Plusnet Slow Speeds

[wizkid]

Hi,

I have recently joined Plusnet for FTTC broadband and in the evenings my throughput speeds can decrease to 30mbps download and 2mbps upload. Normally during the daytime I get speeds of 73mbps download and 16mbps upload. Plusnet sent an engineer round who completed tests on the line and said that the AC Line Balance was low at 53 but did not fail the test because it was not below 50. The engineer advised that he would normally suggest that this needs to be of around 60. I asked the engineer if this could be contributing to the issue in the evenings and he said that he thought that this would be unlikely. Having now done some research into the AC Line Balance it seems that this can indeed effect the stability of the line and speeds, I was wondering if anyone on here could advise what the typical AC Line balance should be for a good line?

Thanks for your help.

[phil4]

I can't help with your direct question but do wonder if there is a pattern to your speed drops? Time of the day would be one, weather would be the other.

If its time of day only you may be finding you've a congested exchange or under provisioned backhaul. In short while your connection to the exchange is 73Mb, your sharing the connection from the exchange with everyone else in the town/village. If that's not upto the game you may get slow downs in the evenings.

Likewise is this to specific sites, they may have the same issues, they'll typically only provide certain bandwidth which is spread thinner at busy times.

[wizkid]

I can't help with your direct question but do wonder if there is a pattern to your speed drops? Time of the day would be one, weather would be the other.

If its time of day only you may be finding you've a congested exchange or under provisioned backhaul. In short while your connection to the exchange is 73Mb, your sharing the connection from the exchange with everyone else in the town/village. If that's not upto the game you may get slow downs in the evenings.

Likewise is this to specific sites, they may have the same issues, they'll typically only provide certain bandwidth which is spread thinner at busy times.

Hi
Thanks for your response,

The issue normally happens from around 7pm until 11pm. My local exchange only went active a few weeks ago and FTTC is not fully rolled out yet throughout my town.

[abaxas]

How are you defining 'speed'?

Modem or speedtest?

[wizkid]

How are you defining 'speed'?

Modem or speedtest?

Speedtest, I cannot access the BT modem which controls the sync information / line stats due to the way the firmware has been programmed.

[phil4]

It sounds very much to me like either exchange or site issues. Even though they're still rolling out that doesn't mean they've provisioned enough backhaul.

[wizkid]

I agree I think it must be something at the exchange or cabinet. The engineer said that the line is syncing at 80 mbps down and 20mbps up. They said that the equipment that they use does not allow them to measure the throughput.

[abaxas]

I fail to see how 30/2 isnt within acceptable limits especially if you 'test' with speedtest.net.

[wizkid]

I fail to see how 30/2 isnt within acceptable limits especially if you 'test' with speedtest.net.

Surely it shouldn't be dropping that much though in the evenings? Its only started happening a few weeks ago. The ping also increases to around 180.

[abaxas]

Surely it shouldn't be dropping that much though in the evenings? Its only started happening a few weeks ago. The ping also increases to around 180.

Standard broadband issues, more people = more use.

[jim]

Surely it shouldn't be dropping that much though in the evenings? Its only started happening a few weeks ago. The ping also increases to around 180.

My internet drops in the evening to between 0.5 and 2, and a ping of 3000.

You don't know how lucky you are

[Dylan]

Same happened to me, it just ironed out though.