ABB Telecom - Satellite speed test

hjr · 27-09-2009 3:42pm #1

Hi,

Just wanted to show people what speeds are like on ABB. This test was done today, Sunday at 4.30pm. I am subscribed to a 1MB download and 128KB upload package. I have not gone over any download limits...

Test was done on irishisptest.com because after waiting for 5 minutes, the speedtest.net was not opening!

Heres my stats:

Speed

Download speed: 52024 bps
Upload speed: 113792 bps
Quality of service: 78 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum TCP delay: 239 ms
Average download pause: 114 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 1238 ms
Average round trip time to server: 1767 ms

VoIP
----
Jitter: you --> server: 88.5 ms
Jitter: server --> you: off
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: off
Packet discards: 0.3 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of VoIP lines supported: 2
Estimated MOS score: 3.6

VoIP test statistics

Jitter: you --> server: 88.5 ms
Jitter: server --> you: off
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: off
Packet discards: 0.3 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Estimated MOS score: 3.6

Speed test statistics

Download speed: 52024 bps
Upload speed: 113792 bps
Quality of service: 78 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum TCP delay: 239 ms
Average download pause: 114 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 1238 ms
Average round trip time to server: 1767 ms
Estimated download bandwidth: 52024bps
Route concurrency: --
Download TCP forced idle: --
Maximum route speed: 423488bps

Perhaps someone better in the know might be able to analyse them for the benefit of other people.
One thing for sure...its a crap service at the moment. Virtually unusable most weekends due to the speeds. Most pages can take up to a minute to open, even simple pages like bbc sport. I am based in the north west of the country so perhaps for a satellite point of view I am not in an optimum location, however the service is advertised as being available nationwide.

I wonder how this compares to other users of satellite broadband. Per my other posts, I live in an area where there is no DSL service, nor even a mobile broadband service. Satellite broadband is my only option.

I didn't post the speed results into the main speedtest thread on the broadband page, as they are specific to midband.

I hope this information is useful to people thinking of getting a satellite broadband service. It may better prepare you for the realism that is ahead. I know this may sound despondent, but I've sat here for the last hour trying to use the service without any constant service level. And its not a one off, as it was like this this morning as well. I had to leave it out of sheer frustration. My thoughts at this stage are that I may get a better service on dial-up.

REG_CROWDER · 24-02-2010 10:33am

What is your current opinion of the satellite broadband service offered by ABB TELECOM?

If anybody else knows anything about ABB TELECOM, I'd like to hear it. I'm shopping for a satellite broadand provider.

--
REG CROWDER
Financial and Investment Writer
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/regcrowder
Journalist profile:
http://www.RegCrowder.com

echidna · 11-03-2010 12:02pm

Hi Reg,
I am an ABB telecom user and I would stay well clear of these guys! Like HJR above, I have found that their download speeds are never what they say they should be and when I email them looking for support, although they may ring back, the problem is never their fault but is always to do with my equipment!!
I did not really want to join their service, having had experience of them when they were NBB (they went bust!). I had no choice really though as it is too much to outlay again for equipment. I am always looking for new providers and would leave in a second if there were any alternatives. There are other providers of satellite services in Ireland who have got a better rap than these guys, so take my advice and steer clear!
Best of Luck

Jimllfixit · 29-03-2010 5:22pm

Hi Reg,

I was an ABB telecom user (now got eircom) and I also found that their download speeds were rarely near what I signed up for. Frequently around 350K on a "1MB" bronze package, with NO service when it's raining. Support was virtually non-existent.

They have far too many (paying) users on their fixed bandwidth slot to maximise their profits, that's why it is so slow all day up to about 11PM.
I suspect you could get service from SES Astra elsewhere e.g. the UK although it probably depends on whether they take credit cards.

Eventually Eircom will roll out broadband everywhere, it's just a question of patience. I had to dump my dish etc for next to nothing on Ebay.

Good luck

Jimllfixit

watty · 03-04-2010 11:19am

The beams of most Satellite services need a much bigger dish for Ireland, esp. usually in the SW half of the Island. The main part of beams usually covers mainland Europe. There is only about one exception till the new kasat from Eutelsat and new Avanti sats are successful later in 2010. If they are.

