The State of UK Broadband — Not So Fast 279
Barence writes "The deplorable speed of British broadband connections has been revealed in the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, which show that 42.3% of broadband connections are slower than 2Mb/sec. More worryingly, the ONS statistics are based on the connection's headline speed, not actual throughput, which means that many more British broadband connections are effectively below the 2Mb/sec barrier. Better still, a separate report issued yesterday by Ofcom revealed that the majority of broadband users had no idea about the speed of their connection anyway."
Before or after throttling? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Fast enough... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe because at the moment there are very few applications of an Internet connection for which you'd notice the difference between 1mbit and 10mbit.
Unless you are a habitual downloader (a group statistically overrepresented here on Slashdot), you won't notice any difference to your web and email by moving above 1mbit. Hell, with the intelligent buffering that most video sites have, it's likely that you wouldn't even notice the difference on those sites unless you're really paying attention.
So cut it with the "we need faster broadband" BS. What we need before a 100mbit pipe is a legislative framework that ensures that consumers can actually use that 100mbit pipe without getting shagged six ways from Sunday by their ISP.
I'm looking at you, Telstra.
Re:Before or after throttling? (Score:5, Interesting)
But it is all fibre optic! The advert says it is, so it must be quick!
Quite how Virgin can get away with saying their broadband is fibre optic when the last loop is copper is beyond me. It's about time the ASA did what they are supposed to do - BT broadband is fibre optic by their interpretation of things!
Re:I've tried wrangling with BT over this (Score:3, Interesting)
Complain about excessive line noise when you call people It cuts in and out. Oh, and it kicks off your ADSL too regularly. They'll run a remote test and tell you it is not so. You put your foot down and they send down an engineer "but we will charge you if there really is no problem". You accept this.
Cool thing is, the engineers are usually reasonable people and they like fixing your problems and do care about ADSL too - it is truly only the call centre idiots that are trained to screw you.
Do you have above ground wires? They are the worst (insulation cracked by 50 years of sunlight, moisture corroding them, etc.) and easiest replaced.
I have done this 3 times now - twice with BT in London and once with Telstra here in Oz. Every single time speed and reliability went up dramatically.
Your mileage may vary, but worth a shot.
Re:Bulldog Broadband are good (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Maybe (Score:5, Interesting)
I live on a small Spanish island off the West coast of Africa. I have a 10Mb/s line, and I can hit the full throughput of this on a good torrent... I did so downloading Ubuntu... This was after contacting Telefonica shortly after the line was installed to express concern about the poor throughput and them saying yes the line wasn't set up properly but should work fine within 48 hours which it did.
At a previous apartment I lost my line after somebody basically cut through it while doing DIY somewhere in the block. It was rewired I think 3 days later.
Yes there are many bad storied about Telefonica that could be told, but my point is that I'm quite confident that I have better bandwidth here than I would have if I returned to the UK. One more reason not to go back to the UK I guess.
Re:Fast enough... (Score:5, Interesting)
True - but then us corporate users who transfer sales & backup data between offices overnight *do* notice the problem.
Our new HQ is quite a long way from the exchange so we struggle to get above 4Mbit/sec anyway - but that's a side issue.
We have 30 satellite offices each running 1-8Mbit connections and we can get the data in overnight but if we wanted anything more 'real-time' we'd have to go fibre - and then we're talking something daft like a 10KGBP+ install to 'upgrade' to a whopping 10Mbit connection *PER SITE* - or get the connections cheaper in return for a long-term contract. Then, you'd need to factor in the monthly rental charges.
Overall, ADSL does what we need - slowly - but the price differential to the next possible speed solution is out of all proportion to the benefits.
Re:Maybe (Score:4, Interesting)
I was actually very satisfied with the 544 Mbit throughput that I reached, but I wanted to see if I could get more. I phoned the ISP, explained the problem and had it fixed two days later. Now I'm peaking at 978 Mbit. Still, it's interesting that ISP:s of such high speed connections care so much about the extra excessiveness.
