Broadband speed in the UK

[Roy C]

I expect most members already know but this is a reminder that over 99% of telephone exchanges in the UK have now been upgraded to 8mbit capability. My ISP allows a regrade of my 2mbit line for a one off payment of £5 (monthly fee stays the same). The exact speed you get is down to how far you are from the exchange and line quality. I have been switched today and am now getting 5.6 mbit (wow -big differance from 2mbit). It is worth checking you ISP for a regrade.

[Canis Vulpes]

I use NTL cable and currently subscribe to a 1MBit/s service. I do know a chap who uses NTL's 10Mbit/s and he claims he gets around 6Mbit/s. Overall bit rate depends upon the far server and all routers etc along the way subject to lowest common denominator.

I used to pay £37.99 for 3Mbit/s and now use greater speed as a saving rather than performance, 1Mbit/s costs £17.99 and is perfectly acceptable.

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by Stephen Fox

I use NTL cable and currently subscribe to a 1MBit/s service. I do know a chap who uses NTL's 10Mbit/s and he claims he gets around 6Mbit/s. Overall bit rate depends upon the far server and all routers etc along the way subject to lowest common denominator.

I used to pay £37.99 for 3Mbit/s and now use greater speed as a saving rather than performance, 1Mbit/s costs £17.99 and is perfectly acceptable.

For info Stephen, I pay £14.99 for my now 5.6Mbit/s line.

[Andy]

As Stephen says, even with my 2mb connection I find I'm still restricted by speeds at the other end of the equation sometimes. Depends what and where you're downloading from.

I think the bigger benefit of upgrading is send speeds... you can get less than 15% of what is quoted.

I am within 500yrds of an exchange, so I look forward to 8mb for sending big photos off to print.

[Canis Vulpes]

Originally Posted by Andy

I think the bigger benefit of upgrading is send speeds... you can get less than 15% of what is quoted.

Now, thats where ASDL falls over with its limitation of 256kbit/s upload speed. Cable modems run at whatever they are instructed to and technically possible to send and receive upto 18Mbit/s. Cable modems pulse providing the subscribed average speed. However my 1Mbit/s service has a pathetic 100kbit/s upload but I save £20 each month compared to NTL's finest.

[Roy C]

I am now getting 399 Kbps upload with my new connection according to the line speed test. Previous to my upgrade I was getting around half of this. Also the download speed increase from 2 Mbit/s to 5.6 Mbit/s is very noticable, esp on birdforum.net. As a lot of ISP's will allow a regrade with no extra cost per month it is crazy not to go for this faster speed.

[Andy]

BT's ADSL Max can offer send speeds at over 800kbps, though for normal 'joe public' it'll be 400kbps.

I just found this on the web, gives quite detailed info on your local exchange
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

[Canis Vulpes]

Originally Posted by Roy C

For info Stephen, I pay £14.99 for my now 5.6Mbit/s line.

Sounds great but now add monthly PSTN line rental. From memory approx £8.50 per month making a sole ASDL service £23.50. However Mbit/s for £ its a very good deal. Does this service come with equipment such as USB ASDL modem or a real ADSL router?

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by Stephen Fox

Sounds great but now add monthly PSTN line rental. From memory approx £8.50 per month making a sole ASDL service £23.50. However Mbit/s for £ its a very good deal. Does this service come with equipment such as USB ASDL modem or a real ADSL router?

Hi Stephen, We are not all dummies out here - for info I am a recently retired IT manager who set-up and ran a thin client network over five locations with over 100 users (recently upgrading the leased lines to ADSL) so please give me a tiny bit of credit for knowing what I am doing. And by the way I am with a 'real' ISP not Wanadoo,Tiscali or BT for instance. My intial posting was to remind people using a BT line that they could now get up to 4 times the speed if ther require, very often for no more monthly fee, I am begining to regret even making the post with all the negativity flying around.

[Canis Vulpes]

I am not sure what is meant by negativity, I point out 5-6MBit/s is normal for high speed lines and compare costs from other providers. The post is welcome and informative. I setup and recommend ADSL for use with CCTV systems and believe me, 400 - 800kbit/s upload speed will really make a difference. I am seriously considering dumping NTL in favour for ASDL with performance v's cost of this. Could you provide details so myself and others can take advantage of this.