Fibre Vs ASDL - Relative Speed

maxxy

Hi there,

I apologise if this is covered elsewhere, but I have a query regarding Fibre and ASDL.

Currently I have Fibre Unlimited with Sky but will be at the end of my contracted period shortly and am looking at alternatives. I live in a fairly rural area and broadband speed is not great, so I was not surprised to see that my actual speed was about 6 mbps (compared to the up to 40 mbps that could theoretically be available). Recently the speed has been changeable with as low as 0.3 mbps at times (at this speed it was virtually impossible to do anything online).

I used to have an ASDL supply with Sky and think I noticed an improvement when we moved to Fibre (unfortunately i did not take any measurements at the time).

In order to help me decide my next steps my question is this:

Is the rate of loss between actual speed and theoretical maximum speed the same between Fibre and ASDL?

For instance, at my current speed to 6 MBPS I am at around 15% speed of the theoretical maximum of 40 mbps, if I moved back to ASDL would I get 15% of the new theoretical maximum (eg. 2.5 mbps if the theoretical maximum is 17 mbps) or would I still get 6 mbps?

Currently we do not stream any TV or play online games, but will occasionally download TV shows to our sky+ box and I don't know whether it is worth paying for Fibre if I will get the same actual speed through ASDL, hence my reason for asking whether anyone knows what the relationship between actual speed and theoretical maximum speed for both options?

Thanks,

Maxxy

pappa_golf

No , when you are on fibre , you are on a dedicated fibre line from the exchange to the green box outside your house , it then converts back to copper wires.


on an ADSL line it is copper wires all the way from the exchange to your house ,


I thought there was a minimul speed that was "promised" by BT over fibre
if you are only getting a reading of 6 USING A WIRED CONNECTION , not wifi , I would be checking this out


make sure you are connected by cable and do a speed test here http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html then return




edit:


there is a minimum speed guarantee (fibre) of 15 , based on the UPTO 40 package


http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/01/27/bt-uk-clarifies-minimum-15mbps-fttc-fibre-optic-broadband-speeds.html

pathtofreedom

How many of there are you using broadband? What do you use it for? Have you ever noticed it being slow?

I get by on 2meg which lets me work from home, voip meetings and webex etc, and watch netflix etc just fine in for not hd streaming. There is only me in the house though, I don't think two people would be able to stream at the same time on that.

So to me 6meg would mean maybe 2 people streaming in hd I'd think.

The unlimited side is more important to me than the speed as well, just with streaming so much content and downloading podcasts or whatever.

gt94sss2

It would be helpful if you could post the results of http://dslchecker.bt.com/ for your telephone line (after removing your telephone number/address)

If the telephone checker doesn't work for you as you are on a sky line, use the address checker.

As others have said, there is no connection between adsl and fibre speeds but the results should give us an indication of what speeds your line is capable of and if you should be getting better speeds than you currently are.

LazyTyper

A key difference between ADSL and FTTC services is that the copper distance is significantly reduced with FTTC, as the cabinet provides the VDSL service instead of the exchange (which provides ADSL service), which could be a mile or two away.

However, VDSL (FTTC) services suffer more from crosstalk, so the more customers that take up FTTC services in your cabinet, then you are likely to experience an impact on your broadband speed.

Check this graph here which indicates speed v distance from cabinet/exchange.

As for the speed you are currently getting on FTTC, Openreach will provide service if estimated speed is below 15 Mbps (I believe to a minimum of 2 Mbps) but the ISP will agree not to raise this as a fault. BT Wholesale have a service level in the 2-15 Mbps sync bracket and then again 15+ Mbps sync bracket. It seems in your case your home is simply quite far from the FTTC cabinet.

maxxy

Thank you for all of your responses.

I will try to provide the information you have requested:


PappaGolf:

make sure you are connected by cable and do a speed test here http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html then return:

I could not find a cable handy so ran the test on WIFI and it showed I am getting a download speed to 19.3 and an upload speed of 8.6. I don't quite understand why the speed is so changeable at the moment, yesterday I could hardly get 1 mbps?


