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Broadband
Having spoken to a neighbour recently with regard to broadband speed, It would appear that many of us have issues with the speed we can get from BT.
Over a period of approximately 1 month I tested my line and found that the speed set by BT at the exchange fluctuated from 2Mbits to 0.5Mbits at peak hours making flash sites such as Cbeebies useless. When I confronted BT with regard to this they first told me that they do not throttle the connect. However later they did agree that they were throttling the connect 'to keep a good connection' they said.
Anyway I am now with O2 and get a connect rate of approximately 4.5Mbits all the time.
A couple of other points to note though. When my connection speed moved all the time a BT engineer did analyse the line and found that due to the length of the extensions within the property the bell wire circuit caused interference which slowed down the connection speed. He installed a new section in the incomer which removed the bell wire circuit, this did stop the connection speed slowing over a period of days. So this maybe a good solution for many people on the estate.
RSS Feed (this will allow you to catch up on igoogle, google reader, netvibes etc.)
How do you know how fast your connection is?
Hi Richard, we've always had a slow connection, or so I think, but were told by BT the best we will ever get is about 1megas a minute due to us being so far away from our local telephone exchange in kidsgrove.
How did you know how fast your broadband is? Do you have to phone BT to do a test?
How to sheck you Bradband speed
To check your broadband speed just google something like "broadband speed test"
I use http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ - just click on the "start speed test" box - hope this helps
I Plate
It is possible to buy a new i plate (the front part to your master socket) that removes the bell wire circuit. This reduces noise on the line which in turn improves your broadband speed.
Cost is about £10 and anyone can fit it. Sometimes it takes a few days for speeds to improve whist the exchange end of things adjusts to the lower noise on the line.
I believe the improvement is significant...
I Just need to get round to making the change for myself...
BT vs others
BT also stated that 1.5Mbit/s would be the fastest speed I cound get due to the distance. With O2 I now get 4.5Mbit/s, they use ADSL2+ allowing for faster speeds. They do not use BT equipment so I also do not get any throttling and peak hours, I believe that BE and Sky also use their own equipment so they may also be worth a look.
Lets get some figures
Just to get broadband speeds on the estate into some perspective. Lets all test our connections using the site suggested by 'BedHair', that being
http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk.
Mine is 3.5Mbit/s download and 0.8Mbit/s upload.
Download Speed - 1552 Kbps
Download Speed - 1552 Kbps (1.5MBits) and 796 Kbps (.8)Mbits upload.
Thats with Business Broadband, so I'm paying over the odds and have a fixed IP.
12:00
Try broadband speed test
18:00
Try broadband speed test
Latest broad band speed test
Latest
3440 kb/s Upload Speed
791 kb/s Download Speed
Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent Exchange
General information
Exchange name: Burslem
Exchange code: WMBUR
Location: Stoke on Trent, West Midlands
Postcode: ST64EH
Maps: Our map | Multimap | Streetmap
Serves (approx): 20,631 residential premises
1,445 non-residential premises.
Broadband availability overview
ADSL:
Yes
SDSL: Yes
LLU services: Yes
Cable: Yes
Wireless: No
BT Wholesale information
ADSL status:
Enabled as of 31/03/2001
ADSL Max status:
Enabled as of 31/03/2006
SDSL status:
Enabled as of 01/05/2005
21CN WBC status:
RFS date set : 31/03/2010
21CN PSTN switchover target: Q4 2010
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WMBUR
2432 kbps download- not too
2432 kbps download- not too bad,
375 kbps upload, not too good :(
I Plate
BT Total Broadband customers should now be able to get an I-Plate for free as part of their package. Otherwise they are around £15 from bt.com. This can improve your speed by upto 1.5 Mbits/s.
I Plate
Just for info.
You can get the I-Plate for £7.99 inc. VAT from DABS as was, not BT Shop.
http://www.shop.bt.com/products/bt-iplate---bt-broadband-accelerator-58L...