Delay in switching to fibre

[Bouleversee]

Having suffered for a long time from very slow speeds and dropouts with my Plusnet ADSL broadband service, some weeks ago I accepted Plusnet's quote to switch to fibre and also to transfer my line from BT to them, the main reason is that the BT anytime phone package doesn't include calls to mobiles which makes it rather pointless these days as I seem to be the only person who operates on a landline. I was told at that time that it would only take 7 days to switch the broadband and a few days more to switch the phone line. Later I was told that it could not happen till Jan. 31.

At 4.31 a.m. on Jan. 31 I received an email from Plusnet saying "Your broadband product change is now complete" so I plugged in the new router but didn't find anything had noticeably speeded up and speedchecks showed I was getting just under or just over 1 mb/s . So I phoned PlusNet (the usual interminable wait to speak to anyone) and was told they had done their bit and it was now up to Openreach to do the physical switch. I am still waiting and umpteen phone calls and online messages have produced no explanation for the delay, i.e. whether there is a technical problem or whether it is just due to a backlog. When I phoned this morning, the person I spoke to said she would speak to their provisioning team but after a long wait came back and said there was a 30 mins wait to speak to them so she would email them and call me back. I am still waiting. What appalling service. The maddening thing is that if I switch to any other provider, presumably it would still depend on an Openreach engineer doing the necessary. What is one supposed to do? No wonder I am not making much progress with all my probate stuff.

I am using a recently purchased HP laptop with windows 10 and slowly getting used to the differences between it and the old Toshiba. Like another poster, I found I couldn't open some of my files but with help have overcome that problem. There may be others, but till I get the fibre up and running, I don't know. For instance, it sometimes doesn't keep up with my typing, missing out the first few letters of a word or jumps back to a previous bit of the text.

I have just read Fred Bloggs post about his laptop problems and the ensuing thread and am feeling very depressed as it is all double Dutch to me. How on earth is one supposed to know all this stuff at the age of 80?

[jofc]

I can't help, but you may have made my decision much easier.

Like you I am on Plusnet ADSL.
I have been with them a long time & when I started with them, the connection was rock solid and reasonably fast.
In the past couple of years this has deteriorated significantly, This includes having an engineer round to check the line & 2 different routers
I was looking to switch to fibre for more speed (to cover extra bandwidth that having teenagers requires).

So now It looks like my best bet is to switch suppliers entirely.

[quelquod]

But in the main you'll still be reliant on Openreach to fit you in (there are a few exceptions admittedly) and speeds won't generally depend on the ISP.
Certainly though you'd avoid PlusNet's appalling Customer 'Service' by switching providers. I've been with them for a long time (since 1998) and since the BT takeover their CS has spiralled into the dust. Despite what that annoying Yorkshire git on the telly claims, they don't seem to do many people proud now.

[Bouleversee]

You are absolutely right, Quelquod. It does all come back to Openreach and I think you will find that it is their service which has deteriorated, causing PlusNet's to do likewise. (I do wish the predictive text wouldn't keep putting a capital N in PlusNet). If PlusNet's staff can't get a response from Openreach for many hours and then are told the next update from them will be in several days' time, it's not really PlusNet's fault, is it? I rang John Lewis Broadband today to try and find out what delays I might encounter if I switched to them but I recognised the music that played while I was waiting and sure enough the person I spoke to said they were PlusNet staff working on behalf of John Lewis because they operate the JL broadband/phone packages for JL, and admitted the service would be no better if one bought one from JL. I did get a phone call from the PlusNet lady just before 7 pm. Openreach say there is a routing issue as regards my switch to fibre, whatever that means; she didn't know either. Since my neighbours are all on fibre, I'm not inclined to believe that. My hunch is that Openreach doesn't have enough engineers to provide a decent service. One can, however, criticise PlusNet for saying that the switch was complete when it hadn't. I discovered, only by asking specifically, that the line switch is also "still processing". However, I do believe that it would have been the same whatever provider I had used.

Maybe things would have been better if Virgin was on offer here but it isn't. I have registered my interest! I think perhaps we should all be writing to our MPs to suggest that Openreach should indeed be sold off by BT and that there should be some competition in this field. OR is definitely not up to the job.

Jofc:

You don't happen to live near Chalfont St Giles, do you? My service has also deteriorated in the last couple of years and I was told it was because the exchange and box nearby were flooded in Nov. 2015. In your case, however, it could just be the extra demand put on it by the teenagers, not the case here, where noise on the line was proffered as one explanation.

[jofc]

No I don't live there.

I am near Guildford.

Of course if I lived in Guildford I would have the option of fibre to the door, but the cable TV company that originally laid that went bust years ago before it reached the surrounding towns/villages & its now run by Virgin.

[Wuzwine]

Hi,

I am with Plusnet and changed to fibre when it became available. Openreach visited 3 times and it still didn't work. Eventually the phone went as well. My neighbour then lost service and it eventually turned out that at least 12 houses lost all service for up to 18 days. I was off for 14 days and a neighbour who had health problems was the first to be fixed within about 7 days.
It took them ages as it turned out to be flooding and corrosion of the copper and aluminium wires to the box!

