BT Broadband in UK - any help, please ?
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BT Broadband in UK - any help, please ?
Any help would be welcomed, please....
Came to stay with the Daughter in the UK for a couple of weeks but need Skype and stuff to keep in touch with business while I'm here....
Logged on to internet this morning, and speed was just 125kbps download and 330 kbps upload....Moaned at daughter, who replied that this is about the maximum she can get most of the time and explained the story to me....
She switched from Orange to BT Internet five months ago after max speed available from Orange was about 256kbps and Orange told her they could do nothing to improve as it was a problem only BT could fix as it is a BT landline....
BT website, when she input her number, stated ( and still does tonight !! ) that her line would support 2mbps, so she signed up for a package with unlimited download at 8mbps on a BT Line thinking that things would improve...
SInce then, the speed has rarely exceeded 256kbps, and she has been calling the BT Helpline on a regular basis to try to get the expected AND PAID TO BT FOR 2mbps using her PAID TO BT FOR landline....
The saga to date -
1 Router arrrived - connection and set up no problem, but speed was only 128kbps....Called BT Helpline, who said they would send an Engineer to test the router....
2 BT Engineer arrived to test the router - router was OK but still speed was varying between only 128kbps and 256kbps....It will need a couple of weeks for them to reprofile your line and for it to settle down, call the Helpline if there's no improvement
3 - One month later, no improvement so she recalled the BT Helpline and was told I will ask the exchange to reprofile your line - you should see an improvement in 10 days....If nothing, please call back.... One month later, still no improvement....
4 - Recalled the BT Helpline and was told You are probaly too far from the exchange....Three miles, true, but the neighbours are all getting at least 1mbps plus so she called the Helpline yet again....And when I checked tonight on one of the 'check your speed' sites, some of the neighbours are reporting 2mbps and even 5mbps....
5 - This time she was told that It is probably poor internal wiring in your house which is causing noise and reducing the speed....So she contacted the previous owner and was told that BT had wired the house four years ago....
6 - Back to the Helpline with the answer that the house had been wired by BT just four years ago..... Another I will ask the exchange to reprofile your line - you will see an improvement in 10 days....If nothing, please call back....30 days later, still no improvement....
7 - Yet another call, but this time a promise that a BT Engineer would come and check the internal wiring....The Engineer arrived and confirmed that The internal wiring is OK, and I've tested the line and its is capable of approx. 1.5mbps but that doesn't mean that's what they're sending down it....I'll tell the exchange to reprofile your line....It'll be about 10 days and everything should be better....
8 - Ten days later, the speed had increased to approx 700kbps, but after a week or so, started to fall to its now, once again, 125kbps download and 300kbps upload....
And at which point she has basically given up - beaten by her combined lack of knowledge of IT / Internet and UK Internet providors...
But as I need a reasonable connection for business when I come here, and this is my 5th visit this year, I've become involved in something which is not really my problem, but I'm just trying to get some ideas, please, as she's fairly new to the UK and to be honest I'm a bit of a technodinosaur myself and know absolutely nothing about Internet providors in the UK....We just think that her internet should be better than what she has at the moment - back home, I live in a small village of no more than 80 people, 10k's from the exchange, and have about 4mbps 90% of the time.....
What do they mean with the constant reference to reprofiling ? What is this, and how / why does it affect her speed ? And how would she know if her line really has been reprofiled other than if she suddenly does start getting her hoped for improvement ?
Does anyone with expert or specific internet knowledge have any idea what may be going wrong, please ? She seems to have tried all that BT are offering to check / repair, yet she's still paying them approx £30 / € 40 per month for roughly 5% of the speed they say she can receive....
As there is no alternative line supplier to BT ( small village, no cable service ) is she stuck with BT or can she order a new line from a different supplier ?
What should she do next - is anybody aware of who she can contact at BT other than the Indian based Helpline ? Anyone that she can write to ? Or an independent ombudsman ( ? ) or consumer complaints organisation, if all else fails ?
Thanks in Advance for all your replies....
Came to stay with the Daughter in the UK for a couple of weeks but need Skype and stuff to keep in touch with business while I'm here....
Logged on to internet this morning, and speed was just 125kbps download and 330 kbps upload....Moaned at daughter, who replied that this is about the maximum she can get most of the time and explained the story to me....
