Broadband speeds - not sure what to do

bees_alive

We really struggle with our broadband. Typically get speeds of around 5mb I think. Uploading is horrific (and unfortunately my job involves a lot of uploading videos etc). I was looking to move provider. Have just looked on the BT website and they say typical speed on 5-10mb, guaranteed speed of 3mb. Am I right in thinking that is crazily low compared to what most people seem to manage to get?
BT are offering me 2 packages - Fibre Essential (£24.99 a month) and Fibre 1 (£27.99 a month) both with the same 'typical speeds' and guaranteed speed. Is there any point in going for the more expensive package? On the face of it it seems not, but I wondered if it means a more reliable service or anything (our internet drops out completely several times a day).
Final question - is there anything we can do to improve our available speed? I think I've seen something about asking for an upgrade, but that we would need to pay for it ourselves? Would it be BT we had to speak to?
Thanks so much if anyone can offer any advice. We are both working from home indefinitely and its just a nightmare!

JJ_Egan

<. Am I right in thinking that is crazily low compared to what most people seem to manage to get?>

No as you are subject to distance from cabinet and line quality .Does look like you are on a bottom end supply .

If you are required to upload a lot then a dedicated business line install is what BT will probably say .

You pay a lot for the new line .

Internet dropping . Do you mean your broadband drops or are you connecting via Wifi ??

anonymous12124

£27.99 for 50mb? Are you kidding. I pay £35 a month for 350mb and get 380mb all the time. My brother pays £27 a month for 100mb and gets over that all the time. Both with Virgin. I left BT for Virgin about 12 years ago, never looked back and probably won't ever either.

Put simply, if you can get Virgin and most people can, go for them.

JJ_Egan

Most people is simply untrue .

iniltous

You may pay what you pay for VM 350Mb ( and good for you ) when I was a VM customer I paid more than that for 70Mb, so your experience isn’t everyone’s.
Posting what VM show on their website is a better guide to pricing than your individual deal , and that shows £56/month for 18 months ( it doesn’t say what it goes up-to though after 18 month unless you proceed) 
As far as the OP, unfortunately they don’t seem to have an understanding of the system that currently delivers their broadband, if they happen to be a fair distance from the cabinet they won’t get great speeds , if their job requires uploading quickly then their company shouldn’t be relying on a domestic broadband tariff to do business and should possibly consider a more business oriented product 
If they can get VM , ( and as already stated , it’s not true ‘most people can’  , VM coverage was  44% in 2015, )  maybe explore that avenue.

matelodave

Our nearest VM service is nine miles away 

macman

OP, your comments make no sense. If you are currently on ADSL (you don't say), and getting around 5MBps, then fibre should boost this to at least 8-10. Yet you say they will only guarantee 3MBps?
There is no point in paying for fast fibre if you are topping out at 5-10MBps. However, standard fibre is usually no more than a couple of pounds more than ADSL, so almost always worth it.
But why are you limiting yourself to one of the poorest and most expensive providers? Plusnet (still a BT company) will do you fibre and line rental for about £18.

Roland_Sausage

Ask BT to provide 10Mbps under the universal service obligation

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/broadband-uso-need-to-know

iniltous

Given that one of the OP’s comments was that they upload a lot of video for work, then the USO upload isn’t relevant, the prediction of D/L speed could mean that they already have a USO compliant connection, just not optimised, they already have a FTTC option , it’s not very common that FTTC doesn’t offer an improvement, but it’s impossible to tell as no info has been provided regarding predicted speed , router stats etc

Croft12

As with Roland's post request USO.

At a push do you have 4/5g in your area as a 4/5g modem might be a route open to you...