Resolved Speed Expectations

Greetings!

I live in Canada and have been subscribing to an ISP's 20Mbps internet service. I know that I should not expect full speed, but when I ran their own speed test software I regularly received only about 20% speed.

I decided to upgrade my cable modem to a 100Mbps service and now my connection is much faster... However, it is still only about 15% to 20 % of the advertised speed.

I called "tech support" a few hours ago and they said there must be a problem with my cabling. Now, two hours later I've gone from 10Mbps to 35Mbps. Still not acceptable, but I find it interesting that there was such a huge speed increase in such a short amount of time after reporting my issue.

My main question is, what speed should I expect (and be happy with) from an internet service provider? If I pay for a 10Mbps connection, should I expect 8? I'm now paying for 100Mbps. What should I reasonably expect?

Since I've "upgraded" to the 100Mbps service I've only been getting an average speed of 23.15Mbps.

Thanks for your input.

Brian

 

Is this Cable or DSL. With the speeds you are talking about, you are probably on Cable. Neither will guarantee those speeds. It is up to those speeds.

DSL you will get pretty close to what they offer as you are on a dedicated line by yourself all the way back to the Telco Central Office.

Cable you would probably get close to what they offer if you were the only one on that leg or just a couple of other people. The more that are on at the same time you are on the leg you are on, the slower it will be. Usually when the kids get out of school and when mom and dad get home the get on line and now the bottle neck starts. Bet at 2 or 3 in the morning you will get good speeds.

 

Thanks for the reply MrBill. I'm on cable. The best speed I ever had was 52.3Mbps at 6:45 in the morning. The slowest, 9:30pm that same day (2.33Mbps). The average over the past month at any time of day is 23.15Mbps.

I understand I should not expect 100Mbps. My question was, what speed should I expect.

Thanks

 

asprin, I don't think that anybody can answer the speed question. Like I said before, the more that are on your leg, the worse it will be.

 

For the sake of comparison, try this one:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

 

I should have been more clear in my original question. This is not a technical question. I understand the technology.

What I am asking is...as a customer, what speed should I reasonably expect? I am paying $80 per month for an advertised 100Mbps download speed. Should I be happy if I'm only receiving, on average, 20% of the advertised speed? When I was paying $50 per month for a 20Mbps download speed I was receiving about 20% of that advertised speed, so i decided to upgrade.

I've been using http://speedtest.shaw.ca/ I check my speed a few times a day and record the results in an Excel spreadsheet. That way I can see the fastest, slowest and calculate the average. As of now, I've run the speed test 57 times and am averaging 22.19 Mbps download.

At http://speedtest.net/ I just got 12.28 Mbps and at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ I got 4.84 using Seattle (I first tried Chicago being the closest city to me but the connection timed out at 75%).

I would be happy with the speed I'm getting if I was paying for a 25 or 30Mbps plan. However, paying for a 100Mbps plan I feel I should be regularly be averaging 85Mbps. Is that unreasonable, or am I being ripped off?

Thanks!

Brian

 

I just had a new cable modem installed a couple of weeks ago (with built-in router and wi-fi, so I'm no longer using my own router). When the tech came out he checked the lines and said I had a good strong signal. This afternoon I called my ISP, they said I have very week signal and it's probably a bad splitter (I've swapped with three different splitters, so I doubt that's the problem). They're sending out a tech early next week to see what's up.

I had this same situation twice before when I was on their 20Mbps service (speeds would drop to around 2 to 3 Mbps) and miraculously, the day before the tech was scheduled to come out my speed increased to an acceptable level (17+ Mbps).

It will be interesting to see what happens next week.

 

The tech was here earlier today and I must say I'm very happy with how things are resolving.

He tested my hardware, everything good. He tested signal strength, perfect. He looked at the network load and 98% saturation. Problem identified. Like mentioned earlier, and as suspected, network congestion is the problem.

He made a few phone calls and discovered the node I am on is scheduled to be split in the next few weeks. I asked him who I should call to see about getting compensation for the slow speeds I have been receiving. He made another phone call, this time to his boss, and got me one month free service. Hopefully, by the time my free service runs out the node will be split and service will be at full speed.

I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks to all for your great input!

Brian

 

Got to agree with this. That way they will know you are still here and don't appreciate them blowing smoke where the sun don't shine.

 

Thanks very much for the advice. I'm going to keep an eye on my speeds and if things don't approve by Christmas I'll be calling my ISP again.

Brian

 

Thanks for the suggestion TonyT. I don't plan on paying for service I'm not receiving.

Brian

 

Good news! Issue resolved (sort of).

It's been months since I've made any progress, so I contacted my internet provider on the morning of April 10 and we had a number of very long conversations regarding my internet speeds and the amount they are charging me and how I am to be compensated.

This morning I had another conversation with one of the CSRs I've been dealing with and I'm very happy with the results. What we agreed to is that because I'm only receiving about 10% to 20% of what I've been paying for they are going to continue providing me with the 100 Mbps service, but are only going to bill me for a 10 Mbps service. This arrangement will be in place until they have their technical issues resolved and are actually providing me with the appropriate speeds.

In addition they have credited my account with the difference between the two internet plans ($50 per month) and back-dated it to the day I first signed up for the 100 Mbps service. A pretty substantial credit (over $200). I am moving next Wednesday, so the CSR also offered to waive the $30 fee to have a tech come out and take care of moving my services.

I am very happy with the results and the extra steps the CSR went to to make sure I was happy. I am now paying the appropriate amount for the service I am receiving.

Also, thanks to everyone here for your advice and input. Much appreciated!

Brian