Portishead Cabinet 27 Broadband Speed

Hi. The TBB Local Broadband Information page shows 23.5/5.8 Mbps down/up for postcode BS20 7AQ. Can anyone from the forum tell me how many tests contribute to this result, is it just 1 or 2 or or a fair few making it a reasonable indication of the service. The BT availability checker shows 39.6 - 27.4 Mbps and 7.6 - 5.8 Mbps down/up. The low upload is the main concern, Looking for suitability for WFH for a short rental. Cheers - Andy

The tbb speed tests should show which supplier the tests where done, i believe they are a median between all tests done in x amount of time. Some of my tests have dropped off.

have a look at EE and voda, you might just get 5g at that post code so it might be worth going sim only with a 5G mobile internet router. I used no 1 at the post code you gave and visited https://bidb.uk/. So its time nab a freebie voda and ee sims to test the property out if you can!

What length of time are you staying at the property?

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

The BT availability checker shows 39.6 - 27.4 Mbps and 7.6 - 5.8 Mbps down/up.

If that's for your the specific property you're interested in, then that's very likely what you'll get, especially if there's a currently active FTTC service there because they take into account the current line speeds.

They used to show the actual ("observed") speeds if you did a check via phone number rather than address. I don't know if they still do.

You should assume that the *lowest* download and uploads speed are what you'll get. It was certainly true for when I had FTTC, with similar checker results to yours. (Although I've not used FTTC for serveral years, the checker is currently showing 38.1-27.4 and 6.5-4.7 for my property. I actually got about 25-32 down and 4-4.5 up, varying a bit through the year)

Have you checked with BT? I have a friend who lives there who has 1000/110 but the BT checker shows it's as being FTTPoD and I didn't know they did 1000/220 on Demand. It does not say WBC or whatever. Could this be a database error?

@Taras. Thanks for the info. The service is for an adult offspring who'll be there for < 12 months. They already live nearby and are 6 months into a BT contract but have to move. The connection where they are now is adequate and tests at 63/8 Mbps. They need to do MS Teams video meetings and I was concerned that 5 Mbps upload might not be enough. MS recommend 4/2.5 Mbps down/up needed for a meeting session so the available upload speed should be enough. There is always the risk that the location might have a poor line from the cabinet to the flat that they would not know about until moving in. The BID link is very useful allowing me to look at all options in one place - thank you. Looking at the various mast locations on Cellmapper mobile broadband might be difficult given the location and orientation of the flat. Thanks again - Andy

Edited by Rhubarb (Sun 08-Sep-24 14:55:54)

@candlerb. Thanks for the reply. Yep, the search is for the full property address so as you say they're probably accurate.. The connection will be data only so no phone number involved. You've reminded me of the the good old ADSL days when I recall the wholesale checker always pretty bang on with the figures. I used to enjoy tinkering to beat them. Cheers - Andy

Edited by Rhubarb (Sun 08-Sep-24 14:57:55)

@VMDIAPunter. Thanks. Will give BT a call first thing if we can. If you friend lives on the NE side of the Marina there seems to be 1Gbps available in most places, on the SW side it seems to be FTTC with long copper runs.- in this case probably 1Km. Cheers - Andy.

Edited by Rhubarb (Sun 08-Sep-24 14:56:59)

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

@Taras. Thanks for the info. The service is for an adult offspring who'll be there for < 12 months. They already live nearby and are 6 months into a BT contract but have to move.

Talk about bad timing - c'est la vie

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

The connection where they are now is adequate and tests at 63/8 Mbps. They need to do MS Teams video meetings and I was concerned that 5 Mbps upload might not be enough. MS recommend 4/2.5 Mbps down/up needed for a meeting session so the available upload speed should be enough. There is always the risk that the location might have a poor line from the cabinet to the flat that they would not know about until moving in.

2.5Mbits/s upload should be enough, its if you need to send larger documents, that you may be frustrated

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

The BID link is very useful allowing me to look at all options in one place - thank you. Looking at the various mast locations on Cellmapper mobile broadband might be difficult given the location and orientation of the flat. Thanks again - Andy

I'd strongly look 4g/5g as a backup option, and look at 30 day plans. There is no silver bullet in this instance. Note mobile is prone to massive swings in speeds and even with say 100mbits for weeks on end, it can go blip! Also companies like 3 will switch off the faster bands at night restore them about 7am, sometimes your 4g/5g (in 4g mode) router doesn't pick it up. Whilst this will vary, i found mobile internet a constant fiddle and checking the speed levels

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

... They need to do MS Teams video meetings and I was concerned that 5 Mbps upload might not be enough. MS recommend 4/2.5 Mbps down/up needed for a meeting session so the available upload speed should be enough.

I had wireless internet with CGNAT with 10Mb/s upload. Did a zoom meeting with friends and put I seem to remember putting about 4 devices on to the meeting on our side. [It's amazing. In 2020 we had 2 phones capable of zoom and only ever used 1 for zoom. Over the next 30 months I bought a laptop, a camera and replaced the phones, which we still kept, SIMless. Suddenly we had 6 zoom capable devices.] Anyway, 4 devices on 1 side of a 10Mb/s upload was perfectly fine.

In reply to a post by Taras:

2.5Mbits/s upload should be enough, its if you need to send larger documents, that you may be frustrated

It will be enough. In this case "larger documents" only means gigabytes (e.g. massive VM images, high-definiition video, cloud backups). A 10MB powerpoint presentation will only take 16 seconds to upload even at 5Mbps.

I wouldn't bother with the mobile options. A stable 25/6 FTTC is likely to be more dependable than a variable mobile signal; and if they're already used to an 8Mbps upload, it won't be that different.