Guaranteed Minimum Speed

FaceHead

Hi,

Does the Guaranteed minimum speed refer to the line speed (i.e. the number I see when I log into my router's settings) or the actual speed I experience when doing an online speedtest? I've been unable to find any clear definition of 'speed' in reference to the ofcom guarantee online

My line speed is a little (10%) less than the GMS, and the results of speed tests are consistently half that. 

If my speed is half what it should be (which it is in practice, even when ethernet-ed to the router) then it's worth getting the ISP to do something. For10% less (which is in turn a lot less then the advertised estimate), it might not be worth the battle.

Thanks,

JJ_Egan

See what your ISP says about its guarantee and how to measure it .

They will usually remotely reset your hub then carry out speed checks and may ask you to disconnect all devices .

Guarantees of speed are at the router  .

matelodave

Depends who your supplier is and what their rules are but BT measure the speed to the hub/router rather than to your computer to eliminate any problems with indoor cabling, wifi or any other potential sources of interference. As  JJ-E says they'll want everything else disconnected from the router

FaceHead

Plusnet, who are the supplier in question, simply point to the ofcom documents here:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/codes-of-practice#accordion__target-111675

As it's and industry wide code of practice I thought there might be an industry definition of speed. The document is 16 pages of dense policy stuff, which discusses the types of speed, but not really what minimum guaranteed speed is. 

I'll see what Plusnet say when I tell them I'm not getting the minimum. It seems a bit misleading if they can say you've got a line speed of x, but in practice you receive throughput of less than half that. I think throughput is what a person on the street would think of as speed.