Apologies if there is a double up.  My initial post disappeared as soon as I hit the post button.

My question is what speed connection “should” I get on ADSL2+.

I’m currently getting 6 Mbps down with attenuation of 28 dB.

I have been reading the forums to see what people are getting and what issues might be causing slow downs so have checked the wiring etc.

Is there anything else I should be looking at, and is it worth raising with the ISP?

(secondary question – I have an ISP chasing me saying that I should be able to get near 20 Mbps on Vectoring VDSL.  Seems high.  Is this possible?)

Background

I live semi-rural a little out of Auckland and broadband speed has always been a problem.  I had ADSL installed years ago with a master splitter.  Initially I got 3 Mbps, but over time it dropped to 28 kbps (yes, like dial up.  But the ping time was worse.) I still got reasonable speed if I was using the internet at 3 am.   Understanding the infrastructure in place a little better, I now realise the limitations.

RBI came available when Spark put a 700 MHz tower in the right place.  It is good, but comes with a 120 Gb data allowance.  With 2 teenagers at home and a wife who will watch tv on demand I got sick of the extra data charges.

So when the announcement that the local cabinet was (unexpectedly) being upgraded to fibre I was hopeful.

Initial searches showed that at 2.2 km by road from the cabinet I might get ~15 Mbps.  Actual cable cuts a few corners and attenuation agrees with a slightly shorter distance.  I realise those are probably optimal figures and real life will be a bit less.  All the charts and info seemed to indicate that VDSL was not going to be any faster, and in fact would likely be slower with more problems.  Hence the secondary question above.

I now have a naked broadband connection with Bigpipe.  Unfortunately I’m only getting 6 Mbps download speed.  Up is usually around 1 Mbps.  I checked with a Draytek 120 modem to see if there was a hardware problem. (vs the ISP provided modem/router)  Same results.  All testing done over ethernet, not Wifi.

As wiring was often mentioned as a potential problem (old house, multiple phone jacks, original ADSL splitter, questionable looking wire in the Demarc box, 15 m of twin core wire running to splitter and another few meters of phone line) I ran some Cat 6 cable (only small roll I could get.  Not expecting speeds requiring such cable!) from Demarc to a new RJ45 which the modem plugs into.  Nothing else in the line.

After a brief nervous moment waiting for a new connection to be established and, I get 6 Mbps download speed.  So much for quality wiring.😄

Searching on Geekzone I see there are a number of knowledgeable people here, some of whom work in the industry.  Hoping that they might give an opinion on what is reasonable.

I get some hope from a couple of posts by @Chevrolux indicating he has 29 dB and syncs at 12 Mbps.  I’d be happy at that.

Any suggestions on my next steps, or should I be raising this with the ISP?

Thanks

Modem stats

Maximum upstream rate (kbit/s)                  1048

Makimum downstream rate (kbit/s)            6780

Upstream noise safety coefficient (dB)            12.6

Downstream noise safety coefficient (dB)       12.2

Upstream interleave depth                                   0

Downstream interleave depth                              0

Line standard                                                        ADSL_2plus

Upstream line attenuation (dB)                         14.1

Downstream line attenuation (dB)                    28

Upstream output power (dBmV)                        12.1

Downstream output power (dBmV)                   19.3

Downstream interleave depth                           None          (this is here a second time)

DSL up time                                                           10 Days