How is your broadband speed today?

[Charlie Farley]

So what's your Broadband speed or lack of it to be more accurate like.
I know it varies across our green and pleasant land but sometimes I think it comes down to pot luck as to what your speed is.
I don't live in the sticks, but also not in town but when properties 100 yards up the road get full fibre and we get a max of 30mb i do feel abit under spec to be honest.
It's a massive jump up from the old dial-up and even ISDN, but even so, I can't help thinking it's geared towards the number of properties, they reached the roundabout , went right but didn't go left down our road....

So this pics probably sums up broadband down our part of surrey.

and mobile is even worse, mast stuck all around the village and still no signal 99.9% of the time at our house, i dont need a 5g phone, or a 4g struggling with 3g ..most of the time...why

 

[NHN]

Check with a 4 or 5g handset as they're deliberately strangling 3g users to force them of this onto newer systems.

Probably for a crap contention ratio mate, borderline for the exchange, check for 5g if its there then move to mobile broadband.

However we use 5g home in central london & tbh its kinda shxt at times, but other times 400mbps.

 

[2MT Paul]

Here in Sunny Cardiff its none to shabby

Your internet​

Status: Good
159 Mb/s

Paul

 

[Charlie Farley]

I'd love any of those speed.

 

[Marky79]

900mb down, 120 up. We live about 5 mile from the nearest town out in the country.

 

[AlS3BE]

I’m with virgin and can get 1gb broadband but went with 350mb as I couldn’t justify double the price.
bt Openreach just upgraded the cabinets near me and they can get up to 900mb. Believe they are rolling this out everywhere to compete with virgin so the market should get a bit more competitive soon.
I’m on the outskirts of town but I do believe they Bt and virgin upgrade the cabinets and tech in more affluent areas first then eventually other places which I think is wrong.

 

[-Ju-]

I've had years of 25mbps with bt and recently moved to virgin on a 200mbps service as I honestly don't see the benefit of going any quicker.
I feel like a weight has been lifted and I can now watch 4k properly lol
.......sorry to compound your misery Rob lol

 

[oddjob63]

We had Sky BB with a maximum speed of around 18Mbs Switched to Elon Musk’s Starlink and now get 150-250Mbs although the ping can be a bit slow at around 40ms.

 

[B5NUT]

Another virgin customer, and again have excellent speed. I was on 200 but went higher when lockdown kicked in as I work from home do did not what any impact with other family members and needs for work. I'm not going any higher than this and depending on any price increase then I may drop back to 200.

 

[AlS3BE]

Another virgin customer, and again have excellent speed. I was on 200 but went higher when lockdown kicked in as I work from home do did not what any impact with other family members and needs for work. I'm not going any higher than this and depending on any price increase then I may drop back to 200.
View attachment 249781

there’s a trick to this.
call up and cancel the services and eventually you will get through to someone that will give you a better deal. Mine went up from £59 to £89pm for 200mb and max tv so called to cancel since sky was offering 500mb with tv for £59. They eventually backed down and gave me 350mb and tv for £54. I’ve done this 3 years in a row since I have options to go elsewhere for fast speeds With virgin it cost them money and time to come out and pick up all the equipment and disconnect your cable from the street, in my case probably dig up my front garden again, so it’s more cost effective to give you a discount.
This works with pretty much all providers or do what my mate does he switches between his name and his mrs every year so they get the new customer introductory deals.

 

[MrWonanother]

Another Virgin Media customer here and like others no issues with speed or dropouts - I work from home and require a quick connection for work.

 

[jojo]

On Virgin Media 200Meg, got 220 download and 20 upload earlier. The internet did go down last night just after 12 and fixed this morning at 10am.

 

[jojo]

there’s a trick to this.
call up and cancel the services and eventually you will get through to someone that will give you a better deal. Mine went up from £59 to £89pm for 200mb and max tv so called to cancel since sky was offering 500mb with tv for £59. They eventually backed down and gave me 350mb and tv for £54. I’ve done this 3 years in a row since I have options to go elsewhere for fast speeds With virgin it cost them money and time to come out and pick up all the equipment and disconnect your cable from the street, in my case probably dig up my front garden again, so it’s more cost effective to give you a discount.
This works with pretty much all providers or do what my mate does he switches between his name and his mrs every year so they get the new customer introductory deals.

Did you commit to cancellation on your first phone call and wait for retentions to call you back? That how you get the best deal as an existing customer.

