Strange Download Performance Issue - FTTP

[Aurynfire]

I have noticed over the two weeks that my connection is exhibiting strange issues when it comes to speed

Basically when I start downloading anything for approximately 1 to 3 seconds the speed of the download will cap at 150Mb but then it will start going to full speed ( im on the 900mb package ).  The upload speed however does not experience this issue at all however and almost instantly tops out at its maximum speed.  I have tried everything I can think of to rule out if its my equipment including:

• Trying mutiple ethernet cables ( swapping out at all connection points )
• Trying downloading using wifi ( with the same results )
• Trying another router ( TP Link )
• Resetting Sky Router to default settings ( 7.02.0501.R firmware )
• Trying multiple network cards ( I have 2 PCI-E cards and of course my onboard LAN )
• Using alternative extension cables for power ( Incase faulty )
• Re-installing Windows 11 on my PC with fresh installs of all drivers
• Inspected cabling outside of house ( no visible damage )

The issue continues to happen if I use the wifi connection on my phone and of course if I use the built in wifi connection on my motherboard but the issue remains.  I've basically run out of things to try and the problem persists.  I will say that this problem has only reared its head in the last 1-2 weeks or so and before then the connection was absolutely perfect so its definitely a recent occurance.  The issue is also consistent so whatever is causing the delay it is happening basically the entirety of the the day

Anyway I am out of things to try and I do not think its something I can complain to Sky about until I have an idea of what the problem is as I am still getting the full speed of the connection despite the delay.  It's just an incredibly annoying issue for a line thats been absolutely perfect from the date of install

Any suggestions are welcome 😄

[Addie15]

Hi there, I’ve escalated your post to our Community Messaging team who will invite you to a private chat shortly and help you with this.  

Just look out for the blue bubble to start the conversation.

Here's more information on how Community Messaging works - https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147 

[jamesn123]

@Aurynfire 

I doubt Sky will get involved at all because your connection is still technically working fine if it only takes a few seconds to get to full speed. 

[Mr+Flibbles+86]

Update – Thanks for chatting to us. Unfortunately, there was no further response on the chat in 48 hours, we are still waiting to help you. If you need our support let us know and we can re-escalate to our chat team. Your chat has been closed now. Thanks

[Aurynfire]

Is it possible BT Openreach may be throttling my connection?

Thats the only other thing I can think of because the upload speed is completely unaffected

[mae-3]

@Aurynfire 

Sky or BT Openreach don't throttle speeds but Sky does occasionally suffer from congestion.

[Aurynfire]

That's true, ah well 😄

[Aurynfire]

It's been a while now and the issue has persisted.  I basically tried everything to no avail so I came to the conclusion that it has to be something due to the upgrades sky has been making to its network.  It's either that or its a local congestion issue so its outside of my control.  I still get the full speed of the line which is great, its just the 3-4 second delay where it wont go over 170mbps thats annoying.  Upload speed is completely unaffected by the way 😄

[Aurynfire]

Update:

Had a friend in the same street who's switched recently from BT to Sky and now he's told me he's having the same issue as I experienced ( same issue didn't exist on when he was with BT for his FTTP ) which strikes me as incredibly strange.  At this point I know whatever is causing it is clearly way out of our control so ....yeah

[Anonymous]

The only thing that I can think of that you haven't tried is using a VPN. You'll lose a little speed from the top end but if it's consistent throughout then that would indicate that the issue is at Sky's end and not yours?

[Aurynfire]

I have tried PIA and NordVPN and the issue persists.  Now I do know that Sky took the gigafast product off sale a while back 

A Sky Broadband spokesperson said:

“Providing a fast and reliable service is our number one priority. We are currently optimising our network and have temporarily paused new sales of Sky Broadband Gigafast while we do this. Existing Sky Broadband Gigafast customers are not impacted.”

Now they did bring it back of course but I am assuming that the problem I and others are seeing is likely a measure likely put in place by Sky to balance out the load on their backhaul which means youll only get the full speed of the product once a sustained download is detected otherwise it will limit the download speed to 150mbps.  Upload speed is completely unaffected by this issue and its max upload speed is given instantly 

[Chrisee]

@Aurynfire do you see the issue with specific sites or is it general?. Many popular servers do limit bandwidth per client so more clients can connect at the time.

[Aurynfire]

Mostly with speed tests and I also know when downloading from battle.net or steam and sites such as Guru3D and techpowerup.  All show the same behavior as the download starts at 170mbps speeds for a short amount of time aka 3 to 4 seconds before going to much faster speeds.  It's not a problem I had when I originally had the ONT installed and both the FTTP based packages I had gave their full speed instantly for months.  Basically before feb of this year the problem did not happen!

[Chrisee · Accepted solution]

@Aurynfire while contention is possible with Openreach's fibre set up - your friend in the street will be sharing the same backhaul fibre link to the exchange if their line is run from the same distribution point as yours but while theoretically its possible that up to 30 lines maybe sharing a 2.5Gb/s connection it is incredibly unlikely statistically and any effect would vary across the day.in practice very few if any customers use more than 100Mb/s continually.

Speedtests are the equivelant of taking your car to a track to see how fast it can go they tell you little about day to day performance on the road. So while they are useful for diagnostics dont rely on them. There are issues in your device that can affect the rate of downloads and of course the  rate controls server owners impose - few servers in my experience allow unthrottled connections but I dont have experience of the services you mention.

Sky certainly dont "throttle" connections but you can get bottlenecks but if your neighbour is having similar issues sith BT whose backhaul from the exchange is completly separate then that can probably be discounted.