FTTP 910 - Is this the norm with Vodafone??

[dazrog]

Hi,

Looking for some support or suggestions here as I am currently getting very stressed repeating myself to vodafone 2nd line support on a daily basis.

I have been with vodafone FTTP for a number of years, first the 100, then the 500 package. I use my own third party router (Asus ZenWifi XT8) with a CAT6 cable rather than the substandard VF router and CAT5e supplied cable.

I have always had full line speed (so 500) direct to the router WAN and so when I was offered the upgrade to 900 package earlier this month I decided to take the offer. Since then I noticed the speed can be anything from 600 - 750 with the maximum being 800. It has never been near the 900 specified.

I raised a fault after testing with the supplied VF router and cables, restarting equipment etc and turning off any additional settings on my own router which may have caused a drop. Nothing made a difference however I am now into a daily cycle of repeating myself to VF 2nd line support who yesterday insisted that they send me a new upgraded router and booster (I told them it wasn't the wifi at fault...). The text message I received said pro router so I was expecting the newer router to test.

This morning I received the same router as I already have minus the booster and guess what - No difference in fact the speed on the VF router is worse than my own. I opened a chat who told me they never agreed to send me the latest router as it would be 'incompatible' with my service (More like I am not paying them more per month....why lie?) and that my speed was fine as it was above the minimum guaranteed of 450 and starting talking about distance from the cabinet....so basically put up with it or downgrade.

I have over 20 years experience in IT both as a field engineer and manager and this daily lying especially about boosters and cabinet distances (which makes no difference on a FTTP line by the way as it doesn't use a 'cabinet' like FTTC/ADSL) is becoming a joke.

Can vodafone supply the 910 service they sold or not? Has anyone any experience with the 910/105 service on the Asus router?

I am going to try to get some time this evening to look into the vodafone complaints procedure but just thought I would see if anyone here has experienced similar (I saw one on here relating to gigafast with higher upload so discounted that as the same issue I have).

Thank you,

[Cynric]

@dazrog It may be because it's a lottery of which VF gateway you connect to. We have seen people in the south of England be connected via Edinburgh. If you do a (Windows) tracert or (Unix) traceroute to www.bbc.com and paste it in here we can see how you're being connected. If you're interested this has come up before so a quick search in the forum may even identify the gateway for you.

[dazrog]

Hello,

Thank you for your response - I am based in Lancashire and speedtest.net connects to Vodafone Manchester by default so I've always presumed I'm on the correct gateway  (though I can't remember confirming what gateway I was on before the switch). Tracert below after router hop:

2 14 ms 13 ms 9 ms host-212-158-250-32.dslgb.com [212.158.250.32]
3 13 ms 12 ms 15 ms 63.130.172.35
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 19 ms 19 ms 16 ms 132.185.254.213
7 45 ms 17 ms 18 ms ae0.prc01.thdow.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.161]
8 16 ms 15 ms 18 ms 132.185.249.84
9 16 ms 17 ms 16 ms 212.58.236.130

[Cynric]

@dazrog It appears to be north London.

[dazrog]

Hi again,

Thank you again for your response - Didnt have time to look it up earlier however yes you appear to be correct!! Any idea how to get that corrected?

[dazrog]

Just an update on this - Today I received a text from DPD saying my booster has been delivered. Confused I checked the DPD website and it was delivered in my name....to the Vodafone returns department in Norwich!! Needless to say I've told the 2nd line team I do not need this equipment and haven't received.

I also advised them of the gateway issue - To which I received the below quite unbelievable response:

Here when we work on an FTTP or FTTH service, OFCOM has confirmed that the MGS for any full fibre product is ½ of the package speed sold, so for example a 900mbps package purchased by the customer will have an MGS of 450mbps.
There is nothing we can do to investigate further as the customer is getting speeds which are more than acceptable and in line with OFCOM rules

I asked for them to raise the complaint as this is just ridiculous - I've to expect that on 900 I should receive less than I did on the 500 package, why should the line speed be any different to the 100 and 500 package and I got the below response:

I'll be setting this case on 5 days autoclose and it will be closed on our team will 2nd April, the dedicated department will take this further on email conversation

---

It appears that since my upgrade and digital phone activation I am on the wrong gateway which could be causing this issue - How can this be so hard to resolve??!

Is there anyone on here from VF who can help??

[Cynric]

@dazrog VF don't really have a "correct" gateway, but they do have a load balancing mechanism that sometimes does this kind of thing.