MSE News: Broadband speeds up across UK

Former_MSE_Helen

"Broadband speeds have risen across the UK, but one in five postcodes still suffer from super-slow service..."

Read the full story:
Broadband speeds up across UK

tryingtoretire

I live in the east side of Cardiff and my Broadband averages around 0.5 Mbps. This speed is with BT, who are also the line/exchange provider. It doesn't matter who your provider is if the line will only supply 0.5Mb. For the Capital city of Wales it's a disgrace. Until 2 years ago I lived in a small village in North Lincolnshire, 20 miles from any major towns, yet my Broadband was averaging 6Mbps. Down here I cannot use Iplayer or the ITV / Channel 4 equivalent. My only other option is to subscribe to Virgin Cable which I won't because I don't need or want the TV packages. Probably need to move back up north. End of moan.

eljmayes

tryingtoretire wrote: »

I live in the east side of Cardiff and my Broadband averages around 0.5 Mbps. This speed is with BT, who are also the line/exchange provider. It doesn't matter who your provider is if the line will only supply 0.5Mb. For the Capital city of Wales it's a disgrace. Until 2 years ago I lived in a small village in North Lincolnshire, 20 miles from any major towns, yet my Broadband was averaging 6Mbps. Down here I cannot use Iplayer or the ITV / Channel 4 equivalent. My only other option is to subscribe to Virgin Cable which I won't because I don't need or want the TV packages. Probably need to move back up north. End of moan.

Have you applied for a grant to subsidise satellite broadband? Might not be ideal but would likely be quicker than a fixed line. I think the process is still open in Wales.

oldagetraveller

Have they really?
When I saw that headline it really made me laugh. In fact I laughed so much that a minor incontinent event occurred!

jamesd

tryingtoretire wrote: »

My only other option is to subscribe to Virgin Cable which I won't because I don't need or want the TV packages.

So subscribe to just the broadband service. Some people do things like Virgin cable and Sky TV. The USwitch street speed checker suggests that you'll be able to get 8-32 megabits per second that way depending on package. Though the same checker also shows a couple of megabits for BT for the specific place i was checking so it might not be the same part of east Cardiff.

tryingtoretire

Thanks for the 3 replies so far. Satellite might be an option if there's a scheme already in this area. We had satellite broadband up north before BT woke up. It was between £25 and £30/month, but it worked. I could have a Virgin Broadband package with cable but the standalone cost is excessive. About the £25/28 per month.
I am a pensioner and I cannot afford these monthly amounts. Every year I threaten BT that I'll move to Plusnet (yes, I know they're owned by BT) so they then price match (well, almost). I am paying the same monthly amount in Cardiff for a very poor service that I paid in Lincolnshire for a quite good service (speed wise). And no, I can't move back to Lincolnshire. Wish I could.
The only other alternative would be a 3g usb dongle, if and when they start charging a reasonable cost per Gb AND they allow you to roll over unused bandwidth.
I know, move on.

welshbookworm

Sorry to be slow commenting, but its taken me this long to stop laughing enough to type coherently. My speed has actually gone down slightly in the last few years - its now 3.1, though it did once reach the heady heights of 4.2!

kevpc

i also think this is a joke. my speeds in essex with sky are very good compared to a lot of places in the UK. however, sky used to advertise an 'up to 20mps service here. i got link speeds of 16mps and download speed of 14mps. now, the advertised speed for my area is 14.5mps, the link speed is 13-13.5mps and download speed of around 12mps. still extremely good as i say, but makes me wonder why it dropped and how the headline came about. to my mind, the biggest problem we have in the UK is BT itself. they want everyone to join their service but are far from the best. even the BB engineers think they are the dogs !!!!!!!! and everyone else are morons, knowing nothing at all. when i had probs, the first thing i was asked was 'why are you worried about speed for?' when i answered that i was paying for it, so i should be getting as close as possible (there were probs with the line that BT couldn't find. proved to be water main leaking on to the phone cable, or so i was told, and speed was constantly varying between 2mps and 12mps with constant interference), it wasn't liked at all. no choice here but to use BT line, so no competition. unless the old copper is fully removed and replaced with fibre, the UK will be playing 'catch up' to a lot of nations, even in 10-20 years time, despite what is said!

portlandboy

We live between Weymouth & Portland (where the Olympic sailing is being held) and we were promised a massive boost in internet speeds as BT were to roll out high speed lines in time for the Olympic events. Alas, they only did this in Weymouth & Portland, bypassing the 3 miles between the two sites! Our speeds used to be no higher than 2Mbps and since the "improvements" they have been an average of 1.5Mbps. I think BT just reduced our bandwidth to increase the others.
A great Olympic legacy, I guess.

matuan

I've bypassed the laughing stage. We live in wild west wales and not only do we have a bb-speed of barely above 1Mbps (not even mentioning upload or ping...) but the real knife turning aspect of the whole drama is the consistent advertising of what other's can get in other parts of the country. No offers apply here, only standard prices, no choice, no speed. The satellite option doesn't work either if you are concerned with latency.
Happy surfing:mad:

The_Purrfect_One

Just done the Broadband test, live ten minutes from Bedford Town Centre my wonderous Broadband Speed is......

1.6 yippppeeee

So fast.... not....

And on other tests it has come up as 1.2 !

Joined BT 7 months ago after years of dial up, they promised great broadband and a wonderful phone service in 7 months the broadband has been off 5 times and the phone 2 times.

A total of 18 days without one or the other or both.

Thinking of renting a room to a BT
engineer as they spend a lot of time here !



Anyone else similar ?
:j