Re: BT Speedtester


On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:54:08 -0000, "Peter Crosland"
<g6jns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

During the evening it is notoriously slow but during the day I have no
problems but it does take up to three minutes to complete.

What I find with .speedtester' is it consistently gives abiut 2mbps
higher speed than another broadband speed tester. This would not be
so much as a problem except the BT people only accept the result from
the BT Speedtester so in the evenings, when my actual speed is always
less that 800kbps, the BT spedtester gives close to 3mbps which BT
maintain is fine. My daytime speed is about 3.5mbps (the BT average
as I understand it) whereas the BT speedtester gives 5.5mbps which is
comparable to the rated 6mbps line speed.

The BT broadband where I am located is simply a fraudulent service.
6mbps promised and charged for the service provides 3mbps during the
day and an unuseable 700/800kbps during 'peak' times. Clearly a
contention issue but how to ghet anyone aty BT to do something about

In what way is it fraudulent? Does your contract actually guarantee the
rates you quote? Almost all consumer broadband contracts specify an "up
to"
speed that is not guaranteed in any way shape or form. All BT based
consumer
broadband links are subject to contention ratios which means that when
there
is a lot of traffic the speed will drop. Have you checked to see if there
is
a known problem with your exchange? You can find links to various exchange
checkers here

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adsl_status_checkers.htm

Peter Crosland

BT, along with other ISPs, advertise Broadband speeds that they know
full well they are unable to deliver. I appreciate that actual speed
is subject to useage but when useage reduces speed to an extent the
service is for all practical purposes unuseable, then I think the term
'fraudlent' is justified.

The term used 'Rip-off Britain' is very fairly applicable to the
Broadband industry in the UK.

It would only be fraudulent if the ISP did not make it clear in the terms
and conditions what was actually being offered in order to deliberately
deceive the customer. In the vast majority of cases the customer blindly
signs up and agrees to these T&C without even bothering to read them, let
alone make any effort to understand what they are agreeing to. Certainly
contention can make a connection very slow but even then it is still usable.
You don't say if you have investigated to see if there is a particular
problem at your exchange. It does happen and no system is perfect.

Have you looked at and compared prices abroad or are you just using a tablod
cliche? If so please tell us what the comparison is for similar service in
with comparable demographics.

Peter Crosland


From the tone of your and other responses in this thread, I conclude
you think the problem of poor broadband service is something to do
with me. How stupid do think I am? As your intelligence is in doubt
that is rhetorical (use a dictionary).

Of course I have investigated all possibilities within the resources
available to me. The likelihood is the problem is due to lack of
capacity at the exchange which no ISP can overcome despite what Eeyore
says. His 'favourite' ISP IDnet very properly advised me that the
best they could do would be to advise me of the problem but would be
unable to do anything or even give a date to fix if lack of exchange
capacity was the problem. From a BT site I note that ADSL2+ is
scheduled to be installed in the local exchange (less than 1100 metres
from where I live) in March 2009. Whether or not that will also
address capacity I shall have to wait and see.

I have recently returned from 30 years in Canada. In each of the
cities I have lived, broadband and telephone service are fibre optic
and cable. I had never experienced or heard of 'contention' as a
problem until returning to the UK. By comparison it is as
though this country is 30 years behind the rest of the developed world
and having experience of comments in this thread it is not difficult
to see why.
.

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