Poor upload speeds with BT adsl

I recently switched from BE (o2) to BT broadband, in preparation for fibre which is coming my way soon. At the moment though I'm still on adsl2 and although my download speeds have remained similar (about 3Mbps) my upload speeds have fallen from just under 1Mbps with BE, to around 0.2 with BT.

Is this normal, or was the BE LLU kit in my exchange just doing a better job?

I have tried re-syncing my line many times but the speeds remain the same.

Please can you post your line/router stats. See here for help finding them.

Doing frequent re-sync's can badly affect your downstream, for weeks, on BT Wholesale-based systems. Don't do it!

Latest speed test show DL speed of 4Mbps, UL speed of 0.3

Router stats:
Connection Speed: Down 5152, Up 448
Line Attenuation: Down 53.0, Up 27.5
Noise Margin: Down 6.4, Up 21.0

I use the same Netgear router for BT that I used with BE (the Netgear is slightly faster than the HH3), so nothing has changed my end, except for the ISP.

As I suspected, your poor upload is because of the upstream 448kbps, which is the normal for ADSL, not the ADSL2+ you think you are on.

I assume from your using that router on Be that it has a Broadcom chipset. We can establish ADSL/ADSL2/ADSL2+ definitively from the full stats. If you go to this page and scroll to the bottom, you will see my instructions for getting them .

It could also help if you tell us your exchange. The URL of what samknows says for your line would be ideal.

Info below. I'm happy with the DL speed - similar to the speed I had with BE. It's the upstream speed which seems very poor - about 30% of what I used to get with BE. Perhaps this is just the standard BT Broadband UL speed (which they don't seem to publicise). I always assumed I was was on ADSL2 based on the BT checker results below. Exchange is Exeter (WWEXTR). Not too worried though as I'm due to get FTTP in a few months - more curious why BT's UL speed is so much worse than BE's, and why they don't mention it.

Router info below:

Network Type PPPoA
Modem
ADSL Firmware Version A2pB023k.d20k_rc2
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 5152 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 448 kbps
VPI 0
VCI 38


BT checker results below:
Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 3Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 2Mbps and 5.5Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL2+ broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 3Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 2.5Mbps and 6.5Mbps.

That's not the stats I asked for . There is a fair chance your upstream can be made as good as the Be one was, but we need the stats as per the link I gave you to be sure. Then we will know what you have to tell BT support.

Here's some more data:

:# adslctl info --stats
adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 0
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 448 Kbps, Downstream rate = 5152 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 6.4 21.0
Attn(dB): 53.0 27.5
Pwr(dBm): 19.3 12.7
Max(Kbps): 5600 1100
Rate (Kbps): 5152 448
G.dmt framing
K: 162(0) 15
R: 8 16
S: 1 8
D: 32 4
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 162 15
M: 1 8
T: 1 1
R: 8 16
S: 1.0490 9.0000
L: 1304 128
D: 32 4

For reasons only known to BT Retail they only have you on their ADSL product, not the ADSL2+ service.

The exchange offers ADSL2+ via the 21CN WBC network, so not sure why ADSL only has been provided

Here's the whole report...



BusyBox v1.00 (2011.12.09-06:01+0000) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

# adslctl info --stats
adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 0
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 448 Kbps, Downstream rate = 5088 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 6.8 20.0
Attn(dB): 52.0 27.5
Pwr(dBm): 19.3 12.7
Max(Kbps): 5504 1068
Rate (Kbps): 5088 448
G.dmt framing
K: 160(0) 15
R: 8 16
S: 1 8
D: 32 4
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 160 15
M: 1 8
T: 1 1
R: 8 16
S: 1.0496 9.0000
L: 1288 128
D: 32 4
Counters
SF: 13569 13509
SFErr: 2 0
RS: 922722 114826
RSCorr: 25914 0
RSUnCorr: 2 0

HEC: 1 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 2768480 0
Data Cells: 140236 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 1 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 15 0
AS: 231

INP: 0.79 2.00
PER: 1.83 1.96
delay: 8.39 9.00
OR: 30.48 28.44

Bitswap: 0 0

Total time = 49710 days 6 hours 27 min 32 sec
SF = 13569
CRC = 2
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 1
Latest 1 day time = 49710 days 6 hours 27 min 32 sec
SF = 13569
CRC = 2
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 1
Latest 15 minutes time = 49710 days 6 hours 27 min 32 sec
SF = 13569
CRC = 2
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 1
Previous 15 minutes time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Showtime Drop Reason: 0
Last Retrain Reason: 0
#

As MrSaffron says. "Mode: G.DMT" is ADSL(1). That's what I wanted to see. You need to get onto them and find out why, and see if they will change it.

