Broadband speed halving is 'acceptable' apparently?
Discussion
I was having major broadband issues at the beginning of the year (broadband slow and cutting out, crackly phone line) culminating in a BT engineer coming out twice. Second time he diagnosed an issue where the wire went underground (having left the house and gone across to and then down a pole opposite). He re-routed it via a spare wire going to where-ever they go, and the problem was solved.
Since then I've had reliable broadband and totally clear phone line.
It's still totally clear, but the broadband speed has recently dropped from the 5Mbps I was getting to anything between 1.5 and 2.5.
I've just had an hour on the phone with EE (my provider) trying different things but the upshot is that they can't get it back up to the speed it was at, and the BT minimum speed promised is 1.2Mbps, so they say there is nothing they can do as it is classed as 'acceptable', even though it's often half of what it was.
They can switch me to fibre of course, for an extra £20/month...
My contract with them runs out next month so I could change, but if all the providers rely on the BT wiring, and BT say it's within tolerance, presumably that won't change anything.
How a speed that won't even run a Facebook video can be regarded as acceptable is a mystery to me, but there it is. More to the point, how a speed half or what it was earlier this year is acceptable is also a mystery. A bit like having a car that would do 100mph and now tops out at 50mph and being told by the garage that's acceptable. It clearly isn't because it's clearly capable of far more.
So, short of biting the bullet and coughing up for Fibre, is there anything else I can do?
Since then I've had reliable broadband and totally clear phone line.
It's still totally clear, but the broadband speed has recently dropped from the 5Mbps I was getting to anything between 1.5 and 2.5.
I've just had an hour on the phone with EE (my provider) trying different things but the upshot is that they can't get it back up to the speed it was at, and the BT minimum speed promised is 1.2Mbps, so they say there is nothing they can do as it is classed as 'acceptable', even though it's often half of what it was.
They can switch me to fibre of course, for an extra £20/month...
My contract with them runs out next month so I could change, but if all the providers rely on the BT wiring, and BT say it's within tolerance, presumably that won't change anything.
How a speed that won't even run a Facebook video can be regarded as acceptable is a mystery to me, but there it is. More to the point, how a speed half or what it was earlier this year is acceptable is also a mystery. A bit like having a car that would do 100mph and now tops out at 50mph and being told by the garage that's acceptable. It clearly isn't because it's clearly capable of far more.
So, short of biting the bullet and coughing up for Fibre, is there anything else I can do?
hornetrider said:
BT are doing a fibre offer at the moment. Get on the blower and negotiate.
Thanks. Just had a look. Even with the current 'deal' it's still £40/month plus £50 connection. I know that's chump change to our powerfully built brethren, but over three years that's £1,500! Hell of a lot more than I'm paying now...zedx19 said:
Minimum promised speed = 1.2Mbps, you're getting 1.5MBps to 2.5Mbps. What's the issue? Previous speed is irrelevant, you signed up with a quoted minimum speed of 1.2Mbps.
The problem is that I know it can, and has, run much faster. So wondering if there's any helpful advice with suggestions of I can do to help boost it back up to where it was, in the light of the provider being unable to help.page3 said:
Speed estimates are worse than useless, especially when guaranteed minimum isn't within the estimate.
On fibre my estimate is between 9 and 27. That's such a wide range it is if no use whatsoever.
It is a bit of a get out of jail free pass isn't it? Bit like selling a car that should do 90-100mph flat out but with a caveat that anything over 50mph is deemed as acceptable. On fibre my estimate is between 9 and 27. That's such a wide range it is if no use whatsoever.
Ari said:
jmorgan said:
How are you measuring the speed? Also is the correct password and user details in?
http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/As far as I know it has the right password etc - it just wouldn't work otherwise surely?
Been on a few where the password was incorrect but still a throttled service. Buisiness broadband though, not sure if it is the same for home.
Ive had huge problems with BT Fibre....the orevious BT boradband was fine...fibre is slow,cut out constantly, the wi fi range is pitiful...I had engineers out digging my garden up, days in my loft etc etc...it was a problem in the green box in the end up the road...they missed several appts and for that they pay you £10 per missed one.
Havnt decieded what to do as yet, theres no cable where I live
Ari said:
The problem is that I know it can, and has, run much faster. So wondering if there's any helpful advice with suggestions of I can do to help boost it back up to where it was, in the light of the provider being unable to help.
By rerouting the line because the old one was faulty, they have made the line longer and this has had an impact of your broadband speed.It ran faster due to the line being shorter. They didn't repair your old line probbably due to the cost involved.
POORCARDEALER said:
Ive had huge problems with BT Fibre....the orevious BT boradband was fine...fibre is slow,cut out constantly, the wi fi range is pitiful...I had engineers out digging my garden up, days in my loft etc etc...it was a problem in the green box in the end up the road...they missed several appts and for that they pay you £10 per missed one.
Havnt decieded what to do as yet, theres no cable where I live
Are you sure this isn't a router problem? The wifi range is a router problem and the others may be due to a sHavnt decieded what to do as yet, theres no cable where I live
t router.I have an Apple airport extreme and it's perfect.
Ari said:
How a speed that won't even run a Facebook video can be regarded as acceptable is a mystery to me, but there it is. More to the point, how a speed half or what it was earlier this year is acceptable is also a mystery. A bit like having a car that would do 100mph and now tops out at 50mph and being told by the garage that's acceptable. It clearly isn't because it's clearly capable of far more.
Not really, the "car" now has a smaller turbo due to the original part being no longer manufactured, leading to a reduction in horsepower.Ari said:
Ha. Took the filter out, but of course the wire from the router has a smaller plug that goes into the special slot for it on the filter, and won't plug directly into the standard sized phone socket. Bugger.
Depending on the phone socket you have you can unscrew the face plate and plug directly into the test socket. You'll still need a filter or adapter to plug the modem cable into that though. See what difference that makes. 
I removed the bell wire and it helped mine by about 50%, it's fine as long as you don't have an old fashioned phone, done easily http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm
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