Exchange distance query

[Questor]

Virgin have just removed the discount that I was getting on my 20mg broadband and told me that I have to now pay the full £37 so I am looking at alternatives.

I have checked on Samknows and it says that I am 0.95km from the exchange (direct: which I assume will be more like 1.5 to 2.0 in practice). However I have rung both o2 and Be and using my next door neighbors number (cos i don't have a BT line at present) they have told me I am only 400metres from the exchange and can expect to get in excess of 18mb. Is this just sales talk cos the price including the line rental seems attractive.

[Paul K]

BT don't always put lines in to houses in a sensible manner, I find this checker useful
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php

[Charlie_Bubble]

Originally Posted by Questor

Virgin have just removed the discount that I was getting on my 20mg broadband and told me that I have to now pay the full £37 so I am looking at alternatives.

I have checked on Samknows and it says that I am 0.95km from the exchange (direct: which I assume will be more like 1.5 to 2.0 in practice). However I have rung both o2 and Be and using my next door neighbors number (cos i don't have a BT line at present) they have told me I am only 400metres from the exchange and can expect to get in excess of 18mb. Is this just sales talk cos the price including the line rental seems attractive.

If it helps, I am with Be. On Samknows they say I am 872m from the exchange, but it's more ike 1.4km line length and I get just about 18.5Meg with a snr profile of 6db.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Questor

Virgin have just removed the discount that I was getting on my 20mg broadband and told me that I have to now pay the full £37 so I am looking at alternatives.

I have checked on Samknows and it says that I am 0.95km from the exchange (direct: which I assume will be more like 1.5 to 2.0 in practice). However I have rung both o2 and Be and using my next door neighbors number (cos i don't have a BT line at present) they have told me I am only 400metres from the exchange and can expect to get in excess of 18mb. Is this just sales talk cos the price including the line rental seems attractive.

You will almost certainly have a line with similar characteristics to the neighbour.

[Dire]

Originally Posted by Questor

Virgin have just removed the discount that I was getting on my 20mg broadband and told me that I have to now pay the full £37 so I am looking at alternatives.

I have checked on Samknows and it says that I am 0.95km from the exchange (direct: which I assume will be more like 1.5 to 2.0 in practice). However I have rung both o2 and Be and using my next door neighbors number (cos i don't have a BT line at present) they have told me I am only 400metres from the exchange and can expect to get in excess of 18mb. Is this just sales talk cos the price including the line rental seems attractive.

I think the point Questor is making is that the distance to exchange reported by both Be and BT is less than the straight line distance given by Samknows, not greater.

Of course if the neighbour's house is 600+ metres distant from Questor's house, then 400metres could well be correct

Is there another exchange in the area that is much closer to you?

[Chrysalis]

average distance compared to direct is 1.4 or 140%, be aware it can be a lot more but can also be less. If you have something like a canal or rail line between you and exchange the chances of a indirect route are increased so try looking at a road map to see possible routes.

The other variable is cable quality, there is various thickness of copper used eg. 0.32mm and 0.4mm even thicker stuff like 0.75mm, as well as ali cabling. The cable used affects how much attenuation is gained per km of length. There is no way for customers to know what cable is used on their line that itself is a lottery.

If we assume line length of 1.5km and 14dB attenuation per km then you will have a 21Db line which should give you in excess of a 16mbit synch. At 2km would be 28dB and still very good probably 14-16mbit. I think your routing will very likely be under 2.5km I would be surprised if its higher then that so unless your line is ali it should be below 34dB attenuation.

[Questor]

Hi Guys, Thx for the input.

My neighbour's house is very close, in fact we are attached cos we are both sides of a semi and there is a river between my house and the exchange.

I have now checked Kitz as suggested which says I am 1.05km away (direct) and 2.09km by road. (I have confirmed this with GoogleEarth).

I do have a BT line attached to the house but it has been disconnected for about 12 years (since I joined NTL/Virginmedia). I am hoping that if I go back to BT they will check the line out and not just switch it back on.

The cost of switching to O2 will be £25.50pm (£15 for 20mb BB and £10.50pm for BT line rent with free evening/weekend calls). So I would be looking for the O2 BB to perform better than the VirginMedia 10mb cable at the same price. Although taking the Traffic Management into account it could perform a lot less and it would still be worth going for.

I have had the 20mb cable since it came out and am reluctant to change to adsl but now they have put my price up to £37 from £25 I feel that I have to explore the other option.

[Nemeth]

Similar situation here after the discount we had from VM ran out. o2 activated on Monday, we're synced at 17mb with 23db downstream attenuation, better than I was expecting considering we're 1.27km from the exchange (1.8km by road)

[kingabs]

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php

[Central]

I am 261 metres from exchange and my line is about 800 metres

These are my stats

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,923 / 18,414
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 7.5 / 17.0

And a speed test

[Chrysalis]

Questor if 2.09km is the actual proper length of cable and we assume 14dB atten per km I think you can expect around 30DB attenuation, this is of course if the cable quality isnt poorer and that is the actual length.