She switched from Orange to BT Internet five months ago after max speed available from Orange was about 256kbps and Orange told her they could do nothing to improve as it was a problem only BT could fix as it is a BT landline....
BT website, when she input her number, stated ( and still does tonight !! ) that her line would support 2mbps, so she signed up for a package with unlimited download at 8mbps on a BT Line thinking that things would improve...
SInce then, the speed has rarely exceeded 256kbps, and she has been calling the BT Helpline on a regular basis to try to get the expected AND PAID TO BT FOR 2mbps using her PAID TO BT FOR landline....
The saga to date -
1 Router arrrived - connection and set up no problem, but speed was only 128kbps....Called BT Helpline, who said they would send an Engineer to test the router....
2 BT Engineer arrived to test the router - router was OK but still speed was varying between only 128kbps and 256kbps....It will need a couple of weeks for them to reprofile your line and for it to settle down, call the Helpline if there's no improvement
3 - One month later, no improvement so she recalled the BT Helpline and was told I will ask the exchange to reprofile your line - you should see an improvement in 10 days....If nothing, please call back.... One month later, still no improvement....
4 - Recalled the BT Helpline and was told You are probaly too far from the exchange....Three miles, true, but the neighbours are all getting at least 1mbps plus so she called the Helpline yet again....And when I checked tonight on one of the 'check your speed' sites, some of the neighbours are reporting 2mbps and even 5mbps....
5 - This time she was told that It is probably poor internal wiring in your house which is causing noise and reducing the speed....So she contacted the previous owner and was told that BT had wired the house four years ago....
6 - Back to the Helpline with the answer that the house had been wired by BT just four years ago..... Another I will ask the exchange to reprofile your line - you will see an improvement in 10 days....If nothing, please call back....30 days later, still no improvement....
7 - Yet another call, but this time a promise that a BT Engineer would come and check the internal wiring....The Engineer arrived and confirmed that The internal wiring is OK, and I've tested the line and its is capable of approx. 1.5mbps but that doesn't mean that's what they're sending down it....I'll tell the exchange to reprofile your line....It'll be about 10 days and everything should be better....
8 - Ten days later, the speed had increased to approx 700kbps, but after a week or so, started to fall to its now, once again, 125kbps download and 300kbps upload....
And at which point she has basically given up - beaten by her combined lack of knowledge of IT / Internet and UK Internet providors...
But as I need a reasonable connection for business when I come here, and this is my 5th visit this year, I've become involved in something which is not really my problem, but I'm just trying to get some ideas, please, as she's fairly new to the UK and to be honest I'm a bit of a technodinosaur myself and know absolutely nothing about Internet providors in the UK....We just think that her internet should be better than what she has at the moment - back home, I live in a small village of no more than 80 people, 10k's from the exchange, and have about 4mbps 90% of the time.....
What do they mean with the constant reference to reprofiling ? What is this, and how / why does it affect her speed ? And how would she know if her line really has been reprofiled other than if she suddenly does start getting her hoped for improvement ?
Does anyone with expert or specific internet knowledge have any idea what may be going wrong, please ? She seems to have tried all that BT are offering to check / repair, yet she's still paying them approx £30 / € 40 per month for roughly 5% of the speed they say she can receive....
As there is no alternative line supplier to BT ( small village, no cable service ) is she stuck with BT or can she order a new line from a different supplier ?
What should she do next - is anybody aware of who she can contact at BT other than the Indian based Helpline ? Anyone that she can write to ? Or an independent ombudsman ( ? ) or consumer complaints organisation, if all else fails ?
Thanks in Advance for all your replies....
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I too once lived in a UK village approximately 5-6 miles from the main telephone exchange.
The connection to the village was was via copper cable (not fibre optic cable).
The main connection to the village is terminated at something called a CAB and it's from there that the connections to the houses are made.
I was originally subscribed to BT-Broadband with a Fixed Line Speed of 1/2Mb.
Back in June 2007, I got a sales call from BT inviting me to 'upgrade' my connection speed from a 1/2Mb to 2Mb, all for the same money as I was paying for my fixed 1/2Mb connection. It seemed like a bargain, so I told them to go ahead.
