Appallingly low speeds

Hello,

I am getting appallingly low speeds on my BT broadband connection. In the day it sometimes gets up to about 2m/b, but in the evenings it is never more than 500kb. I checked on the Speedtest on this site just now and got a result of:

Speed Down 77.71 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )
Speed Up 78.36 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )

Which is completely unusable. What can I do to improve things? I live in Canary Wharf, so I would have thought that the speeds would be okay but this is way worse than when I was miles and miles out in the sticks.

Please post detailed instructions if you want me to run some test or something as am not very good with this sort of thing

Cheers,
Mark W.

The Performance Tester is now testing Broadband connection. Your configured download throughput speed for this service is 6000 k

Download speedachieved during the test was - 4677 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :7328 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 6000 Kbps

This is what the BT Speedtest says, but I can't get speeds anywhere near that for any website or download at all?

Date 24/03/10 19:15:23
Speed Down 30.29 Kbps ( 0 Mbps )
Speed Up 30.72 Kbps ( 0 Mbps )

Hi MWraith,

Can you run a test from www.speedtester.bt.com when the speed is slow in the evening time, and post the full results here?

Thanks,

Stephanie
BT Support

Hello,

Here are my speedtester results tonight:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 473 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :7328 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 6000 Kbps


This test was not conclusive and further testing is required.This might be useful for your ISP to investigate the fault.

If you wish to carry out further tests,please click on 'Continue' button.If not, please close the window using 'Exit' button and contact your ISP for further assistance with these results.

Mine is the same on Virgin,as soon as it hits peak time the speed drops.

Del.

It is called contention, and sets the better ISPs apart from what the massed market ones usually do

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

It is called contention, and sets the better ISPs apart from what the massed market ones usually do

Does that vary in different parts of the country ?

Yes, and from day to day, Contention by its nature is influenced by what the population are doing

Will the contention on the same stretch of line be the same no matter what ISP you use,or is it down to each ISP ?

djh22

Define stretch of your line?

The copper to the phone exchange is uncontended.

Contention will vary from ISP to ISP, but sometimes if the wholesaler gets its sums wrong all retailers buying capacity from it can suffer.

Then there is the contention after you leave your ISP and go on the Internet, e.g. websites rely on shared bandwidth

Ok so I have a 1 year contract with BT apparently, is there anything I can do about these low speeds? Unfortunately I cannot do my job with this speed of connection at all, so either speed needs to be fixed or I need to breach / cancel my contract and move to an ISP that can give more than 100 kb/s...

Any help here BTCare?

What package are you on? Residential or Business?

What package are you on?

Have you perhaps gone over a usage limit and are being traffic managed?

The 0.1Mbps speeds should warrant a fault, but odd that speedtester.bt.com is good. The suggestion here is that the line itself is fine( i.e. changing ISP will help probably) but the BT Central Internet component is heavily congested or the traffic mangaement is being harsh on you.

If a job is on the line, then maybe paying to leave contract early might be worth the money, if BT cannot find fault or simply insist the speeds are fine.

If this is a new contract then you could dispute the contract and get the money back.

Hi MWraith

Email me at [email protected] with your account information will need to run some tests the results you have posted will require further investigation.

Cheers

Stuart

Sorry to bump this but I did send my account info to you at that address on the day you made this post and haven't received anything back yet. Appreciate it is Easter but how long will it take. Attempting to do some work right now and getting < 100kb/sec speeds.

Just looking through some of BT_Care's recent posts...