topic Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed in Archived Posts

Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

TreborMint — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 09:29:02 GMT

Hello There!

Does anyone have any advice for contacting ee in regards to my broadband speed being a long way off the minimum guaranteed? We commenced the service in our new rented home two weeks ago so have given plenty of time for everything to settle down but we are only getting between 18-20Mbps download against a minimum guarantee of 66.8Mpbs. Furthermore even now after the bedding in period the connection seems to drop / router restarts quite often.

Connection to the Smarthub is by ethernet, which is then in turn connected to the mastersocket. I think this is quite an old version, which has "ADSL v1.0" printed in the bottom right corner:

Next to this is a smaller socket just for the phone. There is no connection from the front of the master socket to this. There are a lot of other sockets for phones around the house which appear to be fed from a splitter that plugs into the front of this additional phone only socket. No devices are plugged into any of the sockets around the property apart from the Smarthub into the master socket.

Our Smarthub stats are:

Our speedtest is on this link: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1623140660394579255

The BT availability for our property is:

Whilst the £5 off per month for not meeting the guaranteed speed would be welcome I would much rather be getting a quicker and more reliable service. Before I contact Customer Services any advice as to how best for me to encourage ee to improve the speeds rather than just offering me the money off would be much appreciated!

Many thanks for your help!

Rob

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

TreborMint — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 09:34:24 GMT

Screengrab images now showing! 🙂

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

Mustrum — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 10:08:23 GMT

In the early days of FTTC Openreach would come out, install a filtered Master Socket and a modem. Alas that stopped a few years ago, and now they only do the master socket if a customer complains they are not getting the best speeds.

So were it me, check the phone line is quiet - dial 17070 option 2 from a corded phone. If quiet report low speeds, if noisy report that to CS.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

IT-4BusyPeople — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 10:29:34 GMT

That faceplate needs to be upgraded. You will need to call EE, as the performance is well outside of contract they will send out an engineer.

However, if you purchased via an EE high st. store, go back to the store as they can arrange the engineer and it shouldn't cost you (if you are deaf etc. there will be no charge - a few years back EE were very good about this and also managed the subsequent visits by other engineers to rectify a line fault).

But if you purchased online, call, just be nice and don't get put off by the potential no fault found charge.

just realised there is one other thing you can do: remove the faceplate. This should expose the bare external line socket. Using the VDSL/ADSL2 dongle that came with your router, plug this directly into the bare line socket. This might work, but only if the exchange/cabinet end of the line has had the higher speeds enabled.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

TreborMint — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:59:09 GMT

Thanks for the advice both! I don't have a corded phone so in the interim and before contacting ee I have gone into the back of the master socket. It looks like this:

Wires to socket that would connect directly to the Smarthub:

Wires to socket behind faceplate that needs the filter:

No real increase in speeds though 😞 - https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1623158620894115155

I did notice that the first socket in the house, that seems to be connected to the phone line outside, isn't a mastersocket:

This socket has a cable coming out from the bottom of it which looks like it feeds upstairs, so might be connected to the mastersocket I'm connected to, but I can't trace the cables all the way to be sure. Any thoughts as to whether this could be affecting the speed, and should I try the Smarthub connected to this socket via a filter? I thought you should always connect fibre directly via RJ11 into the mastersocket and not through a filter.

Really hoping I can improve these speed somehow! Thanks again for your help 🙂

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

pip11 — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:37:20 GMT

Connect to the test socket with a filter that the faceplate plugs into. A (cheap) corded phone is the best diagnostic tool you could have.

If you have no dial tone the internet could still work but at a lower speed. Noise on your line would also affect speeds but from your stats noise doesn't appear to be the problem.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

XRaySpeX — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:50:27 GMT

Your master socket is entirely suitable & is already filtered.

Locate the hidden test socket that is revealed when you remove the front of the faceplate (2 screws or press tabs) of your master socket.

Try the BT Quiet Line Test (QLT), dial 17070 Opt 2, preferably with a corded phone, in the test socket with the router disconnected. If there is any noise, report it to your landline provider as a voice fault (don't mention Broadband). Often sorting out voice faults will fix the Broadband as well.

Reboot the router & plug it into the test socket. Post the full router stats & System Uptime when plugged into test socket.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

TreborMint — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 17:17:00 GMT

Thanks - I'll get hold of a corded phone and try the quiet line test. Still a bit freaked out about this ADSL V1.0 plate being so far away from what looks like the first socket into the building but looking forward to seeing what shakes!

I do have one little issue with this course of action though - my ee service to the property is Fibre Plus Broadband without landline, as it was in my previous property (the chap just moved it over when I said I was moving). I don't have a landline provider and I don't know what the phone number here is. Who do I report any voice fault I might find to!?!

