Since I first got BT broadband April 2005, I have had mixed reactions about them. In the start, I have to admit that their service was very good in that they admit problems on their end when ever something went wrong, unlike Eircom which nearly always blamed the customer. When they upgraded my line from 1Mb to 2Mb during the time the broadband packages were improved, I use to get a fairly steady 1.74Mbps on every speed test I carried out on IrishISPTest and downloads from quick sites typically came in at around 214KB/s.
Unfortunately, I started to notice my connection deteriorate just over a month ago when I was seldom reaching 200KB/sec, so I went back to periodic testing. About a month ago, I was getting between 1Mbps and 1.4Mbps on the average weekday evening and in the past two weeks or so, performance often seems to drop below 700kbps (worse on a Monday and Friday).
I am fairly confident that it is not my PC, my phone line or my modem at fault as tests during the day up to around 6pm or so are nearly always between 1.4Mbps and 1.74Mbps (usually the latter) and the same applies usually throughout Saturday and Sunday including the evening also. There was even one case (on a Friday) where the download speed was so poor that I got a faster upload speed than the download speed on the IrishISPTest speedtest and browsing the internet reminded me of going back to the days of ISDN (forgot to note down the test results). I can confirm that I had nothing else running in the background at the time.
For those who are curious, here are some speed tests I have recorded over the past couple of days, taken on when I was online and had some time to spare:
BT Broadband : 24th July
7:30pm - 477kbps Down - 162kbps up - Qos 94%, RTT 72ms, MP 378ms
BT Broadband : 25th July
6:54pm - 1.23Mbps Down - 169kbps up - QoS 73%, RTT 33ms, MP 97ms
7.00pm - 1.71Mbps Down - 180kbps up - QoS 92%, RTT 33ms, MP 55ms
7:25pm - 1.70Mbps Down - 127kbps up - Qos 91%, RTT 38ms, MP 60ms
8.03pm - 1.66Mbps Down - 138kbps up - QoS 82%, RTT 32ms, MP 89ms
8:59pm - 1.14Mbps Down - 141kbps up - QoS 60%, RTT 50ms, MP 329ms
9:27pm - 1.73Mbps Down - 182kbps up - QoS 98%, RTT 34ms, MP 270ms
9:55pm - 1.71Mbps Down - 189kbps up - Qos 77%, RTT 34ms, MP 231ms
10:46pm - 612kbps Down - 103kbps up - QoS 71%, RTT 60ms, MP 384ms
11.07pm - 677kbps Down - 198kbps up - QoS 75%, RTT 65ms, MP 224ms
11:32pm - 798kbps Down - 119kbps up - QoS 76%, RTT 52ms, MP 295ms
11:52pm - 1.60Mbps Down - 170kbps up - QoS 74%, RTT 33ms, MP 166ms
BT Broadband : 26th July
6:58pm - 622kbps Down - 128kbps up - QoS 52%, RTT 56ms, MP 512ms
8.01pm - 820kbps Down - 146kbps up - QoS 73%, RTT 50ms, MP 118ms
8:35pm - 740kbps Down - 165kbps up - QoS 77%, RTT 51ms, MP 377ms
9:58pm - 669kbps Down - 175kbps up - Qos 88%, RTT 55ms, MP 520ms
10:47pm - 1.4Mbps Down - 125kbps up - QoS 67%, RTT 46ms, MP 175ms
11:47pm - 613kbps Down - 125kbps up - QoS 91%, RTT 62ms, MP 136ms
BT Broadband : 27th July
10:12pm - 795kbps Down - 164kbps up - QoS 77%, RTT 67ms, MP 425ms
10:32pm - 776kbps Down - 166kbps up - QoS 47%, RTT 47ms, MP 465ms
Abbreviations
Down = Download performance in kilobits/sec
Up = Upload performance in kilobits/sec
QoS = Quality of Service
RT = Round Trip Time
Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried using BT’s 3Mb service (after previously having poor performance from a lower package)? From what I have heard, it is suppose to half the contention ratio of their 1Mb & 2Mb packages. If someone can confirm that it gives significant improvement over their basic packages during peak times, I would be willing to spend the extra €10 a month if it means that I can get at least 1Mb in the evening on weekdays. I am kind of put off from trying Digiweb at this time due to hearing bad experience from other people who use it (especially their Wireless service) and most of the other providers would require us to change our telephone service to them, which is something we would not be keen on.