Your line should be capable of supporting download speeds up to 6Mb. Unbundled broad

roses

Hi, I just phoned Virgin to cancel and say I am moving over to Sky. They did a check on my line and told me although Sky offer up to 20mb, looking at my address I can only get around 6mb.

I did a search on http://www.broadbandchecker.co.uk/broadband-checker.php and am confused about:
Your line should be capable of supporting download speeds up to 6Mb.
Unbundled broadband services up to 24Mb (around 480 times faster than dial-up) are available in your area

So does this mean I can get up to 24mb or only 6mb? I live 1 mile away from my exchange so am suprised 6mb sounds low for that distance.

Exchange

• Your local BT Exchange is ADSL broadband enabled

Line

• Your line should be capable of supporting download speeds up to 6Mb.
• Your line will be fully tested when you place a broadband order
• Postcode-only checks are not 100% accurate
• Please click here and enter your phone number
• Unbundled broadband services up to 24Mb (around 480 times faster than dial-up) are available in your area

stephen25uk

go to the samknows website and look up your telephone exchange...if sky have there own equipment in there (LLU) then you will get the faster speed

Mark_In_Hampshire

It's up to 24Mbps. In reality only the people in the exchange can get 24Mbps.

For example to get 20Mbps you need a line circa 1km long or less. Not many have that either.

The speed of 6Mbps corresponds with a line length of about 3km if it's standard gauge copper. Which is reasonable given you're a mile from the exchange.

spud17

Did you honestly think that one company is going to give an unbiased opinion of anothers services?

VM told me that they had used a 'special' checker, my info was wrong, and if I moved I'd only get 2Mbps.
I'd already done my research and had found that I could expect around 5.5Mbps, in reality, it's around 6Mbps.:)

Try the checker below, it's the one I use.

https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/static/Community/Broadband_Community/Coverage/ADSL_Availibility_Checker.html

Mark_In_Hampshire

From what I can see, Virgin Media took their information straight from BT - who probably ought to know - and simply made the customer aware of it. There's no bias. The estimate is BT's information which the customer can also look up.

If they had not, perhaps the customer might have migrated from a 20meg cable service to a dismally slow (by comparison) 6meg one without realising, then stuck in a year's contract with it.

You'll never know what speed the line will run at until it's activated, so if considering a move, you might like to look at how much it will cost to cancel if it doesn't work out. Bear in mind the ISP does not have to provide the estimated speeds anyway. It is just an estimate. Cable is the same, it's up to 20 meg or whatever, but cable does tend to perform at or near the headline speed.

One option is to get the line set up on a month to month contract and see what speed it syncs at, but that's going to cost minimum £49+ to connect the line plus 1 month broadband + £25 disconnect fee + cost of modem and so on.

If the house has been cabled for years it could be a decade or more since the BT line was last used and so the estimate is guesswork anyway, it could be slower or faster than the estimate. The best bet is probably to see if you can find anyone in your street who doesn't have cable and has ADSL2+ and see what sync speed they get for an idea.

This chart shows approximate speeds versus distance, however it's based on a particular gauge of copper (0.5mm I think) and some lines are 0.3mm and some aren't even copper, so it's just a guide:

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php