Not achieving promised speeds

[Jotts]

Now had the Gigafast fibre broadband and Booster for 3 months and despite the online Sky checker claim of 900mb with minimum of 650mb (bit of a gap there) I am still only getting less than 200mb at best according to a couple of speed check apps and the PS5 speed checker.

i have removed all but a single appliance, my Apple TV and connected via powerline and WiFi but the speeds are the same.

Is this normal, or do I need an engineer to call ?

[Ryan+H]

Have you connected directly to the Sky Hub without using WiFi or powerline? That will give you an accurate result. 

when testing over WiFi, you're testing over the weakest point of your network as various factors can impact the results. This is the same with powerline adapters as this depends on the quality of your electrical wiring and the AV rating too.

[Jotts]

It's not possible to connect direct by Ethernet as I don't have any devices close enough to my router.

The wiring is good and recent so shouldn't be an issue with power line.

sky didn't change my router when I upgraded but does plug into the fibre socket as directed so I wonder if that's the issue. It was sent to us around 3yrs ago. 

[Ryan+H]

a router wouldn't slow down the speeds of your powerline adapter.

Without testing directly, you're going to find it difficult to prove you're not achieving the speeds 

the router is more than capable of delivering, but Ethernet would provide you with the most accurate result 

[jamesn123]

@Jotts 

You wont achieve 900mbps over WiFi with the standard Sky router its just not good enough hardware. You may get there with the Sky Max router, otherwise you'd be looking at 3rd party routers.

As for your powerline, no matter how good your wiring is it'll likely never get over a few hundred mbps this is just a limitation of powerline technology. 

Sky will only honour an engineer visit if you can prove you are not getting the speeds via direct ethernet. 

[Jotts]

Thanks for the reply, it's disappointing that they don't mention all this when we are about to agree the contract or maybe they do in the small print no one reads.

I guess it's a bit of a faff getting the better router from Sky ?

[TimmyBGood]

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@Jotts wrote:

I guess it's a bit of a faff getting the better router from Sky ?

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No: it just involves adding the WiFi Max add-on to the subscription, at between £7 and £10 pcm.

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/sky-wifi-max 

Note that Max is not currently compatible with Sky Q television and Sky won't supply it to Q households.

You're still unlikely to get 900Mbs everywhere over WiFi, and frankly it's difficult to imagine an actual need for that.

[jamesn123]

@Jotts 

Sky like every single other ISP headline their products with the maximum available speed via ethernet. Then in the small print will state this speed may not be fully achieved via WiFi. This is just a limitation of the technology behind WiFi. 

The idea of the Sky gigafast product is to provide many devices with UHD streaming speeds, it is not designed to provide a single WiFi client with 900-1000mbps. Its difficult to imagine a scenario where these kinds of speeds to a single client are required other than downloading large games to a gaming device which ideally should be connected via ethernet anyway. 

[Jotts]

I've had issues with Sky broadband for years and had visits checks etc when they claimed I'd get 60mb but I only ever got low 20's it's just the way they market the product like all the others. When they fitted fibre this summer they found an issue with the cable outside under the pavement that previous engineers had never really considered but did contribute to my connection issues. This was repaired before the latest fibre went live.

of course I'll never need 900mb but why do they advertise then and always try and upsell as I'm sure I could have been happen with the 500mb version.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Jotts wrote:

of course I'll never need 900mb but why do they advertise then and always try and upsell

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Presumably to gain a slight increase in profit margin.

BT regularly offers me their 900Mbs FTTP for £1 per month more than the 500Mbs I have now (which would also trigger the start of a new minimum term)

[mae-3]

@Jotts 

The service is a headline maximum for multiple devices using the connection concurrently, it is not a figure for the maximum achievable from a single service/website which most sites cannot handle.

[jamesn123]

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@Jotts wrote:

of course I'll never need 900mb but why do they advertise then and always try and upsell as I'm sure I could have been happen with the 500mb version.

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Some people may want/need 900mbps if they have a very busy household using Sky Glass, Sky Stream & multiple people downloading/streaming. But again these speeds are obtained via ethernet not WiFi. 

Yes you could well have been fine with the 500mbps version but Sky are a business like all other ISPs so they will obviously try and push the higher package on you. At the end of the day its your choice what you choose to pay for though. 

[Jotts]

And that's the issue for the vast majority of users, we will always go for the biggest or brightest on offer as we are human but Sky and all the providers need to be a bit more honest as what you have said highlights the fact that most of us just aren't tech savvy enough to understand what they are doing.

[jamesn123]

@Jotts 

Although ISPs could market things better thats not really an excuse. You are quite capable of doing your own research and the internet has all the information you need.

[Jotts]

You have kinda answered my question in this reply, as Sky can always fallback on that excuse when in reality they don't want you to read the detail but simply go for the big bright headline claims.