Broadband speeds?

[Tommy2]

I’m confused about broadband speeds (no surprise).
Current supplier Virgin is putting our bill up by £2.99 again, wasn’t long since they did that last time, so what started as a good deal (£18 p/m for 50mb to £27 after the deal period) is now £35 for apparently 100mb (I can’t tell the difference and it was a ‘free’ upgrade).

So looking for a new supplier but speeds range from 11mb to 100mb and I can’t figure out what it means?

Can I stream nowtv with 11mb?

Don’t game just browsing and film/tv streaming and don’t need/want/have a landline.

Thanks

 

[NorthernDave]

I’m confused about broadband speeds (no surprise).
Current supplier Virgin is putting our bill up by £2.99 again, wasn’t long since they did that last time, so what started as a good deal (£18 p/m for 50mb to £27 after the deal period) is now £35 for apparently 100mb (I can’t tell the difference and it was a ‘free’ upgrade).

So looking for a new supplier but speeds range from 11mb to 100mb and I can’t figure out what it means?

Can I stream nowtv with 11mb?

Don’t game just browsing and film/tv streaming and don’t need/want/have a landline.

Thanks

I think Now TV state a minimum speed of 2.5mbps is needed to stream their stuff, so 11mbps should be plenty.

It will also depend how many devices you have connected and online at the same time.
We rented a holiday cottage a few years that was advertised as having "broadband Wi-Fi", and when we got there found it was shared with the cottage next door and there was a request in the welcome pack not to use it to stream movies...
We did watch something on iPlayer (I know, naughty us!) and that was all it could cope with - Mrs ND tried to play Candy Crush at the same time and everything stopped.

 

[keithmac]

Might be worth asking the Neighbours what their landline broadband is like?.

We have Virgin cable and it's been faultless for 13 years, my friend up the road is on Sky and he says it's not the best..

 

[Oldfentiger]

[QUOTE 5356387, member: 9609"]I'm supposed to get 5 but rarely get above 1, I can't even stream the radio

apparently I have a line length of 7km and thats not good[/QUOTE]

I had a similar problem for 10 years. 7.5 km from exchange and a max d/l of 0.5mbps. Even that was sporadic.
Luckily wireless broadband became available 3 years ago and has been faultless.
20mbps d/l and 10mbps u/l. 99% reliable. Including phone costs me £31/mth.
I have an antenna the size of a fag packet on the roof.
No idea what’s available in your area, but you could try a search for wireless network providers.

ETA: and of course I don’t pay any line rental as I don’t need the line now.

 

[dantheman]

All this is just opinion and feel free to prove me wrong g.


I don't think there's good and bad companies as far as speed is concerned, I believe virgin use their cable and their service is different to others, but all the other companies use the same lines, whether fibre or not. If they don't throttle your connection back (which they shouldn't anymore) then your speed is determined ed by your distance from the telephone exchange and/or distance you are from the box your street is from where the fibre optic cable actually end (cause realistically there's very few households that have fibre cable to the door)

I was with sky and had great speed (16.5 - 17mb on a 17mb line) I am now with talktalk a d get unlimited 38mb fibre for £22.50 a month(prices include rental by law nowadays) (average 36.5-37.5mb). And those speeds are over wifi.

I wouldn't personally entertain virgin for my own reasons which is good as they don't have their cables on my road. It should be said though, I'm only about 400m from our telephone exchange, not many people realistically get the speeds I achieve.

The step from 17mb to 38mb line isn't really noticeable until you download big files or try to use games console and TV and 3+ devices all running at same time - these companies will have you believe you need their fastest line just like bike manufacturers sell us newest components etc.. The biggest different centre for say games consoles is to use a wired connection and not wifi, as this greatly reduces "ping".

So, see what your neighbours average, or even check online as there are sites that will have average speeds etc. I would say to have a minimum of 8mb average and you'll be able to watch TV and do browse g on Internet on a few devices at once - using YouTube or other videos may slow it but 4mb is enough for a TV if your not watching 4k resolution etc..

And I have known people who have had free upgrades from virgin, I think you shod dispute the matter and tell them your not willing to pay it, you signed to 50mb and it was their choice to upgrade you... Others have got it for free and got the extra costs refunded (though not all of them).

 

[I like Skol]

Running talktalk 'normal' wire broadband and an online check suggests 17mbps download but only 0.7mbps upload. Don't know what i am supposed to get but it seems enough to me?

 

[Electric_Andy]

Yes 11mbps should be fine for streaming. If you look on the Netflix website, I think they state minimum speeds for SD, HD and 4K streaming. 4k I believe is 12mbps minimum, but 1080p is 6, so should be fine providing that you haven't got 2 other people wanting to do the same.

As a very unscientific example. In my old house we regularly got 50mbps. If my stepdaughter was online gaming (wifi) and 2 others were watching Youtube vids, I did a speed test and it got as low as 6 for me. Still not bad though, and we were paying Virgin £32 a month. They kept trying to raise it, so we looked up other deals online, rang them up and said "oi, we're leaving unless your price gets lower" and they always lowered it. try that. They'd rather have £27/month out of you than nothing.

 

[Electric_Andy]

https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-is-highest-streaming-quality-for-my-device

You should be fine, you can't stream 1080p anyway

 

[numbnuts]

I too have just had an email from Virgin £3 increase I get 100 mb (on paper) normally 79mb, BT offer 67mb for £54.99 more expensive than Virgin so it looks like I'll have to stick with them if I want the speed.

 

[Tommy2]

I rang them at lunch time and just said my bills keep going up and up, they said ok we’ll see what we can do, 30 secs later she said we can do it for £23 which will then be £26 after the increase.
Crazy how they can just knock it down like that and why they just keep nudging it up until you question it.

Strangely I asked what it would cost to knock it down to 50mb and it was actually £1 more expensive.
Also she gave me some numbers about my usage but they meant nothing to me, 3000mb a month or something?

Thanks for your input everybody.

 

[postman]

numbnuts I want the speed.[/QUOTE]

Si a numbanuts he wantsa speed make a sura da boys give him good okay.None of that mixed rubbish.