exchange congestion

Hey peeps,

just wanted to see what other users are getting reagrding speeds on fibre in the evenings, i have recently join Sky on the 40/10 package and for the first few weeks the service was brilliant, however in to the 3rd week and beyond the service from 8pm onwards is terrible, pings fluctuate from the usual 15ms to 900ms when i am trying to play a game online, web pages struggle to open, the service is just unusable!
Speedtests jump all over the place like the pings and Sky support have confirmed that the exchange i am on is serviced by a larger one and that is one that is causing the problems........
Am i in a minority here or have sky really underestimated demand? i am seriously considering moving ISP, but are the others suffering the same fate?

the good
http://speedtest.net/result/2475213797.png

the bad
http://speedtest.net/result/2471790107.png

Edited by deleted (Sat 02-Feb-13 15:17:55)

Sky has congestion issues at some exchanges currently, so if speeds get better after about 1am probably congestion rather than fttc issue

Sky are upgrading their links at many exchanges at the moment, you can be sure your exchange will be upgraded very soon, and you will return to getting max speeds/low pings as many of us have enjoyed for years.

You can check your exchange here: http://servicestatus.sky.com/serviceupdates/

Yep, as Mr. Saffron and Dave 2150 say, and as discussed & reported elsewhere. It's just a matter of waiting until the backhaul congestion issue has been fixed for your exchange.

ok thanks for the info, however if things dont improve in a timeframe i would hope it to, would the situation be the same with other ISP's running from the same exchange network?
its just good money after bad at the moment and i would like to get out sooner rather than later if its going to continue for some time.

thx

We had to put up with poor peak time performance for 3 months at the Hastings exchange before it was sorted out.

To be fair it was Alcatel continually pushing back the date for the work to start on the upgrade, eventually starting about 6 week late but once it stared it was completed within a week.

Edited by simon194 (Sun 03-Feb-13 10:50:27)

What you are currently suffering is congestion on Sky's backhaul network between the exchange and their core network. Other ISPs whose service is available from your exchange will have their own backhaul networks. You would need to do some research about your prospective chosen ISP to find out whether or not they are also having congestion problems on their backhaul networks from your exchange.

My advice would be to sit tight and rough it out, all isp's have congestion issues at times, its a fact of life . Unless you do your homework very well you could be jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

hi all,

this is still an ongoing issue but just wanted to ask you "experts" something

Tonight has been a particualry bad night so i phoned my friend who lives around the corner, he is on a different street box but on the same exchange, currently he is getting around 30mb down and 9mb up and as you can see from the speed tests i am getting nothing like that.
He is a Sky customer like me.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/GR1M1/speeds...

before 8pm everything is fine

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/GR1M1/speeds...

so if my problem is Backhaul or exchange congestion, how come he isnt getting the same issues, should i take this up with sky?

Edited by deleted (Fri 01-Mar-13 07:58:31)

I'm no expert but that would seem to suggest that there is a problem somewhere between your house and the exchange. Thinking about it then, I suppose that means the problem could be one of these:

- something wrong with internal wiring within the house?
- something wrong (particular to your line) at the cabinet?
- something wrong (particular to your line) at the exchange?
- something wrong with external wiring between house and cabinet and/or cabinet and exchange?

But how to establish which of these (if any) it could be, and getting someone to sort it out, I have no idea other than to go back to your ISP in the first instance.