Pathtofreedom:


Normally there is no more than 1 person on the internet at anytime, although our mobile reception is pretty poor so i run my EE mobile phone over the broadband. We never stream anything but may wish to in future as I may also cancel or reduce my Sky TV package over the coming weeks and may want to try Netflix or something like that. generally we have had no issues with the speed we receive, I was just considering whether to return to ADSL when my contract expires.

gt94sss2:

Please see the pasted results below (I had to mess around quite a bit with the formatting of the table to get it in so I hope it is Ok):



BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER
Telephone Number XXXXXXXXXXX on Exchange XXXXXXX is served by Cabinet X

Featured Downstream Upstream Downstream Availability
Products Line Rate Line Rate Range Date
(Mbps) (Mbps) (Mbps)
High Low High Low
FTTC 74 54.6 20 16.4 -- Available
Range A
(Clean)

FTTC 66 39 20 11.7 -- Available
Range B
(Impacted)

ADSL Max Up to 5.5 -- 4 to 8 Available

Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Fibre Multicast -- -- -- Available

For all ADSL and WBC Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC or WBC SOGEA) services, the stable line rate will be determined during the first 10 days of service usage.

There are no left in jumpers available on this line. This line is on a Market A Exchange.

For FTTC Ranges A and B, the term "Clean" relates to a line which is free from any wiring issues (e.g. Bridge Taps) and/or Copper line conditions, and the term "Impacted" relates to a line which may have wiring issues (e.g. Bridge Taps) and/or Copper line conditions.

Throughput/download speeds will be less than line rates and can be affected by a number of factors within and external to BT's network, Communication Providers' networks and within customer premises.

The Stop Sale date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2012; the Formal Retirement date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2014.

If the End User wishes to migrate from their current Broadband supplier they will need to contact the Broadband supplier they want to take service from to arrange for the service to be migrated.

Note: If you decide to place an order for a WBC fibre product, an appointment may be required for an engineer to visit the end user's premises to supply the service.
Please note that postcode and address check results are indicative only. Most accurate results can be obtained from a telephone number check.


LazyTyper:


Check this graph here which indicates speed v distance from cabinet/exchange.

I have got a feeling I am quite a way from the exchange, but about 600 - 900 metres from the green box, which may be why I noticed improvement when we first moved to Fibre.




Thank you for your responses, from what you have said it could be possible that moving back to ADSL would be a noticeable drop, and whilst our usage probably doesn't warrant Fibre at the moment, I would like to keep my options open regarding streaming TV in future. I will keep doing the line speed checks on a regular basis to try and build up a picture of hos stable my broadband is as there may be some issues with my line. A couple of months ago Openreach (on behalf of Sky) came to mend my line as my phone did not work and my broadband was intermittent, but since then it has generally been fine.

Thanks again for your responses,

Maxxy

gt94sss2

maxxy wrote: »

I have got a feeling I am quite a way from the exchange, but about 600 - 900 metres from the green box, which may be why I noticed improvement when we first moved to Fibre.

Thank you for your responses, from what you have said it could be possible that moving back to ADSL would be a noticeable drop, and whilst our usage probably doesn't warrant Fibre at the moment, I would like to keep my options open regarding streaming TV in future. I will keep doing the line speed checks on a regular basis to try and build up a picture of hos stable my broadband is as there may be some issues with my line. A couple of months ago Openreach (on behalf of Sky) came to mend my line as my phone did not work and my broadband was intermittent, but since then it has generally been fine.

The DSLchecker suggests that you should have no problem getting the 40MB speeds you signed up for. If you switched back to ADSL, your speeds are likely to be around 5.5MB.

You are probably within 500 meters of your local green box. This checker may tell you roughly where it is.

Ideally, all speed tests should be on ethernet not Wifi as the older Wifi standards can't keep up with faster connections.

Your slow speeds could either be a line issue or due to issues in Sky's network.

Do you connect to the internet with just a Sky box or do you have an Openreach one as well? Can you check what speed your modem is connected at.

However, if you are getting good speeds some of the time, the problem is more likely to be on the Sky side I suspect.

maxxy

Many thanks for all of your replies.

My broadband speed seems to have stabilised now, but taking note of the responses you posted I think I will stay with Fibre when I next change, rather than move back to ADSL

Thanks,

Maxxy

Hotelman_2

I have Unlimited Fibre for 3 years or so with BT but have constantly complained that they quote 70mbs incoming, but a contractor of theirs stated that this figure is only from exchange to green box and not to my flat? I am paying for something which I believe to be legally untrue, is there any recompense for these unsubstantiated claims by BT?

JJ_Egan

Do they not quote UP TO.

You are free to take them to court engage a solicitor .

forgotmyname

If you think 0.3mb is bad what would you have thought of a 28k dialup modem?

My greenbox is very close and i get 73MB, engineer said its actually faster but capped by the ISP (plusnet).

If your box is a fair distance away then the speed will decrease, what estimated speeds did they give? They told me 69MB.