minimum guaranteed speed - slightly confused

Throughput speed
There are a number of speed test services available online, such as Speedtest and SamKnows. We recommend testing at different times of day while using different devices and both wired and wireless connections if you have them. This will give you a better understanding of what may be disrupting your service.
Broadband speeds and your rights as a customer

Vodafone has signed up to the Office of Communications (Ofcom) Broadband Speed Voluntary Code of Practice. This means we promise to provide you with an even clearer estimate of the access line speed before you purchase Vodafone Broadband. It also means we�ll give you a minimum guaranteed speed before you purchase Vodafone Broadband, which gives you recourse in the unlikely event that we fail to meet these standards.

If your access line speed is lower than the minimum guaranteed speed we said you�d get when you signed up for Vodafone Broadband, please call us free on 08080 034 515 and the team will find out why. Calls are free from all UK landlines and mobiles, and lines are open from 8am to 11pm, seven days a week. If you can�t remember your minimum guaranteed speed, you�ll find it in your service confirmation letter.

If we�re not able to resolve your speed issue within 28 days, you have the right to cancel your contract without penalty. Should such an unfortunate situation occur, simply call the team and they�ll talk you through your options.

Hoping for a bit of advise... vf service went live towards the end of Dec, so well outside my initial training period they like to rattle on about. From my other posts, we know that the service performance is variable at lest. However for the last few days even the multithread speedtest.net tests have been returning ~25Mbps with nothing else running in the house - on a wired connection.

On signing up, which VF never sent me my 'service confirmation letter' - they claim it got lost on the Christmas post, I was told my minimum guaranteed speed would be 35Mbps (they confirm this over the phone, too). What I am trying to determine is - does that mean sync speed on the line or actual throughput? In my (logical) mind it should be throughout, as otherwise they could just keep overselling their backhaul capacity out of the exchange/cabinets, and still claim all is good as "the line is syncing within spec", where you could be left with a service delivery sub dial up modem speeds.

fwiw, my line syncs pretty much on 40, but speed tests (thinkbroadband and speedtest) vary between 25-37 when ever it feels like it - with no change of what is occurring in the house (has been as low as 13Mbps according to SamKnows - and that was when I was in the office and no one was at home).

I've been though all the trouble shooting, but speaking to their phone support, they keep asking me to split wifi channels, and seemingly fail to understand that I'm using a wired connection. Have got this (eventually) raised to tech level 2, but not hold out much hope.

One of my mates who lives down the road from me (different cab) is on their 80/20 service but only seems to top out between 25-35Mbps too. That seems like a scam - sell a faster syncing service, but they don't seem to have the capacity in their network to actually service it.

Am I fighting a loosing battle? Things were never this bad with Sky, and I'm using the same kit (vigor 130 and 2925) as I was with them.

Thanks & sorry for the long message!

The guarantee as defined by Sky is definitely access line speed and likely to be the same with Vodafone.

As usual the wording is confusing, and that even happens with Ofcom when it publishes the guidelines, but general gist is the sign up figures are access line speed based.

Sync speed, as it's usually wifi which slows down actual speed and ISPs can't be held accountable for people having devices lacking good wifi chips.

so basically they are saying "your line is syncing fine, but we have don't have sufficient capacity. Hard cheese old chap."

I can understand the wifi issues, as often the cheapo ISP supplied wifi routers themselves are half the problem!

In reply to a post by mbames:

fwiw, my line syncs pretty much on 40, but speed tests (thinkbroadband and speedtest) vary between 25-37 when ever it feels like it - with no change of what is occurring in the house (has been as low as 13Mbps according to SamKnows - and that was when I was in the office and no one was at home).

I have a Vodafone FTTC 38 Mbps service. My router syncs at 40Mbps downstream and I can run this websites speed tests which go up to nearly 38Mbps in the early hours of the morning. The best upstream speed I have managed is about 6Mbps. Speeds at other times are generally slower.

If you cannot achieve close to the sync over a wired connection you have cause for complaint.
This is generally congestion and ISPs typically either allow you to leave the contract freely or reduce payments until this is resolved.

Vodafone do not have a great track record overall, not sure what their process is.

Your Big ISPs, BT, TalkTalk, PlusNet, now all offer Wireless AC routers on Fibre packages which are wireless AC 1200 or better.

EDIT: Sky is only dual band on fastest package.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 29-Jan-18 11:14:45)

Would this be congestion at the exchange (Too many local subscribers) or congestion in their nationwide backhaul (To many national suppliers?)

Just curious, exploring alternatives to Talktalk!

Hard to say although fibre doesn't route via the local exchange, instead the cabs connect to a headend exchange, sort of a major exchange. This is one reason why congestion is less on fibre, as the headend exchanges cover a far wider area.

I would guess the issues are likely down to a lack of backhaul at the headend exhanges.

Post Office, SSE, Vodafone and Zen are all ones typically experiencing congestion of some sorts. Zen resolve the issues, the others do not.

Given the small size of these ISPs, they account for more congestion posts than other ISPs.

As alternatives to TalkTalk I would stick to the basics e.g. BT, Plusnet etc (major ISPs).

Note Sky Fibre up to 38 Mbps is still the SR102 802.11n device, only the up to 76 Mbps comes with the dual band Sky Q unit

Even on the dual band unit, you have a bunch of traffic management so it's kinda hit and miss (assuming you have the Sky Q TV).