Your internet BB speed ?

[citoyen]

So I guess its move house or lump it 

I've already come to the conclusion that this is my only realistic option. It has also occurred to me that the further we progress into the 21st century, the more likely it is that poor internet availability could have a seriously detrimental effect on house prices. My one glimmer of hope is that someone successfully sues BT for this and thus encourages them to fix it for the rest of us.

I know this is clutching at straws.

[Basil]

A lot of the pressure for faster speeds in rural areas comes from the "Captains of Industry" and similar types who have moved to or have second (third?) homes in those areas. 
Your error, and mine, is to live in an area that that is not attractive to the "posh".

[aidan.f]

Possible 3g solution for all you  'out there below 2MB/S'
A 3G router e.g. Solwise Net434T with external high gain antenna:-
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=14920

You need to research  topography and where you best  base station is and what service providers use it, All straight-forward when on a good BB signal - Catch 22.  If you PM me with a location I maybe can help.

[pcolbeck]

So I guess its move house or lump it 

I've already come to the conclusion that this is my only realistic option. It has also occurred to me that the further we progress into the 21st century, the more likely it is that poor internet availability could have a seriously detrimental effect on house prices. My one glimmer of hope is that someone successfully sues BT for this and thus encourages them to fix it for the rest of us.

I don't see on what grounds they could sue. There is no law saying BT must provide high speed broadband. BT are are private company they can provide what services they want to or not as the case may be. They unlike the other telecoms providers in the UK have a  Universal Service Obligation that goes back to when they were public owned but that only commits them to providing a fixed telephone line not an internet connection.
At least BT are trying to get faster internet to rural areas. The government is subsidizing this but non of the other telecoms companies would even bid for the contracts to do it.

Its the nature of a privatized phone network. The low density geographically dispersed bits are not economic to upgrade properly when you cant unless you use the profits from the high density urban areas to subsidize it which privatized companies aren't interested in doing. It's the same as the Royal Mail. Private companies want to provide a rival service in cities but aren't really interested in daily delivery in rural areas.

[TimC]

A lot of the pressure for faster speeds in rural areas comes from the "Captains of Industry" and similar types who have moved to or have second (third?) homes in those areas. 
Your error, and mine, is to live in an area that that is not attractive to the "posh".

The pressure for faster broadband in ANY area comes from people. There are just more of them in urban areas and it's more cost-effective for BT to concentrate on them first. I don't live in an area that would feature on any programme about runaway house prices, but there are plenty of wealthy people who live in this part of the world. It may never be cost-effective for BT to upgrade the lines here (and that is what they appear to be saying), notwithstanding the government's commitment to 'ultra-high speed broadband' (2mb!!). But there are - or will be - alternatives, and BT needs to be aware that they are no longer the only game in town. Wired broadband? That's already history.

[pcolbeck]

Wired broadband is not history. Satellite is rubbish due to the latency problems which cannot be fixed (its a simple matter of the distance to the satellite and back). 3G coverage is rubbish in most of the same areas that have poor land line broadband never mind 4G and then thee is the cost of 3 and 4G data packages.
The other comms companies really don't care about rural areas it's just economics, there is no one waiting to swoop and provide an alternative. I suspect BT really don't care that much either but it looks good for them to try and do something and I bet they are making some profit from the subsidies.
The only real alternatives are the very local ones such as running your own fibre or setting up a microwave link then using local Wifi repeaters. WiFi doesn't scale well though without lots of wired back haul between the APs.

[TimC]

It's effectively history here (where I live), Pat, as no-one's interested in dragging it out of the 1980s! Therefore people have sourced alternatives. Satellite broadband might not compare particularly favourably against fibre, but it compares brilliantly against 0.9mb wired! And 4G data prices are more affordable than not getting the data in the first place (actually, I have a 5Gb/month 4G contract which is about the same price as BT's basic broadband package, so it's not that bad). You're right that 4G isn't available yet where I live (3G is, intermittently), but it's more likely to be available than high-speed broadband.

[citoyen]

I don't see on what grounds they could sue. There is no law saying BT must provide high speed broadband.

Like I said, clutching at straws. I'm hypothesising an admittedly unlikely case where a person can show that BT's business practices have had a significant negative impact on the value of their house. You never know.

