General broadband question....

Lynton

Lynton

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Lynton (yes really!)
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Ok, probably not the best set up but bear with me...

Phone line is via BT, and broadband AOL which seems to have been taken over by talktalk...

BT suggest maximum for this area is 8 Mb download (8Mb exchange) and fibre optic accorrding to Openreach is a pipe dream in this area.

However I go to speedtest.net or similar and it generally knocks out 13Mb or so,

How can I be getting 13Mb out of an exchange that the provider insists is only 8Mb?
 
Their online checker is not an exact science, maximum theoretical can be as high as 24...

Count yourself luck as you'll have a good line, good distance and decent modem....

No need to show off :P
 
I've got BT too and we have just had the superfast thing installed here, but I'm not bothered what I have is plenty fast enough, it to said 8mb but seems to rune
closer to 18
 
should i switch to sky and the line rental goes through sky (2 yrs free unlimited broadband) I assume same line same exchange same speed, a bit like other utilities?
 
Essentially, any other licences operator (OLO) other than Virgin Media uses the BT line & exchange to deliver the service to the customer.

You might find that an OLO has newer exchange equipment than the local BT kit, which may have an impact, but the "wires", be they copper or fibre, from the exchange to the premises will be BTs (actually, Openreach's).

One other reason you might be getting a higher throughput than you expect is down to lower contention on your SP's hardware. Where I live there's a large number of VM customers so when Infinity became available I was the fist one in the area to use so the speed was like lightning. In the last 2 months or so it's slipped a tad, but there's a lot more people using the service now, so higher contention for the bandwidth.
 
Lynton said:
should i switch to sky and the line rental goes through sky (2 yrs free unlimited broadband) I assume same line same exchange same speed, a bit like other utilities?
Click to expand...

It may be the same line, but that line could switch over the Sky equipment. Not saying that would cause a slowdown, just that it could.
 
ecoleman said:
It may be the same line, but that line could switch over the Sky equipment. Not saying that would cause a slowdown, just that it could.
Click to expand...

Thanks... I think i understand what you mean... however, what I don't get is all the same physical equipment, however BT may bung 100 wotsits down it a minute, sky may bung only 50? (simple terms I know, however I am ...) .. ok yeah!!
 
BT Bob said:
Essentially, any other licences operator (OLO) other than Virgin Media uses the BT line & exchange to deliver the service to the customer.

You might find that an OLO has newer exchange equipment than the local BT kit, which may have an impact, but the "wires", be they copper or fibre, from the exchange to the premises will be BTs (actually, Openreach's).

One other reason you might be getting a higher throughput than you expect is down to lower contention on your SP's hardware. Where I live there's a large number of VM customers so when Infinity became available I was the fist one in the area to use so the speed was like lightning. In the last 2 months or so it's slipped a tad, but there's a lot more people using the service now, so higher contention for the bandwidth.
Click to expand...


Ah, that makes perfect sense... appreciated.. :-)
 
I had SKY....I couldn't get out of the contract fast enough. Hadn't known such unreliability since Freeserve. I'm sure others love it though.
 
One thing to keep in mind with the BB deals around at the the moment - especially the BT v Sky situation......... this is all about Sport v BB.

So, BT provide BT Sport free to its BB customers, whilst Sky are currently doing free BB is you're a Sky Sports customer. If sport is your thing, BT are VERY serious about increasing it's content and delivery in future, so this may become a more attractive package.

Apart from the 1/2 dozen or so "protected" sporting events, it's hard to see the future of sport broadcasting in the UK as anything other than being a paid subscription service.

I would also expect to see an increase in the number and complexity of "bundles" as well - TV, home phone, BB, mobile, even data bundles for tablets (3 and 4G). US companies like Verizon are much more advanced than the UK market - for now!!!
 
Sport was a zero factor for me. When we looked sky was cheaper for TV, voice and data than BT (Virgin wasn't available at the time). Sky was also unlimited and unthrottled compared to most.
 
Lynton said:
Ok, probably not the best set up but bear with me...

Phone line is via BT, and broadband AOL which seems to have been taken over by talktalk...

BT suggest maximum for this area is 8 Mb download (8Mb exchange) and fibre optic accorrding to Openreach is a pipe dream in this area.

However I go to speedtest.net or similar and it generally knocks out 13Mb or so,

How can I be getting 13Mb out of an exchange that the provider insists is only 8Mb?
Click to expand...

Im also with TT M8 and 300mtrs from the exchange,averaging about 21mbps. Speedtest.net is ok like any of them but will give varied results +/- a few kbps each time you do it.Check you ADSL summary as that should give you a more true figure of what it is running at.
 
If you have good speed stick with it my area sky is really good been with them for years. My last provider was under pinned by tiscali. A complete disaster. Go to a speed checker or uswitch site and see what.local people get. Remember your connection is only as good as the slowest part of a chain
 
Lynton said:
How can I be getting 13Mb out of an exchange that the provider insists is only 8Mb?
Click to expand...
I have a similar situation with BT telling me max line speed is 1.5Mb whereas I rarely get less than 2.5 (with BT). But when the house next to me was empty I was getting more like 4.5Mb so maybe they have a standard figure for contention ratio so if less people are on BT than they expect then you get better service.
 
TopBanana said:
I have a similar situation with BT telling me max line speed is 1.5Mb whereas I rarely get less than 2.5 (with BT). But when the house next to me was empty I was getting more like 4.5Mb so maybe they have a standard figure for contention ratio so if less people are on BT than they expect then you get better service.
Click to expand...
that could be a multitude of things to be honest. is that what the router is showing as the sync speed?

could be that your cabling was interfered with in the green box on the road during next doors install. if youre doing the speed test over wireless, could be that their wireless is interfering with yours. etc etc
 
BT Bob said:
One other reason you might be getting a higher throughput than you expect is down to lower contention on your SP's hardware. Where I live there's a large number of VM customers so when Infinity became available I was the fist one in the area to use so the speed was like lightning. In the last 2 months or so it's slipped a tad, but there's a lot more people using the service now, so higher contention for the bandwidth.
Click to expand...

If it's an unbundled line, then the ISP is often the same as the provider of the backhaul network (e.g. talktalkscali, Sky). There are many ISPs that aren't using unbundled lines so use the Openreach backhaul (these are the ones that badly informed people say are "rebadged BT Internet"). The ISP I use has at various times allowed its ADSL customers to choose between BT20CN, BT21CN, talktalk and Be for the line type / backhaul, depending on what is available at the exchange. While I was with them for ADSL, I used all four networks at different times and never experienced an "evening slowdown", which suggests to me the contention is more likely ISP based, either in their connection to the backhaul network or their connections to the rest of the internet.
 
onomatopoeia said:
If it's an unbundled line, then the ISP is often the same as the provider of the backhaul network (e.g. talktalkscali, Sky). There are many ISPs that aren't using unbundled lines so use the Openreach backhaul (these are the ones that badly informed people say are "rebadged BT Internet"). The ISP I use has at various times allowed its ADSL customers to choose between BT20CN, BT21CN, talktalk and Be for the line type / backhaul, depending on what is available at the exchange. While I was with them for ADSL, I used all four networks at different times and never experienced an "evening slowdown", which suggests to me the contention is more likely ISP based, either in their connection to the backhaul network or their connections to the rest of the internet.
Click to expand...

and in English??? :)
 
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