Well it worked well for a number of days, but then the speed started to drop off, i.e. drop off to considerably less than my original & rock-solid 1/2Mb connection. What happened next then took me 12 months to resolve (and it never was fully resolved) but, fwiw, here's my take on it:
What BT want to give you is a service that is 'reliable' 1st, and 'fast' 2nd.
So what they do is for the first 10 days, i.e. when the service / upgrade is first installed to your home, their system works out your 'maximum reliable line speed' and then caps your connection at that speed. They call this assessment of your maximum reliable line speed 'Profiling'.
In the main exchange, where the lines to / from your village are terminated, BT will be using a 'Rate Adaptive' router. It's this router that caps the speed at something which it thinks will provide you with a 'reliable' (first & foremost) Internet connection, regardless of the final speed that you actually achieve and / or regardless of what speed you think you've paid for! In short, your theoretical maximum line speed is electronically throttled back to provide a speed that BT think is more 'reliable'.
When BT tell you that they are re-profiling your line, what that means is that BT (electronically) instruct the Rate Adaptive router in the main exchange to start-over again, i.e. remove all caps on your line speed and then start stepping down the speed (based upon data packet loss) until a maximum reliable speed is determined and then to cap your connection at that speed. So, given that the noisy ole' copper wires between you and the main exchange have not been replaced, after a few days you end up back where you started, wrt a slow connection speed.
Well I did, as you probably have done too, spend hours getting the run-around on tech support calls with BT Broadband (Bangalore, talking to people whom were obviously Indian, yet purporting to have anglo-saxon names like Dave and such like, go figure ?!). Needless to say, they hadn't got a f'ing clue and are doing no more than reading from a script… and my problem was certainly outside of the scope of that script!
I was finally directed to a combination or BT Line Faults & BT Wholesale (UK based. Nb. It's BT Wholesale who manage & lease the lines to BT Broadband) which then resulted in numerous visits from BT field engineers - whose knowledge and experience evidently can vary - but wherein I eventually got lucky and was assigned a really top notch & tenacious chap to come and investigate the problem (nb. it would appear that BT field engineers actually don't work for BT wherein, even though they drive BT vans & wear BT uniforms, they are employed as 'contractors', this being all part of BT 'cost-cutting'… I digress).
I did eventually got someway towards a solution, wherein I suspect the fix BT put in place was to take me off of the 'Rate Adaptive' system and put me (back) on to a 'fixed rate' / 'fixed speed' ADSL connection… though I'd guess that (now 3 years on from that) BT are probably not supporting ADSL anymore (and that fibre-optic to the CAB is now the flavour of the month for rural locations) ?!
Perhaps the moral of the story is that I should have stayed with my original 1/2Mb ADSL connection and avoided 12 months worth of hassle and frustration, to say nought of hours wasted on the calls to BT tech support and the days waiting for visits from field engineers!
I would add that changing you service provider (ISP) might not make much difference - unless they have installed / use a separate cable to your village? - else wise you will simply end up being connected on the same cable as presently, inherent with all of the same problems!
What certainly helped my case was that I had run many (many!) speed tests on my own line and had kept the results; and you too can run your own speed tests using either (and I suggest both) web-based utilities:
http://SpeedTester.BT.com
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest
Keep the records of these tests, as you can then use them to spank BT with evidence that's hard for them to refute!
Having been through the mill with this myself, I can certainly empathise and sympathise with you… but please do stick with it!
Have you asked your village neighbours / local Parish Council if they are having the same problems and, if so, I suggest collectively lobbying BT to get them to install a 'fibre to the CAB' connection from the main exchange down to your village ASAP !
Albeit that they might have changed these, the various contact numbers I had for BT are as follows:
Technical Support Help Desk - 0800 111 45 67 x 1 x 2
Line Faults Dept - 0800 731 85 78 (only once a fault has been reported through the help desk)
BT Wholesale - 0808 100 9779
Broadband Tech Help Desk - 0870 240 4650 (and maybe also try - 0845 600 7030 x 1 x 1 x 3 )
Order Management - 0800 800 150
Broadband Customer Options Team - 0800 800 030
The connection to the village was was via copper cable (not fibre optic cable).
The main connection to the village is terminated at something called a CAB and it's from there that the connections to the houses are made.