Besides, while there may be no legal requirement at the moment to provide 100% coverage and/or a minimum standard of "broadband", that may well change, especially as more and more companies are expecting their employees to work from home at least part time - my own company is considering this as an option but it simply wouldn't be practical for me at the moment because of my poor internet speed.

The UN have declared broadband a "basic human right". Which is interesting but unlikely ever to have any bearing on my situation.

Its the nature of a privatized phone network.

Ain't that the truth. And one of the many reasons for being opposed to selling off public services. Unfortunately, that boat has long since sailed.

[Jacomus]

DL: 17.91Mbps
UL: 8.11Mbps
PG: 44ms

Not too shabby. That's what my mobile is getting inside our office (which is faster than our cheapo wired broadband), using 4G. The 4G (or any) signal is a bit weak here, probably thanks to the tall buildings clustered around our not-tall one.

[TimC]

It's effectively history here (where I live), Pat, as no-one's interested in dragging it out of the 1980s! Therefore people have sourced alternatives. Satellite broadband might not compare particularly favourably against fibre, but it compares brilliantly against 0.9mb wired! And 4G data prices are more affordable than not getting the data in the first place (actually, I have a 5Gb/month 4G contract which is about the same price as BT's basic broadband package, so it's not that bad). You're right that 4G isn't available yet where I live (3G is, intermittently), but it's more likely to be available than high-speed broadband.

Another great day in BT land:



And on a dodgy 3G connection via O2:

[Poly Hive]

DL 104.28

UL 11.24

Took delivery of our new router from Virgin yesterday and up the speed scale we went. The first router they gave us was rubbish and our WIFI speeds and availability were very poor compared to what we had before the so called super hub. The new hub, the mark 2, is a serious improvement.

PH

[Bledlow]

When our Virgin super hub was installed (needed to get the full speed when they increased it), the setup was wrong. The installer left our old wireless router in place, & plugged that in to the super hub. Worked, & we got the right speeds - eventually - but took forever to connect.

I took our old router out & changed the settings on the super hub myself (easy to look up), & everything's worked well since.

He couldn't be bothered, I think.

[TimC]

A new low:



Ring BT: my broadband's a bit slow today.

BT: we've tested the line. It's fine.

Me: so this is the best I can expect for my £16/month plus line fees?

BT: yes.

[Oaky]

i let it choose it's preferred server for the test which ended up in Dublin(!) though.  I suspect that has most effect on the ping time and fine-tuning the server used woudln't improve my other scores much...

Yup...

New ISP:-

Test done earlier on when there seemed to be a lot of treacle in my interpipes. 

About time for another check...



(EDIT: shamelessly using this thread as a personal archive of BB speed results )

[hellymedic]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/3274820934.png


Rock steady.
BT have sneakily increased their charges.

[Greenbank]

Still waiting for BT to sort out my local cabinet so I can get Infinity, it's taking an age. I believe there's some planning problem with the new cabinet location.

"Fibre optic broadband is estimated to be in your area between February 2014 and March 2014."

[ian]

Still waiting for BT to sort out my local cabinet so I can get Infinity, it's taking an age. I believe there's some planning problem with the new cabinet location.

"Fibre optic broadband is estimated to be in your area between February 2014 and March 2014."

At least they'll give a timeframe. I live in the land of we-can't-tell-you. Surely there's a plan, say I? Apparently it's so secret that they've killed anyone and everyone who knows it. The TE is enabled and other than this little corner of commuterville, every cabinet insists on stabbing me with the words 'fibre is here!' Possibly it's the bears. Damn, all those OpenReach engineers need to do is approach the cabinet dressed as Grizzly Adams.

[mrcharly-YHT]

MrsCharly had the broadband installed at new house already (she and the kids can't live without internet access).

fibre with a stonking router. I get full signal on the top floor.

Theoretical max download speed = 66Mb

Actual test = 48Mb, with 3M upload

The upload speed makes a major difference; I took a pic of some new furniture, uploaded it to facebook. It was uploaded before I could say "How long . ..". At the current house, with Sky broadband (was O2) and a theoretical upload speed of 1Mb, it takes 30-40s to upload a pic.

[Greenbank]

Still waiting for BT to sort out my local cabinet so I can get Infinity, it's taking an age. I believe there's some planning problem with the new cabinet location.

