Full fibre 900

[pauld2110]

Hi all,

I've just had full fibre 900 installed a few days ago. After installation the engineer tested the wifi speed with his phone and it was showing just short of 300mbps, my own phone was similar. He was quite surprised and said he would have expected around 600 increasing to 7/800 in a few hours. He left then but called me later to say he had carried out some checks on the line and it was working properly and that the modem (not brand new but newest model)  could be at fault. He said to give it a day and ring BT if no improvement.

Next day speeds were a bit erratic and the max speed still around 250-300. Upload speed was however fairly steady around 100mbps and often as fast or faster than download. So I called BT and the guy carried out a test while on the phone using my mobile resulting in 109.76 down and 109.86 up. He said the speed to my hub was 940mbps and this was well in excess of the 700mbps guarantee and BT do not guarantee wifi speeds as this would be impossible.

He then proceeded to tell me how I should be more than happy about the speed I'm getting (obviously reading from a script) and basically as he worked for BT he knew more about this stuff than me. He then arranged for a home tech expert to visit today.

Tech expert arrived today while I was at work but he called me to say he had reset the white hub the fibre cable goes into and my speed was now 949mbps and sent me a report showing the same. When I arrived home I found nothing had changed as far as wifi speed goes, still around 250ish.

I would just like to know what other people think or am I just being naive in regard to the expected speed.

I get that wifi speeds are going to vary greatly but when they say there is 900mbps coming down the line but not a single device I own is registering anything close I'm sceptical, and I'm sure most will say 300mbps download is more than I'll ever need, I agree, and would be happy if that what I was paying for.

Interested to hear the opinions of those more knowledgeable.

[licquorice]

Easily proved, connect your laptop directly to the ONT with an Ethernet cable and create a PPPoE connection

[pauld2110]

Thanks for the reply,

I tried your suggestion but I had to to use a usb to ethernet connector as the laptop has no ethernet port and I'm sure this would affect the result. The best speed recorded was 150mbps. Interestingly though the same laptop sitting right beside the router got 450mbps over wifi, the best speed I've seen by far.

Maybe it's fine and I'm expecting too much but I just wonder if some people can get near enough guaranteed speed over wifi, why would I with the same equipment be any different?

[c64z86]

How old is your laptop?

My laptop, which is 3 walls away from the hub in the living room, gets around 150mbps, sometimes touching 180-190, and I am on a 500mbps connection. It was released only last year.

My PS5 which is much closer only one wall away and diagonally upstairs from the hub gets 460.

So wifi varies greatly, it also depends on the age of the device.

Also the speed it says on the package of the device is never the speed you will be able to achieve in real life. It's better to halve the expected speed and hope for the best. So if a wifi card says it will give 1200mpbs for example, don't expect to get much more than 600 from it, even when you are sat in the same room as the router.

[pauld2110]

Laptop getting 450 beside router, phone about 250 in same location. House is concrete block walls so as you move away from router speeds drop considerably.

[c64z86]

How old is your laptop, if you don't mind me asking?

Also the wifi speed of wifi 5, which the hub uses, is not really gigabit capable. You might get up to the 700s if you are lukcy. 

You really need a router with wifi 6/6e or the upcoming 7 to reach those speeds over wifi. Your devices will need to be of those versions too.

[pauld2110]

It's my son's laptop, certainly not a supercomputer but only about a year old.

[c64z86]

Ahh ok,

Yeah I'm sorry to say it's going to be very hard to achieve anything near 900mbps over wifi, unless you use at least a wifi 6 router and your devices are also wifi 6, and you have to be in the same room as the router too.

For a bit of good news: Your son's laptop being just a year old might already be ready for a wifi 6 router! But it's best to check its specs online to be sure.

The first comment in this post explains the expected speeds from the Smart Hub 2 Poor Wifi - BT Community

[pauld2110]

That thread made for an interesting read and is exactly where I'm at. Our usage would be fairly heavy, kids can watch Netflix and tiktok at the same time!! That said I'm sure the speeds I'm getting will be fine I just think it's a bit disingenuous of BT (or any isp) to guarantee a speed they know you're never going to achieve over wifi. I mean practically all household devices are connected over wifi due to the simplicity of it.

I wonder how BT would react if I were to send them £80 per month but they could only get £30 of it....

[c64z86]

I agree it is kinda misleading. 

A lot of people who are going to upgrade to 900mbps and beyond, as it becomes cheaper, are going to be disappointed. Thankfully wifi 7 is just around the corner and in time ISPs will supply routers that will be able to provide these speeds over wifi without problems.

It's just a case of waiting for the wifi to catch up with our internet speeds, when it has always been the other way around xD