Recurring Fibre 65 Performance Issues

[Taff Strat]

Further to my recently resolved issue with unacceptable Fibre 65 performance, the problem has unfortunately recurred yet again. Following yet more BT Openreach activity at the exchange, or local cabinet, my Fibre performance has dropped significantly from an initially healthy 70+Mbps down to unacceptable 29.3Mbps (upload) and 8.3Mbps (download)! Despite recent assistance from Debbie (Community Agent), and a satisfactory initial outcome, we've only been able to experience acceptable/expected performance levels for a couple of months before the issue has unfortunately recurred... it's proved to be a constant source of frustration, all seemingly caused by local Openreach equipment and service levels.

The issue appears to be fairly frequent and always appears to be caused by Openreach activities away from my property. We've had no recent remedial work carried out at the property, and no changes or upgrades to my equipment or network! As always, I'm prepared to meet the costs of BT/Openreach remedial work if the problem is found to be at my property... but as previously experienced, and strongly suspected in this instance, the cause has invariably been found to be on BT/Openreach equipment/facilities!

Your assistance would, once again, be sincerely appreciated. Could you please arrange the necessary investigations/remedial work from BT/Openreach in order to rectify the unacceptable performance and hopefully provide us with the guaranteed service anticipated under the current TalkTalk contract.

Many thanks in anticipation of your assistance.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Good afternoon,

Thanks for the update and I'm glad to hear that the fault has been resolved 🙂

Thanks

[Taff Strat]

Hi Chris, just to confirm that, as arranged, an Openreach engineer attended this morning and appears to have resolved the issue. Yet again, there were no problems within the property, so the issue was rectified on Openreach equipment. Current download speed is back up to 75Mbps from 30.5Mbps earlier this morning.

Many thanks for your assistance, it's greatly appreciated.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

No problem, thanks 🙂

Chris

[Taff Strat]

Many thanks for that Chris, Monday 24th (AM) is fine with us! Will confirm outcomes as soon as the issue is resolved.

Cheers!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

I've booked the engineer for January 24 2022, AM (08:00-13:00) - please let us know how you get on

Chris

[Taff Strat]

Hi Chris, thanks for that!… next week, I can do Monday 24th (both AM & PM), Tuesday 25th (AM), Wednesday 26th (AM until midday) or Friday 28th (both AM & PM) if that helps? Perhaps you could confirm as soon as possible so that I can arrange any commitments around the visit?

Many thanks!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK, will do, can you give a couple of dates and time slots when you can be available for the visit - either AM (8am to 1pm) or PM (1pm to 6pm) between Monday to Friday.

Thanks

Chris

[Taff Strat]

Hi Chris... yes please, could you please make the necessary arrangements for further investigation please. As always, I can confirm that we're happy to meet any associated costs... as long as the problem is found to be within our property.

Many thanks. 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Thanks for the information. To investigate further we'll need to arrange an engineer visit. If you'd like us to arrange the engineer visit please let us know and we'll confirm some details

Chris

[Taff Strat]

Hi Chris, as requested, I've just carried out a testing procedure via the telephone test socket!

I initially tested my own telephone equipment (not via the test socket) to establish that there was currently no noise present on the line, and then plugged in the borrowed corded phone to confirm that the signal was also noise free.

The next step was, as recommended, to plug the corded phone into the test socket... again there was no noise on the line!

Lastly, whilst the test socket was exposed, I plugged in my router via a micro filter (as described in TalkTalk help guides) to establish if the performance was any different! Whilst plugged into the test socket, the TalkTalk Speed Test facility showed the performance to be exactly the same i.e. 30.5Mbps (download) and 8.1Mbps (upload)... so no difference in speeds between using the normal socket and the test socket!

Whilst the noise experienced on the telephone line has not been a regular issue (in fact, far from it), the slower broadband speeds are a more frequent issue and usually found to occur following BT/Openreach remedial activity at the local cabinet.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Ok thanks, yes please just connect the telephone to the test socket

Chris

[Taff Strat]

Okay Chris… I don’t have a corded phone, but have arranged to borrow one tomorrow from a friend. I assume I’m just plugging straight into the test socket and checking for noise/interference on the line? 🤔

By the way, this is the exact same scenario experienced previously… TalkTalk asked BT to investigate and the problem was resolved successfully without the need for an engineer visit, which is exactly why I’m suspecting the fault is at their end yet again!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

If there's noise on the line then we'll need to raise this as a telephone fault, are you able to check for noise with your telephone connected to your test socket, if you have one, and do you have another handset that you can test with?

Chris

[Taff Strat]

Hi Chris, yes, my wife has confirmed that the telephone was affected by noise over the weekend and yesterday! The initial significant improvements following the last reported issue degenerated during the last month (from 70+Mbps, to 50Mbps and now down to 29Mbps) and we've experienced fairly regular “drop outs” over the last few weeks!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Taff Strat,

Sorry to hear that you're experiencing problems with your service. Are you experiencing any problems with your telephone service, any noise on the line?

Chris