Does your Broadband SUCK please read

[danroyle]

i was watching the gadget show last night and they had a piece about how only around 21% of us get our advertised broadband speed and they are campaigning to get the up to dropped on broadband and make isp's tell us exactly what we will get.

they also went on to point out things such as a loophole the isp's have that says they can provide us with any speed they like and we cant do much.

so heres the bit ofcom have got involved and the gadget show have said they need data from users,and we have to do is go to the following link run the test and input your details so they can get an accurate view of which areas are worst.

On TV - The Gadget Show


also out for those interested they tried to get the 5 main isp's to explain why they use the term up to 8mb in there sale and of the top 5 only virgin actually had the guts to send someone along to respond to there questions BT refused to comment as did the others

[moogle]

page isn't loading atm

[peterb]

The reason why ISPs use the term "up to 8Mb/s" because that is what the service is. It is rate adaptive and adjusts itself to the optimum speed for that particular line/router combination. It is almost impossible to accurately forecast what the specific speed will be for any particular combination - even a change in the internal house (telephone) wiring can change the speed at which rate adaptive BB will operate.

<cynic mode>

If ofcom get involved, all that will happen is that ISPs will change the marketing, to explain this, or just advertise in a different way. One way would be to off guranteed minimum speeds of (say) 400Kb/s with the condition -"actual speeds may be greater than this" although that might look politivcally unacceptable to the government, so it probably won't happen.

</cynic mode>

[Re-Invented]

I unfortuantley agree with the ISP's as it does state Up To 8Mb what else are they going to put as it does vary from area to area, if you use bt line checker it tells you roughly what you are going to recive on your line, most people dont even know the differnce between 3Mb and 8Mb anyway so I think they are just p***ing up wind to be quite truthful.

Regards
Lee

[danroyle]

i think the issue is more related to instances when you get 6.5mb out of your 8mb but when peak times hit you drop to a crawling pace i used to g et it with tiscali peak times i could get as low speeds as 256k down on and 8mb line

moogle if link doesn't work try

The Gadget Show

[SiM]

there will still be problems because the speed often depend on the telephone wiring in your house...

[moogle]

i think the issue is more related to instances when you get 6.5mb out of your 8mb but when peak times hit you drop to a crawling pace i used to g et it with tiscali peak times i could get as low speeds as 256k down on and 8mb line

moogle if link doesn't work try

The Gadget Show

works fine now. thanks

[Phil_P]

I agree, for the most part it's not the ISPs fault and I don't see anything wrong in stating "upto 8mb" because as others have said, that's exactly what it is. The alternative is to sell only fixed speed services like the old 0.5 and 2mb services.

I think their major gripe is that on average we're not getting as good speeds as elsewhere in the world and there is a perception that we have a second rate service or are being left behind. Technically, I don't know what can be done to increase speeds for people living more than a mile or two from their local exchange. I was actually quite impressed with the push back in 2004 to get most of the UK exchanges converted for broadband and this is the type of direction they should focus their efforts rather than complaining about the way ISPs market available services.

Just my opinion.

[Steve B]

there will still be problems because the speed often depend on the telephone wiring in your house...

Depend my ass. Its the swathes of crappy quality aluminium cabling that BT has been laying thats causing the crap speeds. By the time 21CN is actually implemented fully, it'll be old-tech.

Why dont new builds come pre-fibred. Its tiny diameter makes it relatively easy and cheap to lay. It's also ahead of the game.

[Steve B]

I agree, for the most part it's not the ISPs fault and I don't see anything wrong in stating "upto 8mb" because as others have said, that's exactly what it is. The alternative is to sell only fixed speed services like the old 0.5 and 2mb services.

I think their major gripe is that on average we're not getting as good speeds as elsewhere in the world and there is a perception that we have a second rate service or are being left behind. Technically, I don't know what can be done to increase speeds for people living more than a mile or two from their local exchange. I was actually quite impressed with the push back in 2004 to get most of the UK exchanges converted for broadband and this is the type of direction they should focus their efforts rather than complaining about the way ISPs market available services.

Just my opinion.

Then, why should someone who is local to the exchange pay the same price as someone who gets 1/8th of the speed, living further away from the exchange.

Surely the cost of the service should be a product of actual speed and bandwidth usage.

[Phil_P]

Then, why should someone who is local to the exchange pay the same price as someone who gets 1/8th of the speed, living further away from the exchange.

Surely the cost of the service should be a product of actual speed and bandwidth usage.

If you live a distance from the local exchange and know you're not going to get more than a certain speed, don't pay extra for a faster service you're not going to be able to use - buy a package that's appropriate.

Should Ferrari sell their cars cheaper in the UK than Germany because we have a slower speed limit and can't drive them as fast here?

The point here is that it's not the fault of the ISPs - they're not mis-selling anything and are clearly stating what it is you're buying. If people don't understand that then we need to better educate consumers, not chastise the ISPs. The campaign is misguided IMHO. As you stated above they'd be better served focusing their attention at getting infrastructure installed to cope with higher speeds than complaining about the way current services are sold.

[Steve B]

By the very definition of ISP, the "Go To Guy" for getting slow speeds IS the ISP. Thats probably why the educated are moaning at them, and the uneducated are doing nothing. You rightly pointed out that customers need to be better educated, but I feel that they need to be educated by their ISP. In that sense, the campaign is slightly misguided in its direction, but I still feel that chastising the ISPs to do something about it is the best option.

[UltraMagnus]

i just hope this will put an end to people advertising "unlimited" broadband

[peterb]

Its the swathes of crappy quality aluminium cabling that BT has been laying thats causing the crap speeds.

Another myth! Aluminium cables themselves do not contribute to low ADSL speeds. The condiuctivity of aluminium is not significantly less than copper. Where aluminium can cause problems is where it is poorly spliced or otherwise connected to a copper conductor, and the junction gets wet and corrodes - it is the corroded connection between two dissimilar metals that causes the problem (the samew would be true if you joined silver to copper).

Why dont new builds come pre-fibred. Its tiny diameter makes it relatively easy and cheap to lay. It's also ahead of the game.

One of the (legal) remits of a telco is provide a 999 service that is always available. Copper is self powering, so in the event of a power failure a telephone service is still available (whether the consumer chooses to maintain a line owered cable is another matter) Fibre does not provide that capability and the line terminating equipment has to be powered. This could be by rechargeable battery, but that adds a maintenance/repair load. Fibre termination/drivers are still more expensive than cable, and the termination is not as straightforward.

The better way (currently) of using fibre is to deliver it (with power) to roadside cabinets and then distribute the service over the last few hundred yards using cable.

That may eventually come, but seeing as the country "was going to be cabled" for cable TV over 20years ago, and there are still areas of the population that doesn't have access to cable TV or the other services - such as broadband - it may be a while happening. 21Cn offers the most promising option for the near (5+ years) future.

[Re-Invented]

i just hope this will put an end to people advertising "unlimited" broadband

This is a totally differnet matter to this thou as unlimited is to do with data uasage not the speeds of the line itself

Regards
Lee

[Aez]

Which material does virgin media use for the cable line, and surely they could offer faster speeds over it than they currently do (one of the downsides to virgin media is the "peak times" limiting which is horrendous)