Sky throttling download speeds...

[Lofty789]

I've had stable connection and 78mb download speed for several years. I resubscribed in August and since then I've had poor speeds. I now get 56mb which is slightly above my min guarantee of 54mb.

Open reach came out this week and checked the wiring out of the duct into the house. Changed the twisted pair in the ducting in the pavement and moved my port in the Cab. All with the same result, no issues anywhere. The line is capable of 78mb, but Sky are throttling to the min speed guarantee via the DSLAM in the Cabinet. Any Sky subscriber connected into that Cab will be on the reduced min speed service.

This does feel like I've been mis sold or mis lead via their advertising whe they state a speed 'range', when in effect you will only get the minimum because of throttling. 

Why are Sky doing this? Do they have congestion further upstream and are having to limit customers connection to the minimum thresholds to maintain everyone's guarantee? As soon as my contract is up I'll be off  - Zzoom Zzoom all way! 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Lofty789 

Can you post your hub stats

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/How-to-find-your-Sky-Broadband-router-stats/m-p/2855717#M1014...

Also enter your full postal address below and post the table after removing your address from the image

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

[Lofty789]

I'll post router stats when I back home and plugged Sky's crapware back in 🙂

[1topgazza]

My speed has gradually reduce from 65Mbs two years ago to 52.5Mbs which is just below the minimum. KInd of stupid of them to throttle, if indeed they are, to a speed that has meant I have had two months free and I can leave anytime without penalty. But I suspect they are. Openreach guy came out a couple of months ago with a Sky engineer. Both were excellent and the Sky eng rewired and fitted a new socket inside the house. Openreach guy remade the connections at the box and at the cabinet but no improvement.

Sky eng left and the Openreach engineer went back to the cabinet and ran some speed tests. He said that I could get 70Mbs minimum on my line but he couldnt  tell why I'm not. He was quite diplomatic........I would point out that my exchange is unbundled so Sky have their own kit in there which of course gives them control.

So I do believe Sky "manage" speeds probably due  to an overtaxed DSLAM and thats cheaper than getting Openrach to upgrade the cabinet. Broadband checker show 80Mbs with a minimum of 62Mbs !

But thats all supposition and Sky actually go very coy when I ask them direct. 

[Chrisee]

@1topgazza sorry you were fed a line Sky have no control over the DSLAMs the engineer was likely to be trying to shift reponsibility for an issue to which there is not a simple fix. If you post your hub's stats a forum member should be able to see what is happening. See Find your Sky Broadband router statistics

Openreach own and operate the DSLAMs which control line speeds automatically dependant on.line length and condition to maintain a stable connection. The high frequency VDSL signals FTTc services use suffer from crosstalk and speeds do tend the drop,as more  lines are sold. If Openreach cannot deliver the minmum guaranteed speed to the hub Sky will release you from contract enabling you to go elswhere but any other isp using thst line will be in the same position as they all resell the same Openreach service.

Sky could throttle speeds but to do so they would have to do so on the kit in their network and simply put there is zero evidence they do this intentionally on Superfast connections. There are issues with throughput on the Sky's Gigabit and Ultrafast + services in some areas and Sky have stopped selling new Gigabit connections while presumably they increase network capacity. The independent sites thst monitor isps are not reporting issues with Sky's Superfast FTTC service. 

[Mr+Slant]

Its normal (if annoying) that VDSL2 (FTTC) sync speeds in the UK may drop over time.

The simple reason why is crosstalk - basically your phone line is in a big "bundle" of cables (usually at least 64, sometimes several hundred) and there is electrical interference between cable pairs. The higher the frequency, the more likely there will be interference as each pair will effectively "broadcast" RF (that's how radio works).

As time goes by, more people get VDSL2 (FTTC) so the likelihood of having two cable runs using VDSL2 side by side for a significant distance increases. When this happens the maximum achievable sync rates will drop. No conspiracy theories necessary.

The real problem is that BT bought cheap (arguably garbage) VDSL2 equipment in the first place, much of which isn't capable of what is called vectoring. This means that the FTTC speeds delivered in the UK are, on average, the slowest anywhere in Europe - up to 50% slower than in many other countries (including ones people may consider "less developed").

tl;dr nothing to do with any ISP "throttling" anything, just the infrastructure/equipment the service is delivered with. Only going to get worse on FTTC over time.

