Are TalkTalk slowing my superfast connection?

[cressylock]

Until the end of last year I consistently received 56Mbps download speed.

Since January this year, I have been complaining about the slow performance, spent many hours wasting my time 'chatting' with someone asking the same pointless and mundane questions, and they have always (after about 2hrs each time), reset the line and have increased the throughput above the minimum guaranteed speed, but never to the same performance as last time. 

Apparently there was never a problem with the line, so the only other thing can could degrade the performance is throttling?

On Sat 21st, I noticed my speed had dropped to 14Mbps. I restarted the router and it increased to a whopping 18Mbps. TalkTalk acknowledged a fault and sent out an engineer on Sunday morning. Fantastic, but I wasn't home and he didn't know what he was doing there. All he knew was an address and there was a fault. After several hours he left, leaving his phone number with my partner for me to speak with him. I have tried a number of times but never rings through.

I tested the connection speed from the router each day this week, with the following results: Sun 54.9Mbps, Mon, 54.9Mbps, Tue 49Mbps, Wed 49Mbps, Thu 44Mbps! I am again below the minimum guaranteed of 45Mbps. As the line could handle 54.9Mbps on Sunday and Monday, why has the speed dropped to 44Mbps several days later? 5Mpbs reduction at a time?? TalkTalk must be throttling the connection...

Also, over all this time, their speed dashboard is misleading at best, and must be against some law, as it's a complete fabrication! The dashboard always says "Great! You're getting the download speed of 66Mbps, as expected" Although you click on the Speed History, and it's been 35Mbps or below! I have never had 66Mbps!

Is there anyone from TalkTalk monitoring this forum who can sort this out! Please restore my speed and remove any throttling you may have in place.

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

That sounds like an improvement in a positive direction. 

Karl.

[cressylock]

The speed yesterday morning, before I sent the message, was 49Mbps, and I have checked this morning, and the speed has increased to 63Mbps.

Many thanks

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

DLM has increases the profile this morning, sync speed has increased, can you test now.

Karl.

[cressylock]

It looks like another of my replies has been missed... (I probably missed the login after I pressed Post again)

My previous reply was to say that....

All I can say is that, as you know, I have't had DSL for many years, but the below transcript was from 31st Jan 23 20:24, where your Technical Support clearly says "i will now proceed with the optimization", and after whatever they did, the speed did increase for a shrt period. This was one of many times I was told the same, and the OpenReach engineer said that TalkTalk have the capability to reset/optimise the line.

Anyway, now that the latest fault has been fixed, the speed went up to 49Mbps. Could you please request OpenReach reset/optimise the line again?

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

the optimise DLM feature was available for DSL Lines but not for openreach DLM. For any action to the current DLM System we do have to go through openreach.

Karl

[cressylock]

I have found a transcript where a technician claim to reset the line. I see they don't call it resetting, but they call it optimising:

---

Kiyume|19:51 PM

Thank you for that, i will now proceed with the optimization. Allow me 5-10 minutes here I will let you know once this is complete and we can then try to re run the speed test

You|19:51 PM

ok

Kiyume|19:52 PM

I appreciate it Jason, thank you for doing it on your end. For now, let me optimize it. I will let you know once done

Kiyume|19:55 PM

Just to give you a quick update, right now still waiting for it to be completed.

You|19:58 PM

I have gone back to the original router. Back to 44 again

Kiyume|19:58 PM

That's fine, actually its not yet done optimizing

Kiyume|19:58 PM

I will let you know once done

You|19:59 PM

Ok, I just went back to the new router and cable, rather than spare 🙂

You|19:59 PM

What is the optimisation?

Kiyume|19:59 PM

Alright, thanks. Sorry its taking too long, just really waiting for it be complete

Kiyume|20:00 PM

Optimization is where we change the channel from depending on what channel you are currently in and change it to the suggested channel. It's also gonna clear some traffic build at the same time breaking the lease

Kiyume|20:01 PM

By the way, the channel is dependent on what works best for your area. This is set to automatic

You|20:02 PM

(I assume you're not talking about the wifi channel :-))

Kiyume|20:03 PM

Nope, it's the set up itself from the exchange. Clearing any traffics that's build up

---

[cressylock]

I'm surprised there is a " possible copper line / joint issue" as the engineer stripped and renewed all the connections between the house and the box only a month ago. This restored the speed back to normal 54Mbps. I wouldn't expect this to fail again after just one month.

