Internet unusable since being changed over to fibre

[Geoff_B]

TalkTalk arranged recently for my broadband connection to be changed to superfast fibre, which was carried out by Outreach two days ago (12 Feb 2020). I had not requested this, as my broadband download speed (7 to 8 Mbps) was perfectly adequate for my usage of the internet. It seems that everything is moving to fibre these days as, according to the Outreach engineer, they want to decommission ADSL in favour of fibre.

Since the changeover, my internet connection has been virtually unusable as the broadband connection (as indicated by the appropriate lights on my router) keeps dropping out. Whenever I do a broadband speed test, it shows a download speed of around 1 Mbps (i.e. 7 or 8 times slower than my previous ADSL connection), probably because the line keeps dropping out. This is totally unacceptable.

Could someone from TalkTalk please investigate this urgently, as I usually pay a number of bills over the internet towards the end of the month? At the moment, my internet connection doesn’t stay up long enough to complete a transaction. By the way, I trust that TT are not going to increase my monthly bill for moving to fibre, as I didn’t request it in the first place?

[Geoff_B]

I've attached the error message that comes up on my computer screen when the broadband drops out.

[OCE_Arne]

Hi @Geoff_B

Sorry that you are having problems

Can you connect your router to the test socket and run some speedtests, if they are still low we can pass it back to openreach as a fault. 

Thanks

[Geoff_B]

More info:

My current router (supplied by TalkTalk some time ago is a Huawei HG633.

I have tried two other routers: D-Link DSL-2680, and BT Home Hub 4r, but neither will even connect to the internet at all. (Perhaps they are too old and incompatible with fibre broadband)??

Also, I've tried changing the microfilter that plugs into the BT main socket, but that makes no difference. And, yes, I've tried plugging directly into the BT test socket - no difference.

Therefore, I'm pretty sure that the fault does not lie in my own home equipment, especially as the router "broadband" and "internet" lights go out each time the connection drops. Is it possible that the fault lies with whatever the Openreach engineer did to change me over to fibre?

[Geoff_B]

Hi Arne.

Download speed 1.55 Mbps, upload speed unmeasurably slow, ping 29ms.

[Geoff_B]

Just tried another speed test:

Download 1.76Mbps

Line then dropped out before upload test could be completed!

This is typically what has been happening over the past couple of days since the changeover (i.e. barely enough time to complete any transactions before the line drops again).

[Geoff_B]

Hi Arne,

No improvement over the weekend. Have you passed the problem back to Openreach now?

Regards,

Geoff_B

[OCE_Michelle]

Hi Geoff_B,

I'm really sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I've passed this over to Openreach for a line investigation to be completed and we should receive an update back within the next 48-72hrs. If you don't hear more by Thursday then please can you request an update here and we can re-check for an update on the fault for you.

Thanks

[Geoff_B]

Thanks Michelle

[OCE_Michelle]

Hi Geoff_B,

No problem and apologies again for the delay.

Thanks

[Geoff_B]

Hi Michelle and Arne,

Openreach engineer came to the house today and changed my master socket for the latest type. He said that sometimes fibre broadband doesn't always work reliably with the slightly older type that I had. That seemed to do the trick. He checked everything on his side to - at the cabinet and at the exchange, and declared everything ok. He did say to allow up to 10 days for the new fibre service to stabilise now that he had disconnected and reconnected it (i.e. as a result of changing the master socket).

So I'll monitor it over the next week or two and see how it goes. I'm currently getting about 24 Mbps download speed now, and the latency has halved from about 30ms to around 14ms, so that's a good sign.

He did ask whether TalkTalk had supplied me with a new router for the change up to fibre. I said that I still had the old one (Huawei HG633), but he reckoned that it was compatible for fibre anyway.

So...fingers crossed! Many thanks for your help.

[OCE_Michelle]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for keeping us updated 🙂 The HG633 router is a fibre compatible router. Please let us know how the speeds compare over the next few days 🙂

Thanks

[Geoff_B]

Will do.

So far, broadband speeds seem to be consistent at around 24Mbps download, 9 Mbps upload, 16ms latency, and no dropouts. I presume this is the expected fibre speed for my particular contract package?

I'll keep monitoring for another week.

Btw, what happens to my monthly payments after my current contract ends? Will I be expected to pay the going rate for a fibre contract, even though I didn't request a changeover from ADSL to fibre in the first place? (TalkTalk just sent me an email a few weeks ago saying they were going to change me over to fibre free of charge, and that my monthly payments would stay the same).

Geoff_B

[OCE_Debbie]

Hi Geoff_B

Thanks for your reply.

If you contact our Customer Service Team using our Live Chat they can check your account for you.

Thanks

Debbie

[Geoff_B]

Thanks Debbie.

Down/up speeds still consistent at 24/9 Mbps, so looks like all ok now.

Thanks everyone.

Geoff

[OCE_Debbie]

Hi Geoff

That's great, thanks for letting us know 🙂

Debbie

[Geoff_B]

24/9 Mbps were wifi speeds. LAN connected speeds are 38/9 Mbps. So I reckon that's the max promised?

Many thanks again for everyone's help.

Geoff

[OCE_Chris]

Hi Geoff,

What sort of throughput speeds do you get on devices connected to your router by Ethernet cable?

Chris

[Geoff_B]

Hi Chris,

Not sure what you mean by throughput speeds, or how you measure it, but I have just connected my laptop to my router via an ethernet cable and carried out a broadband speed test.

Results are 38Mbps download and 9 Mbps upload.

Is this the info you're after?

Regards,

Geoff

[OCE_Chris]

Hi Geoff,

Yes thanks. I think I must of misread your previous comment, thought you were referring to sync speed (38/9) but I can see that you were referring to LAN throughput speeds, that speed is really good in comparison to sync speed 🙂

Chris