I was originally subscribed to BT-Broadband with a Fixed Line Speed of 1/2Mb.
Back in June 2007, I got a sales call from BT inviting me to 'upgrade' my connection speed from a 1/2Mb to 2Mb, all for the same money as I was paying for my fixed 1/2Mb connection. It seemed like a bargain, so I told them to go ahead.
Well it worked well for a number of days, but then the speed started to drop off, i.e. drop off to considerably less than my original & rock-solid 1/2Mb connection. What happened next then took me 12 months to resolve (and it never was fully resolved) but, fwiw, here's my take on it:
What BT want to give you is a service that is 'reliable' 1st, and 'fast' 2nd.
So what they do is for the first 10 days, i.e. when the service / upgrade is first installed to your home, their system works out your 'maximum reliable line speed' and then caps your connection at that speed. They call this assessment of your maximum reliable line speed 'Profiling'.
In the main exchange, where the lines to / from your village are terminated, BT will be using a 'Rate Adaptive' router. It's this router that caps the speed at something which it thinks will provide you with a 'reliable' (first & foremost) Internet connection, regardless of the final speed that you actually achieve and / or regardless of what speed you think you've paid for! In short, your theoretical maximum line speed is electronically throttled back to provide a speed that BT think is more 'reliable'.
When BT tell you that they are re-profiling your line, what that means is that BT (electronically) instruct the Rate Adaptive router in the main exchange to start-over again, i.e. remove all caps on your line speed and then start stepping down the speed (based upon data packet loss) until a maximum reliable speed is determined and then to cap your connection at that speed. So, given that the noisy ole' copper wires between you and the main exchange have not been replaced, after a few days you end up back where you started, wrt a slow connection speed.
Well I did, as you probably have done too, spend hours getting the run-around on tech support calls with BT Broadband (Bangalore, talking to people whom were obviously Indian, yet purporting to have anglo-saxon names like Dave and such like, go figure ?!). Needless to say, they hadn't got a f'ing clue and are doing no more than reading from a script… and my problem was certainly outside of the scope of that script!
I was finally directed to a combination or BT Line Faults & BT Wholesale (UK based. Nb. It's BT Wholesale who manage & lease the lines to BT Broadband) which then resulted in numerous visits from BT field engineers - whose knowledge and experience evidently can vary - but wherein I eventually got lucky and was assigned a really top notch & tenacious chap to come and investigate the problem (nb. it would appear that BT field engineers actually don't work for BT wherein, even though they drive BT vans & wear BT uniforms, they are employed as 'contractors', this being all part of BT 'cost-cutting'… I digress).
I did eventually got someway towards a solution, wherein I suspect the fix BT put in place was to take me off of the 'Rate Adaptive' system and put me (back) on to a 'fixed rate' / 'fixed speed' ADSL connection… though I'd guess that (now 3 years on from that) BT are probably not supporting ADSL anymore (and that fibre-optic to the CAB is now the flavour of the month for rural locations) ?!
Perhaps the moral of the story is that I should have stayed with my original 1/2Mb ADSL connection and avoided 12 months worth of hassle and frustration, to say nought of hours wasted on the calls to BT tech support and the days waiting for visits from field engineers!
I would add that changing you service provider (ISP) might not make much difference - unless they have installed / use a separate cable to your village? - else wise you will simply end up being connected on the same cable as presently, inherent with all of the same problems!
What certainly helped my case was that I had run many (many!) speed tests on my own line and had kept the results; and you too can run your own speed tests using either (and I suggest both) web-based utilities:
http://SpeedTester.BT.com
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest
Keep the records of these tests, as you can then use them to spank BT with evidence that's hard for them to refute!
Having been through the mill with this myself, I can certainly empathise and sympathise with you… but please do stick with it!
Have you asked your village neighbours / local Parish Council if they are having the same problems and, if so, I suggest collectively lobbying BT to get them to install a 'fibre to the CAB' connection from the main exchange down to your village ASAP !
Albeit that they might have changed these, the various contact numbers I had for BT are as follows:
Technical Support Help Desk - 0800 111 45 67 x 1 x 2
Line Faults Dept - 0800 731 85 78 (only once a fault has been reported through the help desk)
BT Wholesale - 0808 100 9779
Broadband Tech Help Desk - 0870 240 4650 (and maybe also try - 0845 600 7030 x 1 x 1 x 3 )
Order Management - 0800 800 150
Broadband Customer Options Team - 0800 800 030
Last edited by Old King Coal; 18th Oct 2011 at 06:59.
