OT - Internet connection speeds - banding at the exchange

Chris B · 2018-03-07T12:49:21+00:00

This is sort of DIY but internet related rather than plumbing or building I have a friend locally who was having problems with the internet connection (EE if it matters). She was sent a new router and spoke to the support folks but she couldn't understand what they were asking her to do. Anyway in summary. Web site prediction based on postcode 3-5 Mb - guaranteed minimum 2Mb. Her WiFi connected PC and BT wholesale speed checker 0.25Mb. My laptop connected to router with cable, router connected to master socket with no extension, telephone line disconnected, logged into the routers admin page - connected at 0.25Mb On phone to EE tech support for about an hour, very friendly do a lot of tests from their end accept that service is unusable and offer discount for the unusable period. But where he lost me was on the fix. He reckons that BT (open-reach presumably) had put a hardware "band" on the physical cables at the exchange and this would have to be removed. (2 to 4 days so we are still waiting to see if this is indeed the fix). I asked more about this "band". Its apparently to stop the cables completely breaking if you try and push to much data down dodgy cables (now his or my understanding have reached the end of the line). He says it is frequently done but should never be as severe as on this line and has almost certainly been applied in error. I have looked on Google for Banding telecom data cables but no joy. Does this make sense to Anyone???