Full Fibre Speeds and Testing

[tugwels]

Hi,

Looking for some guidance on establishing my current download/upload speeds on Full Fibre.  Tests on the website (because I find the app shockingly bad) check for faults and don't deliver an assessment of speed.

My xbox is wired and is showing 90mbps currently and my guaranteed speed should be 700. How do I get a decent assessment that I can then pass on to BT?

Cheers 🙂

[WSH]

I'm led to believe that Openreach engineers are told to use Fast.com

[imjolly]

there is no guaranteed download speed to a device and all the speeds quoted by BT are connection speeds  you can try using  fast.com with ethernet connection not wifi

[Colin_London]

The speed test on the BT phone app will give you the connection speed at the router as well as the speed at the phone. However it always reports exactly the same connection speed at the router for me so I suspect that is the profile, and not a real world test at that moment.

[iniltous]

It often seems to me when questions are asked like this , that many seem to have little real idea of how FTTP works….there is no ‘line’ negotiation to set the speed (like rate adaptive systems , ADSL, VDSL ) where the ‘line’  itself is the determining factor in what speed is available , basically long line or poor quality line , you get poor speed , a short high quality line , the fastest speed , FTTP is not like that , you get the rate you pay for .

GPON downstream speed is 2.4Gb , that doesn’t change , the individual ONT port speed is determined by what profile speed you pay for , and is set by the administrator and your ISP , so really the only way you don’t get the speed you pay for is if your profile has been incorrectly set by the administrator, or the ONT is faulty, FYI a faulty ONT is highly unlikely , they generally work or don’t work , however throughput is dependent on how intensively you and others on the PON are using the shared 2.4Gb downstream bandwidth…. very clever methods are used to ensure everyone has an equitable share and the chances of noticing any congestion is unlikely, if you think congestion is an issue, test throughput at a quiet time , accepting that OR and your ISP are not responsible for the bandwidth of the sites you visit , it’s also why your guarantee minimum is less than the headline rate to allow for busy times on your PON and the sites you may visit .

The speed tester reporting the profile speed set for your ONT is appropriate test , if it were checking the incoming data rate , that would be pointless as it would always report the 2.4Gb downstream GPON rate , the speed at the individual device (wired or wireless ) is the real world test a wired test is the only test with any validity , as is the only way to eliminate your own WiFi limitations as far as environment and WiFi standards, that’s why WiFi speed tests prove very little, and obviously the wired device needs to be capable of the speed profile purchased.

In the OP case , they say they get 90mb , which suggests they don’t appreciate the difference between MB , Mb and mb , and suspiciously 90MB (what some testers display ) is 720Mb which is what they are expecting.

[licquorice]

To add to that, the speed at the router will always be 1Gb as that is the speed of the Ethernet8nk between ONT and router.

[Quesada]

@tugwels 

Message "Help" to 61 998 and BT/Openreach will carry out routine checks on your service. When completed, you should be given the option to request a call back. At that stage I would request that they send the “https://pbtcsc.saas.nokia - Hub Smart Speed Test” to your iPhone. This will give you an accurate reading and more to the point, seems to be the only measurement that BT will take seriously. In my case, this speed test detected a “Stale PPP Session Fault”, which is a known issue and cannot be detected by BT’s remote measuring mechanisms. Good luck.

[TimCurtis]

@tugwels 

If your XBox is only getting 90mbps wired then I'd suggest that there's a cabling issue and you're either using Cat5 cables or a cable is damaged. Try new Cat5e (or above) cables.

[tugwels]

Iniltous

Is this supposed to be helpful or are you just looking smart for your own benefit?

The contract I have delivered exceptional speeds early on. I don't feel that's the case now and the capability to test that has disappeared from BT's website.  I'm seeking advice from the community to understand why I'm seeing a deterioration in service, that's all.

I'm not going to lecture you on the intricacies of Six Sigma and scoff at you because I understand that everyone has gaps in their skillsets.

[iniltous]

Believe it or not my contribution is meant to be helpful  , it’s not a sign of ignorance not knowing the difference between MB , Mb , Mb , mb but they are different , generally service is sold as Mb , so (for example) a throughput of 700Mb is also 87.5MB ,because a byte  (megabyte MB ) is approximately 8 times bigger than a megabit (Mb) some speed testers use MB , so someone could unknowingly complain that the are ‘only’ getting 90MB on a speed testers, without realising that it’s over 700Mb .