UPC BROADBAND

airuser

UPC said half of homes in Ireland can now receive at least 200Mbps broadband speeds from the fibre provider

As quoted from Silicon Republic.

Would be interested if anyone has achieved the above speed. Is it constant?

Reason I ask is having read an article from the Internet Utility Company. Who supply units to users in order to monitor Internet stats in various counties including Ireland. Have suggested that usually the average speed of download is about 75% of the speed stated.

Over the years we have seen ISP's giving suggestions that one will receive "up to", a certain speed which is never achieved.

When challenged, then they put limiting factors as why this speed is not available.

I have a SamKnows box fitted and my average speed is 70% of promised. At one period of time I could not receive 35% over a period of hours on NGB.

Would be interested in comments, and the % actually received against suggested.

Yes, I know distant from Exchange and Cabinet comes into play.

As a point, I have a colleague who is 80 metres from a Cabinet 100M suggested and receives 42M. House and wiring 10/15 years old.

Paulw

The last time I tested it, on a 200mb line, I was getting 209mb. No complaints from me.

airuser

Paulw wrote: »

The last time I tested it, on a 200mb line, I was getting 209mb. No complaints from me.

Excellent.

Just looking at what has been said by UPC and the comment by SamKnows.

As I said in general the promised speed as against actual received.

Paulw

airuser wrote: »

As I said in general the promised speed as against actual received.

Oh I agree. Normally I find UPC speeds to be reliable and very good though, which is unusual in the industry.

ED E

UPC are providing services over high frequency cable, its a totally different ballgame. ADSL/VDSL are distance sensitive and thus are always up to, fixed wireless depends on line of sight as well as load, same for 3g/4g. UPCs nodes are always very close to the premises and that cables allow for much higher speeds than theyre currently providing so all users can pull 200mb easy. Check the samknows results threads for an example of what you get on 120/12.

Btw it sounds like your friend might be on wifi, you can't accurately speed test like that.

Spear

Working as advertised, if not a little better.

bk

DSL technologies like ADSL and VDSL as used by Eircom (and resold by Vodafone, Sky, etc.) are very dependent on how far your phone line is from the exchange or FTTC cabinet in the case of VDSL. The further away you are, the slower the speed you will get.

UPC cable is totally different, it uses Fibre to the node which is typically very close to you and then very high quality shielded coax cable that is capable of carrying more then x20 as much bandwidth as your typical old phone line.

For this reason, people normally get the full advertised speed of 200mb/s from UPC. It isn't variable like DSL.

However some warnings, the speed you get will obviously be effected by the server you are downloading from, rarely would a server give you the full 200mb/s on one file download.

Also wifi rarely would give you anywhere close to the full 200mb/s, less then 100mb/s over wifi would not be unusual. You should use wired ethernet to get the full 200mb/s. A high quality 802.11n router operating at 5Ghz or even better a new 802.11ac router plus a ac capable laptop might get you close to 200mb/s

Also sometimes the speeds you receive can be effected by congestion in your ISPs networks or their international backhaul, that might give you slower speeds. Over the years we have heard issues like that with all the major ISPs, though in fairness they have all resolved those issues eventually and UPC has a particularly good track record in this regard.

I'll also say that things are also greatly improving at Eircom with VDSL. In the past, with ADSL2+ while it was sold as upto 24mb/s, no one actually ever got that speed, much less was the norm and you never really knew what you would get before signing up.

VDSL seems to be a great improvement. While it is sold as upto 100mb/s, many people can actually get that speed (my parents included) and also they can pretty accurately tell you what speed you will get before you sign up. So VDSL beyond obviously being faster, is also much more reliable and transparent.

bk

Interestingly in this article, UPC say that they now pass 850,000 premises with their 200mb/s broadband product and that this represents 50% of all homes.

Now that is slightly arguable, Eircom seem to think there are 2 million premises in Ireland, that would put UPC at 42% of premises. Either way that is still a great deal of premises and is about a 100,000 premises jump from the number passed by UPC last year.

I wonder has UPC now upgraded all areas to DOCSIS 3.0 and thus account for the extra 100,000 homes or have they actually been expanding their network coverage quietly?

colm_mcm

Places like Charlesland and Balbriggan were upgraded recently (well, this year) anyway.

pm.

Im on the 200mb and find the speeds fluctuate quite a bitI. if I reset the Hoizon box I will get full speed

Damien360

pm. wrote: »

Im on the 200mb and find the speeds fluctuate quite a bitI. if I reset the Hoizon box I will get full speed

That is why I still have reliable 50mb. They said I had to take the horizon box to get higher speeds. I have read here often enough about how poor the horizon box is.

Currently sitting on fence waiting to see ESB/Vodafone prices and speeds. I could get eircom fibre but I dread dealing with them again and price difference is not enough for me to jump.

