Poor Wifi

[Scotty123]

Good morning, I previously had FTTP on the full fibre 500 package, to my mobile device sat in the same room I was getting around 30mbps to my mobile device which is extremely poor. I complained to BT and got sent a new router which made no difference, I have had engineers out to test the line and confirmed it was all ok.

I then upgraded to the fibre 900 and added complete WiFi through BT and got the EE discs sent out. My download speed went upto average of about 130mbps which is still extremely low considering I get over 900 to my router. 

I have just had a BT WiFi engineer come out, he turned off one of the discs and moved them around the house, this has actually made my download speed worse in certain areas. He said basically due to the WiFi limitations this is the best I can get, I do not agree with this and feel that if that's the best WiFi speeds I can get then why bother with fibre 900. 

I feel the only option is replacing the router to see if I am able to get a better wifi speed that way, has any one else had a similar problem? 

I am looking at the TP link ax5400 router which I believe can be plugged directly into the ONT, 

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[Keith_Beddoe]

@Scotty123 

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail phone and broadband customers.

You are unlikely to get anything like the full speed over wireless, on a single device. The discs are unlikely to make much improvement as they are just repeating the existing signal.

The TP link ax5400 is only going to help if all of your wireless devices are Wi-Fi 6 capable. You would lose BT Digital Voice if you need a phone connection.

It was never intended that people get full speed on all devices, especially on a wireless connection. The intention is to allow that bandwidth to be shared among family members and multiple devices, without each user noticing any slowdown.

Here is a quote from old post by @SeanD  on 18/06/2021

"I think for the first time ever we are in a situation whereby the speed you can now get through Full Fibre outperforms the capabilities of many devices.  

The Smart hub 2 does not come with Wi-Fi 6 but this is something we are looking to include in our next generation of Hub.  I don't have any info as to when we will launch a new router by Wi-Fi 6 will bring some improvement.

As an example of what I mean in terms of devices not being able to support the full breadth of speed available on Full Fibre , take a look at the table below.  This is just for a couple of Apple Smart Phones and Tablets along with  popular Samsung models,

Apple (Smartphones)	Dualband (2.4 & 5Ghz)	Theoretical Max speed on 2.4Ghz connection	Theoretical Max speed on 5Ghz connection
IPHONE SE	Yes	60mbps	300mbps
IPHONE SE 2020	Yes	135mbps	600mbps

Samsung (Smartphones)	Dualband (2.4 & 5Ghz)	Theoretical Max speed on 2.4Ghz connection	Theoretical Max speed on 5Ghz connection
galaxy-s10e	Yes	135mbps	600mbps
galaxy-s10-5g	Yes	135mbps	600mbps

Apple (Tablets)	Dualband (2.4 & 5Ghz)	Theoretical Max speed on 2.4Ghz connection	Theoretical Max speed on 5Ghz connection
IPAD pro 3rd gen (Nov 2018)	Yes	135mbps	600mbps
IPAD pro 4th gen (March 2020)	Yes	135mbps	600mbps

Samsung (Tablet)	Dualband (2.4 & 5Ghz)	Theoretical Max speed on 2.4Ghz connection	Theoretical Max speed on 5Ghz connection
galaxy-tab-s5e	Yes	100mbps	300mbps
galaxy-tab-s6	Yes	60mbp

[Crimliar]

@Keith_Beddoe unfortunately the link to the @SeanD doesn't work - I'd be interested to read it. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Crimliar 

That link expired and was removed, however what I have quoted is exactly what Sean said. I have it saved in my RSS feed archive. The person who Sean responded to, had their posts deleted for some reason, so its possible Sean`s reply was lost in the process.

The original Subject title was "Improving our broadband help"

The device list is out of date now, but it does give an idea of expected speeds.

[Scotty123]

Iv seen this table before and also understand the limitations of a device when it comes to WiFi signal, I am not expecting any where near the WiFi speeds that are going into my SH2 on WiFi, however with full fibre 900 I would be expecting faster WiFi speeds than 110 -130 Mbps when sat in the same room and on 5ghz channel. 

The only thing left for me to do is replace the hub to try and improve the speeds, BT seem completely stumped, the guy in the fault team agrees there is some thing not sure right with my speeds and has tried every thing but still no improvement. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Scotty123 

Not entirely sure why you would need such a fast connection on a mobile device. I have a 9Mb ADSL connection and quite a few mobile devices, and none of them have any difficulty with any of the apps, web browsing, and video streaming, and all are either 2.4GHz or 5GHz wireless.

There are just the two of us living here, but for people with a large family, with lots of heavy users sharing a network, then 500 or 900Mbs may be worthwhile, however many manage on a 30-80Mbs connection without any issues.

[Scotty123]

I don't necessarily need a faster connection but it's just the fact I'm paying for fibre 900 and not getting the speeds I would expect 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Scotty123 

You are getting what you are paying for, on a direct Ethernet connection to the Home Hub. Its simply that a single wireless connection cannot achieve that. BT, or any other ISP, cannot guarantee wireless connections.

Wireless channels are shared with all surrounding users and are subject to interference which will affect the throughput. To take full advantage of the speed you are paying for, you need a fast PC with a direct Ethernet connection to the Home Hub.

Faster speeds are only really worthwhile if you have a large household with lots of heavy users. A single user, unless they are downloading and uploading large files, is not going to see any benefit, and it would be cheaper to downgrade to lower speed, typically 100Mbs.

[Crimliar]

Even with a device possessing a WiFi PHY (data connection) rate more than double the WAN speed, there are factors that prevent you from getting that full speed over WiFi.  Even with wired connections on more than decent hardware, you'll not see the WAN speeds if there is any intermediate processing or sharing of the connection taking place.  It's just how it is.  The only way really would be to create a connection directly from a device to the ONT, and even then you may well have to turn your firewall off, and hope that the hardware is up to the job!

[spile]

You’ve bought a pint but you drinking through a straw. Wireless will always be inferior to wired.