Will BT BB be faster than PlusNet?

[#1]

Hey All,

I'm at the end of my 24 month contract so the price has doubled now. I need to make a decision on where next and wondering if BT would be faster as PN seem to be their 'budget cousin'.

Few details:

Currently on: Unlimited Business Fibre Broadband 

I get no more than 40mb/s but relatively stable

I went for Business as felt the support and uptime would be better provided

Stability has been excellent with little downtime and support seems decent with PN. Not sure BT would compare?

Cost is not an issue as prices usually within £10 a month of each other and BB is pivotal to me and my business. I would happily pay £100 a month if i could get much faster speeds.

I have attached the www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com results.

To me this looks like I can get up-to 56 Mbps rather than the current 40. So is this being restricted by PN? DHT seems very low!

On posts like this https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Will-my-Plusnet-speed-reach-the-same-speed-as-BT/td-p/... it seem that it can be increased?

If I can get a speed increase to 56Mbps then I may as well stay with PN but if I can get nearly a 50% increase in speeds with BT it's worthwhile moving.

Anyone else had this experience?

Thanks!

Chris

[#2]

@chrishood Welcome to the forums. 'Unlimited Fibre' is the 40/10 package, where you are artificially limited to a max 40Mb/s download/10Mb/s upload. To get higher speeds, you need to be on 'Unlimited Fibre Extra' (with Plusnet, don't know what BT call their 80/20 package.

However, looking at that BT Availability report, personally I wouldn't pay the extra for a (possible) extra 16Mb/s increase in speed - but as a business only you can decide if it is worth it.

Looking at that report, you must be fairly close to the Fibre cab, but not that close - you are achieving the max speed on the 40/10 package, but not going to gain much by going to 'Fibre Extra'.

What is the result of BTW Performance Tester - the 'Additional Diagnostics' option?

[#3]

'Unlimited Fibre' is the 40/10 package

It is for the residential package but the Business package is up to 80/20 ( or it should be ! )

[#4]

Hey @jab1 - Thanks for the quick response. I didn't know there were other options available. PN do not make it clear that the speeds are restricted.

When making the product change on my account it only offers me the one option. 

Business offerings seem slightly different. https://www.plus.net/business/

I am already on the "Up to 76 Mb download speed" package so this shouldn't be restricted.

So I guess the next question is if moving to the Unlimited Fibre Extra will give me those faster speeds.

Results of the test are:

Ping - 12ms

DL - 35.19

UL - 6.87

Thanks!

[#5]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to Business 

[#6]

@chrishood  sight of your router stats ( helpdesk tab if youre using a PlusNet router ) would be useful to determine if your line is capable of faster speeds

[#7]

@chrishood Just wrote a long reply, then someone moved the topic before I got chance to post (@dvorak).

CBA to rewrite it, but basically we need a bit more info - can you post a screenshot of the 'Additional Diagnostics' tab on the BT Speedtest , as a start please?

Might be a while before I get back to you though, I'm out for the rest of this afternoon.

[#8]

@chrishood 

Answering your question needs sight of your current line stats, rather than the data speed tests which tells us what your line is doing at the moment.  Your speed is governed by what your line will do, not what product you are on.  All BUSINESS accounts are provisioned on 80/20 (or should be) but what you get is a matter of what your line will deliver.  If there are issues on your line, what you get will be much the same irrespective of the ISP.

The first step here is to investigate the possibility of there being a fault on your line - the router stats should offer some clues.

[#9]

@MisterW 

I am using the PN router.

Using a DrayTek Vigor 130 modem to a Ubiquiti UniFi Security Gateway

Test results above all from a hardwired CAT6 connection.

What kind of stats would be helpful?

[#10]

@JAB  I noticed that it had been moved. Sorry for your wasted time!

Additional diagnostics attached

[#11]

The modem's line stats, including sync speed and SNRM.

Data speeds are somewhat useless - the sync rate will tell us what the line is doing, the SNRM will indicate if the line is being managed for issues.

You could also just raise a slow line broadband error report.  See the link below.

[#12]

Hey @Townman - Modem stats attached,

[#13]

To me, the fact it's showing a down speed of almost exactly 40mb looks like it's being restricted?

[#14]

Its a bit suspicious but that doesnt appear to be limited by a 40/10 profile. If it was , then the downstream SNR would be > 6db. TBH the Vigor modem is not the best for higher speeds but it would appear its giving the best it can given the current setup.

Are you connected directly to the master socket ? and have you tried connecting to the test socket to see if the synch speed improves ?

[#15]

@MisterW Isn't it weird that my downstream is exactly 40mbs though? Doesn't that look restricted to you? Otherwise surely it would show like the Upload does and have an odd max peak number?

Regarding your last sentence - you've lost me there sorry. Those stats were taken by logging into the modem directly via ethernet. What's the master/test socket? There's only one port on the Vigor other than the phone line going in & power.

I read through this forum when I joined in 2020 that the Vigor was the best for passing through a direct steam to the Unify system. Can you suggest a better modem that might handle things easier? Obviously the Secure Gateway takes care of everything else - it just needs the internet feed.

Thanks