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Chrysalis
On wednesday and thursday I rang up isp's on the pretence I was considering ordering, the purpose was to see what I was told about the service I could recieve and if I was been missold a product.
The line sync obtained on my last 3 isps is as follows. Line could sync higher in all 3 cases but not sustainable for long period (ie. weeks) without issues. So these are syncs I was able to achieve with stability.
Xilo via tiscali LLU, 5.3mbit average. adsl1 (adsl2+ slower)
Ukonline LLU 6mbit average. adsl2 (adsl2+ and adsl1 slower)
Entanet via bt wholesale 5.6mbit average. adsl1. (adsl1 only available)
The estimated linespeed via BT wholesale checker is just 4.5mbit.
I first rang BT.
Offered up to 20mbit broadband but was told I would only get around 4.5mbit. I asked for explanation of what that means (played dumb) they said I would get a service capable of getting 20mbit/sec but to expect it to perform at 4.5mbit/sec.
Then rang talktalk.
I noticed their website doesnt specify a speed so this seemed a good sign in terms of I wasnt going to be misled however this changed on the call, apparently my line using their network is capable of a whopping 14mbit, I gave them a 2nd chance and told them what the BTw checker said and what I get on current isp but they persisted with the 14mbit. I asked how it would be higher and got told its their network.
Then rang sky.
Less to say here, was offered up to 16mbit broadband, no estimated speed given, I then asked and got repeated to me is up to 16mbit depending on line length but still wouldnt give me estimate. Got a speech about how sky is unlimited, no throttling, fastest isp in country because of this.
O2 told me I would get up to 16mbit/sec and also refused to give me an estimate when prompted, apparently as well I would be welcome to use torrents heavily as their network was built to support what they selling. (yes I specifically asked this as I am aware of their ipstream issues).
I left it at that as I wanted to concentrate on the big name isp's. Only BT came close to giving me a reasonable expectation but even then they muddled it up a bit by stating the service would be capable of 20mbit/sec.
I did this test following the debate I joined on the front news page about isp's advertising of speeds. Ofcom have already been contacted via their web form but will ring them today or monday as well.
As a comparison when I signed up to VM there is something on their website claiming typical speeds are very high which is obviously based on the samknows/ofcom testing, at the time to me that was also somewhat misleading as for many months my actual performance was lower for big parts of the day however the difference been of course if I were to download at 4am on the VM connection even when it was at its worst I could see at least sometimes speeds close to what I was sold, Also VM did acknowledge it as a faulty service, I was compensated and upgrade work was scheduled, this eventually got fixed end of january and I now get a steady 30mbit 24/7 on their 30mbit product. Whilst during my time on BT even when I had a openreach engineer get a sync below my FTR it was not treated as a fault. The approach by both companies to performance issues is to be frank light years apart which has reflected on the reality of whats been sold vs whats provided. That says a lot as VM are far from excellent, I had to wait 9 months or so for it to be fixed but even that is light years ahead of openreach.
Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 01-Apr-11 09:52:26)
