TalkTalk new speed upgrade to Fibre 65 is awful.

jazzy

I am with TalkTalk broadband using the Fibre 35 service and my contract is coming to an end. TalkTalk contacted me for a new contract offering me the Fibre 65 service for a few pounds more, which I signed up with. Unusually my TalkTalk Fibre 35 service was very reliable and very rarely went down. Since the Fibre 65 upgrade there is only a slight increase in the speed which averages about 48 Mbps. However the broadband keeps loosing the internet connection and sometimes a router reboot is required to get the internet going again. So I am not very happy with this upgrade I do have 20 days to cancel the upgrade if I am not happy.

My question is are all broadband ISP's who use the BT lines the same? I would have thought so but I may be wrong.

Neil_Jones

if the issue is caused by a fault on the line it will affect all BT line based providers.

However in your case it sounds like the line may not be able to cope with the faster speeds, especially if the issue only started after the upgrade to the higher speeds.  The connection dropping normally indicates this is the case, so over the next 10 days or so it should slow down to a point where it matches the fastest speed the line can support.  However this may end up being not being much higher than you started with in the first place, which makes it a fruitless upgrade.

jazzy

Thanks. So if I decide to go to a premium ISP like Sky or BT who also use the BT network it is very likely I will end up with the same problem?

matelodave

Yes, 
The maximum speed that you can get is a function of the distance and quality of the connection between you and either the serving cabinet or exchange and as all suppliers will be using the same connections non of them will be able to get anything better. However there are some areas where it's possible to improve it but they are relatively few and far between at the moment and would require upgrading of the equipment at the exchange/cabinet. BT have paused their rollout of G.fast in favour of FTTP so don't hold your breath in the hope that it will get to you anytime soon
.https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/06/openreach-confirm-g-fast-broadband-rollout-paused-until-2021.html

The alternatives are Virgin who use their own network or a fibre to the premises (FTTP)  solution which again is being rolled out but will still take a long time to reach most people.

JJ_Egan

You need to wait for the ten days for line sync .

Is this poor service over wifi connections ??

Worth a full factory reset on router .

Premium ISP  are not Sky BT etc but Zen or A&A who use the same network but give beter support .

jazzy

It's not only the wifi that's at fault it's also the ethernet wired connections. Previously I was under the impression when upgrading to the Fibre 65 package that it would be a full fibre connection and not a partial copper/fibre which is used on the current Fibre 35 package?
I understand that it may take around 10 days for the speed to settle but I keep loosing the connection all
together with a router reboot required to bring it back. I cannot remember this happening before with previous new broadband contracts?

JJ_Egan

Not sure what you mean by full fibre .Standard fibre is up to 80 meg .

FTTP fibre to the premises is being rolled out by Open Reach  but is a new optical cabling from the exchange .Standard packages are 150 and 300 meg .

matelodave

You can only get full fibre (ie Fibre to the Premises) if it's available where you live as it requires the installation of an optical fibre cable direct into your home with a mains powered Optical Network Unit indoors.

It would be fairly obvious it it was available to you as there would have been a lot of Openreach or cabling contractor activity either in the manholes, cabinets or up the poles in the streets around where you live. as the installation of the fibre infrastructure is a fairly major undertaking.

Bourne

I found this thread via Google after suffering exactly the same problem as this. I have been with TalkTalk for what must be around 20 years, with hardly a single problem. When my last contract came to an end I was getting a very consistent 36 to 38 Mbps with no down time at all. Then I was switched to Fibre 65 for more or less the same price. Using the same router (Huawei HG633) in the same place and two PCs also in exactly the same place, it occasionally reaches a peak of 46 Mbps, but frequently drops right down to around 1 Mbps (when I can finally get a speed check to load). After switching the router off for ten seconds and then on again it usually gets back to around the 36-38 Mbps I was getting under my previous contract. Plugging in via an ethernet cable adds only about 1 Mbps to the speed. How can it be considered acceptable to have to switch your router off and then on again (shades of The IT Crowd here), when they normally claim that it takes a router several days to get back to normal after being switched off. TalkTalk claims that I am getting 60 Mbps to my router, but there is no way of verifying this. My previous stats are always unavailable due to a so-called 'technical problem'. Coincidentally (or not), their claimed speed to my router keeps them within the terms of the contract, yet this is entirely on their say-so. How can I be getting 60 Mbps to my router and under 1 Mbps to my PC. Interestingly, my upload speed remains consistently at 10.6 Mbps whatever the download speed. Is there an independent test available to verify their claimed speed to my router.

Neil_Jones

Bourne said:

I found this thread via Google after suffering exactly the same problem as this. I have been with TalkTalk for what must be around 20 years, with hardly a single problem. When my last contract came to an end I was getting a very consistent 36 to 38 Mbps with no down time at all. Then I was switched to Fibre 65 for more or less the same price.

Using the same router (Huawei HG633) in the same place and two PCs also in exactly the same place, it occasionally reaches a peak of 46 Mbps, but frequently drops right down to around 1 Mbps (when I can finally get a speed check to load). After switching the router off for ten seconds and then on again it usually gets back to around the 36-38 Mbps I was getting under my previous contract. Plugging in via an ethernet cable adds only about 1 Mbps to the speed.

How can it be considered acceptable to have to switch your router off and then on again (shades of The IT Crowd here), when they normally claim that it takes a router several days to get back to normal after being switched off. TalkTalk claims that I am getting 60 Mbps to my router, but there is no way of verifying this. My previous stats are always unavailable due to a so-called 'technical problem'.

Coincidentally (or not), their claimed speed to my router keeps them within the terms of the contract, yet this is entirely on their say-so. How can I be getting 60 Mbps to my router and under 1 Mbps to my PC. Interestingly, my upload speed remains consistently at 10.6 Mbps whatever the download speed. Is there an independent test available to verify their claimed speed to my router.

(quoted message was one solid block of text originally.  I have added paragraphs for readability)

If you have to power your router off to restore connectivity speed (on the connection between the router and the phone) then that's a sign that it has a fault.  Either get TalkTalk to replace it or buy your own.

KxMx

For Fibre broadband you need to switch off the router for 30 minutes to do a full reset.