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Message 1 of 3

Poor evening speeds

Hi. We're ON BT Halo and our small town is Fibre to the Cabinet. I payed for the full Halo service as I work from home and am an IT professional.

During the day we get around 60mbs - which is great...only during the early stages of lockdown did that drop...BUT come the evening, that 60mbs download speed will dwindle away to around 2mbs...means streaming services like BBC iPlayer, Netflix and Amazon are not usuable.

I feel rather cross since I feel as an Halo customer I might expect enough download in the evening to be able to use streaming services - so I seem to be paying for nothing!!

Anyone care to comment?

 

Thanks

David

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Message 2 of 3

Re: Poor evening speeds

BT Halo 1 or 2 is just an add-on to your package and does not affect your connection/download speed


in order for the forum members to help please can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if  HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information . 

Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal

can you run btspeedtster with ethernet connection and post results - when download speed is ok and again when slow probably at peak time

https://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/

enter your phone number and post results  remember to delete number  but leave exchange and cab number    https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem



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Message 3 of 3

Re: Poor evening speeds

If you are on Halo, download the BT mobile app and run a speed test. It will do a throughput test to the hub and also one to the device. If it's below the estimated, it will offer you to open a fault. You can also do this via the BT website, under the help section. It may automatically fix itself though when it tests again during the day.

In my personal experience, I raised a fault due to congestion, had an engineer visit, BT said everything is OK their end, no congestion on the SVLAN etc. So I emailed Openreach, someone high up, found their email on Google. They replied and promised to look into it. A week later a senior manager from Openreach emailed me and said they discovered bandwidth capcity issues at the cabinet DSLAM. They then told me they plan to install a new network fibre and some exchange equipment in a month.

Although Openreach are supposed to be monitoring these issues and upgrading as nessasary, it was only until I pointed it out, that they investigated and then found the issue, which does suggest it's not actually monitored that well.

Each cabinet has a certain amount of fibre links back to the exchange, could be 1GB or 6GB, depends how utilized it is. During these times you have everyone using a lot of bandwidth and it just saturates the links at peak times. It causes the DSLAM to either create a huge buffer, which would slow your speed because of the way TCP congestion control works, or in severe cases, just drop the packet. Most of the time it just creates a buffer that causes high latency and the ISP may not see anything bad going on at the exchange.

After looking at AAISP status page, I can see a hell of a lot of BT upgrades from 1G to 10G going on everywhere. I'm guessing covid is having a huge effect.

Best thing to do is try raise a fault via the website, when you are getting the throughput issues. Also do a BT wholesale speed test and further diags, it will log it for them.  Keep the test pictures and submit them here for the mods. You want a morning and 8-10pm one. Make sure the 8-10PM one if the final one you do though as it only logs the most recent test.

In my case, once the fault was raised, it started my right to exit date. Most users on this forum will tell you BT don't guarentee throughput, but if you do their app test, which does a throughput test to the hub (not a sync speed test) and it comes up below the guarentee, it will want you to open a fault, this is for contracts taken out after March 2019. This is all in-line with Ofcom rules (the advertised average speed ranges had to take into account congestion times). So if you are not getting the minimum, something is wrong. BT are doing the best in my opinion with this and with Halo it does start the right to exit.

It's also worth trying to get a mod to help you out. They can check the SVLAN reports for congestion and give you a quick answer if it's something they can fix or not.

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