Hi all,

We used to get nearly 20 Mbps with TalkTalk on Devonshire Road. Now it struggles to approach 10 Mbps, and we have LOTS of dropouts. Have done all the checking, and it isn't my router.

Is anyone else having this experience?

I'm loathe to get on the phone and talk to someone from TalkTalk who will be outside of the UK and won't really won't be able to help me....

Thanks!

TalkTalk have had a series of major outages on many exchanges near or around Forest Hill in the last week or so. They are reporting cable theft on a frequent scale.

For example the Catford exchange is not promising restoration before 24 August - a break of more than one week and this extends to all providers on that patch except Virgin (they have their own infrastructure).

Whilst it cannot be stated with certainty - could it be the case that the surrounding outages are impacting on performance in Forest Hill ?

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/service-status/

I'm also with Talk Talk although in Sunderland Road. I usually get around 10.9 Mbps but like you I have been experiencing periods (usually quite short) of slow responses and numerous drop outs. It seemed to start around the time the schools broke up for the summer holidays and was particularly bad during the Olympics, which made me wonder whether it was due to an increase in broadband demand. It does seem to have settled down a bit more the last few days.

Thanks both!

Definitely not to do with major outages due to cable, etc. These are just quick, but frequent drops.

Yes, I agree that it started about the time school was let out. Maybe they just can't handle capacity, although I haven't experienced this in past years.

Just so frustrating! Although, also for us, it hasn't been as bad in the past couple of days.

cable theft?

Theft - activity conducted by the less than honest who live amongst us.

Numbers of incidences of copper cable theft have increased as the price of scrap copper has risen. Large diameter copper cables or composite cables have been primary target for the thieves and BT and Network Rail have been the biggest losers in terms of comms cables, signal cables and even HV power cables.

Reportedly BT's Catford cables were cut some time last week and BT Openreach are struggling to reinstate services to the large number of customers involved.

I've also had problems with TalkTalk in the last 2 weeks, including one 24 hour period when I had no connection at all.

OK - thanks jgdoherty .
I can understand the theft from network rail, as the cables are thick and in the open. And many perhaps are not powered at night.
I'm a bit mystified about stealing cables from a building that is actively routing data.

How do you all cope with such slow broadband lol