Plusnet Upload Speed

We have recently upgraded from an ADSL+ service (Demon) to a FTTC service (Plusnet). This has used the same line, with the distance to the cabinet being about 1.2 miles whereas the distance to the exchange for the ADSL+ service was about 4.5 miles. previously, we got about 3 Mb/sec download and 0.7 Mb/sec upload speed. After a line test, we were advised that we should get an upload speed of 'about 0.5 - 2.0 Mb/sec' on the FTTC service. When the engineer installed the equipment an initial speed test showed 10 Mb/sec download and 0.5 Mb/sec upload. However he advised that if the upload speed did not improve, we could ask our ISP to 'change the profile' of the connection to try to improve the upload speed. The connection has now been live for more than 10 days and a speed test now shows 13 Mb/sec download but still only 0.5 Mb/sec upload. This is surprising as the upload speed is worse than the old ADSL+ speed, despite the same line (as far as the cabinet) being nearly a quarter of the length. We have contacted Plusnet, who say that we were wrongly advised that it is possible to change the 'profile' but that we could report the speed problem as a fault if we wish. However, the speed that we are getting is within the initial estimate and if no fault is found we would be liable for a substantial charge and we were advised against reporting the poor upload speed as a fault. This is probably true as the line does support a good download speed. Does anybody have experience of a similar issue? Should we expect such a disparity between download and upload speeds? Has anybody succeeded in getting changes made to their 'profile' to improve upload speed and, if so, how?

I would agree the engineer advice was WRONG.

The 0.5 Mbps looks slow for a 13 Mbps (if that is what speed test shows) download, 1 to 3 Mbps might be expected more.

The fact it was 0.5 Mbps on the initial test shows that the DLM profiling is not the issue, but rather you have a line that is not performing too well due to its length. With ADSL services the upload performs fairly well for long lines due to it using low frequencies. WIth FTTC the frequencies used are split with the download, since the presumption if most people need more download speed and thus upload is more affected by distance than with previous services.

One presumes your distance to the cabinet is around 1.5 km (~0.9 miles)

Many thanks to MrSaffron for the clarification. It is disappointing that our actual download speed is better than predicted (13 Mbps against 8 Mbps), whereas the upload is at the bottom end of the prediction. As we use the connection to upload large files it is frustrating to have a lower upload speed with FTTC than with ADSL. We would happily sacrifice some download speed for faster upload, but do I understand that this cannot be re-configured?