Does BT install a Filtered FacePlate in 2017 for FTTC

[Zak33]

Lo people

Few years back the UK started to move to FTTC, spreading across the country (not as far as some would like it has to be said).

I was with Zen, paid the dough, got a Modem in the post, BT Engineer arrived, put a new Master socket on my wall, with a filter plate, and it all worked through my Draytek via the modem. Sweet.

/time passes.....

BT line went live this week in new house, phone Zen to book FTTC (instant answer as ever, knowledgeable dude as ever) and so I started on the wrong foot entirely with....
"I've got the Modem , I've got an Asus RT-AC66U, I know the previous owner had FTTC... why is the house full of microfilters?"

Turns out I won't be getting a new face plate (or at least highly unlikely unless go live fails)
Was offered two deals - free migration from my old address to the new... or pay £55 activation and get a free Fritzbox 3490 with built in modem

I'll have that, new Asus router or not.

Byt why are BT back to using Microfilters again? I thought that was all gone?

Can I get /is it worth getting a filtered master socket front plate?

[scaryjim]

It's not BT per se, it's Openreach. They switched to no-engineer FTTC installs about 2 years ago, which confused the heck out of me when we moved house 18 months ago

Basically it's down to not having to send an engineer out to do the fitting, which, to be fair, is more convenient for the customer. Presumably the concept is that the kit in the cabinet/exchange and modern microfilters are good enough to support the higher speeds of FTTC nowadays.

We've certainly had no major issues with speeds, although the connection is occasionally a little flaky - I suspect that's down to being a somewhat rural community though.

[spacein_vader]

It's not BT per se, it's Openreach. They switched to no-engineer FTTC installs about 2 years ago, which confused the heck out of me when we moved house 18 months ago

Basically it's down to not having to send an engineer out to do the fitting, which, to be fair, is more convenient for the customer. Presumably the concept is that the kit in the cabinet/exchange and modern microfilters are good enough to support the higher speeds of FTTC nowadays.

We've certainly had no major issues with speeds, although the connection is occasionally a little flaky - I suspect that's down to being a somewhat rural community though.

You can still buy BT faceplate though. Pretty certain broadband buyer sell them and I'd imagine others too. Less than £10 if I recall correctly.

[Zak33]

You can still buy BT faceplate though. Pretty certain broadband buyer sell them and I'd imagine others too. Less than £10 if I recall correctly.

think I should get one?

[DanceswithUnix]

think I should get one?

What line rates are you getting?

I would expect you to get a faster and more reliable signal with the faceplate, which is true for adsl as well as vdsl. It means you must have the modem at the master socket which can be awkward in some houses, but it gets rid of all the microfilters around the house which is a plus.

I would err towards "yes get one" given the low cost, but then I would be keen for every bit of performance out of the connection.

[peterb]

Before you get one, just ensure the ‘bell’ wire is disconnected. The master socket breaks out the ring signal for older low impedance bells. Most ringers are now electronic and don’t need a separate ring signal. BT used to fit an Iplate that went between the base of the master socket and the top plate. This added a extra filtering to support the use of the bell wire.

The filtering on an ADSL/VDSL plate is to filter the baseband telephony side from the *dsk signal. If you don’t have a telephone connected, you don’t really need a filter at all.

For reference, the main signal pair are connected to terminals 2 and 5 - the bell wire goes to terminal 1 and is generally coloured green, although that standard isn’t universal!

[Zak33]

oooh I should have explained some stuff , my bad sorry.

Connection when activated was very disppaointing...30mbs down and up was 12mb. Zen had anticipated 50 to 55down and normally they're spot on.

I left it untouched for 3 days and it snuck up to 34 in 24 hours but topped out there.

So I started tracking phone cables through the house. Man there was a LOT...

so face place off, and not only did it still have the bell wire but it had a lot of other extensions. Bearing in mind I use a wireless phone I only need one trumpet plugged in, the rest connect wireless, so I plugged into the mastersocket for a 24 hour perid to gibve the BT system a chance to see the true speed and it was up to over 50mb/s instantly.

This is all with the ADSL dongle dangling.

So... Faceplate worthy?

Any good brands?

[DanceswithUnix]

Faceplate, 100%

Not bought one for years so can't recommend a vendor.

Basically, the wiring from your exchange to the house is twisted pair. The extensions around the house probably aren't twisted and likely have iffy connections, so you are introducing loads of loss and interference from that wiring.

A faceplate will isolate the extension wiring so it all becomes low frequency voice only and the vdsl signal stops at the faceplate.