Gigafast poor speed

[Chrisee]

@SmegPoison you got a truthful rep very few people can use Gigabit bandwidth unless you have a huge number of people in your home all using bandwidth at once in which case they will have major issues if using a Sky hub as that will not be able to cope!.

Very few apps can use more than 100Mb/s. Streaming UHD video sport is one of the most bandwidth hungry activities and that tops out around 30Mb/s. If you want to download large files like game updates  the limiting factor is likely to be set by the server. Fibre has other advantages though such as lower latency and jitter not to mention better reliability, there is far more to high quality link than bandwidth.

Its like paying to have the top speed of your Porsche delimited from 155mph to 190mph great for boasting down the pub but essentially money down the drain for regular use.

[Xtattsbox]

Decided to jump over to TalkTalk.  Their Full Fibre 900 bundle includes 2 x eero pro 6 routers.  They are not the greatest, but they will be much better than Sky's hub and Back Haul using Wifi 6.  I will need to buy some other bits, bascially to plug the Sky Q and Sky Q mini hubs into to.   Just need to find the service codes to default to wired connection.

Gigabit broadband may be an extravagence today.  I remember the first time I saw an 8meg connection and was blown away by the speed.  I recall upgrading from 10mbs networks to 100mbs and now Gigabit.  Ever tried using a mobile phone on Edge or 3G?   The truth is that as broadband speed increases more information will be able to be transmitted and it will be.  Devices will become more data hungry as bandwidths increase.  Gigabit will bascially become essential in order for these devices to work efficiently.

[Bpearce01]

My friends with another provider and gets 700-900mbps downloading games on xbox/PlayStation.

Mine never go's over 220. Hardwired and only thing connected. Don't know what I'm paying for tbh.

[Xtattsbox]

That's not right at all.  If I plug into the router I get 800-900 with no issues.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Xtattsbox wrote:

 The truth is that as broadband speed increases more information will be able to be transmitted and it will be.  Devices will become more data hungry as bandwidths increase.  Gigabit will bascially become essential in order for these devices to work efficiently.

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I'd suggest that's not likely to be the case in practice though: the only convincing scenario which absolutely requires a doubling of bandwidth to an individual client device would be a jump from 4K to 8K streaming to screens of that resolution (assuming this ever happens).

More realistically where Ultrafast Plus / Gigabit becomes 'essential' is when moderately hungry devices proliferate at a single subscriber address: running the full possible complement of Sky Glass devices in UHD resolution would happily eat 200+ Mbs, for example

[Xtattsbox]

I will agree that today you are looking at UHD streaming on multiple devices to necessitate Gigabit broadband.  

That will change.  As the speed that information can be uploaded and downloaded "instantly" the type of information can become more complex.  The "internet of things" will become greater.  The devices that we can integrate with and the level of that integration will increase.  Devices can become smaller as the processing power can be (and is already) done elsewhere.  The level of that can increase.

8K TV will happen of that there is no doubt.  There is more than that, as your download speeds increase the need to compress data reduces.  Images can be transmitted as raw files, sound would not need to be compressed improving the experience.

We shall see 🙂

[TimmyBGood]

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@Xtattsbox wrote:

8K TV will happen of that there is no doubt. 
 

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Probably, but I'm not convinced such televisions will be eating native 8K content any time soon: the most likely scenario in the near future is local upscaling of UHD/HD to fill an 8K panel.  Beyond UHD the size of data files and associated workflow issues for production companies remain a significant challenge with no convincing financial benefit.

[Bpearce01]

Spoke to support on the phone.

They reckon the sky hub isn't capable of reaching the speeds and advised me to buy another router.

Seems silly to sell a package which includes a router than cant handle the services advertised. 

[Xtattsbox]

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@Bpearce01 wrote:

Spoke to support on the phone.

They reckon the sky hub isn't capable of reaching the speeds and advised me to buy another router.

Seems silly to sell a package which includes a router than cant handle the services advertised. 

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 That's why I have joined TalkTalk.  Sky use MER Authentication which means you are limited on the routers that you can just plug in and go.  It's been said on numerous occasions the Sky hub is at best poor.

[Bpearce01]

I'm going to grab another router in the new year, any advice on how to know if it will be compatible?

[Xtattsbox]

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@Bpearce01 wrote:

I'm going to grab another router in the new year, any advice on how to know if it will be compatible?

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Have a search for MER Option 61 compatible routers on this forum.  There is a list somewhere.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Bpearce01 wrote:

Seems silly to sell a package which includes a router than cant handle the services advertised. 

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Neither Sky or BT currently has a WiFi6/WPA3 router model to properly match their Ultrafast Plus / Gigafast FTTP offerings: such hardware has undoubtedly been on their roadmaps for at least a couple of years but the silicon component availability crunch and (post)Covid manufacturing capacity issues have severly impacted their ability to source literally millions of such devices.

[The+Hill]

I have gigafast and it's been a nightmare. Reported many times, 3 engineer visits, multiple support calls with each rep telling me different things are wrong. Contract says guaranteed 600mps download but lucky to get half that on a good day. Open complaint with sky but they really don't care. Just been notified of a price uplift mid contract and am now pricing other providers. Avoid sky gigafast at all costs, not worth it.

[AndyD15670]

Exactly same happening to me and best speed test has been around 560mpbs and yet I was getting 500+ with every test on ultrafast...even seems slower downloading from Xbox etc 😞

[Chrisee]

@AndyD15670 this thread is out of date . Sky launched their Wifi Max package last week which has a wifi6 router which can be used with up to 3 wifi 6 pods which currently costs £7.50 a month (full price £10 per month) 

Bring discussed here