BT Broadband, poor download speeds

[johnny10hands]

Trying not to be cynical but despite the call centre in India finding 'no fault with our line' and the problem must be with our internal wiring, we see an increase in our D/L speed from a consistent 0.6 to 0.7 mb/sec to 1.3 mb/sec.

 

Called quite a few times before (over a period of about 5 years) and followed their advice by unplugging this and unplugging that. but this time, didnt unplug a damn thing but experienced the usual doubling of speed anyway. Sherewsbury, where I live is known for very poor speeds and no alternatives (i.e cable) and the reason I called them this time wast that the BT homehub would not stay connected for a period of more than 20 second or so. Its been like this for the last 3 days, but suddenly comes stable within minutes of calling the BT helpline, and has remained stable with not one crash in the last 8 hours.

 

Anyone else experience a miraculous improvement with BT connection when they talk to the Indian call centre? (despite them saying that there is no problem). I dont mind them finding a problem or creating a solution but what does boil my p*ss a little is when they blatently tell me its nothing to do with them and is our internal wiring, when clearly it is not the case.

[locutus]

Try eliminating your internal wiring. Plug the hub directly into the master socket with no other telephone equipment plugged in.

 

Extensions are notorious for lowering your speed, so you may get a further boost by trying this.

[dx100uk]

but dont forget the filter

and unplug any other devices

around the home

or

make SURE nothing it ever plugged in

to your phone circuit without a filter.

 

dx

[caro]

We had similar problems and eventually they sent us a new hub and now it's a lot better. We're on the very edge of an area covered by the exchange so unless we pay extra for fibre optic it will never be brilliant, but the hub 3 had made a huge difference and it's acceptable now.

[havinastella]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1990424427.png

[johnny10hands]

Over the last 5 years, have tried everything. The homehub 2 is on the master socket and goes straight into a filter, and our 1 phone connects to the phone port of the filter. Sky box has never been connected and there is nothing else that is connected. Also tried several filters and different phones.

 

About 18 months ago, we were notified by BT that they had 'great news, your exchange has been upgraded to an "up to" 20mb exchange' Previously we had the homehub 1 (commonly called the white tomb stone) that was 'up to 8mb'. We went for the upgrade which included a) a homehub 2 and b) renewal of contract. The only difference we had noted after the upgrade was we lost the phone dial tone for 3 days and the internet for 5. The speeds did not improve one bit, averaging 0.6 to 0.7mb/sec

 

All of the neighbours experience the same speeds as me and one or too have noticed a slight improvement when complaining, but still get the fall off back to the 0.6 to 0.7 after a few days / weeks.

 

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2012/02/23/shrewsbury%E2%80%99s-broadband-speed-one-of-slowest-in-uk/

 

As you can see from the above link, Shrewsbury has one of the worst connection speeds in the UK and although the article says poor speeds of between 3 and 4 MB are reported, all of the neighbours I have spoken to can only dream of getting through the 1mb threshold.

 

What I am annoyed about is that when you do have the time to go through the 'diagnostics' with the call centres in India, they keep insisting there is no problems with the line and the download speeds are to do with our internal wiring. BT are supposed to be rolling out FTC by the end of this month but I have little faith as where I live (despite not being rural) saw no improvement when switching from the up to 8mb to 20mb speed, as the whole town is oversubscribed for the base infrastructure available.

[dx100uk]

ah one of those

 

i remember reading about you lot

about 4 yrs ago too

 

hope ofcourse you get a reduction to the bill!

 

dx

[locutus]

FTTC should give a good improvement if you decide to go with a fiber optic broadband. BT Infinity is the most advertised, Plus.Net and TalkTalk both do a fiber broadband.

[caro]

What I find annoying, apart from going through the same things again and again when you contact BT to complain/get help, they tell you that 8mb or 20mb is the best that you can get but there's no guarantee. Where I am there is now fibre optic, but it costs more. Last year it was so new they weren't offering any deals on it so I think it was around £30 a month on top of line rental. I think they'll do a deal now.

[locutus]

Or move provider.

 

Plusnet is £16.49 for broadband, but you need their line rental aswell, which is £12.99 monthly or pay for 12 months line rental in advance for £113.88, equivalent to a monthly price of £9.49 (only available online) and that includes evening and weekend calls.