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Hussar 54,
In brief.
4.8km .... not a very pleasant distance in terms of chance of getting good ADSL coverage. Might be longer depending on how your copper is routed. You definitely should not expect 2Mb at that distance.
With my help, I got someone at 5.6km up to 512Kbps .... but it wasn't easy and a fair amount of pure good luck helped.
For starters, try to get yourself referred to the "Long Line Team" at BT. Their engineers are a bit more competent than the normal cable monkeys.
Secondly, try to get them to manually cap your line speed (i.e. disabling the auto rate-adaptive gubbins).
(But given that you've signed up with the worst possible ADSL ISP (BT Broadband), the chances of you being able to do 1) or 2) on your own is probably non existent, and hence you will probably need to escalate your fault in order to see some action....see below.....)
Finally, in terms of getting your fault escalated. Given that you've signed a contract with BT Retail for provision of DSL, your best bet is the CEO's office.
Satellite. Look at Tooway or similar.
Not much point "lobbying" BT unless you can show them a true commercial business case for spending a lot of money getting fibre to you (i.e. you would need to show firm commitments in writing from residents that they would sign up ... and you will need to have a sufficient number of residents to make it commercially viable.... otherwise you'll just have to wait your turn).
In brief.
Three miles
With my help, I got someone at 5.6km up to 512Kbps .... but it wasn't easy and a fair amount of pure good luck helped.
For starters, try to get yourself referred to the "Long Line Team" at BT. Their engineers are a bit more competent than the normal cable monkeys.
Secondly, try to get them to manually cap your line speed (i.e. disabling the auto rate-adaptive gubbins).
(But given that you've signed up with the worst possible ADSL ISP (BT Broadband), the chances of you being able to do 1) or 2) on your own is probably non existent, and hence you will probably need to escalate your fault in order to see some action....see below.....)
Finally, in terms of getting your fault escalated. Given that you've signed a contract with BT Retail for provision of DSL, your best bet is the CEO's office.
As there is no alternative line supplier to BT ( small village, no cable service ) is she stuck with BT or can she order a new line from a different supplier ?
I suggest collectively lobbying BT to get them to install a 'fibre to the CAB' connection from the main exchange down to your village ASAP
Last edited by mixture; 18th Oct 2011 at 07:49.
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I normally get around 7.5Mb/s from BT, there was a period when it started going down to 1.5 at night, rang the help line and an engineer appeared next day checked everything through but found nothing wrong, xo he installed a broadband skt in place of the old one but said it;s unlikely to make any difference but I have to do it. The problem remained so I rang again and the same Eng arrived and said try that, I've put you on a different rack at the exchange, been perfect ever since.
I know Mixture hates them but I've never had any serious problems with them.
I know Mixture hates them but I've never had any serious problems with them.
There are two ways around this.
Whichever way you go, You must run the speed tests regularly, and keep a record of the results. (speedtester bt.com)
1. Formal written letter (not e-mail) to CEO, copied to the Chair of the Remuneration cttee. and the Chair of the Audit cttee. All names available on their website under Corporate Governance.. That - hopefully - gets the issue referred to the good guys in the bosses problem solving part of BT. They assign a case manager who stays with the problem all the way thru to resolution.
2. Find a friend of yours who works for BT. BT employees can refer cases to a special unit. Again, they assign a case handler.
If BT cannot improve your speed you'll find out via one of those routes.
NB. Whilst BT maintain that they cannot increase speed in many cases, their Chairman lived in an out of the way (but smart) village miles from the Exchange. Once he complained, surprise, surprise, his little village had a miraculous speed increase.
Whichever way you go, You must run the speed tests regularly, and keep a record of the results. (speedtester bt.com)
1. Formal written letter (not e-mail) to CEO, copied to the Chair of the Remuneration cttee. and the Chair of the Audit cttee. All names available on their website under Corporate Governance.. That - hopefully - gets the issue referred to the good guys in the bosses problem solving part of BT. They assign a case manager who stays with the problem all the way thru to resolution.
