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TAZ
@qwest.net

TAZ

Anon

[Qwest] 4500 ft. loop, but 2 doors down/50 ft. away gets 40/20

My loop length is about 4500 ft. (per tech support), so I've only been able to get 20/.896 for the past few years. This always seemed odd to me as the physical distance to the DSLAM (a tech told me where it was) was probably around 1000, but I assumed it was just a quirk with the wiring design. I don't think the length number is inaccurate as my line stats for that speed are consistent with what I'd expect for that distance.

As it turns out, every house on my street starting at the house two doors down from mine, is able to get 40/20. (On both sides, actually.) WTF? The physical distance between my house and that house is 50 ft. max.

This isn't a rural area or anything either. I live in a decently-sized, decently high-density neighborhood in Marana, AZ that was built in 2000. Certainly doesn't make any sense that 50 ft. of distance would add probably around 3000 ft. to the length (assuming they're at about 1500 ft. to receive 40/20).

Does this make any sense to anyone? Is there anything CL can do for me? Any options for receiving speeds higher than bonded 20/2 (highest I can get), besides paying my neighbor to run a modem at his place and running a 75 ft. Ethernet cable? :P (No, I'm not seriously going to do that, but it's ridiculous that I can do that!)

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

billaustin

MVM

Re: [Qwest] 4500 ft. loop, but 2 doors down/50 ft. away gets 40/

You're not likely to get a direct answer here. Send a detailed message to: talktous@centurylink.com

It could be the way the cable was brought in to the neighborhood, and you're at the end of the loop, and it could be an error in their system. Someone from engineering will have to be brought in to provide an answer. The Talktous folks are pretty good at getting that done.
TheMayor
join:2002-05-09

TheMayor to TAZ

Member

to TAZ
I had the same situation that you mentioned. What I tried, was calling into their tech support & mentioning that I only qualified for X speed & my neighbors qualified for Y speed & if they could test my line to see if I was that much further out compared to my neighbors.

The support person did test my line & did agree that I my line actually could handle the tier higher then what my neighbors could get, but mentioned (like billaustin said) that they couldn't make the change, & a engineer would have to be the one that would need to make the change in their system, so the new speed could be ordered.

About an hour later, I received a call back from the Tech Support person I had talked to earlier, mentioning that I was able to order the new speed

I'm not sure if all of the tech support people are willing to do this, but the whole process only took 10 minutes or so
ArizonaSteve
join:2004-01-31
Apache Junction, AZ

ArizonaSteve to TAZ

Member

to TAZ
It sounds like you are still on the old dial up lines to the central office while everyone else around you is connected to a closer fiber network. We have the same situation here. At first I could only get up to 1.5mb so I had to get them to move me over to the new system where I can get faster speeds up to 40mb. If that's the situation there you should have them move you to the faster network.

TAZ
@qwest.net

TAZ to TAZ

Anon

to TAZ
Thanks all. I'll try contacting the talktoqwest guys.

I'm not sure if it's a matter of switching me to any new system as I already have 20/.896 (and am in the process of switching to 20/2 bonded; I suspect my line could support 40/2 or perhaps even 40/5 bonded, but I'll wait until it's set up to try for that). It's also definitely not an error in the qualification tool - my line as it currently is, is definitely around the length they say it is, and based on my SNR numbers could not support much more than my current speed on a single line on VDSL2.
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152

Member

Try having the tech swap you to a different wire pair outside and see if that helps, as my bonded 40/5 VDSL2 service has completely different signal levels on each line. Of course, the weaker one being my "original" 40/5 line that was having all kinds of issues; however, I'd be willing to bet the "new" pair coming in could handle 40/5 on it's own just fine, but i was tired of arguing with them and when the guy in corporate offered to swap me to bonded for free after me complaining enough, i just took it.

My issue before was the upload capping out at around ~2.5Mbps stable but my modem kept training ~3.5 so my internet would just stop working randomly at the wrong time.

my signal levels currently are as follows for each line, and keep in mind i'm connected to the same remote terminal and same loop length:
quote:
Line 1:

DSL Link Status
Broadband Mode Setting: MULTIMODE
Broadband Mode Detected: VDSL2 - 8A
DSL Link Uptime: 1 Days, 12H:59M:32S
Retrains: 1
Retrains in Last 24 Hours: 0
Loss of Power Link Failures: 0
Loss of Signal Link Failure: 0
Loss of Margin Link Failure: 0
Link Train Errors: 0
Unavailable Seconds: 19

Transport Status
VPI: N/A
VCI: N/A
ATM QoS class: N/A
PTM VLAN QoS: 0
MTU Size: 1492
VLAN: PTM 201
Packets Sent: 0
Packets Received: 0
Error Packets Sent: 0
Error Packets Received: 0
30 Minute Discarded Packets Upstream: 0
30 Minute Discarded Packets Downstream: 0