Unfortunately many installs by less expert companies use UK size or even worse French size Dishes.

If you experience loss or slower in rain, esp. on uplink, then your dish isn't perfectly aligned or more likely, far far to small.

Jimllfixit · 04-04-2010 1:54pm

Yes, they were looking into a bigger dish for my location in Cork. One of my big gripes about the support I got was that no-one seemed to know whether the signal strength I was getting (-31dB) was good, bad or indifferent. Neither was anyone able to tell me how much attenutation to expect using the 15m dual cable supplied with the system. Coax is lossy, I think you lose 0.2 dB per metre at UHF, lower at lower frequencies, but you'd have to get on to supplier Newtec to get straight answers - I wouldn't know what frequencies the cable is asked to transmit.

The engineer who looked at it said it was pointed Ok and synchronised, but he didn't seem to realise that if the set was close to not getting enough signal, being digital, it would just stop dead, unlike an analogue TV where the picture gradually gets snowier. He just didn't have a clue about the signal quality coming from the dish on the receive side.

On the good side, other satellite providers in the UK are offering future speeds up to 10MB which I will never ever get from my existing phone line . . . stay with satellite if you're more than about 5km from your exchange, need high speed (I don't) and go for a reliable service provider.

When it comes to contracts, surely there is some law that says you should be able to expect a certain performance from a product . . . if you buy petrol, you expect a certain octane rating, and that there should be 50 litres coming out the pipe when the gauge reads 50 litres delivered . . . or am I living in cloud-cuckoo land? (Please don't answer that realistically).

hjr · 06-04-2010 12:50pm

Not sure if it adds anything, but I found the link below which outlines the coverage of the astra satellites....

Per their website:
The ASTRA satellites at 23.5°E are used for both downloading and uploading data for ASTRA2Connect

http://www.ses-astra.com/business/uk/satellite-fleet/interactive-fleet-map/index.php

perhaps someone like Watty can explain what the differences are between the astra 3a, astra 1E and astra 1g. Also I see that these are further broke down between vertical and horizontal polarization!

Suddenly I'm very confused!!!!

watty · 10-04-2010 9:37pm

The dish size even more affects the UPLINK. If the uplink fails you get no downlink either.

The cheaper VSAT has only 0.5W to 1W transmitter. The "Professional" Satellite Terminals have 4W to 5W transmitter. A 2 times bigger dish is also equivalent to x4 power on your amplifier. The "professional" installs have bigger dishes.

The Satellite is 22,500 miles up. It has a small dish to receive your uplink. The Earth station/hub may have a 4.8m dish. If you have small 80cm dish and less than 4W BUC and near the edge of typical beam (they never show the UPLINK spots, they are WORSE), then in rain you lose the uplink. The downlink then stops working. The Satellite has a larger dish than you and maybe 100W or more. So the downlink (receive) isn't the issue, but uplink (transmit). Only the people at the Earth station (Hub) can know how good that is. This is why on professional installs the installer is meant to be in communication with the NOC/Hub/Earth Station staff.

Footprints.
* These are for clear sky.
* Only Downlink, typically the uplink is not as good
* Ireland to west and southwest is rubbish reception. The satellite aerial orientation is optimized for European Mainland.
* You need about 20% bigger dish that the graphs suggest and 4W BUC (transmitter).
* Each satellite and polarisation is essentially a different aerial/dish in space and thus a different "footprint" (Reception & Uplink area).
If you check lyngsat with your sat position, frequency and Polarisation, you can find out which satellite your Modem is using and what the actual footprint is.