This will give the engineer another opportunity to insist that I wouldn't get this issue with full fibre. I'm sure I wouldn't but why should I pay more for a stable service. I just expect a stable service, like there's been for many years on the copper technology. If the only way you can now provide a stable reliable service to my house is to replace the copper with full fibre, then you could replace it for the same price? 

Hopefully the engineer can fix it again, and it will last for more than one month. (without all the moaning about copper)

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

The DLM system is part of the Openreach system and we have no access to this directly.  If this has been set incorrectly, in some cases we can make a request to Openreach to reset this however if all conditions are not perfect, ie. Tests are showing a potential fault or issue, then they will reject the request.

Line tests are showing a possible copper line / joint issue so I have logged this out to BT Openreach for a Non Appointed engineer - Non appointed means the engineer will be dispatched to look at the line without requiring an appointment be made with you to visit your property.  

Thanks

Karl.

[cressylock]

Strange, the engineer said you can reset the line... and several support technicians say they've reset the lines after 2 hours of asking the same old questions...

We have now plugged the phone back in and there is no noise. It all appears to be ok.

You say that the line is showing an issue? Do you need to send an engineer out to resolve it?

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi cressylock,

DLM is increasing the speed each day, unfortunately we can't reset DLM remotely, we would have to arrange an engineer visit. Line test is picking up a potential issue though. Are you experiencing any problems with your telephone service?

Chris

[cressylock]

After a month, the speed has dropped again. It dropped to about 8Mbps at the weekend! It's slowly come back up to 40Mbps, but that's still below the minimum guaranteed of 45Mbps.

I have turned the router of this morning for 30minutes, but it had no effect.

No changes my end.

Could you please reset the line again?

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

I'm really glad to hear this and thanks for confirming 🙂

Thanks

[cressylock]

Router turned off this morning for about 54 mins, and after restart, the download speed test has now increased from 53Mbps to 55Mbps. A slight increase. 

This is better than I had before all these problems. Fingers crossed it doesn't slow down again.

Many thanks, I think we can say this issue is finally closed.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for confirming 🙂 If the sync speed increases, however the throughput speeds remain the same, then we usually advise powering down the router for a full 30 minutes and then retesting again as this will reset the current session and can often increase the throughput speeds.

Thanks

[cressylock]

Hi Michelle

Thanks for checking.

On Tuesday, the connection speed increased from 55.8Mbps to 61.3Mbps! However, the download speed remained the same at around 53Mbps. I'm not complaining, I've never seen the connection speed so high!

It looks like renewing the connections has helped.

As long as the speed stay at this level, I'll be happy.

Many thanks for your help

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Just checking back in to see how the connection/speed has been since your last post?

Thanks

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for the update. We'll check back in with you at the end of the week to see if the speeds have remained consistent.

Thanks

[cressylock]

Good morning

The Openreach engineer visited again on Friday. He didn't know why the speed would have slowed as he said the copper was perfect. However, after he got past the upsell to full fibre, he trimmed all the connections from my socket back to the cabinet.

One thing he noticed, was that the downstream noise margin was 8, when it should be as near 6 as possible (for the length of copper), so it looks like the profile wasn't correct for the expected speed. Interestingly, the TalkTalk router shows this as 0 which impossible. So it looks like TalkTalk hide the figure so the consumer can't see how the speed is being controlled.

He also speculated that the phone could have been causing noise on the line, although I pointed out it hadn't been plugged in for over a week, and he agreed that if it was that I would have expected DLM to have noticed a reduced error rate and increased the speed beforehand.

He also speculated that maybe the cable the section of cable up the street was full, and there was the risk of cross noise. I pointed out that this was a brand new section of cable and I thought it was strange that Openreach replaced a section of cable that was unfit for purpose...

He left puzzled, saying it was easier to fix an obvious fault and this one was difficult.

He left with the connection speed at 55.8Mbps, and 2d16hrs later, it is still 55.8Mbps, so fingers crossed that the lines stays at this speed now.

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

DLM has not changed and was correctly set a the right profile level before, so I don't think this is profile / DLM related.

The engineer can review the readings from the line in more detail when on site.

Karl.

[cressylock]

After 2 weeks, and on the day an engineer is booked, my router has been restarted (again) remotely at 3:37 this morning, and my connection speed has jumped from 44Mbps to 55Mbps! Coincidence or would this be preparation for the visit?

Has DLM finally decided that my line must be ok after all? What is the error rate now the speed has increased?

I assume we still keep the visit booked this afternoon?

So many questions...