Broadband speed opinions

I switched to Zen internet on Thursday last having previously been with vodafone.

When I switched to Vodafone earlier this year it was good and I was getting around 55 to 57mb.

However recently it started to go downhill, and in the evenings I was only getting around 2mb (day time I was getting a solid 50mb), despite the router saying the "sync" speed was 55! I complained to Vodafone and they confirmed that they had capacity issues and as such they couldn't guarantee me any level of service and I either had to wait until they resolved it or they would remove my contract dates and let me to elsewhere.

I waited a few weeks and decided to go elsewhere, I didn't want to take a chance and go with one of the other main players, like sky, talk talk etc. I assumed that zen would be a little unusual and as such I would likely get a more stable service.

I switched over and they said that I should get between 44 and 72mb with a typical download speed of 49mb.

The first day it switched over I was getting 47. So I spoke to Zen and explained that I was getting during the day solid 50 to 55mb with vodafone, so I was aware that my line can support it, so why I am only getting 47 with them. They said that it is still above the 44 minimum threshold however they would look into it.

Last night I checked again and I was getting 57mb! A reboot then dropped to 54 and fluctuates between 54 and 57mb.

I suppose I am a little dubious but I want to ensure I am getting the best from my connection, I replaced the faceplate when we moved here in 2016 to the MK3 one, and we have had no issues at all, no drops or service issues. The house is 1930s built and the phone line for some reason comes into the house and the socket ends up in the middle of the property in the hallway, but with no evidence of where it actually comes in! If you follow it back it ended up going to what I believe is an old bell box? The decorator decided to cut through it as they didn't think it was doing anything a year or so ago, and we lost Internet. They replaced it with a white standard box and terminated it all inside and we have been fine since.

Ideally I'd love a bt engineer to come round and check everything out and run a new cable to the house so that I know it is "clean" as surely this will have a bearing on the speed?

My line length is 550 odd metres which I believe is quite good? And the attainable speed is between 59 and 60mb when connected to the test socket.

Do you think based on the bt wholesale checker and what I have said about that I can get more? Or should I consider replacing the MK3 with the MK4?

Thanks,

Matt

See pictures of router stats.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/188995195@N03/shares/k...

https://flic.kr/p/2jdZSdy

Edited by deleted (Sun 21-Jun-20 17:07:52)

'run a new cable to the house ' Sorry but that only gets done when a fault has been proved into the lead in .

You were getting sync speed of 55 before? And now it's fluctuating between 54 and 57? That's fine.

It sounds like the switchover to Zen has done a DLM reset, so it has forgotten what it had found to be the most stable setting for your line, and is hunting around to optimise it. It would be normal for it to start with a slightly slower speed (i.e. higher SNR). Give it a week or two and it should settle down to where it was before.

If you were only getting 2M actual download speed in the evening from Vodafone, that sounds like major congestion in their IP network or lack of capacity in their interconnects. Zen should be much better for that.

I doubt that fiddling with your faceplate will make any noticeable difference to your sync speed. The range 44-72Mbps doesn't mean your line is capable of 72Mbps; it just means there's huge uncertainty in the model which estimates possible line speeds.

If you had bridge taps (i.e. branches in the cabling before it hits the master socket) that could impact your speed. But given that you're bang in the middle of the predicted speed range, I'd say that what you have is likely to be as good as you'll get. You could compare with some neighbours if you want to be completely sure.

Have a look at this chart:
https://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-...

In some ways things have gotten better since then, but in other ways they've gotten worse due to increased takeup of FTTC and the additional crosstalk this generates.

55Mbps for 550m is exactly what it predicts. But all kinds of variations are possible in the real world due to the actual paths taken by cables, joints, crosstalk, interference etc.

Thanks for your responses.

Yes the link would suggest I am where I should be. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, you always want more and due to the impacted estimates on the wholesale checker, I am just wondering whether more is achievable. All the cables to our house are overhead using polls, not underground.

As the house has been extended out and up, the cabling has long been buried in the extension works from the point it meets the corner of the property until it gets to the centre of the hallway, which is quite a way from any outside wall.

Happy with zen so far. Is it them that sets the speed? Or is it purely bt / what the line can achieve?

I am getting STN of 7 for down and line attenuation of 20db down. Are they good? And should the attainable throughput be the same as actual or is their always a difference? As in why can't I get 60 down if that is what the attainable is?

Thanks,

Matt

In reply to a post by Mdcooper:

Happy with zen so far. Is it them that sets the speed? Or is it purely bt / what the line can achieve?

The latter.

Zen can change the stability profile which will have a direct impact on the rate over time but they'll likely be set to speed by default so you'll get the fastest that the Openreach hardware believes the line can achieve with reasonable stability.

Matt

Thanks Matt.

So I presume they would be unlikely to up this or change the profile if they are already providing above what the minimum they are contractually required to?

Thanks,

Matt

If the profile defaults to speed, changing this won't help you as your line is already going to get the best it can.

If they've set stable or super stable, changing to speed may give you a little more.

I can't see them refusing to change this if not already on the setting which should give you the fastest.

Matt

OK thank you.

Is my STN and line attenuration OK do you think?

Matt

STN?

Do you mean SRN or Noise Margin, because that is a useful figure?

Whatever you do, and I hope you haven't been doing, is re-sync frequently to see if you can get it faster. Frequent disconnects and reconnects have the opposite effect, as the Openreach system takes them as instability and slows you down to improve it.