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How common is it not to get advertised download speed?
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10-01-2008 10:25pm#1
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Join Date:Posts: 26410
All depends on the quality of your phone line, what is worrying is that in Ireland ISP's..especially wireless providers seem to advertise as 1MB, 2MB or 3MB when in reality they shoulkd advertise as UPTO 1MB etc and then have some txt explaining factors that can affect speed.
With any ISP's I have had or setup for people they've always got the advertised speeds, but at the same time you could order 1MB from an ISP and get 512K if thats all the line will take, because the ISP only sells 1MB as its lowest speed then your stuck paying 1MB prices for 512K speeds, of course the ISP again should explain they are providing UPTO 1MB and again explain factors.
Most ISP's in the UK advertise as UPTO and explain factors and even with that the OFCOM (telco regulator) consumer board wants this improved so that its made more clear to customers in relation to line quality factors and expected speed...ie: most ISP's advertise upto 8MB but vast majority will never get 8MB due to line quality and instead you might only get 4MB (for example)
Its fine for the likes of many people here and myself who are aware of the factors and won't be really pissed when I buy a upto 8MB service and get 6MB because I'll know why, but for the averge Joe who doesn't know it only causes confusion and pissed off people.
It is my belief that Ireland really needs to improve things when it comes to line tests results and what a line is likely to support (ala like BT Wholesales results in the UK - see below), ISP's also need to make these factors more clear to consumers....again this especially applys to wireless providers who are often affected more by outside factors when it comes to signal quality.
What I mean by line tests results is, In Ireland you test your number on Eircom's checker and you get pass or fail, after that you have no idea if your line will take 512K, 1MB or 2MB etc, thats it.
In the UK, if you check your number of BT Wholesales checker you get something like this:Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a line rate up to 2Mbps.
Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 3.5Mbps or greater.
While the results are not set in stone and don't guarantee you'll get the quoted speeds they are none the less a pretty good guideline (most of the time) for the kind of speeds you can hope to receive over your telephone line, certainly much better then Eircom's Pass/Fail checker
Of course people in the UK even complain about this checker but they don't know how good they have it 0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 26410
Oddly UK is much worse for mmajority of people NEVER getting more than 1/3rd to 1/2th of the "up to" speed.
Perhaps, but alot of "people being annoyed about that" is they don't read the small print so they expect 8MB even though there line can only take lets say 5MB....its all about reading and making use of available information.
Atleast the vast majority of people in the UK with a BT line can actually get a ADSL service, unlike Ireland 0 -
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