Broadband speeds on Watchdog

Just saw the end of Watchdog and next week they are going to be discussing broadband speeds or in this case not getting what you are paying for.

On Wednesday 9th November 8pm.


Regards

Id be interested to know how many people who moan of poor speeds and the reason is due to poor internal wiring

Never really understood the "speeds I'm paying for argument" as with most DSL providers, the price is the same whether you're quoted 1meg or 16meg for ADSL or 19meg and 55meg for VDSL (Infinity 1 for example).

So what the people making such a complaint are saying if they were quoted a lower speed they just wouldn't have broadband, baring in mind that ISP's done charge less the further you are from the source of your xDSL service. If anything the further you are the more expensive it should be, as typically the line will require more maintenance than a shorter one.

You don't really pay for speed, you pay for a service.

Edited by deleted (Thu 03-Nov-16 14:36:45)

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Id be interested to know how many people who moan of poor speeds and the reason is due to poor internal wiring

Quite a few ... and a lot will be DIY work that causes it which they then expect BT to fix free of charge!

However, occasionally there will be those with slow speeds through no fault. I have one that I am connected with. Their internal wiring is as near to perfect as possible. Drop wire terminates in external junction box with new gel crimps, the cable then goes down 0.5m and through the wall straight into the back of the NTE. There is sub-1m cable to the modem and a 1m cable to the DECT base station and, I believe, nothing else.

Their VDSL speed is around 3.5Mbps - yes three point five. Previously ADSL was around 1 to 1.2 Mbps.

Answer is simple pay per Mbps and pay per GB i.e. pay standing charge for the speed you want (long lines simply have less options). My prediction if it went this way was that prices might drop 50p to £1/m for those with sub 2 Mbps type connections, but likely that those with over 10 Mbps available would be paying more.

The increased complexity in billing would lead to higher costs, hence the need for providers to balance pricing.

Almost none of us have an unlimited electric supply, there was one ISP many years ago that tried a pure PAYG model on fixed line broadband and they vanished pretty quick.

Interesting to compare with the banded Vehicle Excise Duty, the speed limits on roads, motorways etc; and the actual speeds achieved.

It is all relative e.g. I have friends with a 20Mbps connection who stream netflix in full HD around the clock and pay 14 quid a month for EE ADSL (inc line rental). They would be one of these people who moaned about their speed if asked, but at the same time do not download anything, would refuse to pay more and use many 100Gb every month (streaming). At the same time, if you gave them 300Mbps they would still connect their 5 year old compaq laptop and say the connection is slow. Often the end users machines and attitudes are why they think it's slow, when it's often fine.

So many people upgrade their broadband when they have a 8 year old computer and expect miracles, this is why I understand BT technical support being so poor as they cannot easily distinguish between us in the know and those who are doing everything wrong.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 03-Nov-16 16:46:56)

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Id be interested to know how many people who moan of poor speeds and the reason is due to poor internal wiring

Or testing using wifi.

Hence a movement towards road pricing