This topic

Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 17:15:57 GMT

I've just moved to a new property and the Internet is less than what I wanted really at 32mbps down and 6mbps up on a part-fibre connection. I checked around out of curiosity and found that my nearby neighbours, from the same openreach cabinet, can get up to 70mbps down which is much better for me and my family.

Is there a reason why they can get more than us while connected to to same cabinet? And is there a way to upgrade our connection without waiting and hoping that openreach give us full fibre eventually. Thanks

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 17:20:10 GMT

I assume you are a BT broadband customer?

Use the address checker on the page below, and post the results, but edit out your address details first, but leave the exchange name and cabinet number showing.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL
Please include all notes at the bottom.

This page.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 17:25:31 GMT

This is my results.

These are the results of a house a few yards away from me.

Couldn't crop out address without losing the exchange but it's the Valley exchange. And yes BT customer.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 18:00:14 GMT

The cable from the cabinet to your house, must be longer than your neighbours. Cables do not run in a straight line. Your neighbour also must be much closer to the cabinet.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 18:15:52 GMT

So there's no way of improving this until openreach upgrade the whole neighbourhood to full fibre eventually?

Sky claim they can provide 35-51mbps and I don't see how that's possible if BT have said the max they can provide is 36mbps. Would this likely not ever meet the average speed they're offering and stay closer to the lower end of the speed claimed?

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 18:29:52 GMT

You should get between 38 and 55mbs connection speed.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

iniltous — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 18:49:58 GMT

Get your router connection statistics and post them , the figure to look for is the max attainable rate , it’s possible that the reason your speed is lower than immediate neighbours is you line has a fault , that could be external , so on the cable pair between your master socket and the ‘cabinet’ or could be internal, on your own wiring or sockets ( if your router is connected to anything other than the master socket ) , if connected in the master socket , if the master socket has extension sockets wired from it , ( even if nothing is connected in them ) , they could still be causing a reduction in the sync rate …..to eliminate anything ‘internal’ , connect the router to the master socket test port.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 18:48:21 GMT

@emshepemil

In your first post, you said that you are getting 32Mbps down. Is that on a speed test, or the sync speed of your hub, (from the router's web page at 192.168.1.254)?

If it is the latter, then you may have a fault on your line - 32 is below the "Download Handback Threshold".

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:25:54 GMT

It's just what I've been quoted by BT, I move in next week so I won't be able to run any tests until then.

How would I go about testing for a line fault? I don't have a landline so if there's a way to do it without that would be great.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:27:13 GMT

So it may be worth switching to Sky if there's no line fault like other commenters have suggested?

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:33:41 GMT

The speed is going to be the same with BT and Sky. If you are not happy with the actual speed that you get with BT, after your service is activated, then you have 14 days to cancel and move, but do not expect anything faster, its the physical limitation of the line.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:38:14 GMT

I'm moving in soon so I'll be testing all of this as soon as I can. The router will be plugged directly into what I believe is the master socket (I've included a photo of it because I'm absolutely clueless and it might not be for all I know lol), then ethernet will be run to the PCs. If it's not an internal issue, how would I go about testing if it's an external issue without a landline? And is reporting it as easy as calling up BT?

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:44:36 GMT

If the best BT quote they can provide is 30-36mbps, how can Sky offer 36-51mbps? If I stay with BTs 32mbps would it be capped to the 36mbps max or could it go higher?

I'm very confused as to how Sky could give me a minimum speed guarantee of 32mbps when BT can only provide 28mbps as a guarantee and not get much higher than sky's minimum guarantee as "the best I can probably get" according to the customer service person on the phone.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

iniltous — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:58:22 GMT

As stated , the speed will be the same regardless of the ISP , after all it’s the same Openreach equipment used by the ISP , you shouldn’t get too fixated on the predicted speed , and its nonsense that different ISP produce wildly varying estimates for the same address , so if Sky are predicting much better speed ( for exactly the same line and equipment ) than BT there is obviously an error somewhere…….no ISP limits the speed available, the line / equipment delivers what it’s capable of , so if the BT estimate is unduly pessimistic, that doesn’t alter what the line will deliver….if the line is capable of ( for example ) 75Mb and you ‘buy’ the 80Mb product, then every provider will deliver 75Mb , including BT , even if the estimate was 35Mb for one provider and 75Mb for the other .

The way you presented the question suggested you already had service ( hence the suggestion to read the router statistics, that’s the best way to check the lines potential against it’s actual sync speed ) , not some arbitrary estimate, but obviously if you haven’t ordered from anyone you can’t do that , but don’t be swayed by the prediction, it doesn’t matter if one is optimistic and another pessimistic, the line is the same , the FTTC equipment is the , and therefore it follows that the performance is the same, from whoever you chose to use .

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 20:14:07 GMT

My BT broadband switches from my current address to the new address on the 10th so I'll check the router statistics then.

I more meant if I'm with the 32-36mbps package, will I be not be able to get more than 36mbps as that's not what I'm paying for even if the line is OK and could maybe get up to 40+mbps?

I kind of need it explained like I'm 5 because I'm really struggling to understand this

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

licquorice — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 20:05:20 GMT

The laws of physics determine speed, not some estimate by an ISP. We need to see the router stats before making any pronouncement as to any possible fault.

Until then, everything is just conjecture.

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

iniltous — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 20:37:52 GMT

If you are currently with BT , to avoid early termination charges ( assuming you are within a minimum term at the old address ) continuing with BT makes sense ( financially ) , Sky can’t magically make the line work better than anyone else , that would be like saying a new Vauxhall Corsa supplied by one dealer is faster than the same model/spec supplied by a rival dealer …they are the same car , even if one dealer said their car is faster , it isn’t .

As stated , once you are in the new place , you will know what speed you are getting , that is obviously better than some prediction, if at that point you feel that what you get is way off the speeds near neighbours get ( or what they are predicted to get ) , look at you router stats and post them here , that way , if a fault is indicated by the router stats , you are in a position to report a problem , there is a very good chance the speed will be much better than you expect and it’s only a ‘dodgy’ speed estimate that’s giving you cause for concern,

the alternative is to use someone else like Sky , pay BT the early termination charges, ETC ( for ending your contract early ) and if the new provider supplies a good speed , that’s the same as what BT would have supplied, and if it’s disappointingly slow , you go onto that ISP customers forum and ask them to interpret that ISP router statistics …you won’t know until you are in the property and have a working broadband if it’s working to full potential or is hampered by a fault

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

emshepemil — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 20:50:16 GMT

So in theory if everything is fine it might be possible to get a little bit more than what I've been quoted on the website? Even if I'm only paying for up to 36mbps?

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

licquorice — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 21:00:46 GMT

There is no 36M package, you are either on fibre 1 up to 55M or fibre2 up to 80M.

As stated several times, until we see your router stats we don't know what your line is capable of.

Have you asked the present owners what speeds they get or are you the first occupant?

Re: Why is my Internet worse than my neighbours?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 21:18:18 GMT

@licquorice

Fibre Essentials is still being offered.

@emshepemil

Here's an example of what you'll be looking for.

In this instance the maximum rate the line could sync at was 59Mb, but as can be seen, it was banded to a lower rate. So you may find similar when you move in, if all BT will offer is the Essentials. These scenarios were often previously resolved by a team of Moderators on these forums, but BT got rid of them all.

Your difficulty then will be trying to convince someone that higher speeds are available when Computer Says No. I have no idea how you would go about that now.