up to 5Mb within up to 20Mb. What does this REALLY mean??

[rogerpalmtree]

I'm moving house at the moment and I'm trying to set up broadband and sky. Sky have quoted their broadband as being able to provide speeds of up to 5Mb in my area. This is within a package that they claim to be capable of providing up to 20Mb speeds.

I understand that the speed broadband companies quote as "maximun" is always way off what the average customer recieves, but I wasn't sure if the same applies to quoting speeds within a speed.

Does anyone have any experience of this. Am I likely to get close to 5Mb?

[seaspaniel]

I work in the industry for one of the providers of up to 20Mb service (not Sky). The "up to" speed relates to the kit we have in your local exchange. If it is the 20Mb variety and you live next door and have optical fibre connection to it you might get close to 20Mb. But for most people they are connected by copper wire at a distance from the exchange. This will largely determine your connection speed. However if your house phone wiring is poor etc you might not get the same as your neighbours. If you are being quoted 5mb on a 20Mb exchange you probably live around 1.5 miles from it.

[rogerpalmtree]

Hi seaspaniel, thanks for the reply. I do get that the speed they quote is unrealistic for most people, what I was really getting at was whether the same thing applies for the quote they have given me. i.e am I likely to recieve something close to 5Mb broadband or is this another industry trick? I had 4Mb previously and this was fine for trading which to be honest is all I need it for. But I'd rather not get laden down with say 1Mb speeds. It was really just sky's use of "up to" that I was worried about. Another provider quoted me with "around" 4Mb which sounds better as it implies a likely speed not a maximun speed. Any further clairfication would be great.

[seaspaniel]

The honest answer is we don't know. When we say up to 5mb this is what we expect given perfect circumstances for the copper to your door. We do not know how good your house phone wiring is or the noise you might get on your line etc.(my line slows when it is raining!)

My guess would be that you ought to get at least 2.5Mb based on the few people I know who have had quotes and what they ended up with

The only real way of finding out is to connect up or to ask the previous house owners who they were with and what they got.

You might want to see if you can get cable, in which case you are guaranteed at least 10Mb because of the technology. (And I don't work for virgin either!)

I'm on 2Mb and my neighbour gets 4Mb from a different provider, but I'm just about to switch to the staff offer. (Unlimited for £7.50 normally £17.50). The only problem is that I'm being quoted 2.5Mb. Not much of an improvement for an up to 20Mb service

[seaspaniel]

so the answer is to Lay at 2.5 but Bet at 4.0!!!!!!!

[seaspaniel]

Or is it Bet at 2.5 and Lay at 4.0

[wrexham casual]

Give this a try.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

[rogerpalmtree]

"You might want to see if you can get cable, in which case you are guaranteed at least 10Mb because of the technology. (And I don't work for virgin either!)"

I think I can, is there any difference between picture speeds between cable TV and satellite TV?