Annex M worthwhile?

Hi guys,

Folks on here seem terribly knowledgeable about attenuation and SNR values and all that jazz, so I thought it'd be good to ask here about whether I should pursue Annex M to get a better connection. I upload a reasonable amount, including large sets of photos, and a recent visit to my brother's house (who has fibre) has made me obsess about my connection all over again... I can't get fibre, as i'm on an Exchange Only line, and while I did spot them installing new cabinets outside the exchange (which is just up the road) there's been no progress on Fibre availability to my line.

Here are the values from my router:

DSL Status: Connected
DSL Modulation Mode: ADSL2+
DSL Path Mode: Interleaved
Downstream Rate: 18869 kbps
Upstream Rate: 831 kbps
Downstream Margin: 6 db
Upstream Margin: 7 db
Downstream Line Attenuation: 11 db
Upstream Line Attenuation: 3 db
Downstream Transmit Power: 9 db
Upstream Transmit Power: 15 db

And a speedtest: http://screencloud.net/v/gqOX

So, the download speed's not bad, but I could really do with some better upload. My questions are:

1) Based on my current speeds and attenuation data, is it worth bothering?

2) How much download speed would I be sacrificing, and for what kind of boost to upload?

3) Is there anything else I could do (short of kidnapping an OpenReach engineer) to get a Fibre connection? I contacted some Scottish Government agency in charge of fibre rollout, but not much joy there. Would getting a new line from BT likely help?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom

If you went to Annex M you would probably get near full speed on it. A 3dB attenuation suggest you are almost on top of the exchange. It will cost you probably 1.5 to 2 Mbps of download speed.

As for Fibre - what does http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome say for your number?

Exchange name may be enough as some areas are seeing all EO converted

Here's what I see: http://screencloud.net/v/zxoU

Edited by deleted (Wed 01-Jul-15 16:26:53)

Best to hide the telephone number at least.

You may want to edit the image to remove the main part of your number.

That suggests AnnexM is available and that you may see no reduction in Downstream - although I believe their might still be some.

Looks as though you are on an EO line - so a new cabinet will be needed to allow FTTC to be installed. The exchange does have some FTTC cabinets already but whether your line is planned for and upgrade - no idea.

What if you use the same checker and input your address? And that of neighbouring streets? Do they get a cabinet number shown and do they have FTTC availability?

Believe the EO work will be a total conversion on the exchange, so fibre should be on its way, and I usually work with postcode/address but based on the speed estimate would guess you might end up on cabinet 18 with FTTC

Of course until things are live plans are always subject to change.

Is your exchange at the junction of Huntsman's Road and Pitcoudie Avenue?

thanks - done!

Yes, thats the Glenrothes North exchange, about 1km or less from my house.