I've been on the Sky Broadband MAX deal for about 18 months now and it's been super reliable and pretty quick.

Even though I'm 2km from the exchange (according to www.samknows.com) I used to get around 2.5Mb from Sky which was adequate.

In the last few weeks though I'v enoticed my router is now refusing to negotiate at speeds any faster than 1Mb and I'm actually now getting speed test results of around 0.8Mb ! Pish !

Sky say it is because of the number of new subcribers in our exchange (Johnstone) but it definitely looks like throttling to me.

So, I am looking to move and fancy "Be" (bethere.co.uk which is now part of O2. For £18 a month they are doing "24Mb" ADSL 2+ broadband. I think I should be able to squeeze maybe 4Mb out of that based on my distance from the exchange, and I guess very few people will be using their equipment in my exchange (I had never even heard of Be until last week).

Any thoughts, anyone use Be ? Anyone else having rubbish performance from Sky ?

Not used Be or Sky, but it is common for the connection rate to drop dramatically if lots of new users join an exchange. Sky should have stated the minimal exchange ratio on your contract though. Mine with BT, I think anyway without checking the fine print, is 1:20.

I've had Sky BB for about 2 weeks now and have averaged around 6Mbps. A significant increase on our old Pipex connection which sometimes gave us 33Kbps!

EDIT: That said the latest speed tests say 2.7 Mbps for us now. Maybe that's the speed the line will settle at.

You sure? That would be about right for a business account, but most residential ISP's are 1:50.

Might be 1:25, don't think it was 50 though. Would need to check the T&C.

What speed is Virgin? Is it quick? A quick test shows i am just less than 2Mb, is that acceptable.

My ISP offers up to 8Mb/s. BT says that the line can cope with up to 4Mb/s. Broadband speed tests give about 1.5Mb/s peak download and about 400kb/s upload.

How I wish our telephone lines were as new as those in Japan. Their download speeds are just ridiculous!

If you're on their cable service, I would have said no. Depends what you're paying for though.


I used to get those sorts of speeds on my old ISP. When I switched to TalkTalk, who have LLU in my exchange, the speeds have gone up to around 6Mb d/l and 600kb u/l

Well worth checking whats available at your exchange

There's two levels here, possible speeds and actual speeds.

For example, I am on a 8Mb contract. Yet for a fair amount of last year I was only connecting at just over 5Mb and then getting transfer rates of 4Mb at max. I complained about it and they switched me over to a newer exchange where I am connecting at 7.6Mb although with an average dl speed of 6Mb.

I tend to use this as my guide..

http://www.speedtest.net/

We're covered by TalkTalk, but my ISP is owned by Carphone Warehouse too, so I'm not sure if changing would really improve the service.

You'll notice I'm trying to avoid mentioning its 3 letter name

It will make a difference if your current ISP doesnt use LLU.

They do, according to samknows as Div used.

When you sign up for broadband, do you have to state that you want to use LLU or is this done automatically?

I think it would be worth checking if you're actually on their LLU service.


Not sure, TBH. TalkTalk will do it automatically if there is capacity in the exchange. If their isnt, then you go onto an unbundled service until capacity becomes available, at which point you automatically move over.

I would imagine most ISP's will do the same, as using their own equipment will be more cost effective than renting from BT. However, I wouldnt take that as gosple and I would certainly check with the ISP before moving to them.

Having said all that, any ISP offering more than 8Mb will have to use their own unbundled service as ADSL Max only goes up to 8Mb.

The only provider with LLU at my exchange is Orange, but I see no mention of LLU on their website. The lazy part of me assumes it's done automatically but I have a niggly feeling it may have to be requested.

Our Sky broadband keeps disconnecting.

Getting bloody annoying, so will probably phone them up.

Pretty gash I guess then?

If you're not on cable and just have a normal "up to 8Mb" ADSL account, then theres nothing overly wrong with that test. Given your u/l speed I would guess that you are on an ADSL line, rather than cable.

Check out the samknows link and find out whos available with either cable or LLU at your exchange.