Apart from the satellites used at 28.2E and 28.5 for Sky/UK Freesat (too costly and busy for 2 way satellite Internet) the ONLY satellite with a specific foot print for Ireland is Intelsat907. It's not very high power as it's older and it's also not really got any space left.
Footprint
http://www.intelsat.com/flash/coverage-maps/sat_foot.html?sat=IS-907%20at%20332.5%BA%20E&display=map&spot=1

Usage: http://www.lyngsat.com/intel907.html
Scroll down to 11015 V tp 61 spot1

Till Eutelsat's Kasat and maybe Avanti's sat are up and running (if they do), there is really no decent satellite capacity left for Ireland except on the more expensive professional systems. (1.2m dish!). The Schools are using a big chunk of Intelsat907 (originally nearly 50% of School) because BB is so rubbish in Ireland. However in last few years maybe reduced to 35% or 30%. RTE and BBC Outside Broadcast have a fair chunk reserved too (or did have), a valid enough use.

I'm over 12km from a Metro mast. No phone line. Terrestrial Wireless.
8Mbps down / 1Mbps up package

aidanjdoran · 18-08-2010 3:13pm

I have no choice but to use these people ABB telecom.

Another thing they are doing lately, is they are double charging people, for the past two months they have double charged me €99.50 for so called broadband.

I'm going to complain to Astraconnet2 direct as these guys clearly dont know their arse from their elbow.

When I contacted them ( ABB) last month, they apologised and said it was a billing mistake, they said they would give me august for free, what happens, this month, the same again, another double bill, now im getting worried..:mad:

has anyone had the same problems?

Aidan

echidna · 18-08-2010 6:30pm

Hi Aidan,

I haven't had problems with them charging, except that they charge too much for a very poor service. I complained bitterly to them about slow speeds etc. I sent some rather acrimonious emails to them and actually went so far as to stop the direct debit to them. I then phoned consumer affairs who said I had to exhaust their complaint handling processes before I could refuse payment, so I had to restart the DD. I told them that I would be taking this further, and they were much better after that. Having said that, I still get bad speeds. They finally sent an engineer out, who said that I had a faulty inLB thingummy and he changed it. Fair enough I thought, but the speeds are still pure sh**te!
The engineer said that it was all down to contention ratios and while he was here he upped my speed to the next level to see if that would improve the basic speed. It did - I then got just above 500kb. Yay - almost 1/2 of what I am supposed to be getting and I was pathetically grateful!!! Sad I know!!
So I have NEVER had a download speed of 1MB, I have RARELY seen a download speed of above 350kb.
It seems that if you pay for 1meg down, you MAY get 350kb, and if you pay for 2MB down you MAY get 500kb.
By the way, it was the middle of the workday when the engineer was here, and I don't think that's peak time, there should be less people online so the contention ratio should be less of an issue you'd think. I have been on in the early hours of the morning and still crap speeds.
Three have started a nationwide service, and at least it's only 19 euro per month, so if there are problems it's not a big amount to pay. DON'T sign another contract with ABB if you can help it. You get no service worth speaking of, and I can't get out of my contract, although I tried. They said they would chase me for the money. I am moving to Australia soon so they can chase all they like when I disappear and break the contract!
All the best,
Anne

aidanjdoran · 18-08-2010 6:43pm

Hi Ann,

Sorry to hear about your issues, its like everything in this country, we pay over the odds for everything and we get a crap service because nobody complains

this says it all for me:

Country Leader Salary Population(millions)
Mr. Brian Cowen (Ireland) €280,000 4.8
The President of Ireland €274,000
Mr. Barrack Obama (US) €258,000 304
Mr. Gordon Brown (Britain) €239,500 60.5
...Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy (France) €223,200 64.4
Ms. Angela Merkel (Germany) €205,150 82.2
Mr. Vladimir Putin (Russia) €52,250 142
Mr. Evo Morales (Bolivia) €13,900 9.1

Best of luck in Australia im sure you will get a decent service there at a decent price, this place is just a banana republic.. we deserve what we get..

Regards Aidan

echidna · 18-08-2010 6:51pm

Cheers Aidan,
By the way, that crowd ABB used to be a very untrustworthy bunch called NBB telecom. The other company went broke and ABB magically rose from the ashes like the phoenix. They deny that they were the same company, but somehow they had access to everyone's old email address (hmm... data protection act) and they all sounded the same on the phone when I rang them. I wanted out at that time, but no-one else around to take over the service unfortunately.
BW,
Anne

watty · 18-08-2010 8:23pm

Digiweb, Bently Walker and Satellite Broadband Ireland for two Way Satellite.

