Upgrading Broadband, what a palavah!

[Al ears]

Just decided to upgrade my old copper line broadband to full fibre. What a joke, or rather not.
Had to take a day off work to allow Openreach engineer in and then tear out my old system.
Promised speeds were never anywhere near quoted so called up support.
After many speed tests it appears there is no acknowledged standard speed test for broadband.
What a surprise. You cannot assuredly confirm you are not getting below minimum guaranteed speeds.
Ho hum!
Eventually proved I was getting nothing like promised and had monthly bill reduced by £12.
It's something I guess but would be nice if providers could actually produce what they promise in the first instance.....
Moan over!

 

[flashgordon1952]

i have Sky BT we are quite rural here and get minimum of 70 dowload speed. sometime i seen 80 mps but that is rare now more like 74 mps

 

[Messiah]

I've worked within broadband faults for the last 15 years and there are certain processes to follow to deal with slow speed issues.

You definitely can confirm if you are getting slow speeds and if I was not out and about on my phone I would be able to go into more details.

One thing we were always told is that FTTP will see the end of slow speed issues (not quite the case but there are a number of factors at play, anyhow...). We were also told that FTTP WILL deliver the quoted line speed. End of. If not, you could have been put on the wrong package (so effectively your speed is being capped) or there is a fault.

What does the following quote for your address (ignore it says ADSL):

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

You can also run speed tests on the following site. There are notes on there about FTTP but the key thing is ideally it needs to be from a laptop/PC and must be a wired connection.

https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/

 

[Minkey1]

FTTP 900 here. My Ethernet computing days are over. It’s all tablet and phones over wifi, but even that Speedtests at around 750 meg, so happy with that.

But for anyone currently w BT - unless you’re desperately unhappy with your plan(s) - do NOT under any circumstances subject yourself to porting everything over to EE, which BT wants to be their consumer brand.

I let it happen with Fibre, TV, and phones.

I wish I hadn’t.

 

[Al ears]

FTTP 900 here. My Ethernet computing days are over. It’s all tablet and phones over wifi, but even that Speedtests at around 750 meg, so happy with that.

But for anyone currently w BT - unless you’re desperately unhappy with your plan(s) - do NOT under any circumstances subject yourself to porting everything over to EE, which BT wants to be their consumer brand.

I let it happen with Fibre, TV, and phones.

I wish I hadn’t.

Congratulations, that is what I was initially signed up to.
However, nothing like your minimum speed was ever obtained.
I said there is no current universally means using any particular website as a speed check.
I completely disregard your comments regarding porting to anyone else.

 

[Minkey1]

I’d hoped that sharing my experience with the BT>EE transition might be useful, but whatever…

Originally BB was defined and differentiated from dial up simply by its “always on” status. When I had BT’s original “BB” product installed it was £50pm for 512kbps (IIRC), abt 0.5meg in today’s money.

A stab at some definitions is here:

What is broadband?

Broadband is the ‘always-on’ way of connecting a computer to the internet using a copper, cable, fibre or wireless connection.

www.local.gov.uk

 

[lietuva48]

Hi Ai Ears,...I hear your pain. But there might be a solution. I know that in Australia, Lithuania and Denmark the Ookla speed test is recognized as a benchmark for reliably testing internet speeds. Various companies in all 3 countries use it to help clients confirm their speeds. I'm surprised ( not ) that someone has fed you a line that there's no internationally recognized way to check internet speeds. If you google Ookla speed test, it'll pop up first on the list.

Cheers and good luck.

 

[Al ears]

Hi Ai Ears,...I hear your pain. But there might be a solution. I know that in Australia, Lithuania and Denmark the Ookla speed test is recognized as a benchmark for reliably testing internet speeds. Various companies in all 3 countries use it to help clients confirm their speeds. I'm surprised ( not ) that someone has fed you a line that there's no internationally recognized way to check internet speeds. If you google Ookla speed test, it'll pop up first on the list.

Cheers and good luck.

That's the one I was advised to use and it gave speeds way slower than many others even when pinging the same server which I found very odd.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

Anyone any experience of using/switching to Vodafone for home internet and landline?

 

[Jasonovich]

Just decided to upgrade my old copper line broadband to full fibre. What a joke, or rather not.
Had to take a day off work to allow Openreach engineer in and then tear out my old system.
Promised speeds were never anywhere near quoted so called up support.
After many speed tests it appears there is no acknowledged standard speed test for broadband.
What a surprise. You cannot assuredly confirm you are not getting below minimum guaranteed speeds.
Ho hum!
Eventually proved I was getting nothing like promised and had monthly bill reduced by £12.
It's something I guess but would be nice if providers could actually produce what they promise in the first instance.....
Moan over!

Full fibre is a step in the right direction. It is very misleading when they make these claims. I'm on Virgin's >1GB service but on average I'm getting 900mb. Those advertised speeds theoretically can be reached, if it weren't for the million others using the same service.
Still, if you feel the need to complain, there's a link to Ofcom below

Make a complaint

Ofcom may be able to help you complain about or report issues relating to: phone, broadband and postal services; TV, radio and on-demand programmes; interference to wireless devices; or something you have seen on an online service, website or app.

www.ofcom.org.uk

 

[Jasonovich]

FTTP 900 here. My Ethernet computing days are over. It’s all tablet and phones over wifi, but even that Speedtests at around 750 meg, so happy with that.

But for anyone currently w BT - unless you’re desperately unhappy with your plan(s) - do NOT under any circumstances subject yourself to porting everything over to EE, which BT wants to be their consumer brand.

I let it happen with Fibre, TV, and phones.

I wish I hadn’t.

Thanks for that, I was thinking of leaving Virgin when the contract runs out and EE did catch my eye, best left alone

 

[daveh75]

Anyone any experience of using/switching to Vodafone for home internet and landline?

I've used them in the past and they were fine while I was with them.

On the only occasion I had to contact them, which was when the connection went live to get the PPPoE Username/password so I could use my own router it took all of 2 mins talking to CS via chat, so no complaints.

I will point out this was over an Openreach connection, they also use CityFibre's network where available

 

[Minkey1]

Anyone any experience of using/switching to Vodafone for home internet and landline?

No. Had 4 mobiles with them and that cured me for life. Had a years free connection in the car and gave the SIM away rather than have any contact with them ever again. Might be different now. I’ll never know.

 

[Minkey1]

Thanks for that, I was thinking of leaving Virgin when the contract runs out and EE did catch my eye, best left alone

My experience was as a BT customer being ported over to EE, their consumer brand now. Initiated by them, and every aspect a nightmare.

VM to EE you’d be a new customer and for 1 product (BB) only it might go smoothly🤷🏼

Had issues with fibre, TV, and SIMs, escalated to a complaint to BT/EE CEOs. Running at £90 compo so far and still not all resolved.