2. Find a friend of yours who works for BT. BT employees can refer cases to a special unit. Again, they assign a case handler.
If BT cannot improve your speed you'll find out via one of those routes.
NB. Whilst BT maintain that they cannot increase speed in many cases, their Chairman lived in an out of the way (but smart) village miles from the Exchange. Once he complained, surprise, surprise, his little village had a miraculous speed increase.
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2. Find a friend of yours who works for BT. BT employees can refer cases to a special unit. Again, they assign a case handler.
Unless said friend sits on the board, progress is still going to be fairly slow.
I would say push the board level route for escalation. If you happen to own some BT shares (no matter how few), don't forget to mention that in your letter!
Don't forget to keep your letter polite, short and to the point. Making sure you include all relevant reference numbers and account numbers clearly at the top of the letter before you start ranting (ahem,sorry, writing
), because some poor soul is going to be tasked with looking up your contact log on the CRM and other internal platforms.It should be noted though that I wouldn't encourage regular use of board escalations, it is somewhat a last resort thing !
P.S. I certainly wouldn't suggest this letter as a letter template !
Maybe write 2 letters. 1 says what you really feel. Do not post it.
the second is the humble one, but with as amany hard facts as you can assemble.
Once you have a case handler, be as nice as you possibly can to her/him. they are your way in.
A p.s. about "different racks at the exchange". When my BB with BT was giving me grief, I think I was put on 4 different racks. (Or was told that I had been). None of them made the tiniest bit of difference).
the second is the humble one, but with as amany hard facts as you can assemble.
Once you have a case handler, be as nice as you possibly can to her/him. they are your way in.
A p.s. about "different racks at the exchange". When my BB with BT was giving me grief, I think I was put on 4 different racks. (Or was told that I had been). None of them made the tiniest bit of difference).
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Maybe write 2 letters. 1 says what you really feel. Do not post it.
the second is the humble one, but with as amany hard facts as you can assemble.
the second is the humble one, but with as amany hard facts as you can assemble.
It's easy to get so embroiled in your personal situation that it's not difficult to write a long rambling letter that doesn't really say anything.
If you have a known weakness with writing letters, perhaps also, if you can, show the letter to someone who knows absolutely no background to your situation (friend/relative whoever). See if they can understand just from one reading (giving them a time limit of, say 5 or 10 minutes) whether they can get a good understanding of what the problem is, and what has been tried before.
Oh, and don't forget to send it recorded delivery. BT get somewhere in the region of 800,000 letters per year, so recorded will at least (hopefully) get you somewhere higher up the pile in the mailroom !
The less work your case handler has to do to figure out what the problem is, and to get an idea of which departments he/she needs to speak to first, the better.
Once you have a case handler, be as nice as you possibly can to her/him. they are your way in.
Particularly as a private individual, where your value to BT in a pure business sense (i.e. revenue) is largely irrelevant. Same goes for the fact that you're out in the sticks, where BT has no competition, you know that, and BT definitely know that !
So yes, grit your teeth.
And offer the BT engineer tea/coffee and cakes when he arrives, it works wonders.
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I'm with BT and am about 3 miles from the exchange. I get 2-3MBs on an estimated 2MB line whilst some of my neighbours were getting less than 1. We all shared the same line to the local telegraph pole which then split 6 ways to each of our houses. For some reason my supply cable is a newer fatter screened twisted pair of 22AWG. The neighbours wires were older and narrower (24 or 26AWG)......prime candidates for a poor line speed. Fortunately it was an easy fix to replace the supply into their properties from the telegraph pole.
I'd always suggets looking at that as a suggestion.
I'd always suggets looking at that as a suggestion.
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Formal written letter (not e-mail) to CEO
Give it a try.
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3 things:
1) Listen to Mixture - he knows what he's talking about
2) ....apart from "the worst ADSL ISP", BT are lightyears ahead of TalkTalk/Tiscali.
3) Your line will only ever support as a maximum of what the modem syncs at. No amount of speed test websites will be of use if the sync rate is low. If this is the case, your best bet to influence this is to unscrew the master socket and connect the router into the maintenance port (behind the faceplate). If this shows a significant increase in sync speed, you have problems in your internal home wiring.
