[Technology] Broadband query

Norman Potting

Well-known member

Nov 5, 2006

13,971

Sussex, Sussex not by the sea and actually nearer

• Dec 10, 2020

• #1

Currently with Utility Warehouse with the monthly combined cost for this and landline just over £45. Speed test today shows we are currently getting 24.8 mbps download, 18.1 mbps upload.

There has been a lot of activity locally (as in just up from our doorstep) by trooli who are installing fibre with a view to encouraging us to sign up to fibre to our doorsteps. They are offering free installation with a minimum monthly spend of £50. To be quite honest the speeds we get seem to suit us (often all four in the house are using phones, tablets or PC) and it doesn't really seem worth the cost. Questions from me are as follows:-

1. Are the speeds we are currently getting comparable with most of you?
2. If we upgrade will it be a case of "wow that is amazing" or "why did we bother".
3. Any suggestions regarding other packages - we are happy with UW.

Thanks in anticipation.

 

Barham's tash

Well-known member

Jun 8, 2013

3,615

Rayners Lane

• Dec 10, 2020

• #2

Not sure it’s entirely comparable - location being primary difference - but I’m paying £60 a month for Sky including Q and HD Sports with 76mb broadband.

Typical speeds are actually 50mb and often have work VPN, HD tv and three phones on the wifi with typically two watching HD content and it’s fantastic.

 

happypig

Staring at the rude boys

May 23, 2009

7,972

Eastbourne

• Dec 10, 2020

• #3

I pay plusnet about £24 a month and get about 30mb/s download and 8mb/s upload. There's two of us here and not heavy users, Was on similar at my old house and there were four of us there with my son gaming.
If you sign up for FTTP (fibre to the premises) you will get faster speeds but if you're not noticing a problem it might not be worth bothering.
You also need to consider what contention ratio the FTP provider has. Contention ratio is the number of customers connected to the DSLAM which takes a bunch of customer lines and connects them to the back haul network. For example, if you have a 50:1 contention ratio and the DSLAM is on a 1GB link, then, even if you have 100mb to your house, you might not get that due to downstream bottlenecking.
So don't be fooled by flashy adverts with big numbers as they aren't the full story.

 

beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius

Jul 21, 2003

35,313

• Dec 10, 2020

• #4

if you dont see any lag, poor quality video, its probably not worth changing and expect "why did we bother" review.

 

Swansman

Pro-peace

May 13, 2019

22,320

Sweden

• Dec 10, 2020

• #5

"The annual 2019 world speeds report from research firm M-Lab and Cable.co.uk has revealed that for 2019 the United Kingdom delivered an average (mean) broadband ISP download speed of just 22.37Mbps (up from 18.57Mbps in 2018 and 16.51Mbps in 2017), ranking us 34th fastest in the world (up from 35th last year)."

Meaning you probably got somewhere around the 2020 average.

 

Gabbafella

Well-known member

Aug 22, 2012

4,713

• Dec 10, 2020

• #6

I'm with Vodafone, I pay around £35pm and always get 60mb+ download speeds. Router seems to struggle with multiple devices, usually multiple mobiles. But at any one time we have 3 phones, PS5, TV and streaming services all feeding off the same router so it's kind of expected at times.

 

D

Diablo

Well-known member

NSC Patron

Sep 22, 2014

4,193

lewes

• Dec 10, 2020

• #7

Mine was shite ... Bt put fibre on to house with BT hub and I now get average 95 download and 32 upload which is awesome compared with what we had circa 10down and 2up. £39.99 and charged £10 to fit inc box and Hub.

 

Driver8

On the road...

NSC Patron

Jul 31, 2005

15,984

North Wales

• Dec 10, 2020

• #8

Diablo said:

Mine was shite ... Bt put fibre on to house with BT hub and I now get average 95 download and 32 upload which is awesome compared with what we had circa 10down and 2up. £39.99 and charged £10 to fit inc box and Hub.

Click to expand...

We had 1 max download for years (I live in the sticks in Wales). BT installed FTTP and it’s now 500! I won’t tell you what I pay, I just wanted the best having had years of taking days to download a film!!

 

HankSkorpio

Member

Jan 2, 2011

80

Eastbourne

• Dec 10, 2020

• #9

Good comparison here:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/broadband-and-tv/cheap-broadband/#76fibreoptic

 

schmunk

"Members"

Jan 19, 2018

9,516

Mid mid mid Sussex

• Dec 10, 2020

• #10

For context, I used to pay £25/month for a 100Mbps down / 100 Mbps up connection in my room at University.

In 1999!

 

H

Henfield One

Well-known member

Aug 5, 2003

459

• Dec 10, 2020

• #11

We upgraded to BT Halo2 on Tuesday (cheaper deal) - meant to be very good - promising excellent WiFi strength in each room & a BT engineer comes and does everything. MEANT to be and what it is - are somewhat apart. Signal is worse and the great BT engineer managed to bugger up Sky Q on our tv (whilst going on about the penalty on Monday night!). Utterly dreadful - now trying to get a BT engineer who is qualified to sort this mess out. Sky are coming tmrw..... wish we'd never changed from ordinary BT wifi.

 

Rugrat

Well-known member

Mar 13, 2011

10,215

Seaford

• Dec 10, 2020

• #12

£23 for Vodafone and get 25mps which serves us both fine + streaming + when kids are in town. Excellent wifi coverage across house and in garden

 

S

Springal

Well-known member

Feb 12, 2005

23,842

GOSBTS

• Jan 13, 2021

• #13

For those in Worthing CityFibre have launched their 1Gb fibre to the home (better than BT or Virgin which isn’t really fibre). Bonus is you don’t need a phone line anymore

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8904-worthing-cityfibre-and-zen-symmetric-fttp-service-mapped

CityFibre just built the underlying network so you have a choice of ISPs to take service from

 

A

amexer

Well-known member

Aug 8, 2011

6,211

• Jan 13, 2021

• #14

Henfield One said:

We upgraded to BT Halo2 on Tuesday (cheaper deal) - meant to be very good - promising excellent WiFi strength in each room & a BT engineer comes and does everything. MEANT to be and what it is - are somewhat apart. Signal is worse and the great BT engineer managed to bugger up Sky Q on our tv (whilst going on about the penalty on Monday night!). Utterly dreadful - now trying to get a BT engineer who is qualified to sort this mess out. Sky are coming tmrw..... wish we'd never changed from ordinary BT wifi.

Click to expand...

Interesting We are with BT and only get decent WIFI in 2 rooms downstairs none upstairs. Looking at recent advert said guarantee reception in every room. Was about to ring them up but from your experience not worth it

 

M

Mannakin

Active member

Jun 24, 2013

101

Hove (actually!)

• Jan 13, 2021

• #15

If Virgin cable is available, try them. I get 212 mb download every day/all day (usually around 15ms ping). Getting 215 mb measured at the moment with the wife and I working from home and me on a Teams meeting.

Any alternative ISP is limited if you are still on copper wire connections. Either cable or fibre is the way to go.