As the Fibre Box was about a mile away, I was surprised to get fibre in this fairly rural area. However we only get about 18mbs wheres those beside the box get 40mbs and if they paid more would get nearly 80mps! I hope the fibre box is near your house.

Although I have heard of people in urban areas having a box near their house, only to find they are connected to one miles awa! Didn't matter much in the dat when only voice calls used the lines.

Good luck,

Wuz

[Bouleversee]

Wuz:

OMG! If I had a gun, I'd go and shoot myself right now. Did you ever find out what the problem was? Looks like there's going to be a repeat performance here. I am in a rural area in Bucks and the cabinet is a mile from my house so copper cable for that bit even when on fibre. However, that's a much shorter distance than the exchange from where we get our ADSL where the box gets flooded and the service is worse when it rains. An engineer phoned this am to warn me that I might lose the line as he was about to sort out the problems at the cabinet, and then later to say that he had connected me and all should be OK now. However, Broadband Speedchecker tells me I am still getting 0.96 mb/s download. However, neighbours are on fibre and don't seem to have problems. I understand it can take some days for it to settle down after the switch; however, one would have thought there would have been an immediate uplift. We'll see what they say on Feb. 8 when they are due to do another update on my account, and how things are by then.

Fred Bloggs:

I wouldn't touch Talk Talk and anyway they all use the same cables/cabinets and rely on Openreach engineers so it would make no difference which provider. Virgin have their own cables etc. but don't operate here as yet.

[chas49]

When I moved to fibre (FTTC), the Openreach engineer installed a fibre modem which the new Plusnet router connects to. As I understand it, if you haven't had this done yet, you're still on ADSL.

[Bouleversee]

Chas 49 -

Nobody has mentioned a fibre modem to me. PlusNet told me all I needed to do was connect the new router and there is no reference to a fibre modem in the instructions to do so. Where is the modem located?

Fred Bloggs -

I'll have to give PlusNet a chance to sort this out before I consider another switch. I don't know anything about 4G and whether it would be an option here.

[Wuzwine]

Bouleversee,

Plusnet sent me the router the day before the OpenReach engineer arrived. He connected it up and change my connection at the green box. The new fibre green box is beside the non fibre one on a road but that's not always the case.

I then followed the instructions here

https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/rou ... up-guides/

I had the 582n but I believe they now give the Hub 1

It was great when it finally worked. I hope yours works from the day the engineer switches you over.

Wuz

[Bouleversee]

So no fibre modem that you had to get involved with, then. I have a Hub 1 router which is installed and has a blue light so presumably OK. The engineer is supposed to have done the necessary at the cabinet. However, it's still rather slow. This morning I had to have 3 attempts at clicking on one of the portfolios I have listed on Digitallook but I suppose that could have been a problem with their website. Maybe things will improve as time goes on.

[Slarti]

A sad, sorry tale. Alas, PlusNet, BT and Openreach are all the same company. As you have found, many other providers rely on BT infrastructure, ie Openreach.

Some of the big names that might be worth investigating are the likes of Sky, TalkTalk etc.... As they sometimes have their own hardware inside BT's exchanges. As far as I know, other than ringing and asking them, there is no way to find out easily what infrastructure the companies have.

I think that you'll find that LLU (operator's equipment in the exchange) only applies to ADSL.

With fibre to the cabinet or the the premises it will be Openreach kit.

I think that there are only 2 other providers and they are geographically limited. Virgin cable (be careful they also now offer normal connections on other areas) and the Kingston upon Hull company in their area where they are a monopoly provider.

Slarti

[Slarti]

Chas 49 -

Nobody has mentioned a fibre modem to me. PlusNet told me all I needed to do was connect the new router and there is no reference to a fibre modem in the instructions to do so. Where is the modem located?

I think that it does depend on the era of kit you have.

I have a fibre modem that links into the router, but the more modern routers have the modem built in.

Slarti

[Wuzwine]

Bouleversee,

I had a modem put in by Openreach and plugged in the router but the Hub 1 seems to be simplier and combine modem and router.

I would do a speedtest

http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/

If it doesn't report the speed they said you would get, ring the Plusnet helpline. I believe high speed is meant to be over 25mbs. However I had been warned it would be about 20Mbs. It is wired and a bit less wireless, currently 18.9Mbs. I hope they will eventually have a fibre cabinet nearer my house, but I am not holding my breath!

Wuz

[Bouleversee]

Wuz -

The BT speedcheck requires you to do all sorts of things first which I can't be bothered with (and I want to know what the speeds are when the antivirus etc. are not disabled) so I use Speedchecker, which is still saying 1.12 download, 1.76 upload and 384 ping, so even though I know it can take a while to settle down, it doesn't look as though the OR engineer has done the correction properly. I have told PlusNet but they are in the hands of OR who won't do an update till Feb 8. We'll see what they say then. I have, however, written to PlusNet's complaint dept.