If, however, you have a higher sync speed and a very slow speedtester.bt.com result, check the output for a profile rate - as it's this which next influences the throughput from the ISP's end, and it's this which the BT callcentre were talking about a stuck profile (as the profile automatically sets itself to the fastest your line can support, by gradually increasing throughput on new lines until it falls over, and then backing off a bit....which is why ADSL ISPs tell you not to turn off a new install for the first 10 days at least, and it's also why you may notice periodic outages during that time).
HTH.
Mike.
1) Listen to Mixture - he knows what he's talking about
2) ....apart from "the worst ADSL ISP", BT are lightyears ahead of TalkTalk/Tiscali.
3) Your line will only ever support as a maximum of what the modem syncs at. No amount of speed test websites will be of use if the sync rate is low. If this is the case, your best bet to influence this is to unscrew the master socket and connect the router into the maintenance port (behind the faceplate). If this shows a significant increase in sync speed, you have problems in your internal home wiring.
If, however, you have a higher sync speed and a very slow speedtester.bt.com result, check the output for a profile rate - as it's this which next influences the throughput from the ISP's end, and it's this which the BT callcentre were talking about a stuck profile (as the profile automatically sets itself to the fastest your line can support, by gradually increasing throughput on new lines until it falls over, and then backing off a bit....which is why ADSL ISPs tell you not to turn off a new install for the first 10 days at least, and it's also why you may notice periodic outages during that time).
HTH.
Mike.
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2) ....apart from "the worst ADSL ISP", BT are lightyears ahead of TalkTalk/Tiscali.
The problem with BT is that digital circuits (Megastream etc.) are a nice little earner for them. So it could be said that it's not particularly in their interests to develop competitive products at a lower price point (or at least the imposition of technical/commercial limitations).
The other problem with BT is the size and complexity of their organisation.
I'm a little dubious of TalkTalk, they do have their place (just as BT have theirs), but there are better LLU providers out there.
Controversial, moi?
2) ....apart from "the worst ADSL ISP", BT are lightyears ahead of TalkTalk/Tiscali.
A disaster of epic proportions from day 1 and truly impossible to even get through to tech. support in under 45 minutes. When my up to 8Mbps dropped to a consistent 0.2 Mbps and after 2 months of getting nowhere I turned to BT Infinity. Installed on the day they said and been brilliant ever since (10 months).
From reading the OP's problem it is highly likely that the long distance wiring from exchange to house is a likely suspect. Very frustrating.
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Anyhow, my issue with TalkTalk/Tiscali aren't limited to the quality of their network. That's only part of the issue with a service provider as i'm sure you're well aware (and M. Mouse appears to be as well!).
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Driven mainly by Infinity fibre rollouts, they're one of the least latencied connections going so far.
However, if you look at other aspects of ISP operations, such as Customer Service, dealing with BT's far-east callcentres is like pulling your hair out, in comparison to dealing with ISPs who have reasonably on the ball people sitting in the UK.
Also, you have to remember it's early days for Infinity. Will be equally interesting to see how things look once the legacy DSL customer base has eventually migrated over, and the old contention etc. kicks in.
As the old saying goes.... I'm reserving judgement.
More bang for your buck
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I think the problems with their call centre is that they are geared up to talk the average user who has no real computer or engineering skills, as soon as you try to tell them whats wrong they just get totally confused. I had this problem over my 'evening slowdown problem', all I got is "I'll get someone to check the line" 
Eventually they put me through to someone in the UK who understood perfectly why it was unlikely to be the line but they'd do a full optimisation on that first and put a monitor on the line as well, a week after the house skt update I rang the guy who said they'd looked at the monitor that morning, agreed that there was a problem and blamed the rack in the exchange. They connected me to a different one and the problem was solved.
