BT Full Fibre 900 Broadband issues with low speeds

[Apone]

Hi

Hoping someone can help with my issue.

Background - Have had BT Full Fibre for a good while and I was happy with my speeds, so I renewed my contract. My Netflix app (via hard wired Nvidea Sheild) was showing consistent connection speeds of over 800mbps. Sometimes going as far as 900+mbps.

In March of this year (maybe April I cannot remember), I renewed my BT contract and now wish I hadn't because I am now receiving on average 500mbps via the same gear. Nothing in my system has changed - at all.

So it seems that my speeds have dropped ever since I renewed my contract with BT?!. Nothing in my house has changed and everything is the same as it was when I was getting well over 800mbps and now I get just over half that speeds with Netflix.

But it gets weirder folks - running a BT Wholesale speed test on my hard wired PC gives me a download speed of under 90mbps (yes, you read that right - 90mbps..... and sometimes I get a result of 50mbps) with upload speed of 130mbps. Same hard wired PC would (before I renewed my contract) show download speeds of over 750 mbps....

BT sent me a new Smart Hub 2 - same issues.
BT sent a BT Cube engineer to my house - he confirmed the speeds are low and that this could be a problem with their servers. He updated records and left.
BT agent on the phone tested my speed remotely and confirmed I am not getting the minimum stay fast guarantee (750mbps download I think) and said to monitor the situation for a few days and will call back.

I am disappointed that after renewing my contract with BT (for 24 months) I am going to be stuck with paying for full fibre 900 and am now getting speeds much much lower than what I was previously.

Any ideas folks? Has anyone else had similar issues with BT?

I really want to cancel, but will get wacked with charges if I leave early but I am going to give BT time to solve the issue as the complaint is still open with them. If they say that the speeds to the property 'are fine' what can I do? As clearly their own web site is showing me speed tests of less than 100mbps?

 

[neilball]

They’ve already agreed you are not getting the minimum guaranteed service so you should expect some degree of compensation while you await the fix, and if this is not sorted in a reasonable time frame then you can leave without penalty.

So for now you should keep pushing for ann update on the next stage of fault-finding along with timescales so you can keep an eye on progress before making any further decisions about whether to stick with them.

 

[mickevh]

I've been through this misery with a relative a couple of times - it can take months/years to resolve.

Firstly, check your contract - a lot of ISP's are now writing contracts with some level of minimum speed specified, so if they are not fulfilling it, it's up to them to sort it and/or provide some alternative whilst they do (my relative got given a free mobile phone Mi-Fi in the interim.)

Line faults are, unfortunately, just a fact of life. It can sometimes take some time and many engineers visits to iteratively change everything in the signal pathway until the faulty component is finally discovered and eliminated.

There's no reason to believe changing to "a different ISP" will be some magic cure: It's still the same physical line coming into your home - it will be just as faulty if you buy service from a different ISP.

There's nothing for it but to keep badgering the service provider until they have sorted it.

I suggest you monitor your router every day and keep a diary of the current "speed" and how long the "up time" is. There's little the service provider can do to BS their way out of it if you have hard evidence in hand that they cannot dispute. BT HomeHubs, and some other routers, have a page that show the current "speed" and "up time." Use this rather than "speed tests" - the router stats are real hard data, not the inferred "wet finger" measures of a "speed test" (even BT's one.)

Also, ensure you know your "bits" from your "bytes" - data networking equipment tends to report in "bits" per second (little "b",) but other applications tend to report "bytes" per second (big "B,") so don't confund the two.

 

[captain morgan]

While I suspect you are quite some way from moving away from BT & it does sound like they have the issue in hand it might be worth remembering Andrews & Arnold.

They willingly take on problem lines and work open reach very hard in resolving issues, to the extent there is info on there site about waving fees if they cannot resolve the issues. Of course as you would expect this level of service comes with an associated cost but if you can’t get the issue resolved any other way it might become your only option.

 

[snadge]

the issue is the setup to customers, to get a real Gigabit line would cost a few hundred pounds a month-

- they have 'up to' 32 customers sharing 2500Mbps of throughput at the exchange!, had I known this before signing up I would have chosen the 300 offer instead of 900 and saved myself £480 in the process, and the misery of knowing I'm paying for speed I ain't getting.

when it first arrives in the area, and you sign up, your gonna be one of the first and it runs great for a while, then after 'X' months when all/some your neighbours have jumped on the bandwagon it slows right down.

I was originally getting 930Mbps - now 6 more neighbours have signed up (u can tell from the ground level external NTE's and new metal fitting on the cables ends), and now I'm getting 300-600Mbps if I'm lucky! only 7 months in!! and it will only get worse!

they will ONLY upgrade capacity when enough (all) the customers in the neighbourhood/post code it's on kick up a right fuss - I also found the Wholesale Online BT AWS test to be FAKE - I downloaded a file at 860Mbps when i first got it, and ran the AWS test (a few times) whilst downloading a file @ 860Mbps, it reported 930.08Mbps ...EVERY, SINGLE, TIME.... regardless of me using almost 900Mbps, 400Mbps or IDLE, even the .08 is the same every single time! that does NOT happen on speed testers (15 years experience in networking & broadband tech) due to server usage across the connection and at the speed test server itself - when you run speed tests you NEVER get the exact same numbers, never mind by 2 decimal places!

I wished I had never moved to BT and held back for others providing it, as whilst most are rebadged BT connections, they can and some do pay extra for the bandwidth so that their customers get it..

