Speed upgrade 7.6MB or 6MB? - Irish ISP Test - Broadband Forum

computerfreak · #1 (**permalink**) 10th August 2008, 01:02 AM

BT promised the option 3 broadband will be upgraded to 7.6mb. But receiving only 6mb. Why it happened? Any information?

howfast · #2 (**permalink**) 10th August 2008, 02:05 PM

Hi computerfreak

I too can only sync at 6Mbps despite having reasonable SNR for the distance to the local exchange. [BTW you can estimate the cable length from your exchange by dividing the downline attenuation by 13.81 to get the distance in kilometres].

I managed to have a conversation directly with a BT TS supervisor who first tried the mantra about my phone line not being able to take a higher speed. He said this was based on the result of a software test Eircon had provided to the other isp’s for testing line capability. I asked was this test provided by the same people who told me a couple of years ago the line could not take even 1Mbps and now I can sync at 6Mbps - he had no answer. Ho also let it slip that the test showed my cable length as being in excess of 4 km when in fact it is only 2.75 km, more proof on the accuracy of Eircon's tests.

Next he tried the Eircon Bitstream is a rate adaptive product meaning that I was getting the fastest speed my modem could negotiate with the equipment in the exchange. Again, no answer when I asked him to explain how the max sync happened to be the same as the Eircon 6Mbps product that was there before the upgrades.

Having done some research on the functioning of ADSL Max across the pond it appears that if you can’t sync at the max speed then the connection speed is reduced in 0.5Mbps increments until a stable connection is achieved. It looks like Eircon have decided to reduce the speeds to coincide with the standard packages offered before the upgrades. Of course this will prove cheaper for Eircon as they get to provide much lower bandwidth for the same inflated price, again ripping off the Irish consumer.

If I’m wrong then there should be people out there syncing at 7, 6.5, 5.5, 4.5 and 3.5Mbps [I’ve left out the previous package speeds of 6, 5 and 4Mbps]

If you are not getting the full 7.6Mbps Please post you sync speeds here so we can organise and force BT to put pressure on Eircon to give a proper RADSL service with people achieving the ACTUAL highest speeds their lines are capable of.

Howfast

computerfreak · #3 (**permalink**) 10th August 2008, 09:29 PM

Hi howfast,
First of all I appreciate your fantastic work.
I am also less than 3.5km from our exchange. Our line is new and inside wiring is good quality CAT5 cable as well. Then how it come like this? My modem shows I can get 12mb. Before upgrade my download speed was 2.65Mbps and upload 330Kbps. Now 5.30 and 437. We have to overcome this issue. Howfast we are with you. Cheers.

(IRE)Wolfman · #4 (**permalink**) 11th August 2008, 05:00 PM

I'm still getting the same speeds with huge jumps in ping from 30ms to 125ms.

I'm 3km from the exchange! In westport.

ellardm · #5 (**permalink**) 11th August 2008, 09:14 PM

I am 2.2km from exchange and my speed has gone to 2.6mB on a 3mb download.

Delighted with this as it is about what I expect.

At one time line was averaging 1.3mB

listenshh · #6 (**permalink**) 12th August 2008, 09:47 AM

I'm not even 2km from the exchange and i am getting 6.42mbps, kinda disappointing as i live so near an area that can get 24mbps

austin · #7 (**permalink**) 12th August 2008, 02:09 PM

My speed finally increased yesterday. I was on the 2mb option and was getting dl 1.7 mb. Now getting 2.54 dl so happy enough.

However, when I did the test where you fill in your line noise etc. to see what my line was capable of it said I could get 8mb. So why am I only getting 2.54 MB instaed of the full 3MB? I checked my modem settings and it is set to 3MB.

Also, I was online last night at about 7.30 and was getting the "full" 2.54 MB but by 8.30 it was down to about 1MB and the quality of service was 30%. Is this a contention issue I am having?

Just a quick question on contention while I'm here. If I changed to Eircom would I have the same contention problem as on BT as it is the same line?

Thanks

Austin

austin · #8 (**permalink**) 12th August 2008, 08:01 PM

Again today speed was brilliant 2.54 MB and QOS 99%. But again at around 7.30 speed has dropped to 0.3MB and QOS is rubbish.

paddyshack · #9 (**permalink**) 12th August 2008, 11:39 PM

my speed while it should be 7 mbs was recorded at 2.5Kps yes that is a K!!!!! what is going on when I was on the 3 mbs it was very stable at 2.56 mbs

austin · #10 (**permalink**) 15th August 2008, 01:32 PM

This is my speed at 1.30pm. I dont think it could get any better than this. I will post later with my evening results.

Download speed 2595 Kbps (socket test)
Upload speed 286 Kbps (socket test)
Quality of service 97 %
Maximum delay 209 ms
Round trip time 14 ms
Upstream jitter 0.1 ms
Upstream packet loss 0 %
Upstream packet order 100 %
Upstream discards 0 %

austin · #11 (**permalink**) 15th August 2008, 08:21 PM

And this is my ststs at 8.20pm. This is actually far better than usual for this time of the evening. This is worse than before the speed upgrade. Whats is going on?

Download speed 885 Kbps (socket test)
Upload speed 282 Kbps (socket test)
Quality of service 65 %
Maximum delay 294 ms
Round trip time 51 ms
Upstream jitter 1.8 ms
Upstream packet loss 0 %
Upstream packet order 100 %
Upstream discards 0 %

austin · #12 (**permalink**) 15th August 2008, 09:29 PM

And speed at 9.30pm what is up with this crappy service? Can anyone help?

Download speed 638 Kbps (socket test)
Upload speed 252 Kbps (socket test)
Quality of service 18 %
Maximum delay 441 ms
Round trip time 47 ms
Upstream jitter 1.3 ms
Upstream packet loss 0 %
Upstream packet order 100 %
Upstream discards 0 %

paddyshack · #13 (**permalink**) 20th August 2008, 04:43 PM

I spoke with a BT rep yesterday and he told me that eircom had turned i think he called it inter-weving up to high and this was effecting customers all over the place ping times would be especially bad and Voip connections would be bad sometimes. If you run the speed test jitter and quality of service would show very different results every time. only exchanges were BT were unable to install their ADSL 2+ equipment were affected. When I asked why this equipment wasn't installed in all exchanges he told me that some exchanges were just to small and couldn't take anymore equipment. Gamers were especially affected. My sons Xbox connections have gone to ****! So there you have it stalled by that big ruler and dictator of all eircom again.

austin · #14 (**permalink**) 23rd August 2008, 12:10 AM

But does that explain why it can be fine for two hours and then the quality of service falls to 4% and you cant do anything?

I was playing online games for about an hour and connection was fine (about 10 pm) then went on to Youtube and couldnt watch any videos as connection was so poor. Came on here and QOS was down to 4%. What a joke. It is actually worse than when 56K modem. At least then you would get a constant speed.

paddyshack · #15 (**permalink**) 23rd August 2008, 03:09 PM

yeap all down to inter-weaving! I'm the same check speed one minute and everything fine 1 minute later speed fallen to 1mbs and the line is never stable moving like mad between 1mbs to 3mbs then back to 500kps quality down to 30% but the most annoying thing is the Jitter means voip is crap! To only solutions are eircom to switch inter-weaving to low or downgrade to the 3mbs package although he wasn't to clear here as to whether the same thing would happen