Now into day eighteen of FTTP service and the improvement in performance is not insignificant - but BT are seemingly unable to deliver the promised speed.

BT's own speedtester software and other creditable test sites provide evidence of severe fluctuations in the performance of my fibre optic link.

I waited the obligatory ten days for the initial "training period" to be completed, although from experience I know that 72 hours tends to be enough to know if the system is settling in or not, and then contacted BT.

The main selling point of FTTP is that the user should suffer no degradation in performance between exchange and the premises.

I was fortunate enough to record the information and technical specs provided by BT when they made their initial sales call to me and specifically sought assurance that it was a guaranteed performance that was being offered and not a woolly "up tp" XXX speed (a practice that the Regulator has deemed unacceptable in advice to BT).

I received an error ridden letter of confirmation from BT and made further calls to have those errors corrected before proceeding.

These steps have provided me with just a little comfort.

Recent calls from BT have focused on when and from whom did I receive the calls offering the guaranteed service. Noticeably on the technical front BT have not made progress on how a solution will be implemented.

Whilst contractually I feel BT will do their best to deliver the guarantee, astonishingly during one of the several long calls I have been advised that the numbers of FTTP installations have risen rapidly and BT are creating a small backlog of of individual premises where performances are only reaching as little as 65% of the planned speed.

It has also become evident that internally, between the retail part of BT (that part that sells their services to the customer) and the Wholesale unit (BT Openreach - they install and maintain the services) this 65% performance is deemed to be an acceptable level of performance.

This however is not the view of the Regulator. He has stipulated that if BT know they cannot deliver say a 100 mbps service - they are restricted in how they can advertise and sell the service and must state what speed will be delivered as part of the contract and not hide behind the spurious and dis-credited "up to" terminology. Especially when BT know in advance that potentially there is a large shortfall in magnitude that may be as much as 35%.

This is particularly important to the customer if BT already know that they themselves will attempt to set aside any customer's complaint where the performance meets their internal 65% rule. It also seriously contradicts ALL of BT's early statements about the specification of this performance level being guaranteed to the customer.

I have been promised further calls from BT but as yet none has identified how BT will resolve the under-performance at the technical level.

This issue is specific to FTTP as BT still utilise this infuriating "up to" terminology for their FTTC installations - although even for those BT should inform the customer at point-of-sale what speeds will be achievable. I feel this point is extremely important as the customer can then make an informed choice about how much speed he or she is prepared to lay down additional money for.

Are there any other Forest Hill exchange FTTP customers out there experiencing the same problem of underperformance?