 

[quattrogone]

I'd love speeds like some of you are quoting on here!!! At home wait for it.......I get 0.5mb download as for upload forget it!
It's the most frustrating thing, sometimes if we're really lucky it will struggle past the 1mb barrier, honestly it's like being on dial up. The irony is that the last available fibre spot was taken by our 85yo neighbor who only really uses email and the occasional viewing on Netflix
At my unit I've just been graced with a free upgrade so it's running at 36mb upload and 9.33mb down.

 

[oddjob63]

I'd love speeds like some of you are quoting on here!!! At home wait for it.......I get 0.5mb download as for upload forget it!
It's the most frustrating thing, sometimes if we're really lucky it will struggle past the 1mb barrier, honestly it's like being on dial up. The irony is that the last available fibre spot was taken by our 85yo neighbor who only really uses email and the occasional viewing on Netflix
At my unit I've just been graced with a free upgrade so it's running at 36mb upload and 9.33mb down.

Have you looked at Starlink. That would improve your home speeds.

 

[AlS3BE]

Did you commit to cancellation on your first phone call and wait for retentions to call you back? That how you get the best deal as an existing customer.

Yeah committed to cancelling then received a call back to organise engineer to remove the gear and they asked why I was leaving and all I said was way too expensive so they gave me the discount. To be honest the sky deal was a few quid more but at 500mb instead of the 350 I got from virgin but couldn’t be bothered switching.

 

[quattrogone]

Does Starlink work off phone signal? If so it won't work I live in a black spot....

 

[-Ju-]

Does Starlink work off phone signal? If so it won't work I live in a black spot....

Sounds like a satellite system to me?

 

[AlS3BE]

Starlink is Elon’s satellite internet so in theory anywhere it will work but like all satellite systems ping rate will be slow but it will be more than adequate for streaming shows on Netflix but not good if you game a lot

 

[oddjob63]

Starlink is Elon’s satellite internet so in theory anywhere it will work but like all satellite systems ping rate will be slow but it will be more than adequate for streaming shows on Netflix but not good if you game a lot

It is a satellite system, so you need to have a reasonably clear view to the south (if you are in the UK). The app will tell you if you are likely to have problems. Ping is slowish around 40ms but our sons find it more than adequate for Call of Duty etc. Typical speeds are more than 150 Mb/s.

 

[AlS3BE]

It is a satellite system, so you need to have a reasonably clear view to the south (if you are in the UK). The app will tell you if you are likely to have problems. Ping is slowish around 40ms but our sons find it more than adequate for Call of Duty etc. Typical speeds are more than 150 Mb/s.

That’s pretty good ping for satellite. Remember my mates satellite internet when he lived in the middle of nowhere. 150ms+ ping and up to 20mb/s. That was painful.

 

[quattrogone]

Well tonight is a good night 1.68mb
Tbf the starlink sounds pretty good but we're cut into the side of a valley where I live so no clear view of any direction.
There's a thing called airband in our area but reviews are pretty appalling.

 

[oddjob63]

Well tonight is a good night 1.68mb
Tbf the starlink sounds pretty good but we're cut into the side of a valley where I live so no clear view of any direction.
There's a thing called airband in our area but reviews are pretty appalling.

 

[oddjob63]

It may be worth downloading the Starlink app since it has an option to check for obstructions before you have to commit to anything. I am definitely a fan of it but equally as soon as we get fibre broadband which hopefully will be this year, I will switch.

 

[AlS3BE]

It may be worth downloading the Starlink app since it has an option to check for obstructions before you have to commit to anything. I am definitely a fan of it but equally as soon as we get fibre broadband which hopefully will be this year, I will switch.

How much does starlink cost if you don’t mind me asking?

 

[oddjob63]

That’s the bad news. £89 per month plus I think it was around £500 for the purchase of the equipment. But, for us there is no other option that would consistently give us anything over 20Mb/s.

 

[AlS3BE]

That’s the bad news. £89 per month plus I think it was around £500 for the purchase of the equipment. But, for us there is no other option that would consistently give us anything over 20Mb/s.

Wow and I thought I was getting ripped off by virgin. Suppose it’s become one of those things you need like gas and electricity now so you pay whatever the cost.
mate just moved house and the criteria was
Far from in laws
Good broadband
Good schools for kids
Nice neighbourhood
Good location for transport
More or less in that order unless you ask his wife

 

[quattrogone]

Yeah I think at that price I might go all out Putin on my neighbor's house.....