Edit - in a previous house I was the very first connection on the VDSL2 cabinet. I had max achievable sync rates of 130Mbps down and 40Mbps up (although limited to 80/20 as are all VDSL2 speeds delivered by BT). 8 years later when I left the property the line was only capable of 65Mbps down and 28Mbps up without the use of g.INP - which just about got it back to 80/20 sync rates. Nothing changed except more people on the street switched from Virgin cable to VDSL2.

[1topgazza]

Thanks both.

Despite my cynisism earlier I do agree with you both. Where I live has grown. Conversly we used to get 12Mbs with the old copper line as oppossed to the 7Mbs we were told we would get. Maybe a coincidence but happened around the time Sky unbundling the exchange as that was when the speed improved. But at the moment my speed is a stable 52Mbs. Until I or the OP gets FTTP I gues we are stuck as there is no way BT are going to spend tens of thousands upgrading "old" technology.

Only hope is a couple of companies have carried out underground surveys and have written to everyone saying fibre to our premises is coming. One of them was Trooli the other was Hyperoptic. Not sure if they put multiple fibre in or share

[Eeeps]

Of course, as people move away from VDSL to FTTP then the crosstalk problem with reduce.

So in areas where FTTP is available then customers who stay with VDSL could start to see their sync rates improve.

My line has a download sync of 79999 with a SNR headroom of 3.3dB (6dB typical allowed minimum giving the actual margin recorded by the hub as 9.3dB).

When I originally got VDSL 5 years ago my margin was 19dB (on a 150m line).

The cabinet has been doubly expanded since then - 'carbuncles' on both the original FTTC(96) cabinet and on the PCP.

@OP, definitely worth seeing your line stats to determine where the problem lies.

[1topgazza]

Hope the OP doesnt mind as he hasnt posted for a while and this is a shared problem

My stats

I note the WAN staus says MER.....

Just had a chat with Sky and they agree its not good and that they are in the hands of BT. Which makes me wonder what the benefit is of unbundling the exchange. But thats a different thread

[Mr+Slant]

LLU (local loop unbundling) is only relevant for ADSL services, it has nothing to do with VDSL or FTTP.

[1topgazza]

That clears the unbundled 'issue" so big thanks for that. I did wonder

Looking at my stats and I suspect this applies to many Sky customers getting better broadband speeds by switching is probably pointless. Its the same infrastructure. You could set up a mesh as an AP with Sky of course. If WiFI coverage is the problem ?

Only benefit of switching would be the ability to use your own router and whatever mesh system you like as  WiFi mesh. Better to wait for FTTP

[Eeeps]

---

@Mr+Slant wrote:

LLU (local loop unbundling) is only relevant for ADSL services, it has nothing to do with VDSL or FTTP.

---

What happens if my telephone service is from Sky using POTS with an associated VDSL provision? Does that not still use LLU at the exchange?

The other question (as in my case), when telephone services are provided by the hub, does the line still get -50V from somewhere?

[Mr+Slant]

The voice component will go via the MSAN in the exchange (ie it'll use the MDF and LLU infrastucture). The VDSL component won't, it'll go via a GEA link to Sky's backhaul/core network.

Edit - and no there will be no 50Vdc if the hub provides the phone connection. The 50Vdc is from a battery at the exchange and is from BT equipment not Sky. That's why if there's a power cut you won't have a phone service on FTTP unless you have a UPS or similar to power up the hub/ONT.

[Chrisee]

@1topgazza the term MER is the way the Sky hub reports the type of connection for historic reasons Sky use thst for their DHCPv4 Option61 system rather than the more common PPOE. 

Your line is definitely under performing against the database estimate. This does happen from time to time the noise margin of 6.2dB is higher than what you would hope for which is closer to 3dB. However if the line cannot maintain a stable connection with a lower margin and Openreach cannot improve things you are effectively stuck.

Unfortunately the theory that as people migrate to FTTP FTTC speeds will improve misses one important issue namely as the roads served by the FTTC cabinets have fibre installed Openreach start to refuse orders for any copper line services as they plan to decommission the copper infrastructure totally. The number of FTTP priority exchanges are increasing rapidly.

There maybe a short term speed gain but customers are better advised to move to FTTP when they can - you can order the standard 80/20 Superfast over FTTP if that is all you need - as you then get the speed you buy with a more reliable connection with lower latency. My own connection was switched last week and the improvement is noticeable.

[1topgazza]

Thanks Chrisee

The Openreach engineer "suggested" the same but said there wasnt anything he could do about it. Shame is I am only 150 yards from the cabinet. So , yes, I'll wait for FTTP which I should be getting next year