If the esb venture works it could be a game changer for UPC.

Morf

I have 120 and 10 and get about 10% extra and generally always have before upgrades with UPC.

No complaints.

gillovespandas

Are there any upc reps on this anymore. I think upc capped my speed. Im only getting 100mb (wired or wireless) but i logged into myupc today and im still paying for the 200mb package. They can get the boat if they think im paying for 100mb less than my package states. Its strange though upload speed is still 20mb and steady.

Ken.

gillovespandas wrote: »

Are there any upc reps on this anymore. I think upc capped my speed. Im only getting 100mb (wired or wireless) but i logged into myupc today and im still paying for the 200mb package. They can get the boat if they think im paying for 100mb less than my package states. Its strange though upload speed is still 20mb and steady.

There is a UPC forum here http://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1546

AlanS181824

I was checking addresses there randomly just to check up on UPC's claims of increased coverage.

Does seem to be better but I typed in my own address and it now says I can't get UPC at all!

I had it a few years ago and I can actually pick up UPC WiFi from where I am right now!

I'm in a contract with Vodafone regardless but this seems a bit weird surely?

Paulw

Paulw wrote: »

The last time I tested it, on a 200mb line, I was getting 209mb. No complaints from me.

Same as this.

killbillvol2

That was just now and it's very consistent. The wifi from the Horizon box is poor so I just disabled it and use a good router. I get up to 160 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up on wifi even on my phone.

wush06

killbillvol2 wrote: »

That was just now and it's very consistent. The wifi from the Horizon box is poor so I just disabled it and use a good router. I get up to 160 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up on wifi even on my phone.

Hey what router did you get and do you have a link for it.

Thanks

killbillvol2

wush06 wrote: »

Hey what router did you get and do you have a link for it.

Thanks

I got a TP-Link Archer C2 AC750 from Amazon. It was about £45. The 1750 is about double the price and is a real beast. I just didn't need that spec.

pm.

killbillvol2 wrote: »

That was just now and it's very consistent. The wifi from the Horizon box is poor so I just disabled it and use a good router. I get up to 160 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up on wifi even on my phone.

Really :eek: I taught the fastest wifi depended on the software on a laptop ? the best i get is 85mps on wireless with my laptop and 40 on my phone ( htc one m8 ) i could be very tempted.....

killbillvol2

pm. wrote: »

Really :eek: I taught the fastest wifi depended on the software on a laptop ? the best i get is 85mps on wireless with my laptop and 40 on my phone ( htc one m8 ) i could be very tempted.....

It would depend on a lot of things, including the network card on your laptop. You'd need to check what your laptop supports.

85 Mbps was about the fastest I ever got over wireless with the Horizon box, usually 45-50. Now I get between 100-150 on the laptop and between 100-160 on the phone (HTC One M7). Best on the phone was 169 down and 20 up. That's using the 5 Ghz Wifi so little or no interference.

Hank Scorpio

How are the ping times on UPC? For example to multiplay.co.uk or eu1.raxxy.com . Have fastpath on my adsl line and not a big downloader but considering switching

Spear

nuxxx wrote: »

How are the ping times on UPC? For example to multiplay.co.uk or eu1.raxxy.com . Have fastpath on my adsl line and not a big downloader but considering switching

Pinging eu1.raxxy.com [91.121.211.226] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 91.121.211.226: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=47
Reply from 91.121.211.226: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=47
Reply from 91.121.211.226: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=47
Reply from 91.121.211.226: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=47

Ping statistics for 91.121.211.226:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 41ms, Average = 39ms

Pinging multiplay.co.uk [85.236.96.26] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 85.236.96.26: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=52
Reply from 85.236.96.26: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=52
Reply from 85.236.96.26: bytes=32 time=48ms TTL=52
Reply from 85.236.96.26: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 85.236.96.26:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 48ms, Average = 23ms

wush06

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I got a TP-Link Archer C2 AC750 from Amazon. It was about £45. The 1750 is about double the price and is a real beast. I just didn't need that spec.

Hey have this router about a week now set up was straight forward. On the 5hz with my iPhone 6 I'm getting the full 200Mb that upc offers really impressed with that. The rest of the family seem happy on the 2.4ghz downstairs, the gigabit ports are also great again the full 200Mb from upc.

But that's where it ends for me the wifi range on this is worse then my Horizon box yes worse I live in a standard 3 bed house and keep losing the 5hz upstairs.
The 2.4 makes it but just very slow to load and that just upstairs. The main reason I got this so I could knock off the horizon wifi but it just has not work out for me. I have set up a return for Amazon to send back.
So I am still on the look out for a new router if anybody else can recommend one with the same specs.

Thanks