 

[Charlie Farley]

Wow and I thought I was getting ripped off by virgin. Suppose it’s become one of those things you need like gas and electricity now so you pay whatever the cost.
mate just moved house and the criteria was
Far from in laws
Good broadband
Good schools for kids
Nice neighbourhood
Good location for transport
More or less in that order unless you ask his wife

Is there anywhere that meets all those....lol
When and if someone finds it, let me know.

 

[mirzatera180]

I've had years of 25mbps with bt and recently moved to virgin on a 200mbps service as I honestly don't see the benefit of going any quicker.

 

[subhamsinghh48]

I've had years of 25mbps with bt and recently moved to virgin on a 200mbps service as I honestly don't see the benefit of going any quicker.

 

[rum4mo]

My older daughter's partner, an IT person, got completely p'd off with his connection speed especially as he was working from home most days, he was getting around 50% of advertised typical speeds for "fast wire" type braodband, so he asked his supplier to change him to fibre, they could not as City Fibre were working in that area and currently they had not reached his street, so they could not help. He moved to either Sky or Virgin, "proper" instal tech person came round, chopped off his wired master socket and threw it into his van, ran "super fast cable" into the house, plugged in the super fast router - inadequate signal level! So it was "sorry" and he left! Many phones later and that supplier agreed to instigate a "cable pull" from the cabinet but that would only happen in a few months time!! So he quickly ordered up a latest version of Open Reach master socket, forced the removed wiring back into the house - and found that his broadband was always at least the advertised speeds!
So there is a lesson in there for anyone that still has a wired connection, slower than expected speeds and an old master socket, ie DIY a fix as these providers instal techs will never end up checking that point!
Anyway, although now with a speed that would have satisfied him enough to never want/need to upgrade to fibre, that guy persisted and a new "cable pull" was carried out by the provider's outsourced company, when the new cable was pulled to his driveway, the contractor observed that the size/type of link the previous person had run to the house from the joint box in the driveway was way too small, so they left he with excess cable length if he was willing to terminate it himself - what a score, a complete single cable from cabinet to his new router so signal loss at the joining box!
He carried out the rewiring into the house, now extremely fast connection speeds, and so very satisfied, only issue being that his provider kept missing booked visits to finish off that job, although there was nothing to finish off. Final "not sting" in that tale, as his provider kept missing bookings to finish off that job, the provider eventually gave in and closed down that job and gave out the industry standard compensation for failing to complete their side of the installation, so effectively free fibre broadband until June of July, from January, so win - win - win!

 

[AlS3BE]

My older daughter's partner, an IT person, got completely p'd off with his connection speed especially as he was working from home most days, he was getting around 50% of advertised typical speeds for "fast wire" type braodband, so he asked his supplier to change him to fibre, they could not as City Fibre were working in that area and currently they had not reached his street, so they could not help. He moved to either Sky or Virgin, "proper" instal tech person came round, chopped off his wired master socket and threw it into his van, ran "super fast cable" into the house, plugged in the super fast router - inadequate signal level! So it was "sorry" and he left! Many phones later and that supplier agreed to instigate a "cable pull" from the cabinet but that would only happen in a few months time!! So he quickly ordered up a latest version of Open Reach master socket, forced the removed wiring back into the house - and found that his broadband was always at least the advertised speeds!
So there is a lesson in there for anyone that still has a wired connection, slower than expected speeds and an old master socket, ie DIY a fix as these providers instal techs will never end up checking that point!
Anyway, although now with a speed that would have satisfied him enough to never want/need to upgrade to fibre, that guy persisted and a new "cable pull" was carried out by the provider's outsourced company, when the new cable was pulled to his driveway, the contractor observed that the size/type of link the previous person had run to the house from the joint box in the driveway was way too small, so they left he with excess cable length if he was willing to terminate it himself - what a score, a complete single cable from cabinet to his new router so signal loss at the joining box!
He carried out the rewiring into the house, now extremely fast connection speeds, and so very satisfied, only issue being that his provider kept missing booked visits to finish off that job, although there was nothing to finish off. Final "not sting" in that tale, as his provider kept missing bookings to finish off that job, the provider eventually gave in and closed down that job and gave out the industry standard compensation for failing to complete their side of the installation, so effectively free fibre broadband until June of July, from January, so win - win - win!

I had something similar, not as bad, with a new build home years ago with adsl broadband. Was only getting less than 20mb instead of 60+mb. Ended up there was some poorly wired extension sockets around the house that wasn’t used so opened up the main phone socket and disconnected all the extensions and it instantly bounced to max speed.