[Technology] Broadband speed for homeworking

[Happy Exile]

We're on Virgin Media for t'internet as they are the only people who do fibre where we live at the moment and they convinced us that with 2 of us working from home pretty much full time with a soul-crushing amount of work on Zoom calls, and one here hammering Netflix on top of that through school holidays, we'd need a super fast connection.

We've come to the end of our 18 month deal and they've almost doubled the price, meaning our almost-bottom-of-the-range contract costs more than a new customer would get an almost-top-of-the-range contract, and they refuse to negotiate, saying new customers are a greater focus than retaining existing ones. I've had my mobile with them for about 9 years and that makes no difference to their position either (obviously I'm binning them off for that now too).

BT and Sky both tell us their 36mbps / minimum guaranteed 23mbps will be fine for our purposes and we'd save a load of money switching to them but I have no idea what any of this means. Does anyone know if this would be OK? Am I doomed to staying with Virgin until someone else does fibre here? Thanks

 

[Titanic]

I work in IT for a major financial institution and I have been working from home for over three years.

We live out in the sticks, and our broadband speed varies between 4.5 and 8 Mbps depending on the wind and rain.

It has been fine for work, Zoom, Teams etc... apart from when it snowed and the line came down.

 

[dazzer6666]

Can’t get much above 50mbps here as we’re on copper wire from the exchange box for the last few hundred yards (unless we switch to Virgin which I’m not doing). Had no issues at all even when 3 of us were wfh, netflix being used a lot, online gaming going on and Sky Q using wifi.

 

[Happy Exile]

Fantastic, thank you. Looks like BT probably the way to go.

 

[CheeseRolls]

We're on Virgin Media for t'internet as they are the only people who do fibre where we live at the moment and they convinced us that with 2 of us working from home pretty much full time with a soul-crushing amount of work on Zoom calls, and one here hammering Netflix on top of that through school holidays, we'd need a super fast connection.

We've come to the end of our 18 month deal and they've almost doubled the price, meaning our almost-bottom-of-the-range contract costs more than a new customer would get an almost-top-of-the-range contract, and they refuse to negotiate, saying new customers are a greater focus than retaining existing ones. I've had my mobile with them for about 9 years and that makes no difference to their position either (obviously I'm binning them off for that now too).

BT and Sky both tell us their 36mbps / minimum guaranteed 23mbps will be fine for our purposes and we'd save a load of money switching to them but I have no idea what any of this means. Does anyone know if this would be OK? Am I doomed to staying with Virgin until someone else does fibre here? Thanks

In the same boat here. Openzone have been working in our street the last couple of weeks, so it looks like more fibre to the premises solutions are on their way. Ultimately I aim to have one fibre connection and a second 5G router for the price I am currently paying Virgin . Speed matters but reliability has to be the ultimate goal.

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

The only way to really know if 23mbps will be sufficient is to know what your current peak bandwidth usage is.

There are apps and tools out there that will help you do this.

I believe the free version of glasswire will tell you what you are using.

Fire up everything you might possibly be using at the same time and see what your actual peak bandwidth requirement is.

 

[juliant]

36Mbps would be enough. We have BT fibre and the ability to go up to 200 but we sit at 50 with 2 of us wfh every day on zoom etc. Lots of phones and personal items all connected constantly and no issues

 

[Westdene Seagull]

The speeds you mention will be fine to do what you mention although it would be better if it were fibre rather than the copper you imply with the statement 'Virgin are the only fibre provider in you area'.

It might be worth asking BT and Sky what the contention ratio is. To explain - your line will go back to a green box in the street - that bit is yours alone. From that green box there will be circuits that go back to the local exchange. These circuits are shared with other households. So a contention ratio of 10:1 will mean you and nine other households share a circuit. So in theory, if everyone of those other nine do the same as you at the same time ( imagine when all the kids get home from school at 3 ! ) then you speed could reduce below the speeds quoted to you. Go for the provider with the lowest contention ratio - i.e. the fewest households sharing the circuit.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

One thing I can't recommend enough is trying to plug in your devices via ethernet where possible or getting a decent router. Can make the world of difference.

People often confuse their internet speed with their wifi performance.

