AOL Line Speed Issues

I have been a subscriber to AOL Broadband for a number of years. Recently I have written to AOL as my line speed drops to an almost unuseable level after 11am each day. From 5 to 11am my up to 8Mbps connection runs at 6.5 Mbps it then reduces quite drastically during the afternoon and into the evening - results for 26th October give some idea of what's happening.
05.00 hrs 6.9, 11.00 hrs 4.25, 17.00 hrs 1.30, 18.00 hrs 0.98, 19.00 hrs 0.93, 21.00 hrs 0.69 & 22.00 hrs 1.29 Mbps. As it's a BT Exchange I had a visit from Open Reach who tested my line to and from the exchange - no problems were found. Open Reach said that my line is running at just over 8.0 Mbps at my home and at the exchange but when I log onto AOL the speed can drop to as low as 0.04Mbps. The conclusion reached is that AOL is restricting my Broadband service from 11 am each day to derisory levels. There have been one or two isolated instances when decent speeds have been available throughout the day ( up to 6.5 Mbps ) but they are few and far between. I am on a supposedly unlimited tariff and I don't carry out a lot of big downloads I would like to be able to use You Tube and the BBC iPlayer in the evening but the low speeds don't allow this to happen. I have taken the matter up with AOL but other than a visit from Open Reach they don't appear to be interested.
I have written to AOL requesting details of the Minimum, Average and Maximum Line speeds I should be getting from them ( This is part of the Ofcom Code of Practice ) but they just ignore my request. Has anyone else had similar experiences with AOL - in particular the restriction of Speed Available for no apparent reason. I am going to take the matter up with Ofcom & The Ombudsman if they don't fix it very soon as I consider that it's a Rip Off as I get up to 6.5 Mbps for around 3 hours of a normal day and quite often less than 1.0 Mbps for the rest of the time - hardly a bargain.

Are you figures connect speeds (i.e. read from your router) or throughput speeds (from online speedtests)?

Are you running wired or wireless to your router, and is your wireless protected with a decent password? Have you looked to see what devices are connected to the wireless when things are poor?

As, I believe, they use the same network as TalkTalk. I have been of the opinion that on BTW speed is throttled at peak times. This is one way of reducing download volume on a Unlimited contract.
I was getting from TalkTalk 0.3 -0.7 download speeds during evening and they were not prepared to upgrade me to ADSL2+
With Eclipse I am on consistent 9 -10 at any time with a download cap.
My daughter had numerous problems with AOL when using. Including dialup speeds on a fixed 2MB. Moved to Plusnet and has no problems now.
My suggestion is dump and look for another ISP.

Edited by flippery (Thu 01-Nov-12 15:02:56)

My figures are provided by Sam Knows. I have been carrying out Performance Monitoring for them for more than 3 years. My Broadband Service is Monitored from 5am until 11pm every day. I can access their data at anytime using the Sam Knows Dashboard.

I am using a Netgear Wired Router - I find that it's more reliable and does not pose the problems associated with Wireless systems.

I carry out random speed tests using BT's Speedtester to get the speed at a specific time- the Sam Knows data is an average of their daily testing.

I have looked at Eclipse and they look to be a good reliable alternative to the erratic service provided by AOL.
I am keen to dump AOL but I still have several months of my AOL contract to run. I feel that I have a good case for the Comms Ombudsman as I can provide Stats that show that I am now receiving a reduced level of service compared to the same period in 2011.
Has anyone left AOL while their contract is still active? If so what were they charged and how was any charge based?
Any information on how to Bale Out from AOL at minimal cost would be appreciated

Whilst others might suggest other ISPs I can say that I've been with Eclipse for 9+ years with few, though not zero, issues. The issues I've had had tended to be with the accounts side of things rather than the actual broadband.

Eclipse are definitely one of the more expensive ISPs but I find that technically their broadband offering very reliable. I'm on Home Select with a 50GB download monthly allowance and get around 8Mb download and 0.9Mb upload speeds on a 21CN connection.

I have some reservations about their Customer Service of late, I hope that's a temporary thing rather than a sign of things to come. To be fair though I rarely have a real need to use CS, it's more the questions I sometimes ask that aren't responded to properly, sometimes not at all.

Despite that I'm not currently intending to change.

Even so it is worth checking that the line connection speed is not varying

The sam knows kit does not track this, and simply tests the connection, just doing the speedtests more frequently and automatically than you would if done by hand

Hello,

In the past I had similar symptoms like yours, 8128Kbps sync with the exchange on adsl max. speeds would be fine in the middle of the night, but would drop down to around 400-600Kbps during the afternoon and evenings, all day long during holidays and weekends.

The problem was congestion at the BT exchange, no problem with the ISP or the line between the exchange and my home. BT didn't class this as a fault as it was still above the minimum acceptable speed of 400Kbps for adsl max. On some ocassions the speed did drop bellow 400Kbps, but BTW would not accept any speedtest results which were not done on there btspeedtester. Unfortuneately everytime the speed dropped bellow 400Kbps, the btspeedtester mysteriously wouldn't save the test results.

Have you checked for congestion at your exchange with one of the exchange checkers like Plusnets ?

http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges