Any recommendations?

Hi guys,

I’m a complete newbie who has been browsing the site - not totally technically savvy when it comes to broadband.

Current:

- Live in Glasgow, Scotland.
- Have VM 250 gig, DTTC.
- Live with a professional gamer who streams his gaming sessions and makes a living from it.
- He is experiencing ping of around 40-50ms in game.
- No real issues with the internet, just losing games due to high latency.


We’re now out of contract with VM and would like to try something else. We are obviously considering fibre direct to home. We’ve read that the closer the ISP servers are to us the better internet we’ll get? It’s hugely important we are able to game online while streaming this live with the least amount of ping and best internet possible.

Does anyone have any recommendations for us?

Depends what providers are available. I think Glasgow basically is covered by Openreach, Cityfibre and VM. You can check on bidb.uk what is available.

Cityfibre will give you symmetrical speeds which may be preferable for streaming (though really even 50-100mbit/sec up is more than enough for streaming).

You will see a reduction in ping of 10-15ms being on FTTH vs docsis (VM) regardless of the ISP and generally much more stable connection vs VM - depending on congestion on VM.

Hi @RD111,

I'm also in Glasgow (West End) with an adult son who games and streams (although not competitively). We switched to BT FTTP a year ago - had a choice between that and CityFibre, chose BT primarily for cosmetic installation reasons (fibre entry to the rear of the building rather than through front garden, and easier to route under floor to preferred ONT location).

On a wired connection we get mostly 900 Mb/s with occasional drops to 600 Mb/s down, but always a solid 110 Mb/s up. 90% of the time latency is sub 20ms, with occasional jumps to 40ms (all measured on either fast.com or Ookla).

I can check ping to specific game servers if you like (but bear in mind latency is going to be affected by a large number of factors).