Fibre 1 upgrade to Full Fibre query

[besmirched]

While I do agree they are the most expensive option, I was however able to get a BT deal similar to the pricing from Sky and Talk Talk. Which is great for me, as the pricing was a sour point and my option to leave was hamstrung by the fact I’d have to pay a substantial early termination fee. I think I only got offered some better pricing options due to the balls-up with my original order.

I can’t see any other alternatives tbh. I am not in a city fibre area and we’ve only just got FTTP in the area via. Openreach.

[besmirched]

Only a few days away now from the FTTP install. 
I had a missed call today though from 0800 169 1608, at about 6.30pm.

I just googled this number and see complaints that this can be a scam call imitating BT, and this searching refers me back to these forums where it’s said that this is a legit BT number.

I’ve been getting plenty of texts over the last few days from BT and more recently Openreach, just to reply to confirm or change the install date.

Is it common for BT to call (from this number) a few days ahead of an FTTP install?

[pippincp]

Yes, they may have an update for you.

[besmirched]

Had 500Mb for a full day day now. It’s been good overall, though I am noticing some speed fluctuations that don’t seem to fall inline with expectations. I am curious what other users experiences are with this. Is this normal for the first few days and should stabilise, or do these varying speeds indicate a potential problem?

I downloaded a 68GB game just now which took just under 30 minutes to complete. Which is good at a glance but this means the average download speed for this was about 326Mb (determined via. download-time.com). That’s below my minimum speed guarantee of 425Mb.

I did have better results last night downloading a 44GB game which seemed to be much more accurate and inline with expectations - completing in a little over 12 minutes - indicating 500Mb as expected.

[licquorice]

There is no 'stabilisation' period for FTTP, you get the full speed all the time straight away. Bear in mind, however, FTTP is a highly contended service, 30 customers share 2.5Gbps backhaul, and the servers you are downloading from may not be serving you at the full speed.

[rbz5416]

Downloads will be largely dependent on the bandwidth at the server end. So nothing to do with your guaranteed speed from BT, which is the bandwidth available at the Hub.

[besmirched]

Cheers both, very insightful. I wasn't sure about the stabilisation period in particular so that's handy to know for sure that's not a factor. I had a game download day 1 on Series X that went as expected, then later on a PS5 download that took 10 minutes longer than expected. Then it flipped and I had a slower download today on Xbox, but late last night on PS5 the download went smoothly.

So I guess it could be fluctuation from the Microsoft and Sony servers as suggested, kind of difficult to try and pinpoint. I'm not overly worried about it, I was just curious if it's possible it could be related to the new FTTP install directly.

So when BT give their minimum speed guarantee, how is a customer supposed to test for this? I assume it's the Broadband Performance Test option found in the Smart Hub 2 home screen. This currently just takes me to an Error page though.

[rbz5416]

Just use a decent speed test site, from a PC with an ethernet connection, eg:

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest

https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/

https://fast.com/en/gb/

[besmirched]

Yeah I have tried a few speedtests, they seem to appear fine. Although that thinkbroadband one is new to me, that does show some fluctuation with going from as low as 320Mb, but ultimately moving back up. It's certainly more detailed than the others.

While they are a useful tool they don't necessarily show real world results as a speedtest is over in a matter of seconds, unlike a larger 20-80GB download where fluctuating speed will become more apparent. But I digress, I suppose it's not possible to pinpoint what is the root cause of these dips.

Be great if there was a useful website hosting large files where we know for sure they can deliver that content at consistent speed, at least then we can ensure the home user's connection is working as expected.

[besmirched]

Ran some more tests last night and this afternoon. While I had the expected 500Mb download for one Xbox Series X download on my first day with FTTP up and running, it’s been a little rubbish since then for the Xbox in particular.

While previously discussing speed tests and downloading large files to check for a sustained and consistent download speed, I figured I’d try Steam. I’m not a PC gamer, my laptop is connected over wifi, I had it close to the BT Smart Hub 2, and Steam downloads once they got going proper were fairly stable around 460Mb, given that on wifi, I think that’s reasonable and far better than Xbox.

PS5, now that we’re past the first day, this also seems very stable and consistent on the download front now. Games appear to be completing in time to suggest a stable 500Mb download.

The Xbox situation is disappointing as that’s my primary platform I play on and typically where I download the most frequently - but with both Steam and PS5 giving consistent, repeatable results, I think I can put my concerns to rest over my FTTP instal being problematic. I can just blame Microsoft.

My Googling lead me to these posts:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/xbox-download-speed-is-incredibly-slow-and/74e04c...

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/Xbox-one-download-slow-FTTP-900/td-p/2079073