Slow broadband in our area - what options do we have?

lisak79

Hi all. My mum currently has tesco broadband but the contract is up in 3 weeks and she wants to change provider as tesco broadband is so slow where she lives. It is a pretty built up area that she lives in but according to some sites online where we tested the postcode area for speeds she can only get up to 2mb speeds in her area so does that mean that it will be as slow if she changes from Tesco Broadband to another provider? If it is gonna be just as slow then there would be no point in changing and is there anything she can do to improve speeds as when she is on pc and brother is on xbox 360 the game lags for my brother and slows down when he is on xbox live so is there any solution to this?

Thanks in advance

juliescot

^^^ - right up there for the most pointless post award

juliescot

This site will help her find what is available

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

What speeds has she been getting?

lisak79

She has been getting speeds of less than 2mb which I think is shocking in this day and age of technology!!!

juliescot

lisak79 wrote: »

She has been getting speeds of less than 2mb which I think is shocking in this day and age of technology!!!

2mb is the government target for the digital revolution (as if)

What does the site suggest she might be able to achieve?

DatabaseError

change to a better ISP, zen, idnet etc..., the xbox lag is nothing to do with 2mbs broadband!

@unleaded - Brown is not responsible for the current telecoms situation
@lisa79 ask your MP to lobby for 'fibre to the cabinet', and explain you are happy to pay for it (I really would happily stump up my share..maybe £100?!)

lisak79

The xbox is only lagging when it is being used on xbox live at the same time as the pc being used.

moonrakerz

lisak79 wrote: »

She has been getting speeds of less than 2mb which I think is shocking in this day and age of technology!!!

I note you are in Norfolk, a fairly rural county, how far from the telephone exchange is she - that is THE most relevant item to ascertain before you do anything else.

lisak79

My mum lives 1.79km from the exchage

macman

Have you reviewed any possible LLU options on samknows.com? If there are no LLU options on your exchange, then switching ISP's is unlikely to give you any speed boost, as you will still be on the same BT Wholesale connection that you are on with Tesco. By the sound of it, you have already done these checks on some ISP's, but you don't say which. What exchange are you on?
If you can't get any faster speeds on the external part of the line, you need to look at your internal wiring set up. Have you tried plugging your router into the BT test socket behind the master socket and retesting your speed, have you checked all the filters are fitted and working OK?