Local internet speed

Arkady

<div>Hi all. i'm curious. Who do you use for your broadband service provider, and what sort of speeds do you get? You can test your speed here: http://www.supportal-test.co.uk/</div><div><br></div><div>I'm with TalkTalk. I'm currently getting only <span style="font-size: 10pt;">3.2mbps. Apparently I can expect up to 5mbps, but 3.2 is supposedly within the 'acceptable range'. Thing is, that's not always enough to use streaming services like IPlayer and Netflix without irritating buffering.</span></div><div><br></div><div>I've just been offered a deal to install fibre, which will give me minimum speeds of 38mbps (!). The deal seems reasonable - an installation fee of £50 spread over four months, then an extra tenner a month for eighteen months.</div><div><br></div><div>Before I got for that, though, I wanted to check whether other people are getting much better speeds than me under their existing broadband packages. people are often whinging/extolling the praises of their internet provider here, and I thought this might be an interesting objective test! </div>

Ali

<p>Who is installing fibre to the premise around here ?</p>

Arkady

I should clarify - they told me that a fibre connection is available, and that I would just need a new router.

jacula

We're with Virgin, and pretty happy with it to be honest. There used to be occasional dropouts, esp on Sundays, but since we got a new router from them 6 months ago it's been great. According to that website we're getting 54 Mbps download speed, and we pay £20/month.

gardener-joe

...

Ali

<p>Ark</p><p>I suspect what  your getting from TT is not fiber to the premise but fiber to the cabinet with the BT twisted pair (rented to TT)  from that to the premise.</p><p>It is similar to BT Infinity although the core network  from the exchange  and internet peering will be TTs.</p><p>The way  TT dscribe it is misleading but Virgin do that as well although they use Coax from the cabinet to the house.</p><p>TT does seems to be recovering from it's disaster with the data hacks last year although that mainly affected migrated ex Tesco customers.</p><p>Be interesting so see how you get  on.</p><p> </p><p>We have BT Infinity up to76mb  but mainly  get about 45mb when  I can be bothered to measure it. It does drop out a bit and seems to slow in the early evening with teenagers Youtubing when  they are suuposed to be doing their homework!</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

Ali

<p>Also meant to say that you will get the fastest  speed hooking your device directly to the router, you can easily loose about 30% by using wireless, same happens if you use powerline adaptors.</p><p> </p>

Arkady

Good tips. My router is already plugged directly into my set-top-box, yet I still get streaming problems.

miss annie

BT, free hub and about £35 a month for unlimited broadband. They'll throw in a gift, usually M&S voucher or something if you're a new customer.

kreuzkav

It's all swings and roundabouts.  After many years with virgin media and it being very good, it went a bit odd at the end of last year.  Outages for an hour or more once a week.  Now it's fine.  But they don't reward loyalty. They're going to increase the speed here in the next few weeks.  Get a special offer for a year then ditch them.  Get another deal.  I'm a bit long in the tooth for all that jazz.  But that's may advice.<div><br></div>

tomthemac

I'm Victoria Rd since 2006 started transferring VIRGIN from n17 where it was great under TELEWEST originally then had several years arguing with VIRGIN about the awful weekend speeds 2mbps at best ...after a lot of boring to and fro I got an email from the then CEO and access to "special support" had the local chief engineer at my beck and call within 5 mins and his own mobile number. however it soon became clear the VM issue in this area is the 'head end' (not the street cabs) which has a huge over subscription problem and requires a "million plus" investment.. "it's in planning" that was 5 years ago.. I finally ditched them when FTTC went live and was one of first connections in the road via BT 70 down 20 up no matter what. after a few twisted pair unplugs at exchange end I then discovered how awful BT where at communicating with customers but also with OPENREACH. (BT company that runs an downs the "last mile" exchanges and cabinets and wires. so ditched them now with Zen internet who we use at work same infrastructure BUT as they are business focused they are much better at dealing with faults. but they are not the cheapest. but I would whole heartedly recommend them - we now have two zen accounts connected to the house and both run extremly. well and zen staff are 100% brilliant. the first direct of broadband - check their awards with which? and so on ....do not use VIRGIN. unless you want to go bonkers! certainly in the streets round me.. and their cabinet security SUCKS. I caught a chap cutting out all the kit from one once (metal theif) and it took the whole area down for 3 or 4 days - no locks on cabs that work and the engineers often ignore cab open doors you end up doing the security watch for them - not so with OPENREACH cabs ESP the new FTTC ones...

NorthNineteen

I'm with Sky, download speed at 16.5 mpbs