Slow(ish) Speeds on Full Fibre 900

[kst]

Hi,

I'm experiencing slower speeds than expected on Full FIbre 900.

FTTP was installed several weeks ago, "normal available download speed will be between 900 - 900 Mbps", and the "minimum guaranteed download speed will be 450Mbps".

Between 112.5MB/s and 112.5MB/s (very unlikely), and a minimum guaranteed speed of 56.25MB/s (likely).

To rule out the router BT provided as the issue, I've connected the computer directly to the ONT and set up a PPPOE connection.
The cable is Cat 7a, up to 10gig supported.
NIC is an Intel Ethernet Connection I219-V, 1Gbit, latest driver installed, tried auto negotiation and 1gbit full duplex, link speed shows as 1gbit on either.
The disk being wrote to is an NVME SSD PCI-E at x4, read is 2.6GB/s and write is 1.8GB/s.
Running Windows 10 64bit, fully up to date, with an i7-8700k overclocked to 4.9GH/z, 16GB of DDR4 RAM.

When running online speedtests, the speed is mostly what I would expect.
These are likely conducted fully in memory, on a nice optimised server or CDN to give the best results possible.

OVH Speedtest - UK 10Gbit Server:

Google Speedtest:

Ookla Speedtest:

Those numbers look great.

Let's repeat the same tests using actual speedtest files over HTTPS, showing real world performance:

OVH 1GB Speedtest File:

Firefox -

wget -
2021-08-24 11:05:53 (32.7 MB/s) - '1Gb.dat.1' saved [1073741824/1073741824]

aria2, 8 threads -
Download Results:
gid |stat|avg speed |path/URI
======+====+===========+=======================================================
883416|OK | 71MiB/s|C:/Users/User/Desktop/aria2-1.36.0-win-64bit-build1/1Gb.1.dat

Leaseweb 1GB Speedtest File:

Firefox -

wget -
2021-08-24 11:22:34 (28.6 MB/s) - '1000mb.bin.1' saved [1000000000/1000000000]

aria2, 8 threads -
079e3e|OK | 60MiB/s

NFORCE 1GB Speedtest File:

Firefox -

wget -
2021-08-24 11:28:07 (23.9 MB/s) - '1000mb.bin.2' saved [1048576000/1048576000]

aria2, 8 threads -
b682fd|OK | 47MiB/s

Hetzner 1GB Speedtest File:

Firefox -

wget -
2021-08-24 11:33:07 (21.0 MB/s) - '1GB.bin.1' saved [1073741824/1073741824]

aria2, 8 threads -
8abce4|OK | 47MiB/s

As we can see, the real world performance against multiple hosts, in multiple data centres, in multiple regions (UK, NL, DE), shows a significantly different picture.
At those speeds I'm not anywhere near the "minimum guaranteed download speed".

Previously I had Virgin Media and the 600Mbit package, which I was able to fully saturate.
Nothing else has changed, except BT, so I should expect to see speeds at least at the "minimum guaranteed download speed".

Can anyone suggest any further troubleshooting I can do to narrow down the issue?

[qs123456]

Following

[kst]

Further testing:

I've set up a new server at OVH with 10gbit down and 1gbit up.
It's running Ubuntu 20.04, with NGINX on it only.

Speedtest ran from server using the Ookla speedtest CLI tool -
Download: 9406.84 Mbps (data used: 9.6 GB)
Upload: 1956.79 Mbps (data used: 1.1 GB)

Speed when downloading a file from the same server, over HTTP, using my BT connection:

Same situation as all other tests ran, the download speed is abysmal.
This is a private dedicated server, with mostly guaranteed speeds, and should easily be able to saturate the line.

[kst]

Spoke to BT over the phone, done a factory reset of the router and tested the speeds using the BT Wholesale speedtest.

As expected, the speeds it reached are what I would expect to see, as does every other web based test.

An engineer is coming out tomorrow to have a look, will update afterwards.

[kst]

Openreach engineer came out, ran some speed tests over fast.com which showed expected speeds.

Followed up with the BT Fibre Team and was stonewalled.

They ran a speedtest which showed the speed was acceptable.

I was told they can see everything is fine, they don't need to do anything, there is nobody in BT they can escalate my ticket to, if I was to open a complaint, it would be open and closed instantly, and they are not trained to deal with issues like this, they have no idea what I'm talking about.

Tried a few hypotheticals to see where a ticket would go if I was to report massive packet loss, packet loss within the BT network to a core router, a streaming service that didn't work like Netflix despite the speed test showing all OK, etc. Apparently the ticket would go nowhere because they have nobody to escalate to and Openreach manage BT's internal network.

Basically, if fast.com, or speedtest.net say your connection is great, BT doesn't care, despite any real world speedtest showing otherwise.

I am expecting a call back from someone by 2:30PM today, will provide an update then.

I can understand 1st line support not being trained to handle more than the run-of-the-mill issue, that's fine, I've sat in that seat previously in my career.

What I don't understand, is that they have nobody to escalate to, and a complaint of this kind would be open and closed instantly.

I have never been stonewalled like that before, and it is beyond frustrating.
I've followed the process, but apparently it dies when BT's Fibre team who receive minimal training cannot help.

Not the experience I was expecting from BT.

[Will168]

@kst I'm not as technical as you when it comes to all the speed testing etc. so sorry if this does not help, but I tried testing a large-ish file...the Windows 10 64bit ISO from Microsoft.com (not sure where their server/CDN is located) and ran a couple of speed tests and mine does seem to saturate the line, as it seems to sustain 108 to 110 MB/s downloading.

[-Richie-]

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@kstwrote:

What I don't understand, is that they have nobody to escalate to, and a complaint of this kind would be open and closed instantly.

---

This is incorrect, BT have a clear escalation process for handling complaints, tell them to escalate and you don't give permission to close the complaint.

[kst]

Hi @Will168,

When I try to download an ISO from Microsoft I'm seeing roughly the same speeds as all other tests:

[kst]

My complaint has been submitted, it has made its way to the duty manager who I've spoken to twice.

BT unfortunately do not have someone that can deal with this issue.

BT is offering a product without any technical support beyond running a speedtest and sending an Openreach engineer.

BT did have a further level of support, but that was done away with a long time ago.

There is nothing more BT can do and I will be issued a Deadlock letter to take it up with the ombudsman.

To sum up the issue:

Other than web based speedtests, I am not able to utilise my connection, to the minimum guaranteed download speed, in any real world test when downloading.
I've tried speedtest files from the EU's biggest cloud/dedicated server hosting providers, in multiple regions (including the UK).
I've set up a brand new dedicated 10gbit down/1gbit up (which is burstable to 2gbit up) server in the UK where I can mostly guarantee speeds, and demonstrate them, but even this cannot get to the minimum guaranteed download speed.
I've also tested on another dedicated gbit server located in Germany, this cannot reach the minimum guaranteed download speed either.

[kst]

>This is incorrect, BT have a clear escalation process for handling complaints, tell them to escalate and you don't give permission to close the complaint.

This is what really annoyed me.

The person said they would open a complaint, and personally close it immediately, because as far as they can see, everything is working great. It would include everything I've told them though....

Very bad customer service, and there is no way the person taking the complaint would be closing it.

Suffice to say, the CSAT text message I got after the call was responded to in full.