 

[beorhthelm]

you need less bandwidth than you think unless trying to download multiple HD films. looking it up, t'tinternet reckons 1.5Mbps for a zoom call at 720p. you'll be more constrained with upload there anyway, but it will downgrade the quality if too much. a HD film will be about 5-6mbps. so 25Mbps should be more than enough for most households.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

By no means an expert, but I regularly switch providers for the best deal and can cope adequately with the various broadband offerings.
I've been working from home for the past five years- during lockdown there were 4 of us at home ( 2 wfh and 2 teenagers constantly online). and I never noticed any issues with bandwidth.

If you are used to super speeds then you will probably notice more of a degradation.
But it depends if you feel that superfast speeds are required for the work you do,

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

We're on Virgin Media for t'internet as they are the only people who do fibre where we live at the moment and they convinced us that with 2 of us working from home pretty much full time with a soul-crushing amount of work on Zoom calls, and one here hammering Netflix on top of that through school holidays, we'd need a super fast connection.

We've come to the end of our 18 month deal and they've almost doubled the price, meaning our almost-bottom-of-the-range contract costs more than a new customer would get an almost-top-of-the-range contract, and they refuse to negotiate, saying new customers are a greater focus than retaining existing ones. I've had my mobile with them for about 9 years and that makes no difference to their position either (obviously I'm binning them off for that now too).

BT and Sky both tell us their 36mbps / minimum guaranteed 23mbps will be fine for our purposes and we'd save a load of money switching to them but I have no idea what any of this means. Does anyone know if this would be OK? Am I doomed to staying with Virgin until someone else does fibre here? Thanks

Is it just your internet you have with VM? If so, it might be cheaper to try and add a TV package than just keep broadband on its own.

The other obvious thing is to make sure you have got through to the retentions team - the general sales people don't give good offers but retentions do. I've always successfully renegotiated my VM package when needed, sometimes you have to spend longer 'doing the dance' to get what you want.

Good luck.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

We're with BT have a fibre telegraph pole outside the house but not connected. Our connection is so poor we cannot ZOOOM. Have been in touch with the CEO of BT and he has tried to sort it but it's a funding problem with Wales Now going via local MP for some dosh.

 

[disgruntled h blocker]

One thing you need to realise is that if you upgrade to VM's fastest available offering (think is 1gbps) you are still limited to a horrifically small in comparison upload speed; which is akin to having a Ferrari and then putting a Fiat 500 exhaust on it. If you are connecting your devices via WiFi it might also be worth using a WiFi analyser tool on a mobile phone to see if there are any competing wireless networks on the same channel and move them in the router settings.

Last year we did have continual problems with Teams dropping out so I bought a new router for my VDSL (FTTC) internet; it has improved things considerably. Currently waiting for the much-promised near-universal gigabit broadband offering.

 

[Swansman]

One thing I can't recommend enough is trying to plug in your devices via ethernet where possible or getting a decent router. Can make the world of difference.

People often confuse their internet speed with their wifi performance.

Indeed. Bad routers are the mothers of a lot of annoying Internet trouble. Worth the extra bit of cash to not buy the cheapest one.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Fantastic, thank you. Looks like BT probably the way to go.

They'll probably chuck in BT Sport for free as well which is worth having

 

[Bold Seagull]

We're on Virgin Media for t'internet as they are the only people who do fibre where we live at the moment and they convinced us that with 2 of us working from home pretty much full time with a soul-crushing amount of work on Zoom calls, and one here hammering Netflix on top of that through school holidays, we'd need a super fast connection.

We've come to the end of our 18 month deal and they've almost doubled the price, meaning our almost-bottom-of-the-range contract costs more than a new customer would get an almost-top-of-the-range contract, and they refuse to negotiate, saying new customers are a greater focus than retaining existing ones. I've had my mobile with them for about 9 years and that makes no difference to their position either (obviously I'm binning them off for that now too).

BT and Sky both tell us their 36mbps / minimum guaranteed 23mbps will be fine for our purposes and we'd save a load of money switching to them but I have no idea what any of this means. Does anyone know if this would be OK? Am I doomed to staying with Virgin until someone else does fibre here? Thanks

I think [MENTION=8459]TWOCHOICEStom[/MENTION] sums it up - it's very hard to say depending on how you use it all. If you have 12 different devices all joining the wifi from various floors in an old house with masonry walls everywhere, it's possible the BT / Sky routers will struggle.