You might find they say it is because of the line length. That's rubbish, as you know from Be.

You want ADSL2+ by the way, not the ADSL2 you mentioned at the start.

G.DMT = ADSL.
G.992.3 = ADSL2.
G.992.5 = ADSL2+.

That explains it then. Thanks for your help - I'd never have guessed that. I'll get on to customer service now and see if I can get any sense out of them. Wish me luck..!

Ummm.

Change of mind. Your best is probably ADSL2, but I suggest you get them to give you ADSL2+ and then you tweak it down with your router.

Explaining to them why ADSL2 might be best would be very painful.

Unfortunately, as they have you on ADSL, you can't tweak up so far as I know.

Long and painful phone call to BT customer services got me nowhere. However quick posting on the BT Forum got me this reply the next day (a Sunday!)

**************

Thanks for your email. I've placed an order to migrate your line from ADSL to ADSL2+ this afternoon and it should complete within 48 hours. I've made sure to uncap the upstream speed as well so hopefully you get similar speeds once this order goes through as what you did with your previous provider.

The reason your line was placed on ADSL is because your downstream speed is incapable of going any higher than 8Mb; for lines estimated to support speeds higher than 8Mb they are automatically put on ADSL2+. Let me know when you see the changeover anyway and I'll close this case off as resolved if no other action has to be taken.

*************

So all fixed the next day. Upload speeds back up to 0.8Mbps. Any other BT customers with similar issues please use the BT forums as strangely it seems to give you a hot-line to people who know what you're on about and have the power to deal with these matters. Don't waste your time with the call centre in India unless you're bored/lonely. They're very polite, but there's only so many times you can re-boot your router/check your micro-filters etc without losing the will to live...

Well done .

Please can you post the line stats now?

New stats (Note I'm on ADSL2 rather than 2+, but as you suggest that may be a better option in may case. Either way my U/L speed is back to where it was and that's all I'm bothered about. D/L speed speed is much the same but more stable than before)

# adslctl info --stats
adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 8000
Channel: FAST, Upstream rate = 888 Kbps, Downstream rate = 5067 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: ADSL2
Channel: Fast
Trellis: U:ON /D:ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 5.3 4.7
Attn(dB): 51.0 27.0
Pwr(dBm): 0.0 13.0
Max(Kbps): 5868 836
Rate (Kbps): 5067 888
G.dmt framing
K: 159(0) 14
R: 12 16
S: 1 8
D: 32 8
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 59 10
B: 158 13
M: 1 8
T: 1 9
R: 12 16
S: 0.9978 4.0000
L: 1371 256
D: 32 8
Counters
SF: 4044056 846771
SFErr: 733 4294967264
RS: 262863670 1149025
RSCorr: 17295136 38
RSUnCorr: 7056 0

HEC: 625 4294967285
OCD: 1 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 783630195 1821495
Data Cells: 1088541 11424
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 433 0
SES: 1 0
UAS: 37 0
AS: 65574

INP: 1.12 2.00
PER: 16.21 18.00
delay: 7.98 8.00
OR: 32.07 7.11

Bitswap: 6926 1096

Total time = 18 hours 8 min 51 sec
SF = 4044056
CRC = 733
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 433
Latest 1 day time = 18 hours 8 min 51 sec
SF = 4044056
CRC = 733
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 433
Latest 15 minutes time = 8 min 51 sec
SF = 32785
CRC = 4
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 2
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 55425
CRC = 8
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 8
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
SF = 0
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 55549
CRC = 9
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 6
15 minutes interval [-45 min to -30 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 55549
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
15 minutes interval [-60 min to -45 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 55487
CRC = 24
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 13
Showtime Drop Reason: 8000
Last Retrain Reason: 8000

Looks OK .

Unfortunately it seems on BT Wholesale circuits interleaving caps the upstream at 888kbps for some reason. But when FTTC comes along you will be fine.