Very slow Speed on Fibre 65 plan - Please check as achieved speed regularly from 70mbps to 50mbps

[Figgis]

When I extended my contract last year I received an email quoting a Minimum Guaranteed Speed of 72mbps. I obtain that speed for a while after an Openreach engineer has been to check the line to my home. Then over a period of time the speed reduces to around 60mbps and later still to around 50 mbps. This past week my speed as been struggling to reach 30mbps.

This is a snip of the email showing a minimum guaranteed speed of 72mbps.

Actual speed test result on Talk Talk website.

And results from Speedtest which shows a high Upload speed in comparison to the download speed. 

I reported the problem but came up against the fact that I was getting speeds higher than 16mbps so I don't know if anyone is bothering to look into it.  Is my speed capped??

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello,

Thanks for the update.

Thanks

[Figgis · Accepted solution]

I raised a CEO complaint about the 16mbps minimum guaranteed speed on my account and have received a reply I am satisfied with.

Note date & time - 7-Jun-2023 13:31

**Please ignore minimum guaranteed download speed of 16mbps**

**Our website states that the customer will have a minimum guaranteed download speed of 41mbps.

**The customer also received an email from us, which was sent to myself, confirming she'd have a minimum guaranteed download speed of 72mbps. 

This was the email I received when I extended my contract on 05 April 2022. Nobody at Talk Talk believed me when I quoted this GMS. I accept it is unreasonable to expect a speed higher than Fibre65 just as it's unreasonable to accept a GMS of 16mbps.

**Should the customer want to leave, she can do so under the Right To Cancel (RTC) with all fees waived.

I will consider this if the speed drops lower that 41mbps and a fault report is nor speedily resolved.  I would consider Plusnet or BT as they are similar prices but they use the same infrastructure and the same Openreach engineers so I may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

**This has been approved as part of CEO Complaint by Correspondence.

I can point the customer service/fault engineer to this the next time I phone to report slow speed, they tell me that my minimum guaranteed speed is 16mbps, so what's my problem. 

I posted on here before about the guaranteed minimum speed and got nowhere. The same result when I spoke to TT engineers. No one budged from the 16mbps even when I provided proof from the Talk Talk website that I was quoted a much higher guaranteed speed signing up as a new customer, using my address and my telephone number.  I am pleased that a more realistic guaranteed minimum speed of 41mbps has been confirmed for my connection.  I am currently getting 53mbps to my router and hope that is sustained. The higher speeds, in low 70s, don't last for longer than a week or two.

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

The estimated speeds are provided by Openreach initially and are a generalisation across the area with the guaranteed minimum throuput speed set just below the bottom estimate. These are set on your account but can often change and be revised by openreach based on changes to the infrastructure in the area.

Looking at our network system, I'm showing that the sync speed is 79mb. The bottom estimate for sync speed is 72mb, and throughput estimates are lowest download 18.5mb with guaranteed at 16.6mb, this being the 10th percentile.

Thanks  

Karl. 

[Figgis]

@Michelle-TalkTalk

Why is my guaranteed minimum speed so low at 16mbps when the speed tests (included earlier in this report) show my connection can easily achieve  the guaranteed minimum speed of 72mbps as quoted at contract renewal. I would not have signed up to a contract that only guaranteed a minimum speed of 16mbps. Is Talk Talk guilty of deception?

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Thanks for the update and please let us know if you need any assistance.

Thanks

[ferguson]

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@AllyM wrote:

@ferguson 

Karl did indeed say the fault had been logged out to Openreach, who now appear to have fixed it.

---

Oops, my bad, my post was otiose and I have removed it. 

[AllyM]

@Figgis ,

I only asked the question of how a wired connection compares as part of a fault-finding process to determine if the issue was only with WiFi. Possibly going a bit off-topic, but your comment about being tied to the router with a "short curly wire" did make me smile. I guess it depends on what you consider to be short. You do realise that an ethernet cable can be up to about 100metres long and still perform to their rated speed? (and I don't recall ever seeing a curly one).

As for your guaranteed speed being very low, I'm certain this is a system error which TalkTalk don't seem to be able to figure out how to fix, rather than some deliberate attempt to con you.

@ferguson 

Karl did indeed say the fault had been logged out to Openreach, who now appear to have fixed it.

[Figgis]

I replied with all the information in the previous post.  The engineer attended the fibre cabinet and everything is working well now- without accessing my home.  Thank you for reporting it. 

It did not matter which speed test I used the connection from the fibre was bad. I also used the Talk Talk one but like to use Ookla because it gives me a record, yours does not.

Please look at the results this evening and tell my why the Guaranteed Minimum Speed is so low at 16mbps.  

Was my connection capped after a fault?

[Figgis]

Yes ,but the difference is negligible as the PC is normally beside the router.  I work wirelessly as i don't want my laptop to be tied by a short curly wire.

Why can't I get a reply from anyone at TT on the very low Guaranteed Minimum  Speed when my connection gets very good speeds when it's working correctly. Is Talk Talk trying to weasel out of it's obligation to customers.  One Customer Service Assistant told me 'but your getting more than the guaranteed speed of 16mbps' . It wasn't until I spoke to another assistant and carried out a router reset (pin hole) that I was taken seriously.

The Openreach engineer arrived earlier today and it was working again, at over 70mbps, as soon as I tested it.  The engineer didn't need to access my home and must have resolved the issue at the fibre cabinet  just outside.

You can see from the test results that my connection is working well again. Nothing was wrong with my devices or Ethernet/no Ethernet. 

http://www.broadbandperformance.co.uk/ Sam Knows

And the Router Dashboard speed test. This must show how ridiculous the 16mbps Minimum Guaranteed Speed is and supports the speed quoted by Openreach Engineers of between 70 and 80mbps. 

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi Figgis,

Can you test your speeds wired to give a true reading of the speeds arriving at the house.

Also, try a couple of different speed test sites.  All speed tests will vary and never be totally accurate due to location, traffic, server load etc, so it is always good practice to run a couple of different speed tests to get an average.  I usually use the speed test in My Account, and also use Sam Knows Speedtest  as this gives a good average for comparison.

I've tested your line now, and am detecting a fault on the local network.  Sync speed is lower than it should be.

I've logged this out to BT Openreach for a Non Appointed engineer - Non appointed means the engineer will be dispatched to look at the line without requiring an appointment be made with you to visit your property.  

check back here for an update in 24hrs.

Thanks

Karl.

[AllyM]

Are these speed tests done over WiFi?

Have you run wired speed tests for comparison?

Is the sync speed also low?