I’m debating between to comparably priced ISPs, both of which boast UP TO 5 megabits per second. I’ve asked about ISP speeds on here beforehand, and gotten an idea of how much speed I actually need. It’s changed since I signed up for Netflix Canada.
Here’s my problem. Speedtest.net clocks my current download speed at 1.25 megabits. It’s never been higher than 1.5 from any test that I’ve done. I’m not sure if this is a legal question as such, but is there any reasonable expectation of a speed floor? If I’m sold internet that’s “Up to 5 mbps,” that could mean anything from 5 megabits to dial-up speeds.
Has anyone had experience with such an annoyance/problem?
Contact the providers and ask is they specify any minimum bandwidth levels in their contracts. Some do define such minimum service levels.
Most ISPs providing residential services quote a maximum bandwidth because they have no way of guaranteeing line quality. Actual available bandwidth for these services can depend on many factors, a number of which may be outside of the ISP’s control.
Depends what your current service is capped at. If you are paying for 1.5mb you may get much faster because you may be able to run at 8mb on ADSL. But if you are not capped and you are getting that speed on a faster service then that is all you will get. I should add I am in that very position. Due to a crappy exchange that I am very far from an upgrade would not assist me in getting quicker downloads.
Yup, we switched ISP’s at my shop because we could not get a faster connection from our then provider AT&T. We had service that was supposed to be 1.5-3Mb and it hovered right about 1.6-1.8 all the time, never cracked 2 even late at night.
Shitty Bell Sympatico resaler, actually (since I’m Canadian). The current ISP is a non for profit that’s given me free dial-up and a free pop3 e-mail for ages, though, so unless I can see guarantees that the internet will be faster, I’m inclined not to switch.
Internet in Canada, I should add, seems grossly overpriced compared to what my American friends pay.
If it’s consumer class, you’re kind of stuck with what you get in most cases. If you’re a business class customer (or could justify calling yourself enterprise class - doesn’t sound llike it) you could demand SLAs such as “minumum x-level bandwidth during normal business hours; any degradation lasting more than 3 hours results in a penalty for the provider.”
But, again, if it’s home use… blech… these guys don’t care about you, me, or anyone else.
And this is why I don’t get to watch NY Giants games. [insert rant]
If your current ISP is NCF on their 5mbit package, which is my guess since it’s the only non-profit there then you’re probably screwed. Either it’s the copper in your house or you live in one of the many areas of Ottawa with terrible infrastructure. South McCarthy is bad. Experimental farm is bad. Most of Nepean is bad. Minto-built Barrhaven is bad. I don’t know about the others.
If I was back in Ottawa, I’d go for cable. Everything is Bell’s line, so everyone is now under the UBB pricing they impose. A company called Teksavvy was going to resell Rogers’ lines at a good price, but their summer roll out got delayed and I’ve no idea what the progress on that is.
I’m near Carleton, but you may be on to something. Roger’s is far better, I agree. That’s what I personally have. However, this line is for my grandparents (grandpa watches streaming video from back home, and I got them netflix), so I’ve been going on the cheap with the DSL for the past few years. I may give up and try cable, though, or see what’s the big deal with Bell’s new Fiber Optic watchajiggy. Or tell the g-rents to suck it up and enjoy their laggy videos.
This is true in any and all advertising contexts. “Up to” is one of the ultimate meaningless bullshit claims, up there with “contains X” and “lifetime warranty”.
(Though in the latter case, it’s usually not a complete sham. It’s just that nobody in the history on mankind has ever not lost the proof of purchase and they know it)
