looks that way. Cabinet 33 may not have been upgraded to fibre services yet though. Plenty of cabinets are not even in the fibre upgrade plans. So you know that your line goes via a cabinet although that cabinet doesn't necessarily have fibre services just yet (and may not in the near future if it's not in the rollout plans). Best to check on the BT site above