"Fibre optic broadband is estimated to be in your area between February 2014 and March 2014."

At least they'll give a timeframe. I live in the land of we-can't-tell-you. Surely there's a plan, say I? Apparently it's so secret that they've killed anyone and everyone who knows it. The TE is enabled and other than this little corner of commuterville, every cabinet insists on stabbing me with the words 'fibre is here!' Possibly it's the bears. Damn, all those OpenReach engineers need to do is approach the cabinet dressed as Grizzly Adams.

Most likely it's been because there have been objections about the location of the new (larger) cabinet that services you.

Take heart that it's not all good for me. Over the last 18 months the quoted deadline has been steadily pushed further and further out. I remember checking in November 2012 and being told it would be there in December 2012. Each month I checked the deadline just moved on.

Then BT got told they couldn't do this any more and for the last 6 months mine has been stuck on March 2014. I hold little hope.

[TimC]

They update cabinets now? I'm not sure where my cabinet is - it may be miles away. I am sure that in it is a very old, one-lunged, chain-smoking hamster on an electron wheel that has lost all its paddles. They haven't realised he's still there, so he's struggling on well past retirement age. In fact, a bit like Japanese soldiers, he'll still be there, forty years from now, spinning away ineffectually for Queen and country. And I'll still have 'broadband' that doesn't quite achieve the dizzy heights of 1mb download speed, let alone upload.

[Greenbank]

Yes, BT Infinity is FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet).

Broadband speed is, roughly, inversely proportional to the length of the copper between your router and the DSLAM (that magic box that converts the signals over the copper into network magic). The longer the length of copper between you and the DSLAM the slower your broadband is.

Originally your 'phone line is is a piece of copper that runs from your house to a nearby cabinet somewhere and then, along with lots of other people's bits of copper, all the way to the exchange.

When DSL was first rolled out the DSLAMs were located at the exchange, so if didn't matter if you were only 100 yards from your cabinet, it was still 6km in total to the exchange.

With FTTC they build a new, slightly larger, cabinet near the existing one and put the equivalent of the DSLAMs in the cabinet. Now the run of copper to the DSLAM is (for this example) only 100 yards, and that allows them to use VDSL2/etc to get speeds up near 80Mbps (if you're really close). The cabinet is then connected to the exchange using fibre optic cable so that capacity/speed is not an issue.

If your cabinet is miles away you may still get a speed increase if FTTC decreases the total copper run length by a large margin.

Of course, if the cabinet only serves a small number of people then it'll be way down the list of priorities for OpenReach to upgrade to FTTC as the cost per subscriber is going to be much more (laying fibre between exchange and cabinet(s)). It also depends on whether your exchange has had the equipment upgrade to handle FTTC as the exchange now needs to handle the incoming fibre.

[rusky]

[hellymedic]

Most likely it's been because there have been objections about the location of the new (larger) cabinet that services you.

Take heart that it's not all good for me. Over the last 18 months the quoted deadline has been steadily pushed further and further out. I remember checking in November 2012 and being told it would be there in December 2012. Each month I checked the deadline just moved on.

Then BT got told they couldn't do this any more and for the last 6 months mine has been stuck on March 2014. I hold little hope.

I had similar before they finally launched FTTC here.
Had my Infinity connection the first week it was available here.

I thought I'd wait until Infinity...

[TimC]

Yes, BT Infinity is FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet).[snip]

I know. My post was somewhat ironic. I have discussed with BT their plans to update my exchange to meet the government's commitment to deliver a minimum of 2mb broadband. Their reply is that they have 'no plans'. I genuinely don't have any idea where the cabinet is, but it will be a very small proportion of the 7 to 14km (depending on which BT spokesrobot I believe) line distance from the exchange - too far for any prospect of FTTC.

I don't anticipate any change in my 0.5 - 0.9mb download speed anytime in the next few years.

[Bledlow]

My nearest BT fibre is a few hundred metres away. BT says it can deliver 30-42 meg here, & 6-8 meg upload.

Virgin is currently delivering 'up to' 30 (in practice at least 30, e.g. 33 just now), or 60 if you pay more,  & promising to uprate 30 to 50 later this year. Upload is much slower than BT promises, though, only 2 meg.