They really need an 'experts' call centre
Eventually they put me through to someone in the UK who understood perfectly why it was unlikely to be the line but they'd do a full optimisation on that first and put a monitor on the line as well, a week after the house skt update I rang the guy who said they'd looked at the monitor that morning, agreed that there was a problem and blamed the rack in the exchange. They connected me to a different one and the problem was solved.They really need an 'experts' call centre
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The very un-British BT
I have followed the complaints procedure as stated on the bt website. I have just received my 'deadlock' letter. Now time for the ombudsman comms. I moved into my new build 4 months ago and arranged my home move and was instructed to pay £130 for a new line to be installed and get my line and broadband activated. Never had a problem in paying as we always new we would have to. However after 2 months of delay in getting the line installed, Not all BT's fault admittedly, it was a building site for the first 4 weeks, I kept on having Indians call me telling me it would all be fixed in 7 days. After weeks of this it was I who had to act as the go between for the builders and BT. Finally had a date set and hey presto all sorted. So I thought. Broadband profiled and set at 6 meg. Only 1.5 miles from exchange and all looking good. However the silly Indian call centre called and said they would have my line up and running in 7days again. I told them it already was. They said that was rubbish. Asked them to test the line and hey presto, I'm speaking to Rajesh who is sounding most baffled. He then tells me it's impossible and clearly I must have switched suppliers and could not possibly be a BT customer???
After his 7 day appointment expired the phone line went dead but broadband remained. I have spent 3 weeks trying to get the line deactivated. I had a confirmed number from BT and everything. The cheeky Indian sods even tried to book an appointment for a new line to be intalled(why do I need 2?) and charge me another £130!!! To add to this they refuse to acknowledge me as a BT customer and when I ask why I have BT broadband they tell me I'm telling them lies!!! When giving them my bill and account info they just hang up.
I'm £165 in credit and want it back! And a phone line but BT just won't budge. Sadly for them I'm a real sod and won't be bullied or back down. The sage continues.......................goodness gracious me
After his 7 day appointment expired the phone line went dead but broadband remained. I have spent 3 weeks trying to get the line deactivated. I had a confirmed number from BT and everything. The cheeky Indian sods even tried to book an appointment for a new line to be intalled(why do I need 2?) and charge me another £130!!! To add to this they refuse to acknowledge me as a BT customer and when I ask why I have BT broadband they tell me I'm telling them lies!!! When giving them my bill and account info they just hang up.
I'm £165 in credit and want it back! And a phone line but BT just won't budge. Sadly for them I'm a real sod and won't be bullied or back down. The sage continues.......................goodness gracious me
Last edited by BUGS/BEARINGS/BOXES; 19th Oct 2011 at 13:41. Reason: BT from mobiles call 03301234150
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I think the problems with their call centre is that they are geared up to talk the average user who has no real computer or engineering skills, as soon as you try to tell them whats wrong they just get totally confused.
They really need an 'experts' call centre
In the industry it's referred to as technical support "levels", and this is generally three levels deep.
Thus...unfortunate punter calls up "level 1" and talks to a script reading monkey.
The idea is that when monkey gets confused, it can run over to its handler on the "level 2" desk and ask for a second opinion.
If "level 2" concurs with "level 1" that it's something that needs more investigation, the issue is then escalated up to "level 3", which is where the wizards who actually have the power to fix stuff live.
Now, in terms of communications etiquette, it generally goes something along the following :
- Level 3 wizards are generally too self-important to ever speak to any mere mortal in the world outside of their employer. Thus all communications to L3 is via L2, and thus via L1 for your average Joe.
- Experts/"Partners" etc., can generally get hold of a direct line to the L2 desk, and thus bypass L1. This is the case with most ISPs I've had the opportunity to deal with, apart from BT Retail (well, it varies a little depending which BT Retail product) . And it generally works well, because the L2 desk is generally staffed by people who've "been around" and thus doesn't take much to demonstrate the existence of an issue. L1 on the other hand suffers from a high attrition rate, and hence they all sound like newbies reading off a script, because they are !
If you get a co-operative monkey on L1 (rare !), you can be direct and try to ask to be put through to level 2. If they pretend not to know what level 2 is, you can also try the alternative terminology of wanting to "escalate the call".
However, the problem with BT and the far-east, is that they (allegedly) penalise the L1 monkeys if they escalate a call back to the UK (home of L2/L3 desks). Hence you get the vicious circle where it's difficult to bypass the un-necessary script lip-service.
As a business customer, you can generally try to leverage your BT Retail Account manager to poke a few people if you're really suffering, particularly if you're managed by the internal corporate team rather than "local business" SME sales droids.
As a residential customer .... well, either persevere, or scribble a missive to the CEO's office if you've had enough.
Last edited by mixture; 19th Oct 2011 at 14:26.