I had the Sky router in modem mode coming into my mesh router, that had an internet switch for a fair amount of hard wiring to Xbox, TVs, computer so that the wifi was mainly phones / ipads. I found the Sky speeds varied a lot, and seemed to be inconsistent. Kids especially complained where they need a low ping rate for online games that it was often laggy. We had that for 18 mnths.

Moved to VM, but broadband only, they did a deal for BB and my sim for £32 with a decent data package. Anyway, same network / mesh setup and it's been a lot more consistent got to say. However I did ditch their TV and landlines services to get that price. My sim previously was about £10pcm, so the BB is £22.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Is it just your internet you have with VM? If so, it might be cheaper to try and add a TV package than just keep broadband on its own.

The other obvious thing is to make sure you have got through to the retentions team - the general sales people don't give good offers but retentions do. I've always successfully renegotiated my VM package when needed, sometimes you have to spend longer 'doing the dance' to get what you want.

Good luck.

I think you have to actually cancel and start that process. Ring up cancellations, no negotiation in the first call, say you're fed up and getting a much better deal from BT / Sky. You have a month to cancel that cancellation I think. That's when you have to hold your nerve and wait for the VM retentions team to give you a call.

 

[Audax]

We're on Virgin Media for t'internet as they are the only people who do fibre where we live at the moment and they convinced us that with 2 of us working from home pretty much full time with a soul-crushing amount of work on Zoom calls, and one here hammering Netflix on top of that through school holidays, we'd need a super fast connection.

We've come to the end of our 18 month deal and they've almost doubled the price, meaning our almost-bottom-of-the-range contract costs more than a new customer would get an almost-top-of-the-range contract, and they refuse to negotiate, saying new customers are a greater focus than retaining existing ones. I've had my mobile with them for about 9 years and that makes no difference to their position either (obviously I'm binning them off for that now too).

BT and Sky both tell us their 36mbps / minimum guaranteed 23mbps will be fine for our purposes and we'd save a load of money switching to them but I have no idea what any of this means. Does anyone know if this would be OK? Am I doomed to staying with Virgin until someone else does fibre here? Thanks

The BT / Sky options should be plenty enough with a decent router. Your scenario is fairly similar to mine - two of us WFH, both using Zoom / Teams for calls regularly, and on those days our boy doesn't have school and we can't arrange the MiL to care for him he spends a lot of time watching streamed TV. The min download we've been quoted is a little higher than yours (29mbps on a 36mbps package), but even so - the 23 will be more than enough, especially as you'll find that you'll get closer to the 36mbps most of the time. That 23mbps minimum they've quoted will be a reflection of what you can expect to get if everyone in you area who uses the same infrastructure were all hammering their connections at the same time. The reality is that should be rare.

Would also suggest you look at some other providers as well, you might be able to get BT or Sky to drop their prices further by obtaining quotes from elsewhere (eg Plusnet)

One thing I can't recommend enough is trying to plug in your devices via ethernet where possible or getting a decent router. Can make the world of difference.

People often confuse their internet speed with their wifi performance.

Absolutely this. I recently changed provider. With the old provider, my wifi would regularly drop out in my study (up stairs, other side of the house from the router. I recently switched to Plusnet and the new router they sent me has been a dream. No more wifi drop outs, far more consistent performance. Occasional blips, but they generally sort themselves out very quickly.

It might be worth asking BT and Sky what the contention ratio is. To explain - your line will go back to a green box in the street - that bit is yours alone. From that green box there will be circuits that go back to the local exchange. These circuits are shared with other households. So a contention ratio of 10:1 will mean you and nine other households share a circuit. So in theory, if everyone of those other nine do the same as you at the same time ( imagine when all the kids get home from school at 3 ! ) then you speed could reduce below the speeds quoted to you. Go for the provider with the lowest contention ratio - i.e. the fewest households sharing the circuit.

Not much point. The "minimum guaranteed speed" that broadband suppliers are now required to quote takes into account the contention issue (plus any other local considerations) and will be based on real data. Hence why the OP has been quoted 23mbps guaranteed vs the 29mbps I'm quoted, despite the top end speed of the line being the same at 36mbps.

 

[Springal]

Yeah agreed now you actually need to cancel and go through the 30 days where you’ll have to go back a few times to try and get a better deal.

For the OP have you been on ThinkBroadband and put in your phone / post code to see what options are out there ? There are some new providers and new connectivity types coming along all the time that you might not be aware of