Thanks again everyone for your help, I really appreciate it.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

pip11 — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 17:40:22 GMT

You won't be able to do the quiet line test as you have no phone service. You'll have to ring C/S and organise an engineer.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

XRaySpeX — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 18:05:08 GMT

You could still show us the router stats from the test socket.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

TreborMint — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 20:40:05 GMT

Thanks again for your replies!

This afternoon I connected the Smarthub to the filter supplied with it and then plugged it into the test socket like this:

Stats I just pulled are:

and speed test results are here: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1623184590130371555

Still no improvement 😞

Any thoughts or final words of advice as to how to handle the call to customer service so I end up getting an engineer to attend FOC and get it all fettled up to the 60Mbps with the minimum of hassle?

Again - thank you for your help! 🙂

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

XRaySpeX — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 21:17:53 GMT

As you have no live phone extension sockets you might as well remove those wires on the back of the faceplate, tape them & bend them back. They could will act like aerials & inject noise into your line.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

IT-4BusyPeople — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 21:54:29 GMT

>Still no improvement

However, it looks like you have confirmed it is the line that is underperforming.

I suspect the line is still attached to the ADSL cabinet and hasn't been linked to the newer FTTC cabinet that Fibre Plus requires.

Call EE Customer Services, preferably at a time when you have a hour or so spare as they will want to look at the line data from their end and may ask you to repeat some connection tests whilst they are monitoring the line.

Can't guarantee you won't get charged, but don't see how from the evidence you've given here EE would charge you.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

XRaySpeX — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 22:11:26 GMT

@IT-4BusyPeople : Whilst 22.4 Meg downstream is just about possible for ADSL2+, 19 Meg upstream never is.

@TreborMint : To confirm you are on Fibre (FTTC), please post the Home / Status page's "Connection Type".

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

TreborMint — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 22:27:27 GMT

Thank you once again for the advice 🙏

Is this the info you mean? -

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

XRaySpeX — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 22:31:35 GMT

Yes, that confirms you are indeed on Fibre, not ADSL as @IT-4BusyPeople supposes.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

mikeliuk — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 23:21:04 GMT

Providing a reference that ADSL2+ upstream tops out at 3.3 Mbps.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_digital_subscriber_line

On the other hand, the upstream rate also rules out VDSL. And the numbers are pretty terrible for VDSL2.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDSL

Looks like there's a problem with at least the noise margin: https://help.keenetic.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015810899-VDSL-line-parameters

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

XRaySpeX — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 01:12:08 GMT

@TreborMint : Ignore that! There no problem with the NM. The standard target NM is 6 dB. Yours is just slightly above that. There is no value at all in that post. Somebody is foolishly believing every word they read on Google.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

mikeliuk — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 10:44:58 GMT

Agreed that it's within the parameters of a poor quality line. Edit: I believe the meaning of this is a little subtle, the cabinet is actually targeting 6 dB but in order to meet that, the link speed and measured bandwidths are poor. There are also references suggesting there is experimentation to target 3 dB instead for higher bandwidths (not applicable to this thread but may impact others).

The thing to watch for is whether there is much change during bad periods compared to good periods. It won't fluctuate as much as parameters for 4G mobile but I would be surprised if it doesn't change at all given the problems reported.

If all hardware, the physical link, and signal parameters check out, and the distance from the cabinet is considered, the only thing left would be a QoS cap erroneously applied to limit the bandwidth on the line (more likely on a switch-port somewhere).

The only hint of a QoS cap might be the suspicious evenness of the upstream vs downstream link and the VDSL2 max figures suggest downstream should be perhaps higher than the current difference.

Edit2: actually 7.7 dB noise margin down is even less of a concern (it may even settle to a possible lower target of 6 dB to give some increase in link speed and measured bandwidth down). Was reading the up number but there's probably less of a concern with upstream bandwidth performance.

Edit3: here's another example where the upstream link is something terrible: https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Broadband-home-phone/can-ee-do-a-DLM-remote-reset/td-p/788117

Edit4: I see one reference https://community.plus.net/t5/Library/FTTC-DLM-What-it-is-How-it-works/ba-p/1322799 that profile changes are made overnight so 7 hours is far too early to come to any conclusions at all, potentially observations need to be made over multiple days up to a week to understand what is going on. I don't think anyone will claim that the situation is optimal as compared to the guaranteed bandwidth.

Re: Broadband Speed Miles Off Minimum Guaranteed

XRaySpeX — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 10:56:26 GMT

@mikeliuk : Nonsense, there is no subtlety about it. it is plumb wrong.

"The higher the noise margin, the better the line quality.".

It is quite the opposite. The higher the noise margin, the more noise & errors have been detected on the line necessitating increasing the noise margin to accommodate the noise with the consequent lowering of the sync speed.

This is a margin not the Signal to Noise Ratio itself where it is true to say the higher the better & faster.