Jimllfixit · 19-08-2010 8:56am

aidanjdoran wrote: »

I have no choice but to use these people ABB telecom.

Another thing they are doing lately, is they are double charging people, for the past two months they have double charged me €99.50 for so called broadband.

I'm going to complain to Astraconnet2 direct as these guys clearly dont know their arse from their elbow.

When I contacted them ( ABB) last month, they apologised and said it was a billing mistake, they said they would give me august for free, what happens, this month, the same again, another double bill, now im getting worried..:mad:

has anyone had the same problems?

Aidan

Hi Aidan,

I didn't have exactly the same problem, just they took forever to set up their direct debit. Something to do with the form they had on their website which I was to download, print, fill in and send to my bank.

The real problem I had was loss of service whenever it rained. A tiny shower would knock it out completely. They were never able to tell me what signal strength I was getting, their techhie guy then left the company (I wonder why . . .) and I eventually got an answer from a UK Astra2Connect dealer.

The second problem was lack of speed. They rarely achieved the 1MB that I was paying for, except between midnight and 9AM it was quite good. They talked about "fair usage" when I complained but I think they simply take/took on too many customers for the bandwidth I suspect they in turn are paying for. Then when everybody logs in, it slows down. I was down to 150K quite a lot of the time, which really annoyed me.

I believe you can get Astra satellite service via the UK, I sold my dish to people in the UK who were setting up a similar company to ABB. Whether they'd be any better I don't know.

The guy who ran ABB when I was using it seems to have been involved in a previous similar company which went out of business (bust?), and transferred all their customers to ABB that wanted to. There were no details as to why this happened. With hindsight I'd have got better service from the local land-based service (AHC) - you might have one in your area without realising it. They use much smaller dishes but you have to have a line-of-sight to the nearest transmitter.

All the best!

Jim'll fixit

aidanjdoran · 19-08-2010 11:02am

Jimllfixit wrote: »

Hi Aidan,

The real problem I had was loss of service whenever it rained. A tiny shower would knock it out completely. They were never able to tell me what signal strength I was getting, their techhie guy then left the company (I wonder why . . .) and I eventually got an answer from a UK Astra2Connect dealer.

The second problem was lack of speed. They rarely achieved the 1MB that I was paying for, except between midnight and 9AM it was quite good. They talked about "fair usage" when I complained but I think they simply take/took on too many customers for the bandwidth I suspect they in turn are paying for. Then when everybody logs in, it slows down. I was down to 150K quite a lot of the time, which really annoyed me.

Jim'll fixit

Yes Jim, i think the rain is a common problem and due to the small size of the dish, if you read a previous posting from watty above he explains it well.

Yes i have also notice serious contention issues at certain times and you are right its probably down to lack of bandwidth due to over subscription, a transfer limit i think of 2.5Gb per month is also tiny as i read somewhere recently that an european average was 10Gb per month per house hold and i made this point to them, its really hard to stay below this limit, sure my three dongle ( which i use elsewhere for half of the price, is much faster and has a limit of 15Gb per month)

So my conclusion is that mobile 3G broadband is the answer if they can improve the coverage, didn't 3 win the NBS ( national broadband scheme ) tender from the government? im going to read into this now as i think this satellite service is not worth it in the long run at all..

Thanks Aidan

eboy3 · 29-10-2010 11:44am

aidanjdoran wrote: »

Another thing they are doing lately, is they are double charging people, for the past two months they have double charged me €99.50 for so called broadband.

I'm going to complain to Astraconnet2 direct as these guys clearly dont know their arse from their elbow.

When I contacted them ( ABB) last month, they apologised and said it was a billing mistake, they said they would give me august for free, what happens, this month, the same again, another double bill, now im getting worried..:mad:

has anyone had the same problems?

Aidan

Hi aidanjdoran,

We have also had repeated occurances of double charging by ABB during 2010 which have still not been resolved.

Jimllfixit · 30-10-2010 9:42am

This outfit seems to be run by a man on his PC that has bought some bandwidth from Astr2Connect and sells it on for a profit.

