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Rubbish British broadband speeds; this post is for posterity

I’m posting this on the 5th of March 2009.

I’m doing it for posterity’s sake so I can look back and remark just how shit the UK’s infrastructure is.

Some people in the country are lucky enough to have nice fast connections. It seems that wherever I tend to choose to live, the infrastructure is actually rubbish.

The next place I choose to live will be WHOLLY, WHOLLY based on how fast the internet *ACTUALLY* is. I’m not sure how I’m going to discover this. I’m actually connected at about 8megabits per second. The throughput is about 15-20k a second upload and about double the speed download.

I’ve been uploading 200gb of data to ZumoDrive. I’ve been doing it for almost 24 hours.

Here’s the current status:

Read that and weep. It’s managed to upload about 2,000 files so far.

But FIVE months? FIVE?

Goodness me.

I look forward to reading this post in 10 years time when hopefully something will have changed.

By the way this is not representative of ZumoDrive. It’s my connection.

15 COMMENTS

  1. Isn't it more likely to be a case of how shit your provider's infrastructure is, and in that case why don't you switch? Also are you perhaps connected into an overloaded local exchange? Just wondering how representative your experience is of other people's experiences. I know in Wimbledon on Virgin Broadband I get better rates than this. Why not try Be Internet – they're supposed to be great aren't they?

  2. 200GB of data?! My entanet connection up north only allows 300GB of data transfer FOR THE MONTH during offpeak periods, and even then, you would really need to maximize use of your 8mbps connection for the most of the offpeak period to exceed the giving allowance. But 200GB in one go! Most consumer ISPs would disown you if you even sneeze half of that much data.

    Saying that, the transfer speeds I get with them were terrific (400KB/s+ download is not unusual from a decent server – I've managed to max out at ~700kb/s from microsoft.com) for how much we pay, despite them using BT centrals. I've heard they've been somewhat more congested as of late though, as a victim of their own success.

    Here in central London, I'm on a consumer BT line, and you can guess despite the 8mbit sync, the transfer speeds are terrible (equiv to 2mbps downloads? and at *most* if I'm lucky, 30KB/s uploads).

    You do get what you pay for , especially with the smaller, lesser known but more expensive ISPs.

  3. I know that sounds like a really smart point Alex — I'd be making it, if I wasn't experiencing just how shite the infrastructure is here.

    Dan Lane, the MIR tech contributor spent many an hour bashing me for not changing from British Telecom.

    “Use Be Unlimited!” He chirruped.

    Don't have that here.

    He then went through a list of different providers. All of them don't have a point of presence.

    You would, of course, be forgiven for thinking that I'm living in the middle of nowhere, a hundred miles from the nearest exchange.

    No.

    I'm in Billericay in Essex. The postcode is CM12 or CM11. The exchange dialing code is 01277. Look it up and you'll see just how badly we're served.

    I am going to move LITERALLY because of the shite internet speeds.

  4. It would take Ben approximately 3.8 days to achieve the upload with his 6mb/upload speeds. Me? 5 months 😉

    I have the option of paying about a grand a month for a 2mb leased line…. or I can use the shite 'consumer' broadband. There is no inbetween here for some strange reason. And the exchange is definitely overloaded.

  5. Yup – Sadly Billericay is a piss poor exchange – my former boss has AOL Broadband, and isn't all that far from the exchange, but his speeds are still dire. Looks like you'll have to move to Chelmsford mate – most of it is served by Virgin cable.

    🙂

    K

  6. I know that sounds like a really smart point Alex — I'd be making it, if I wasn't experiencing just how shite the infrastructure is here.

    Dan Lane, the MIR tech contributor spent many an hour bashing me for not changing from British Telecom.

    “Use Be Unlimited!” He chirruped.

    Don't have that here.

    He then went through a list of different providers. All of them don't have a point of presence.

    You would, of course, be forgiven for thinking that I'm living in the middle of nowhere, a hundred miles from the nearest exchange.

    No.

    I'm in Billericay in Essex. The postcode is CM12 or CM11. The exchange dialing code is 01277. Look it up and you'll see just how badly we're served.

    I am going to move LITERALLY because of the shite internet speeds.

  7. It would take Ben approximately 3.8 days to achieve the upload with his 6mb/upload speeds. Me? 5 months 😉

    I have the option of paying about a grand a month for a 2mb leased line…. or I can use the shite 'consumer' broadband. There is no inbetween here for some strange reason. And the exchange is definitely overloaded.

  8. Yup – Sadly Billericay is a piss poor exchange – my former boss has AOL Broadband, and isn't all that far from the exchange, but his speeds are still dire. Looks like you'll have to move to Chelmsford mate – most of it is served by Virgin cable.

    🙂

    K

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