Internet in the UK - getting worse (relative to EU + world)

[BowdonUK]

Only in the broadband world do retailers say to the customer "you don't need that". In any other industry that wouldn't happen.

The more people move on to FTTC the worse service end customers will get. This old copper network is on its last legs, costing more to maintain, and under performing on G.fast.

 

[Kreeeee]

.

 

[Rilot]

God knows when I'm going to get decent broadband.
The people who own the land my house is built next to won't let Virgin lay cables under any circumstances, and BT won't fibre enable our cabinet because we're in a Virgin area and they don't compete in outlying areas.
I've written to my MP, I've spoken to Superfast Berkshire, I've even raised it at a local council meeting. No joy.

The download speeds I get (around 12Mb) are fine but it's the upload that kills us. As soon as any of the iPhones starts doing an icloud backup, or someone saves something to OneDrive everything slows to a crawl due to the 0.3Mb upload rate we have.

 

[LiE]

I'm limited by my gigabit Ethernet card, but I have run 4 simultaneously with all 4 devices getting gigabit speeds. I have no need to shell out on a 10Gb card, but it's nice that every device can have 1Gb/s simultaneoulsy.

You have a 10Gb line? How much does that cost?

The 1Gb line I have is more than I imagine I’ll ever need.

 

[MacRS4]

I have Gb from HyperOptic and it's massively useful. I used to spend half my life driving to data centres and stuff - no more. Haven't had to for over a year.

 

[Kreeeee]

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[LiE]

£25 a month.

Nice! That seems very cheap.

 

[Kanpai]

Something else is very wrong there, you should be able to stream 4K content with around 20mbps. If, as in the example above, a Windows update downloads at the same time as watching you'll maybe drop down to 1080p or something, but it's not like that is a common occurrence and would you even notice?`

4-5 users hammering the connection in the evenings also contributes

 

[muon]

I watch a lot of YouTube in 4K, 10Mb is not going to cut it at all. I just about managed to watch content without having to wait for it to buffer on BT 78mb fibre.

Errr, what?

On topic, I think ping times are more important than speeds when it comes to 90% of internet use.

 

[Sankari]

I have 50/25 FTTC. This is a typical speed test result for me:

Previously I was on ADSL2+ and my speeds were typically 4 down, 0.85 up. So I'm pretty happy with what I've got.

The UK should be absolutely swimming in FTTP by now, it beggars belief that people are still being forced to limp along with copper and HFC.

 

[ScoTTyBEEE]

I stopped caring after 50mb. Really makes little difference.

 

[FoxEye]

Only in the broadband world do retailers say to the customer "you don't need that". In any other industry that wouldn't happen.

The more people move on to FTTC the worse service end customers will get. This old copper network is on its last legs, costing more to maintain, and under performing on G.fast.

If people on this forum (for techies) are trotting out lines like "20 Mb is all anyone should ever need", then you can see why in this country we have no hope of getting anything better.

BT will continue to milk us until we're 6ft under.

Copper 4 life, homie.

 

[Kanpai]

Errr, what?

On topic, I think ping times are more important than speeds when it comes to 90% of internet use.

What what?

You guys must be trolling thinking a 10Mbps-20Mbps connection is more than sufficient in this day and age, especially for your average household and 4K streaming.

 

[Beansprout]

I live in the sticks and get a wonderful 7mbit on ADSL but after 2 years finally got an EE sim card, 4G router and small antenna and now get a glorious 80mbit.

Still a far cry from when I ran an interwebs company and we had in excess of 40Gbit into the building, but it'll do

Should be getting FTTP down our street in the next year or two though so >100mbit will appear eventually. By which time 5G will maybe be around....

 

[BowdonUK]

The download speeds I get (around 12Mb) are fine but it's the upload that kills us. As soon as any of the iPhones starts doing an icloud backup, or someone saves something to OneDrive everything slows to a crawl due to the 0.3Mb upload rate we have.

I've heard thats because the upload floods the connection, so suddenly all the download speeds go down too. I've been told that if you can limit the upload speed to use 95% of the upload speed then it should stop effecting the download speed. I've not verified this but the guy who said it knows his stuff. I'm not sure how to limit the upload speed though. Maybe a phone app, or something on the router etc.

 

[muon]

What what?

You guys must be trolling thinking a 10Mbps-20Mbps connection is more than sufficient in this day and age, especially for your average household and 4K streaming.

I'm confused why you've gone from talking about 78Mbps to 10-20Mbps to make your point.

 

[neviditelny]

I have Gb from HyperOptic and it's massively useful. I used to spend half my life driving to data centres and stuff - no more. Haven't had to for over a year.

I got HyperOptic in my flat and it have been miles and miles above all other providers I've had for internet. Previously I had TalkTalk and on a good day I would get 6Mbs. With HyperOptic I'm on 150Mbs and pay the same as I did for TalkTalk. Also with unlimited downloads and hardly any downtime at all in the almost 2 years I've had it.

 

[Em3bbs]

What what?

You guys must be trolling thinking a 10Mbps-20Mbps connection is more than sufficient in this day and age, especially for your average household and 4K streaming.

You said you had 78mbps and were unable to stream 4k, before later revealing you meant 4-5 other people using the same connection at the same time which sort of changes things somewhat.

 

[Em3bbs]

If people on this forum (for techies) are trotting out lines like "20 Mb is all anyone should ever need", then you can see why in this country we have no hope of getting anything better.

Where have people said that? I've only seen (at least since you posted something similar) people say 20mbps is enough to stream 4k content over IP, which let's face it is still pretty niche in most households. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 4k and 1080p anyway, especially on cheap '4k' TV sets which make up the majority of the market.

 

[Kanpai]

You said you had 78mbps and were unable to stream 4k, before later revealing you meant 4-5 other people using the same connection at the same time which sort of changes things somewhat.

I never once said I was unable to stream 4k on 78mbps, even with 4-5 people using the same connection.

What I'm saying is good luck trying to stream 4k on a 10mbps connection with no hiccups.