Fttc speed slower than previously

My son lives in a flat and has had Vodafone FTTC for three years, the last year out of contract. Looking at what Vodafone can offer currently is only a max speed of 25 mps, although he is paying for a speed higher than this. Vodafone tell me this is the max they can offer now .
I have been looking at other suppliers , BT say the guaranteed min speed is 30 mbs
Plusnet 21 mbs, same as Vodafone, EE also 23 to 25 mbs, however, Now and Sky are stating they can offer speeds higher than BT

I have asked others in his block of flats what speed they are getting, and one chap said he has Vodafone and is getting 42 mbs. Although the flat is on the 9th floor, someone on the 11th floor was getting a faster speed.

I am totally confused by all this, and we are not sure whether to move suppliers , although i am not convinced we will get a faster speed, or stick with Vodafone and save £10 a month

The postcode is M35EW

Any ideas, advice would be welcome

I have run a speedtest and via thinkbroadband and it states 41mbs, my son has run one via speedtest.net and got 25mbs

He really needs to look at what he is currently getting on FTTC as any switch to another provider is unlikely to increase the FTTC spread connection between his flat and the FTTC cabinet as that is mainly determined on the distance between those two points. Some here may also talk about congestion but you are then getting into the depths of the ISP network which may be too confusing.

What does: https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL give for the number?

Observed speed 27.39 mbs

There have been alot of flats built very close to my sons in the past three years, putting more demand on the Blackfriars exchange in Salford.

and teh predicted ranges?

Vdsl range impacted 53.4 mbs high 37.3 low

In reply to a post by Sharon1961:

There have been alot of flats built very close to my sons in the past three years, putting more demand on the Blackfriars exchange in Salford.

If those flats come off the same green Openreach cabinet as your sons flat then it is technically possible that your sons broadband speed has slowed down because of them, its called crosstalk but Openreach will not and cannot really do anything about that sadly.

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Mar-22 09:42:22)

Yes i agree, but i wonder if we switch to BT it will be faster, Vodafone told me they were being restricted by Openreach but BT, EE and plusnet may be better. The latter are not offering anything faster than 25 mbs, but BT may be the best option.
Or Sky Which has its own LLU in the exchange!

Thanks for all the comments

Edited by Sharon1961 (Sat 12-Mar-22 09:52:48)

In reply to a post by Sharon1961:

Yes i agree, but i wonder if we switch to BT it will be faster, Vodafone told me they were being restricted by Openreach but BT, EE and plusnet may be better. The latter are not offering anything faster than 25 mbs, but BT may be the best option.
Thanks for the comments

Personally I don't believe he will be any better off as the sales person will only quote you the predicted speeds, Vodafone won't configure his broadband so its capped at 25Mbps, the distance between the flat and cabinet will restrict that, to say it a different way if the Openreach engineer tests your sons broadband directly at the green cab the engineer could get around 80Mbps.

Edit: added clarity

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Mar-22 10:05:45)

In reply to a post by Sharon1961:

Or Sky Which has its own LLU in the exchange!

LLU standards for 'Local Loop Unbundled' which isn't applicable to FTTC, the associated products (e.g ADSL 2+) are not capable of going over 24Mbps if I recall correctly.

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Mar-22 10:03:19)

I would guess the non-impacted are higher than those.

Whichever provider is chosen teh sppeds will be teh same - the "guarantees" are taken from the various figures and some ISPs deliberately chose lower to make it harder for you to move, others go higher to entice you in.

It will be whichever ISP offers the best rate/price and overall perceived service ...

Is there any mention of FTTP?

Number of points from your post:

1) No matter which supplier you use, it all comes down the same copper wire to the property so changing the provider will not change the underlying infrastructure with whatever limitations that has.

2) You say that you are seeing a higher speed when you test using TBB as compared with your son testing using speedtest.net. That implies that the line is capable of achieving the higher speeds some providers are offering. To cover their backs some providers only offer a service based on speed test results. If your son is consistently showing results slower than his neighbours it is possible that some providers are capping their offer at what the line is appearing to achieve.

3) This is all starting to point to something sub-optimal in the kit or configuration used by your son. How were the speedtests used by you and your son connected (WiFi or ethernet cable)? WiFi (particularly in multi-dwelling units like blocks of flats) is liable to congestion; this can be alleviated by changing the WiFi channel. There is plenty of advice on line about checking which channels are being used, which are the most congested and how to change if the kit is running on a congested channel. Bear in mind that the congestion (and possibly speed test results) will change over the day as people come and go, start streaming films in the evening etc. What speed does you son get using the same speedtest as you? If it is markedly different to yours then there may be a problem with his hardware. As a final thought, are there any telephone extensions in the flat? Some extensions which have not been correctly wired-in can cause interference - and has your son tried changing the filter(s) if there are any plugged into the telephone line?

Given the facts as laid out in your post I would suggest a bit of background research before jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

Edited by GonePostal (Sat 12-Mar-22 10:20:04)

No sign of FTTP, Hyperoptic have done a survey, but nothing has happened since. Apathy from management company/ freeholder i suspecf.

Is the computer (or whatever) running the speed test connected to the router by ethernet or wifi?

Only via an ethernet connection is relevant. This could well explain why others in the building are getting better and/or worse.