Sky Broadband Ultrafast 1 throttled at 38.2Mb/s

[mg80]

Has anyone else experienced download speed being throttled by Sky?

For the last year I have had 148Mb/s consistently. Since Tuesday 3rd September it has been capped at 38.2Mb/s. I do not understand why because sync rate is excellent:

DownStream Connection Speed 159,828
UpStream Connection Speed 29,991

Sky online test results in this:

Your broadband's up and running again. Our tests have found the speed to your hub is lower than it was before, but it's still above the speed we guaranteed you when you got your broadband.

So they will not send an engineer or do anything about it!

I am certain the Sky Broadband Ultrafast 1 guarantee was 100Mb/s when I signed up. 

Due to high sync rate, I am inclined to think this is an intentional action by Sky. Another reason I think this is the case is because it happened after downloading 150GB wukong game and a bunch of big updates. 

Do Sky intentionally cap or throttle heavy usage?

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm particularly interested in the "guarantee" changing.

[TimmyBGood]

@mg80 

Ultrafast 1 has a guarantee of 100Mbs: I suspect in your case the message is an automated one referring to the current average.

If yours is Ultrafast 1 over copper (G.fast) rather that optical (FTTP) then a speed drop is most likely to be a fault in the metallic portion circuit.

[mg80]

Thanks for speedy response.

It is G.fast. Wouldn't the "DownStream Connection Speed" drop to accomodate this?

Do you know if Sky / Openreach fix this kind of fault? Or is it permanent?

Massive drop. Not worth paying for Ultrafast.

[TimmyBGood]

@mg80 

Once the running average goes below 100Mbs, Sky certainly should be prepared to book Openreach to investigate the circuit.

Ultimately G.fast is being replaced with FTTP, though.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/06/openreach-update-on-closure-of-g-fast-cabinets-in-uk-f... 

[TimmyBGood]

@mg80 

Just one other thought: you haven't deployed any Powerline networking adapters in the timeframe of the speed drop?  There's a known problematic interaction between those and G.fast

[mg80]

Good news! Speed has returned to normal today.

It remains a mystery as to the cause.

Thanks for your help @TimmyBGood 

[mg80]

I spoke too soon. Back down to 38.2Mbps for last couple of days according to Sky's help page.

Even slower by my testing (typically only 9Mbps down, 27Mbps up)

Powerline adapter causing it was a good suggestion, but I dont have any of those.

I still dont really understand why sync rate remains the same and so does upload speed.

Any other ideas?

[cookiemonsteruk]

@TimmyBGood 

Is it me or does that new discussion button look out of place?

[cookiemonsteruk]

@TimmyBGood 

Its gone now 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@TimmyBGood 

Its back . I think i'm going mad

[mg80]

I had an Openreach engineer here to investigate and he concluded it is a Sky fault causing data speeds to drop to 38.2 for no reason. He reset the line and it jumped back to 148 again.

He is unsure if this is a permanent fix. But he did say it is only affecting Sky customers, so this is clearly a Sky fault.

I am very angry it took over 2 weeks to get an engineer to look into this. Sky was pathetic and kept insisting it was my WiFi. Terrible experience.

For anyone else reading this, if your “DownStream Connection Speed” is still high and online speed test or Sky service checker has a significantly lower speed, your line needs to be reset. The engineer also said this is something that Sky should be able to fix their end and it should not require an Openreach engineer.