Our bureaucracy problems were similar, i.e. they sent out a second direct debit mandate, presumably by accident - not exactly reassuring.

What was really bad for us was the lack of technical support, which with hindsight turned out to be a basic lack of bandwidth cloaked in jargon about "fair usage" and smoke and mirrors about whether our dish was properly set up (which, of course, it was), and how Cork was at the southern limit of the coverage footprint.

Whether anyone can get Astra2Connect service other than through ABB is something you guys ought to investigate. All you need is their password, it's actually dog simple. Eircom brought out B/B here and our 1MB is good 24/7. (They do have problems with their phone lines getting hammered by the weather, but at least they respond and fix the problems quite quickly).

Go for it! There are loads of UK-based Astra2Connect operators who ought to want to get new customers, especially during this recession.

watty · 30-10-2010 12:03pm

The Astra2Connect is
1) Oversubscribed
2) Usually too small a dish as we are off edge of beam.
3) Very low cost low power transmitter, so no good for Irish Rain, uplink drops to 10kbps in drizzle
4) Very poor, progressively worse going south West from Waterford/Sligo line through Ireland.

In Feb/March/April 2011 the Irish spot of Tooway on Ka-Sat may be available if launch on 20th December 2010 is OK.

The existing Tooway (from Bentley Walker, Digiweb and Satellite Broadband Ireland) is from 13E and somewhat better than than Astra2Connect as it's more professional Modem and Outdoor Unit with more Transmitter power. Usually larger dish to compensate properly for location.

Jimllfixit · 06-01-2011 6:19pm

Hi All.

I checked out

http://www.satelliteinternet.co.uk/

as a possible alternative to *BB, and as far as I could make out you could get service from them for around Stg£600 to include the hardware. The catch is they don't list the ROI in the delivery options, only NI. You CAN pick up the H/W in London.

Having said that, you'd have to be sure they will deal with you, and having said that, will you be back into the slow speed - "fair usage" tangle again?

If you already have the H/W,perhaps it would be informative to give Beyondsl a call . . . :cool:

I suspect I've exhausted my ideas on the subject! I would probably have to move house to get better speed from Eircom.

PS, the other thing that really peed me off with ABB was that they said they could provide TV from the same dish, but when I asked, they said it wouldn't be available for several months. It would appear that Beyondsl offer this service definitely.

All the best!

Jim'll Fixit

watty · 07-01-2011 12:49am

VSAT has to be installed by a professional.

Jimllfixit · 07-01-2011 9:18am

Hi Watty,

Not sure what VSAT is, I installed my Astra2Connect dish OK myself although I'd only class myself as a DIY guy rather than a satellite dish installer. The gear that was provided worked very well indeed.

I think what bothers me about buying gear in the UK is that there might be some territorial thing going on, whereby *BB would have the "rights" to sell the signal in the ROI i.e. a franchise, and a UK crowd might baulk at this.

ATB

PS Wikipedia seems to think the Tooway service has been launched using Hotbird 6 and Eurobird 3, at upto 3.6 MBPS download speed. If I'd seen this coming, I wouldn't have been so quick to off-load my dish last year . . . .

watty · 07-01-2011 10:09am

Astra may get into trouble allowing self install. VSAT (two way satellite) has a transmitter. If misaligned it can interfere with other satellite users. Unlike TV reception.

Tooway on Hotbird 6 and Eurobird 3 is running a while and near capacity. The new Ka-Sat launced 26th Dec 2010 http://www.techtir.ie/blog/watty/ka-sat-launch will enter service about May 2011 with more than x20 capacity on Ka band of Hotbird 6. They will be offering 10Mbps. In Ireland (and nowhere else) you will be able to use a regular Satellite IF splitter on the coax to Modem Receive IF and feed a DVB-S2 HD satellite receiver to get all the Saorview channels FTA. This will be called Saorsat http://www.saortv.info/satellite-saorsat/ It's not competition or alternate to Sky, UPC or Freesat, just backup feed for Terrestrial DTT sites and fill-in for the 2% to 7% of people that can't get Terrestrial Digital. All of N.I. should be able to receive it. You don't need Tooway system, just suitable dish and Ka-Band LNBF.

hotwhiskey · 09-01-2011 9:43pm

watty wrote: »

Astra may get into trouble allowing self install. VSAT (two way satellite) has a transmitter. If misaligned it can interfere with other satellite users. Unlike TV reception.

