Can you get faster internet speeds mid-contract?

seriously

I'm on the BT Infinity package and I believe when we first got it in November (on an 18m contract), we were told we would get between 50-60mb/s.

At the moment on the router page, the actual connection is 58mb/s.

We have no problem with the speed but as always it can be better (especially when everyone in the house is using it streaming things etc).

I just did a check on the BT site for a speed check of my neighbours' (using our same post code) 1-2 doors down and it says their estimate is between 67Mb-80Mb! Bit of context: we live in an estate so the houses/flats are one building. Now that's a fair bit more than we are on (assuming say we get the medium of that at roughly 73-4mb/s).

I'm guessing because they provide what they initially stated at the beginning of the contract, they have no legal obligation but is there anything I can do apart from a simple call?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated!

kwikbreaks

You will be getting the fastest your line can deliver. It's possible that your neighbours are actually on a different cabinet from you and the cable length is critical in determining your eventual speed.

System

Do the neighbours actually have fibre broadband or is this just the site guessing from the info available.

Believe it or not your fibre speed is still reliant, to a certain extent, on the quality of your copper connection from the cabinet to your house

Roland_Sausage

!!!!!! wrote: »

Believe it or not your fibre speed is still reliant, to a certain extent, on the quality of your copper connection from the cabinet to your house

And whether it is even copper. There are still aluminium cables out there in the ground and they do not carry broadband signals nearly as well as copper.

kwikbreaks

Even if it was wet string it would make no difference as BT will only guarantee to provide voice and won't replace the cable. If it goes bad they may swap you to a different pair but that isn't the case here - it's a question about the speed estimates for properties nearby which are showing higher than the OP is actually getting.

seriously

The actual door number is literally next door (!). Like their cabinet will be a maximum of 5 metres away from ours lol.

It's the BT site giving the estimates but they are always fairly accurate right because the order depends on those speeds otherwise there is a breach of contract?

I think I may just give them a call and see! No harm in trying.

Cheers guys!

forgotmyname

Speeds are an estimate.

Plusnet estimated mine at 68mb. But i actually get 73. The engineer said it was a very good line and his laptop was connected at 85. But the packaged / provider capped me at 73.

System

seriously wrote: »

It's the BT site giving the estimates but they are always fairly accurate right because the order depends on those speeds otherwise there is a breach of contract?

The estimate of speed for fibre is no different to that of normal ADSL. They take into account the length of copper/aluminium but can not take into account any degradation of that line or maybe a slightly poor junction somewhere causing a decrease in realisable speed. You then by a product that can supply UP TO xMb

onomatopoeia99

seriously wrote: »

It's the BT site giving the estimates but they are always fairly accurate right because the order depends on those speeds otherwise there is a breach of contract?

It's an estimate, it's not contractual.

The technology is limited by the length and quality of the line. It will give you the best the line can support, unless capped by the provider (for example, if you ordered a maximum 40Mbps service even though the line would support 60Mbps) or the profile is adjusted down for stability, as mine has just been as it was dropping every time it rained.

The throughput you have quoted will support very many video streams.

JohnDinton

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

The throughput you have quoted will support very many video streams.

Indeed. How are all these users connecting? If it is over WiFi at that speed the speed of WiFi is going to be a constraint.

Also where are you getting these high speed streams from? A few weeks ago PlusNet at long last moved my line to ADSL2+. The speed has more than doubled. My router says the sync speed is 22Mbit/s and a speed test shows I can download at 19Mbit/s. I have not noticed any difference. At times (even 2am!) I still struggle to get even 1Mbit/s downloading from iPlayer. Streaming is even worse. Yesterday I watched an iPlayer programme in HD. The jerkiness of the picture suggested the frame rate was about 2 frames/s.

kwikbreaks

seriously wrote: »

The actual door number is literally next door (!). Like their cabinet will be a maximum of 5 metres away from ours lol.

The chances are you will indeed be fed from the same cabinet but it isn't certain. If you were fed from different cabinets your line could be hundreds of metres longer than theirs or vice versa. Most likely it's just incorrect estimates or your line is in worse condition than theirs for some reason,

No harm in calling in but I seriously doubt you'll get anywhere.