[Wuzwine]

Bouleversee,

I only did all the BT speedtester requirements when there was real trouble.
I just make sure nobody online except me and run the test. It gets me within 95% of the wired figure which involves crawling into the loft! It then gives me a rough figure. I wouldn't use it if I was complaining but I am reasaonably content with the current speed. I hope all goes well on 8/2. One of my delays was caused by the Openreach engineer saying they had all been moved to a town with more people cut off. It was during a period of very gales and very wet weather!
Hopefull y the weather will stay benign in your area and you will report back here next Thursday with a speed report that will turn me green with envy.

Good luck,

Wuz

[ten0rman]

Hi Boulservee,

I'd like to offer the following as a possible explanation as to what may be happening. I could of course be totally wrong, but reading between the lines, this is what I think.

I'm actually using BT as my ISP which means that I have BT kit in the house. Nevertheless, a quick look at the Plusnet site suggests that there are two versions of Plusnet Fibre Broadband, one up to 38Mb & the other up to 76Mb. These speeds would correspond with the original BT Infinity 1 & BT Infinity 2 services hence I would suggest that the following applies:

Plusnet Fibre Broadband 38Mb = BT Infinity 1. In this instance, a specialized fibre router fitted by an engineer probably isn't necessary as your existing ADSL route may well be satisfactory as the high speed service will work over the copper lines to your local cabinet. I had the BT Homehub5 in my house working on (from memory) 6Mb ADSL. When I changed to Infinity 1, the same router worked satisfactorily at 39Mb. (But see below ***)

Plusnet Fibre Broadband 76Mb = BT Infinity 2. In this instance, Fibre is brought to the home, and a specialized router fitted by an engineer to give the 76Mb.

Now, in one of your postings you refer to the service working over copper wires. This suggests to me that you are getting the "up to 38Mb" service and therefore you may not need a specialized router and a visit from an engineer. It is of course possible that your existing router will not handle the 38Mb service and you will need a modern ADSL unit equivalent to the BT Homehub 5. Obviously I do not know if Plusnet use the same kit as BT, but as they are owned by BT I wouldn't be surprised if they do. If indeed you do need a replacement ADSL router, then this should be a straightforward plug in replacement.

Again in one of your posts you say that you have been told that there is a routing problem. I wonder if what they actually mean is that they have run out of spare access equipment in your local fibre box and that you will have to wait until either additional equipment is provided or a circuit becomes spare and available for re-use.

FWIW, and I discovered this through personal experience, it seems that the landline service (and hence ADSL service as well) still comes from the exchange whilst the fibre service is somehow connected into the line at the fibre box adjacent to the cabinet (possibly a series connection). What happened to me was that I lost landline service (technically it was an A wire disconnection), but my fibre service carried on working albeit slightly slower. This meant that I could report my fault via the internet, and the fault was repaired without a visit to my home.

*** Recently, BT upped the speed for Infinity 1 to upto 56Mb. I did check, and was certainly getting a higher speed - all without changing the Homehub.

Regards,

ten0rman

[pottager]

Unless there is a later VDSL equipped Homehub 5 available you need a VDSL modem too.

I think pretty much all ISPs now supply a combined router/VDSL modem.

[ten0rman]

Well now, this my second attempt to reply. I wonder where the first attempt went? Anyway...

I've checked my records and found that I took up Infinity 1 in August 2014 at the same time that I received a HomeHub 5 (HH5). On reading the User Guide for the HH5, it says that the user should replace their original router with the HH5 on receipt of an instruction from BT that transfer to Infinity 1 is taking place. There is thus an implication that HH5 does not work on ADSL broadband. So, I was wrong. My thanks to FredBloggs for his correction, and my apologies for that incorrect information.

Nevertheless, the remainder of my comments still apply in that it would seem that Boulservee is getting the "Upto 38Mb"/BT Infinity1 service in which case there will not necessarily be a home visit by an engineer, it being assumed that the customer is capable of replacing the old unit by a new one.

My comments were actually written with a view to attempting to clarify what was going on as there seemed to be a number different opinions about this.

I wonder though, does anyone know if the HH5 can indeed work on ADSL? Everything written so far has been to suggest that it is a VDSL only router. Maybe this should be a separate topic.

Once again, many thanks for correcting me,

ten0rman

[Bouleversee]

As previously stated, it will only be FTTC, after which there is about a mile of copper, but the speed should be 23-32 mbps which would be a huge improvement on plus or minus 1. I was given a new Hub router which I plugged in when they told me the product change was complete, though in fact the engineer had run into problems. A superior engineer is supposed to have fixed those but there is no improvement so either they are not fixed or there is a problem with the computer or the wireless connection. A cable from the computer goes straight into the router which is only a few inches from it and the openreach double socket but there are devices downstairs which need the wireless so that password was put in. It's a pity no engineer came to the house. No point in further speculation till we hear back from them on Feb. 8.