Their router (Smart Hub 2) is absolute PAP too... and should be swapped out asap if you want more privacy!

 

[ChuckMountain]

@mickevh do the router stats for fttp include the speed though? As it shouldn’t vary like fttc would do.

I wonder also how the contention compares on openreach to city fibre for example who offer symmetrical speeds.

 

[Apone]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the assistance, help and advice.

So, I had a call from BT on Saturday 19 June and the guy did a 'remote test' on the line.

He said that he is seeing over 900 mbps on the line to the property..........I told him I am seeing a paltry 89mbps via the BT wholesale speed test.

The agent then told me he would book a Home Tech Expert out to the property who will perform additional checks and (against my protest not to close the complaint) , said that as he is seeing 900mbps ton the line with no issues he has to close the complaint down 'as unresolved'.

Today the Home Tech expert has been over and he did a test on the BT router with his mobile phone and he said he is seeing 500 mbps..... I told him that is not good enough and that I am seeing the following (as recommended by the previous call agent to use BT wholesale speedtest - see result today below)

I told the Home Tech expert that it should be a lot higher and that the speed he has quoted me today is below the BT stay fast guarantee.... - (see below from info I received via email after my complaint was closed down from BT yesterday)

The Home Tech expert asked if BT Openreach had been over to look at the issue and I told him they had not - outcome? = He said he is more or less certain that the issue lies with OpenReach and that he will book an Openreach visit.

He told me a lot of people don't even get 500mbps and that they would be happy with 500mbps in their home.

I advised politely that I am PAYING for 900 mbps and while I know that speeds can fluctuate, this is unacceptable and it is way lower than what I was getting previously and that he himself has confirmed he is seeing 500mbps to the router and not 900 mbps as specified by the previous call centre agent when he checked remotely. He took the point onboard and said he is going to book Openreach to look into this. I asked him to add to his notes that I am not receiving the minimum stay fast guarantee and he said he would do this and left. .

So nothing has changed for me apart from the Home Tech expert who came over to 'perform additional checks' (he was here a total of 5 mins) and I am now waiting for Openreach to get in touch to book a slot.

 

[mickevh]

@mickevh do the router stats for fttp include the speed though? As it shouldn’t vary like fttc would do.

I wonder also how the contention compares on openreach to city fibre for example who offer symmetrical speeds.

Ah that's a goof point - I don't know.

 

[ChuckMountain]

Today the Home Tech expert has been over and he did a test on the BT router with his mobile phone and he said he is seeing 500 mbps..... I told him that is not good enough and that I am seeing the following (as recommended by the previous call agent to use BT wholesale speedtest - see result today below)

Is the Smart Hub 2 only WiFi 5? To go any faster than 500Mbps would require WiFi 6 and so his test would be showing that is working ok. To get the full speed with your kit it would need to be from a wired device.

He told me a lot of people don't even get 500mbps and that they would be happy with 500mbps in their home.

Yes, that's daft, it's like buying a sports car and stating well it does the speed limit be happy...

and that he himself has confirmed he is seeing 500mbps to the router and not 900 mbps as specified by the previous call centre agent when he checked remotely.

If he is using his mobile phone then yes it would give a lower speed test. 900Mbps would only be achieved by a wired speed in this case.

That doesn't explain why you are having the issues.

Are you noticing any issues in normal usage? i.e. slow downloads what made you start doing the tests.

Have you done any tests to speedtest.net or dslreports.com to get a few different speed test from wired tests to rule out issues with BT network. If you are seeing consistent speeds from all of them, then that would rule out any issues with "BT Servers".

 

[captain morgan]

There was a thread I recall not sure if it was here or another forum where the OP also had very low bandwidth with BT fttp and it turned out they were testing there 4G mobile connection not the fttp.

I only mention it as the 80ish Mb/s you are seeing is a long way from the 500 BT say they are getting.

 

[Apone]

Looking at the info from the BT web site they state the following :

I am not getting the quoted stay fast guaranteed speeds on any device with a wired connection. So in a nutshell,

BT engineer on first visit said that the speeds are low and will report it. He performed a wired test from a BT device/laptop to the ONT or Hub (Maybe both).

Picking up the report from the 1st visit.the telephony agent noted down the poor speed when he checked remotely checked the line (then later said it seems 'ok now'when he called a few days later but will send a Home Tech person to also check)

Home Tech 'Expert' has said he is certain that the issue is with Openreach and will book a visit (While he was here he called his manager to discuss the issue as well).

BT state the following for my home as per their email -

On another note, an Openreach van and 2 engineers were working on the cabling under the ground outside near my house a few days ago. The BT manhole is approx 2m away from where I live and I went out to speak to them about my issues.

They said they are working on an issue for another house in the next road to mine and the Openreach engineer told me (and I quote) 'BT Full Fibre 900 is having a lot of issues right now' and the servers are 'Shxt'

He told me to keep on at BT.

Current state of [lay is that I am waiting for Openreach to contact me to let me know when they are coming out as per what I have been told by the visit from BT Home Tech Expert yesterday.

 

[ChuckMountain]

I don't disagree with anything you have said, however to exclude their servers being a bit rubbish then if you test with another speedtest or two you can determine if the speed is off on those too.

 

[captain morgan]

You could also wire the computer directly to the ont and setup a pppoe connection on the computer to exclude the bt ‘hub’ as the cause.

If you have two wired computers then before you did the above I’d download iperf3 and prove that the computers/hub support a gig connection, no reason to think they won’t but it’s useful to be able to evidence that when talking to bt