Any way around a "Bridge Tap"?

I have been with Sky for three months now. If I'd have known I'd have issues with broadband I'd have gone with Virgin Media for tv/phone/broadband but unfortunately I think it's too late to get out of my contract! Annoying.

I live in central London yet I have rural broadband speeds. Up to now Sky have sent out a BT Broadband engineer and telephone one. The telephone one said there was no issues but the broadband one said he picked up a few errors and changed the fuses at the exchange. Now I don't know if Sky capping the service affects the rate of errors? Either way BT/Sky don't seem to be doing a great deal because I do have broadband, it's just not fast.

Sky have previously said my line is around 1.5KM. Whenever I ring up they quote different speeds that my line can take. I've had quotes of 1.5Mb, 3.5Mb, 5Mb. I currently get 1.5Mb though for about a week in my first month at this address they got it up at 4Mb. I haven't seen near those speeds since.

It is really really frustrating as there are three of us sharing this connection. The .3Mb upload doesn't help either.

Anyway that is the background. I've now been told that there is a 'Bridge Tap' and that is why my line can only support 3.5Mb (the latest speed they've quoted). Do I just have to accept that my line has this Bridge Tap and deal with these slow speeds until I next move house or until my year contract is over and I can get Virgin? When I do a speed estimate for my postcode it estimates up to 14Mb btw.

Here are my stats:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1618 kbps 321 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.5db 15.7db
Noise Margin 6.6db 7.1db

You've been given bum info.

There are NO bridge taps on BT's UK network.

Bridge taps are common in the USA but not used here.

Well that's a relief I guess..

My new question is how do I make them fix whatever my problem is? The engineers didn't really seem concerned so long as I had a working connection.

I live in central London, my postcode estimation is 14Mb, my line attenuation isn't bad..

Am I just being silly pursuing this to the degree that I am with them (like 20 phone calls over the last 3 months) or should I actually be getting higher speeds..

In reply to a post by andrewjohn:

Well that's a relief I guess..

My new question is how do I make them fix whatever my problem is? The engineers didn't really seem concerned so long as I had a working connection.

I live in central London, my postcode estimation is 14Mb, my line attenuation isn't bad..

Am I just being silly pursuing this to the degree that I am with them (like 20 phone calls over the last 3 months) or should I actually be getting higher speeds..

Post your line stats reported by your router.

Who told you about the bridge tap?

does connection speeds ever vary? If you test at the test socket one presumes all the phones in the property stop working? If not then the bridge tap is on your property,and in theory this is the only place where there should be one, as BT avoid them in their own network

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by andrewjohn:

Well that's a relief I guess..

My new question is how do I make them fix whatever my problem is? The engineers didn't really seem concerned so long as I had a working connection.

I live in central London, my postcode estimation is 14Mb, my line attenuation isn't bad..

Am I just being silly pursuing this to the degree that I am with them (like 20 phone calls over the last 3 months) or should I actually be getting higher speeds..

Post your line stats reported by your router.

Who told you about the bridge tap?

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1618 kbps 321 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.5db 15.7db
Noise Margin 6.6db 7.1db

These stats?

Sky told me about it. I told her I was informed by another member of Sky staff that my line was around 1.5km and she made lots of excuses saying it could go round estates and things.. then after she tested the line she said there was a Bridge Tap. I presume there's nothing else that sounds similar, maybe I misheard?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

does connection speeds ever vary? If you test at the test socket one presumes all the phones in the property stop working? If not then the bridge tap is on your property,and in theory this is the only place where there should be one, as BT avoid them in their own network

The router has connected at 1.5/6Mb whenever I've checked (other than when they got it to 4Mb once). There's two sockets in my flat. One in living room, one in a bedroom. The bedroom one was previously connected to the living room one but it is now disconnected. The living room one has no test socket and I've followed the line which goes directly outside..

In reply to a post by andrewjohn:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1618 kbps 321 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.5db 15.7db
Noise Margin 6.6db 7.1db

These stats?

Those are a good start. 14Mb is a reasonable estimate for those.

Which broadband package are you on?

Obviously she is just running through a list of excuses they have compiled. She can't tell from the stats if there is a bridge tap.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by andrewjohn:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1618 kbps 321 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.5db 15.7db
Noise Margin 6.6db 7.1db

These stats?

Those are a good start. 14Mb is a reasonable estimate for those.

Which broadband package are you on?

Obviously she is just running through a list of excuses they have compiled. She can't tell from the stats if there is a bridge tap.

I'm on the Sky Broadband Unlimited package. She also said there was a fault at the exchange and a broadband engineer is set to look into it on Friday morning. However as I have had a broadband engineer before and they just tested the line, found it to be ok and didn't solve the speed issue I am not really very hopeful. In addition my speed was still [censored] when there was no fault being reported at the exchange (if there even is one, she may have been fibbing again!)

Ok so 14Mb should be no problem. What would be good is if you can get your detailed router stats from the modem. Do you know what sort of modem it is?

A good guide to doing this is here: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Looks like you have a lot of noise on the line - oftentimes the sky TV box is responsible for this