5 Days of 900/100 FTTP

just wanted to give my thoughts after having FTTP installed coming from FTTC. I opted for the 900Mbps package with zen. Only had to wait a week for the install date. Engineer was sound and accomidated the awkwardness of the property.

Speeds on install started slowish but the suggestion of turning off the router and ont worked and on ethernet an hour after install I was hitting over 900Mbps on Speedtest.net! I did have issues with my new router Asus AX86U as I had slow wifi even on wifi 6 and after some digging it turns out enabling guest wifi was the cause. Now on Wifi 6 apple devices are getting 830Mbps. the most I'm finding for wifi 5 (AC) devices is around 400Mbps so bear that in mind if your thinking of the 900/100 package but don't have a lot of wifi 6 or ethernet devices.

Another issue seems to be finding a server fast enough to download 900Mbps, obviously for a high bandwidth house with multi devices the extra bandwidth will be well needed but for single downloads you'll struggle to max it out.
If you have a console or your a PC gamer and get fed up of waiting for games and patches to download before playing, then you might want to consider it. On the PS5 with ethernet I was speed testing at 650Mbps. I downloaded a game of 38GB in just 12 minutes. That would have taken hours on my previous 73Mbps connection.

Once again great speeds and service from Zen, I do live in a small town in north Wales and not a big city so results may vary but so far Im not complaining.

thinkbroadband speed test result

My best Speedtest.net result

Edited by maximono (Mon 28-Jun-21 14:45:13)

Why the Asus router? I assume Zen would provide a FritzBox, what doesn't it do the Asus does?

The 7530 as supplied by Zen specifies :-
866 Mbit/s for 5 Ghz(gross)
400 Mbit/s for the 2.4 Ghz

thus can barely cope with the 900/100 (slightly naughty of Zen to supply the 900/100 without making this clear!)

However the 7530 AX (wifi 6) specifies :-

1800 Mbit/s for the 5Ghz
600 for the 2.4 Ghz

This may explain the use of a different router---I'm only speculating

best
Phil

I would imagine that your speculation is correct. The Zen supplied router is not WiFi 6.

I have the same package, and use a TP-Link WiFi 6 router.

Pretty much said by others as the Fritz box is wifi 5 and not 6. Even WiFi 6 can’t max out a 900/100 connection but i can ethernet for that. Wifi 6 comes close in the 800mbps range but I’d be lucky to get more than 400mbps for wifi 5. I looked into all the reviews and the Router I went for is rated at one of the best wif 6 routers without going crazy in price. It’s also got 2.5Gb wan/lan port for network storage and future proofing.

I used to have the ASUS RT-AX88U, but one of their firmware updates gave me issues with one of the VPNs that I used for work. Their support was hopeless too. That is why I sent it back, and got the TP-Link Archer AX11000 instead.

In reply to a post by tboorman:

I used to have the ASUS RT-AX88U, but one of their firmware updates gave me issues with one of the VPNs that I used for work. Their support was hopeless too. That is why I sent it back, and got the TP-Link Archer AX11000 instead.

Good choice in router, I have the AX6600 to accommodate requirements and budget. My iphone on a WiFI bandwidth tester can get around 600-650Mbps in ideal conditions which is great for internal traffic.
Unfortunately I can't get those speeds with my ISP (VM) at the moment (unless i brave an upgrade with virgin media) but next year I have been promised some full fibre by Openreach so as they say "Let there be light" and a cheap ISP.

In about 10 days I will have the Fritzbox 7530 AX and will post some results here.
I very much like the in-built DECT base station and wish more other routers had the feature.

Phil