# Broadband Heaven or Hell?



## Rhisiart (Jun 4, 2008)

The BBC has commissioned a survey to see what broadband speeds the Brits are currently getting. It seem rural people get a pretty poor deal.

Using the BBC's *online test* I seem to get a consistent 1.4 Mbps.

Judging from some of the comments provided by readers, the system seems to be able to test speeds outside the UK.

Hence this poll. It would be interesting to know your location (country or state).


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## VirtualTracy (Jun 4, 2008)

Rhisiart said:


> It would be interesting to know your location (country or state).



0.1 Mbps. Australia ...


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## Viro (Jun 4, 2008)

13.6 Mbps. Boo yah.


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## fryke (Jun 4, 2008)

I answered 5-6 because my connection speed is 5 Mbps - before I read the whole post. Hm. I got 2.1 Mbps when I actually let the bbc test my line. Sadly I can't take my vote back. :/


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## Rhisiart (Jun 4, 2008)

fryke said:


> I answered 5-6 because my connection speed is 5 Mbps - before I read the whole post. Hm. I got 2.1 Mbps when I actually let the bbc test my line. Sadly I can't take my vote back. :/


This seems to be a common problem. it would be interesting to know whether this is time related.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jun 4, 2008)

San Antonio, Texas (USA).

Used to have 6.0Mbps DSL in my apartment, but since moving, they only offer 3.0Mbps service in my new area (and my actual throughput hovers somewhere between 2.5 and 2.8Mbps).  While faster services are offered (Time-Warner cable: 8Mbps), with all the hooplah going around about traffic shaping and throttling and what-not, I found it best to go with a slower service that does not limit access or shape traffic in any way.


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## elander (Jun 4, 2008)

You can't judge your bandwidth from a server abroad. I suspect that most of you don't live in Britain, so the BBC server isn't for you. If you want to know your true bandwidth from your home to the backbone, you'll have to connect to a server on your home countrys backbone.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jun 4, 2008)

A few good US-based speed tests that offer you a choice of which server location to test from (ie, "Dallas", "Chicago", "Los Angeles" -- I'd pick Dallas, since I live closer to that city than the rest) are:

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


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## michaelsanford (Jun 4, 2008)

Every residential broadband service I've used in Canada is terrible. Bell Sympatico ADSL and Rogers Cable, both of which we're paying for 7 meg, I am lucky if I get 1. VERY lucky.

The only person I know who has a decent download speed installed his own fibre trunk from Telus (which is good for internet, but in my experience, not good for other things, like their mobile phone service, of which I'm a customer).

I'm saddened and disappointed by my broadband services. Very, very much so.


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## Satcomer (Jun 4, 2008)

Wow I am getting from Speedtest 25Mbs down and 2.1Mbs


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## Ferdinand (Jun 7, 2008)

I get 2.8 Mbps down - not that much!


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## Rhisiart (Jun 7, 2008)

Apparently new 'eco-towns' designed for the south of England will be broadband ready with potential speeds up to 100 Mbps. 

Here in Wales we get pretty poor speeds. And don't even mention mobile/cellphone coverage ....


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## VirtualTracy (Jun 7, 2008)

After reading elander's post I am resubmitting my bandwidth specs:


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## Rhisiart (Jun 7, 2008)

Yes, speedtest.net looks useful.


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## Giaguara (Jun 7, 2008)

According to BBC test, 5.1 Mbps.
And



This is on an hour I am the only one using the net, when there are 5 other people downloading, browsing, skyping etc the speed will suffer.


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## chevy (Jun 7, 2008)

Not all days are equal, here is today:




My ISP is Net2000.


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## Rhisiart (Jun 7, 2008)

Now Chevy, that's just not fair. You live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and you have a whopping good download speed to go with it. Where did I go wrong? Can I get my money back?


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## pds (Jun 7, 2008)

I pay for 1.5 Mb but get 0.8 on a good day, 0.1 on a bad day. 

I pay 50 bucks for that, offset by electricity being about 20 bucks a month, gas is still less than a dollar a gallon.

****
Cairo, Egypt that is.


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## chevy (Jun 7, 2008)

Rhisiart said:


> Now Chevy, that's just not fair. You live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and you have a whopping good download speed to go with it. Where did I go wrong? Can I get my money back?



You are welcome here ! We need more high tech people here... 

BTW, the back side of a nice country is the cost of living, my gas is $1.85 a liter. My ISP costs me roughly $65/month (and I am supposed to have 15Mb/s but I never reached it, I don't even know if my router can handle it).


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## Rhisiart (Jun 7, 2008)

High tech people? Moi? 

For your information Ms Chevy, diesel in the UK is currently 1.62 Euro.

Anyway, what about the view from your house?!!!


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## chevy (Jun 8, 2008)

I see you have a good memory Rhisiart !


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## Qion (Jun 8, 2008)

I have a fiber optic connection that is throttled down to a piffling 15 Mbps. 

I do feel very sorry for the Aussies still stuck at dial-up speeds...


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## g/re/p (Jun 8, 2008)

$40.14 a month for naked DSL - 6.0 Mbps


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## Satcomer (Jun 9, 2008)

$49.99 a month for Cox cable (cheaper with digital cable).


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## Rhisiart (Jun 10, 2008)

¢48 a month (£24) with Zen

Normal:






Whilst downloading a 147 MB file from .Mac:


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## VirtualTracy (Jun 10, 2008)

Qion said:


> I have a fiber optic connection that is throttled down to a piffling 15 Mbps.
> 
> I do feel very sorry for the Aussies still stuck at dial-up speeds...



This doesn't help:

_Fast Tassie plans on hold pending better backhaul_



> _Currently, broadband backhaul capacity across Bass Strait is limited to a monopoly supplier, Telstra. As a result, it is six times more expensive for Internode to transfer data between Melbourne and Hobart than it is to move data between Melbourne and the United States._



A friend of mine lives near one of only 2 exchanges that are offering Extreme ADSL2+ and was without a connection for a couple of weeks as Internode uses Telstras infrastructure and only a Telstra Tech was allowed to do the repair.


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## Qion (Jun 10, 2008)

Satcomer said:


> $49.99 a month for Cox cable (cheaper with digital cable).[/URL]



That's a fairly incredible rate!


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## rubaiyat (Jun 10, 2008)

Qion said:


> I have a fiber optic connection that is throttled down to a piffling 15 Mbps.
> 
> I do feel very sorry for the Aussies still stuck at dial-up speeds...



Not quite.

I am on 2Mbps, and I am jealous of your 15Mbps. You can get that here but it costs an arm and a leg.

The price we paid for our Government flogging off the publicly owned Telco and turning it into a God awful near monopoly.

btw What is everybody's DL? Do they cap it or shape it over a certain limit, because at those speeds you can DL one heck of a lot of material. I do 60 to 80Gb/mth on my plan.


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## Viro (Jun 10, 2008)

I've got unlimited downloads, but I don't really download much apart from patches, and checking out source trees over the net. That said, I do browse flickr and various photography sites and I'm a big fan of viewing full uncompressed photos.

I use about 40 GB a month.


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