Speeding up UK DSL

Someone at El Reg seems to have just woken up. They’ve run a piece about BT’s master socket addition. For those not already in the know, DSL is rate adaptive. That means if there is noise on the line it will run slower, if there isn’t it can run faster.

A little ironically, most of the noise that causes slow DSL isn’t caused by BT’s copper in the ground. The most comon cause is poor quality wiring in the home or the office. The wiring, combined with noisy electrical appliances, wreaks havoc with DSLs coding mechanisms, causing it to run more slowly.

Early this year (about 6 months ago), BT released the I-Plate (although they seem to have a newish blog post on it here). The I-Plate fits to an NTE 5 master socket and aims to cut down on interference, in theory it can deliver speed improvements of up to 4Mbps.

Essentially the Interstitial Plate filters the bell wire, for those that don’t want to remove it (a favorite broadband speed hack). The actual benefit will depend on your line and in-premise wiring. Still, for about a tenner, it’s worth checking out, if you have an NTE 5 terminated line. If you don’t, then consider disconnecting unused extension wires and the like. Every little helps!