Very UnstableInternet Speed

silentotter

I am in a BT contract for phone and internet. We have the ordinary internet as infinity won't be available here until at least September.

I am supposed to be getting 7.5 mb download but it is very very unstable and goes between 6.6 mb to 264kb in speed. This has happened 4 times so far this year and each time I have called BT and they test the line and it improves for a few weeks.

I have been offered a job working from home which requires a good stable internet speed and stability. I know I couldn't risk taking the job as I can't rely on the stability of my internet service, therefore I am losing earnings.

Could I not complain to BT about this and end my contract on the basis that it is not fit for purpose as they are not giving me a reliable internet service and I'm actually losing earning. All I have had from them before when I have called is you are in a contract with us till December.

I would be very grateful for any advice as I am about at the end of my tether with all of this and once again will have to complain to them as my speed has dropped to 264kb. I really would prefer to take my business to people that can provide me with a good stable internet speed.

jenniemiller177

I'm not sure on all the answers to your questions, however have had similar problems. We have been through about a month an a half of dropping internet speed at random times. To cut a long and frustrating story short, the problem ended up being the cable from outside the house to inside. BT found this by sending an engineer to test the line.

I don't think they take into account losing earning unless you have a business line, however I am not certain on this and it will be interesting to see what others say.

brewerdave

If you are working from home then you need to invest in a business line with some form of SLA -It is actually against the terms and conditions of most,if not all, ISPs, to use a residential line for business/trading purposes - you could have a major outage of weeks with no financial comeback from BT.

only_mee

silentotter wrote: »

I am in a BT contract for phone and internet. We have the ordinary internet as infinity won't be available here until at least September.

Ours was supposed to be DEC 13 it went live a few weeks a go always worth checking to see if it's live before hand.

Gordon_Hose

brewerdave wrote: »

If you are working from home then you need to invest in a business line with some form of SLA -It is actually against the terms and conditions of most,if not all, ISPs, to use a residential line for business/trading purposes - you could have a major outage of weeks with no financial comeback from BT.

If you're simply working from home for a company with offices elsewhere you can use residential broadband but you won't be covered by any enhanced SLA.

If you're running a business from home you need business broadband.

It depends on the risk you want to take. I work from home on a residential broadband line and have never had an outage.

I had the same argument with Sky when I signed up with them. They know full well I use their broadband to work from home.

Basil1234

if this job is broadband dependent you have another choice get another line put in as each physical line has 2 twisted pairs in it. but how many companies can do this will just use openreach to do it.
and then in Sept could bin the first broadband line but would cost £100 odd to set up, i would recommend plusnet basically bt owned company with proper uk call centers and they are good and competetive as well.

by the sound of it you may have water ingress on the line some where anyway usually on the line between house and the telegraph pole of course technically if it was to break which they do from time to time due to wind etc they would have to come to put a new line from telegraph pole to your house which may improve you issue my friends line 'broke' outside amazing that think is was wear and tear with wind but thats what line rental is paid for to repair a line as you only rent the line ;);)
as long as you haven't got an internal wiring issue such as a badly wired extension because if you did have them out for a wiring issue other than one i described and they found an internal wiring fault on your equipment thats anything past the master socket you would get a bill usually around £120 mark. so i take it you have checked all your own wiring? and also what are you router stats that will tell alot more to us?

basil

brewerdave

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

If you're simply working from home for a company with offices elsewhere you can use residential broadband but you won't be covered by any enhanced SLA.

If you're running a business from home you need business broadband.

It depends on the risk you want to take. I work from home on a residential broadband line and have never had an outage.

I had the same argument with Sky when I signed up with them. They know full well I use their broadband to work from home.

...I took it from the OP's initial post,that he would be carrying out tasks online for appreciable lengths of time every day ,not just picking up emails ,information etc from his office on an irregular basis -it seems to me that the risk of the loss of connectivity is too great to have a standard residential line contract in such circumstances - presume that you are working for yourself Gordon??:)

yangptangkipperbang

silentotter wrote: »

I am supposed to be getting 7.5 mb download

Who says ? BT certainly wouldn't have told you that. What package are you on ? An "8mbs" package has a theoretical max speed of 7150mbs in laboratory conditions, so start at that figure and go down.

Whatever you are on will say "up to xx mbs" - NO internet provider will guarantee any speed except at VERY high cost. There is so much that is totally outside of their control, that it is impossible to give any accurate speed figures.

You will struggle to end your contract with BT - they will say that they are supplying what you are paying for - which, legally they are ! If you move to another ISP, they will (almost certainly) be using the BT infrastructure - so the most you can hope for is paying a bit less for the same poor service.

I sympathise with you, I recently went through a spell of appalling service with O2, who just didn't seem to care what I was getting. At times it was in 10s of kbs on a 16mbs package.

As soon as Infinity2 became available in my area I moved ! Now getting just under 75mbs - but most websites can't download that fast anyway :rotfl:

penrhyn

Silent Otter has gone quiet.

Reminds me, I always order a Chicken Tarka Masala at the Indian, similar to a Tikka Masala, just a little 'otter!


One more thing......OP post your router line statistics.

yangptangkipperbang

penrhyn wrote: »

Reminds me, I always order a Chicken Tarka Masala at the Indian, similar to a Tikka Masala, just a little 'otter!

...........I prefer the Geoff Boycott curry - you still get the runs, but much, much slower...........

culpepper

If you have business broadband and are self employed, I believe you can list the cost as a business expense on your tax return.
If the company who would employ you (assuming you are would not be self employed) need you to have broadband, will they not fund it ?
How about a mobile broadband device to use as a back up?
You could have it ready for times when you cant get a good enough connection with your existing BB.
There is a program called connectify dispatch which enables a computer to use both the normal connection and a mobile BB connection simultaneously or for the one to take over from the other if one fails.
They have a trial download if you search online.
I tried the trial and it works well on my laptop with windows 7.

Ultimately, insist that BT repair the line and don't be fobbed off.
If they really sent an engineer instead of just checking your connection when you call,they would be able to physically see any damage.
We had problems when we were with them and it wasn't until we left (due to BT telling us when challenged over the contract being void as you have suggested,that we were no longer in contract with them) that SKY appointed an engineer and damage was discovered.
Incidentally sky have to request BT to send an engineer because Sky do not own the line ,BT do.