topic Re: Broadband Speed Maximum in Archived Posts

Broadband Speed Maximum

billyn0m4tes — Thu, 20 May 2021 12:22:11 GMT

Hi I am wondering why my actual download speed is 29mb yet my line maximum is 48mb.

I no longer use the EE router as the wireless range wasn't good enough.

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

mikeliuk — Thu, 20 May 2021 13:09:11 GMT

Do fast.com and speedtest.net agree on the bandwidth you see?

Typically fixed lines achieve a good percentage of the maximum although measured bandwidth may vary depending on congestion at a particular time of the day, so bandwidths may be higher at quiet times.

Locations and line quality may cause bandwidths to fall short of the "up to" values.

Edited to clarify measured bandwidth varies according to congestion at the time of day. For example I've historically found Virgin Media, BT, and Three perform very well early in the morning and late at night. The beginning of working days, near noon, and typically when the network and demand on servers is busy will caused measured bandwidths to fall off (also when the US wakes up).

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

billyn0m4tes — Thu, 20 May 2021 12:54:30 GMT

fast.com shows a download speed of 21 and speedtest.com 22.22 down and 3.2 up both tested on a wireless laptop

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

Mustrum — Thu, 20 May 2021 12:56:59 GMT

@billyn0m4tes we need to wait until a mod approves the photo before we can see it.

Are you comparing line sync speeds with speed tests, or sync speed with attainable speed?

@mikeliuk bandwidths do not vary with time of day, I suspect you are thing of achievable speeds due to addition traffic.

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

billyn0m4tes — Thu, 20 May 2021 13:06:22 GMT

@Mustrum I am comparing actual speeds with maximum line speeds according to my router. My speed never really gets over the 22 mark regardless of what time of day it is used.

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

mikeliuk — Thu, 20 May 2021 13:14:15 GMT

I assume wired tops out at the same number as WiFi?

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

billyn0m4tes — Thu, 20 May 2021 13:17:28 GMT

marginally different, maybe another 1mbs but nothing noteworthy

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

XRaySpeX — Thu, 20 May 2021 13:54:28 GMT

@mikeliuk : Typically throughput speeds for Fibre BB as measured by speedtests will be about 92.5% of sync speed on a good line. However sync speeds as measured by the router do not vary with time of day. They stay constant until the connection drops if at all when it might re-sync to a diff speed..

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

XRaySpeX — Thu, 20 May 2021 13:52:33 GMT

What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker, not the Postcode Checker.
What are all EE's estimated speeds which you'll find in your MyEE for BB under Your broadband speed?

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

pip11 — Thu, 20 May 2021 14:08:36 GMT

Do you have a dial tone tone on your line?

Re: Broadband Speed Maximum

mikeliuk — Thu, 20 May 2021 14:45:27 GMT

From a practical point of view, I've only ever seen Virgin Media cable and fibre optic to the premise achieve a high percentage of the maximum (e.g. 20 Mbps, 50 Mbps, and 500 Mbps). For measured bandwidths over copper phone cables, or fibre to the cabinet, 35 Mbps out of 50 Mbps is around the average I've seen. These number may be a lot better now especially with new hardware in cabinets and new cables, even if these are copper cables.

To achieve accurate benchmarking, it's standard practice to ensure network quiescence (e.g. not run a benchmark at the same time someone or the whole street is streaming from Netflix) so a measurement at between 0100 and 0400 is likely to ensure optimal numbers (realistically, just before bedtime or just when you wake up). This will give an estimate of the upper bound of what you can expect in practice and it could be disappointing or could indicate a bottleneck somewhere (perhaps in the provider's network) that could be addressed.

Usually the upload bandwidth can give a better hint of what is going on as it is less impacted by congestion. So if an upload bandwidth is able to hit a large percentage of the maximum, that's usually a good indication that things are reasonably ok (e.g. line quality is not abysmal). Loaded latency is also a good indicator of something bad, so if you see loaded latency of upwards of 600 ms you can just throw all the results away as a congestion issue. Unloaded latencies can be as low as 12 ms and for many people who are not downloading large files, low latency may be more impactful on the user experience (e.g. internet usage, gaming, and even responsiveness of streaming).

Edit: your percentage of the current link speed of 29593 kbps is not phenomenal but also not abysmal. 🤓