Anyway, that was about a year ago and since then I've moved to another country. Nowadays, I have a 30 Mbit over cable, effective bandwidth of some 25 Mbit, but I'm not complaining.
Re:Tell it to the people who cannot get broadband (Score:3, Interesting)
I've had a number of BT engineers visit the house to try to get DSL working. And they've done some work on the line to improve the signal strength. They conclude that it ain't going to happen; anecdotally, because the line is mainly buried, old, and waterlogged.
As they have reached this conclusion, they've marked my phone line on their database as "cannot get broadband" ... and that's it. They'll make no further attempt / take no further interest / decline any further order from me for broadband.
I cannot give a precise distance to the exchange; the straight line distance looks about 4km, by the roads probably 6 or 7. I know the house a half mile before mine in the direction of the exchange can get a slow broadband. And communities all around mine can get broadband, albeit in a number of cases, from different exchanges.
I'm in discussions with my MP, who's talking, as they do, to the useless secretary of state for business (his advice dated 12 months ago: wait for the market to provide, or maybe knit your own in your spare time - I kid you not), and also to BT regional management and the local development agency.
Re:I've tried wrangling with BT over this (Score:3, Interesting)
Incidentally the sync losses always started after the street lights turned on, I guess the lines weren't insulated properly. The customer service at 1&1 is worse than terrible, and after the 3rd time of being on the phone with them for half an hour (at 25 cents per minute no less) and getting nothing resolved I simply gave up.
After moving to a new place I ordered a cable connection from Kabel Deutschland instead, 20 Mbit with VOIP for 30 EUR a month. I'm getting 19 Mbit with every speed test I can find and the connection is rock solid. At only 10 EUR/month more than the 1&1 DSL connection it's well worth it.
So I'm happy with the connection I have now, but don't get me started on all the underhanded tricks they use to obscure what you'll really be paying every month. I'm honestly amazed at what they can get away with in that department.
Re:Tell it to the people who cannot get broadband (Score:2, Interesting)
Here in Ireland the man has just announced to pick 3's 3G(HSDPA)to meet their requirements for universal broadband by 2009!
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1125/broadband.html [www.rte.ie]
WTF! How can you say 3G is broadband! Just check out the problems people in Ireland have been having with 3's service http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055115306 [boards.ie]
I'm lucky to have fixed wireless here in North Cork, but have friends who have no broadband access at all.
Re:I've tried wrangling with BT over this (Score:2, Interesting)
"I guess they just suck !"
I have a good one for you. In the early hours of October 30th thieves made off with BT multicore cable from their access points in the pavement on my street. Got through to their automated line testing using my mobile, entered the number to be tested (my home landline) waited the short while for the test to complete and it came back saying that there was no fault on my line. I found this all rather amusing as I was standing in the street by the open access point looking at the results of the thieves handy work.
175 lines were down in all.
Re:Before or after throttling? (Score:5, Interesting)
Beats me, but Comcast is doing that here in the US too in response to Verizon building actual fiber to the home. They have this weird graphic of various colored lines springing up all across the US which I guess "proves" they have "the largest fiber optic network."
It's actually kind of pathetic. Granted I think Comcast's point is supposed to be that they do TV better than Verizon - thereby saving themselves from "truth in advertising" laws. Still, that has nothing to do with using a fiber optic network. And they certainly don't offer comparable Internet speeds.
I find it kind of funny that two companies are pulling the "but we use fiber optics somewhere in our network!" card.
In Comcast's case it may be more pathetic, since the ads are sort of like the Mac vs PC ads: you've got the "fiber optic" guy who's hopped up on "light" (he's glowing and flickering), and then you have the "down-to-earth" Comcast guy. After making fun of the fiber optic guy, Comcast then announces that they, too, use fiber optics. At best, I would think that makes them equal. But what do I know, I'm not the charismatic down-to-earth guy.
Re:Before or after throttling? (Score:1, Interesting)
Virgin can get away with this because, if you are on the old telewest network, then it's true. Telewest ran fibre to road-side boxes. When you subscribe they run fibre from the road-side box to your house.
Having said that I no longer use but that's another story...