Channel Status
Channel Type: Interleaved
Near End CRC Errors: 4
Far End CRC: 0
30 Minute Near End CRC: 47
30 Minute Far End CRC: 0
Near End RS FEC: 0
Far End RS FEC: 0
30 Minute Near End FEC: 13800
30 Minutes Far End FEC: 0

Levels Downstream Upstream
SNR: 18 dB 6 dB
Attenuation: 21 dB 7 dB
Power: 15.9 dBm 8.9 dBm

Line 2:

DSL Link Status
Broadband Mode Setting: MULTIMODE
Broadband Mode Detected: VDSL2 - 8A
DSL Link Uptime: 1 Days, 13H:0M:38S
Retrains: 1
Retrains in Last 24 Hours: 0
Loss of Power Link Failures: 0
Loss of Signal Link Failure: 0
Loss of Margin Link Failure: 0
Link Train Errors: 0
Unavailable Seconds: 19

Transport Status
VPI: N/A
VCI: N/A
ATM QoS class: N/A
PTM VLAN QoS: 0
MTU Size: 1492
VLAN: PTM 201
Packets Sent: 0
Packets Received: 0
Error Packets Sent: 0
Error Packets Received: 0
30 Minute Discarded Packets Upstream: 0
30 Minute Discarded Packets Downstream: 0

Channel Status
Channel Type: Interleaved
Near End CRC Errors: 4
Far End CRC: 0
30 Minute Near End CRC: 47
30 Minute Far End CRC: 0
Near End RS FEC: 0
Far End RS FEC: 0
30 Minute Near End FEC: 13800
30 Minutes Far End FEC: 0

Levels Downstream Upstream
SNR: 29 dB 19 dB
Attenuation: 21 dB 6 dB
Power: 15.8 dBm 8.9 dBm


Just keep calling, and maybe escalate to the CEO's email like i did and eventually they'll fix it.

TAZ
@qwest.net

TAZ

Anon

Thanks Brad. BTW, my attenuation at 20/.896 ADSL2+ is 19 dB downstream/9 dB upstream, and that's supposedly at around 4500 ft.

I have been in contact with the talktous guys, but they haven't been of much help so far. I don't think they really understood the issue: the issue isn't that I'm asking them to put a new DSLAM in closer (LOL), it's that there's 3000 ft. added to my line for no reason. All I've gotten from them so far are basically canned responses about "my location not being set up to handle more than 12M or VDSL" (that's funny, I've had 20M for awhile, but that isn't the first CL CSR that thinks I have 12M and not 20M). And of course the line about there being no plans to upgrade anything - of course, they don't need to upgrade anything, there's a fully functional DSLAM ~1000-1500 ft. away from me with VDSL2 and capacity for 40/20 lines. They just need to figure out why the line has all that extra cable.

The good news though: I had some really good luck yesterday with tech support. I spoke with a very helpful rep who checked my address and then the address 2 doors down, and confirmed their house does qualify for the higher speeds. At first he said he thought it was just the way it was wired, and there wouldn't be anything that could be done about it. I thanked him and got off the phone (even if he couldn't do anything, he was quite helpful and actually knew what he was talking about, unlike some people I've had to deal with from the normal CS department in the past few days, but that's a different story entirely).

A few minutes later he called me back and offered to escalate this. I suspect after getting off the phone he probably streetview'd it and had the same reaction I did. He transferred me to another department, not sure what, and the rep there was trying to see the difference in length for that house vs. mine, but wasn't able to. Anyways, she sent off an email somewhere (I suspect to engineering, but not sure) and is going to get back to me when she hears something back. She said she was going to get it fixed for me or at least get back to me with the actual reason it can't be fixed - I'm satisfied with that (at least I'd know they've tried).

These are the people that need raises in CL. That support rep could have gotten off the phone with me and just continued on (after all, his job was done - he'd answered the call and that was it), but instead he had the initiative to continue looking into it and get it to the right people, and I really appreciate that.
TAZ

TAZ to TAZ

Anon

to TAZ
The talktous guys (+ the escalation by tech support?) arranged for a tech visit. The tech came and it turns out the qualification tool is inaccurate. None of those houses would actually be able to get higher speeds than what I have.

I'm surprised they didn't verify that before spending money on sending a tech. I'm guessing one of the 10 houses that show 40/20 as available, would have had DSL service and they could have checked the loop length on it. (Comcast doesn't exactly provide reliable service here so I'd be surprised if they had 10 customers on this street. Which is why I've had Qwest the whole time even when Comcast would provide a 105mbit service.)