Tooway on Hotbird 6 and Eurobird 3 is running a while and near capacity. The new Ka-Sat launced 26th Dec 2010 http://www.techtir.ie/blog/watty/ka-sat-launch will enter service about May 2011 with more than x20 capacity on Ka band of Hotbird 6. They will be offering 10Mbps. In Ireland (and nowhere else) you will be able to use a regular Satellite IF splitter on the coax to Modem Receive IF and feed a DVB-S2 HD satellite receiver to get all the Saorview channels FTA. This will be called Saorsat http://www.saortv.info/satellite-saorsat/ It's not competition or alternate to Sky, UPC or Freesat, just backup feed for Terrestrial DTT sites and fill-in for the 2% to 7% of people that can't get Terrestrial Digital. All of N.I. should be able to receive it. You don't need Tooway system, just suitable dish and Ka-Band LNBF.

Watty will Digiweb be running of the new ka-sat launched in Dec, if so will there present costumers able to upgrade to 10mbps or is it just open to new people joining as the other two sat are nearly at full capacity. Thanks.

Sponge Bob · 10-01-2011 12:47am

Neaarly everyone will be running on Ka Sat, it has more bandwidth than all the other sats combined.

Also watch out for the Hylas sat which has a UK and Ireland spot beam, looks like they will use Hughes gear not Tooway

watty · 10-01-2011 9:10am

Hughes is indeed the partner for Avanti. Viasat are hardly likely to licence their Tooway to a competitor. Avanti's system may be available Feb/March. It's a test bed really and hasn't as much capacity as Tooway/Ka-Sat. Unlikely to be offering 10Mbps. Or if it does, it will be fine now, but slow next year with contention.

Digiweb will be selling Ka-Sat. Your Dish would need at a minimum re-aligned to use it. It's @9E and current Tooway is mostly @13E Available probably from end of May.

SBI, Bentley Walker and others will be re-selling Tooway also.

Unless you are on a business pacakage with negotiated SLA, all Satellite is very high contention. To start with the contention will be low. But publicised number of users suggests over 200:1 contention rather than Comreg's 48:1 limit (which is regularly not enforced for Ripwave & Clearwire in past and HSPA or Imagine WiMax now as these are Mobile and enforcement of contention is thus impossible).

So hope that loads of HSPA, LTE, DSL, Fixed Wireless and Fibre is rolled out in Ireland to keep contention on Satellite low.

ProSat · 10-05-2011 6:45am

Hi All,
I'm late to this thread but I have some very interesting info for you all regarding ABB Telecom. I would start making phone calls and cancelling direct debits if I were you.

According to the CRO (Companies Registration Ofice) they have been listed for "Strike Off" as of 13/03/11. This can happen due to non return of accounts and failure to comply with guidelines and regulations. To the best of my knowledge (but I'm not a solicitor or accountant) If a company is struck off they are not permitted to trade until all the issues have been rectified and the company is re-instated.

I have had my own dealings with ABB telecom, which are still ongoing unfortunately and they have ignored me for the past 18mths. They have mistreated both customers and suppliers and I would ask anyone who is considering doing business with them to be very careful.

Jimllfixit · 11-05-2011 9:58pm

I see they are in trouble: I'm not surprised.

ABB are/were buying bandwidth on the Astra satellite and flogging it to far too many customers (making a small fortune in the process). This results in a slow connection when everybody logs in during the evenings and weekends. Their speed would often drop from 1MB at 2 AM to 120K during peak times.

I got totally frustrated with their lack of technical ability and, with hindsight, their deceit, and went over to Eircom as soon as our local exchange was updated. It's only 1MB due to long distance to the exchange, but at least it's always 1MB.

ABB Telecom - Satellite speed test

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