Can you improve things?

Hi,

I am currently with fast.co.uk, unfortunately I'm on a small rural exchange (20cn only STEASTK) and get some slow speeds at peak times, usually between 7pm and 11pm broadly speaking, I had the same issue before xmas and decided to give 'max premium' a go as understand this has lower contention ratio and priority traffic over BT's network, however this doesn't seem to have helped and now I'm paying £45 a month and I'm frequently getting between 1 and 5mbit during evenings, probably about 2-2.5 overall (I sync at 8Mbit), I average about 25gb per month up&down.

I'm not sure if the problem is exchange congestion or an ISP issue, I can no longer get the tap3 test on BT wholesale's speedtester to work but before xmas I was able to get 6.5mbit+ using the BT speedtest login a number of times where as using the ISP connection I would get average of 2mbit, fast say there is no problem with their capacity and BT via fast are saying no problem either so I'm a bit annoyed at spending £45 a month to get a 'value level' type service, I would rather get a better service and pay in this region but failing this I will just go to a cheapo ISP if BT is the problem as there is nothing to gain by paying more if the exchange capacity is fubar!!.

Don't know if you can advise if you would likely be able to improve things?, if you can I will request a MAC as I just seem to go round in circles with fast, they are generally helpful in answering but in the end nothing changes and the issue never goes away. Out of interest would an ISP be able to see if there was exchange level congestion or are they just relying on BT passing this information on (when it suits).

Have a read of their "We'll fix your line" offer.

http://www.aa.net.uk/broadband-trial.html

I took this offer up a few years ago and they did amazing job. From 2meg to 5.5meg.

Worth giving this a try!

In short your ISP will be able to find out. I Think the following site will also help
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

If i is congestion moving will not help, unless they have their own kit in the exchange, and its not congested either.

In reply to a post by AndrewW:

If i is congestion moving will not help, unless they have their own kit in the exchange, and its not congested either.

Hope i'm wrong but i suspect the OP and AAISP might not be able to do anything about it. I had the same problem problem on my 20CN/non LLU old, knackered, piddly, flea, rat-infested exchange in the Scottish Highlands. Was with niche ISPs such as Zen, IDNET, Goscomb and always experienced mega slowdowns at peak times on the 8128/832 service ( synced at the full 8 meg). Luckily TalkTalk LLU came along in 2010 and it was even FTTC'd a few weeks ago LOL

Thats what i think, so migrating to another ISP for performance reasons will be pointless, unless the new ISP has their own kit in the exchange and its not contended

In reply to a post by AndrewW:

In short your ISP will be able to find out. I Think the following site will also help
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

Forget that. Plusnet haven't updated it since January!

Post deleted by seb

Your comment on using the BT speetester and ISP congestion makes sense to me.

Why don't you give AAISP a call and explain your situation. "I'm thinking of moving over but..." etc
They may have data on your exchange or even better existing customers on there.

I'd be tempted to move anyway to give it a go as their home::1 tariff with premium looks to be £8 a month cheaper than you are paying now.

The units tariff on 20cn may be OK for you depending on usage pattern and you could always use this for a month to give it a go and then change to Home::1 if all is good.
Prices are eye watering between 9am and 6pm but OK if you only use the net between 6pm and 9pm plus weekends.

6 month minimum term on Home::1 and restrictions on business use.

Hi, yes, do give us a call, or pop in to our IRC channel - happy to talk and see what's possible for you.