Do I need Fibre or stick with ADSL?

husk

I currently get 5 Mpbs through ADSL.

Supposedly 5 Mbps in the minimum requirement to stream HD content through Netflix, and iPlayer requires less.

Am I right in thinking that during peak hours my speed might be reduced therefore it would not be possible to stream HD content?

There is also the issue of the master socket, would this need to be moved to the same room as the streaming device and TV or would powerline adapters be sufficient? (I don't want to run extension cables).

There is roughly £160 difference between Plusnet ADSL and Fibre broadband packages over 18 months so I need to make sure it's worth it.

Any advice would be most helpful.

Cycrow

Your speed might reduce at certain times, but theres no way to know for sure.

For netflix, the streaming is adaptive, it will adjust the quality based on your available bandwidth. So if your speed drops, it'll drop the quality, so you could still stream it, but it may not always be at full HD.

You could get BT to move the master socket if needed, but this would cost you.
The router needs to be close to the master socket, but the other devices dont need to be.
Wiring the other devices to the router will work fine, wether thats via powerline adapters, or just a straight ethernet cable (ethernet cable is better, but requires you running a cable).

It'll be simple to just start streaming on your current setup, if it doesn't work, then you can think of ways to improve it, like upgrading to fibre, but no need to upgrade straight away until you know you need it

macman

As above, just test it first with ADSL. My guess is that if you have a steady 5MBps even at peak hours, you'll be fine. Ethernet or Homeplugs should cope with HD requirements easily.

Pincher

The 5Mbps is between your modem and the local exchange,
which shouldn't change. Congestion and bandwidth allocation happens further up the chain.


Run BBC iPlayer and stream something in HD.
Do it at different times to see whether you get buffering.


I see you say ADSL. Over the years, the technology moved from ADSL to ADSL2+, before jumping to fibre. Over the same copper cable, I get


ADSL = 4.3Mbps
ADSL2+ = 11.7Mbps
Fibre (BT Infinity) = 37Mbps


So if you have a very old modem, maybe you just have to upgrade to ADSL2+ to get 11Mbps, which is plenty for HD.