Throttled

No, dear reader. Despite the fact there are a lot of you hoping, wishing or praying that I have been strangled, or that you have the opportunity to do so, I'm afraid you'll have to take your darkest desires elsewhere. This annoying git is alive and kicking, so to speak.

This is NOT going to be very interesting to many of you, and despite the fact some of you will carry on reading in a hope I end up throttled, you will be sadly mistaken and let down.

For the technical/geekery minded of you still reading (as, being smart, you know what I meant from the very title of the post) this is more on ISPs throttling your service. For those not sure what I mean yet are still reading, throttling is when - usually during "peak hours" your Internet Service Provider (ISP) cut your internet speeds right down so "everyone has access to the internet fairly" or some such nonsense.

Now, a while back, I posted about how bad our throttling had become. Now, I know some of you living out in the boonies or Oop Norf in places have slow speeds in general, but for us Southerners, living within talking distance of our neighbours, we have - or should have - decent speeds.

We are with Orange, and up until last year, we had no real issue with our Broadband speeds. However, upon upgrading our service with them, it went pear-shaped and plunged rapidly downhill. Usually, our speed is very very good - up to 14/16 Megabytes. We can stream TV and Movies, play games, listen to music - do stuff rapidly. However, half four in the afternoon hits, and that speed drops significantly. Down to 5Mb. By six or seven in the evening, it's less than half that - right through till nearly midnight when it starts creeping back up again.

Early hours of the morning, brilliant. Blistering, full on speeds. Daytimes aren't too bad either, mornings and early afternoons are good. Tea time appears, and Whack! There's the Internet Brick Wall.

I know for a fact it's Orange doing it, because over the last year, we've swapped routers for steadily better ones, thinking maybe it was us. However, after getting some software installed on the computers in the house that allow me to test the internet network speed, it is very obviously external issues causing the slow down.

I am fully aware that they say they have to reduce speeds at peak times, but then, what's the point in selling fast speeds if you're not getting fast speeds.

Being on Orange is a complete pain in the arse. We've only got a little time left on our contract, but after looking at a few different providers, trying to work out who throttle the worst is proving to be quite difficult. We've got a BT Line (well, it's an Orange line now, but whatever..) that our Broadband comes through, but as they all end up in the same place, am I more likely going to end up with the same issue regardless of which phone-based Broadband I chose? If that's the case, then the only other option is to go Cable Broadband, which is Virgin Media, but I don't know if they throttle the shit out of their service too.

I'm really not sure what to do for the best, so any suggestions would be very helpful. We're heavy internet users obviously - I use it during the day when NOT charging around doing stuff, evenings are kids on PS3 or laptops, plus us trying to watch iPlayer or 4OD or similar... Is Virgin Media the best way to go, or stick with Orange, or chose some other Telephone Broadband (YES, I know it's ADSL2 or whatever it's called, but too much jargon annoys me) provider through the phone line...

NB: I notice on the Virgin Media site that, conveniently, the customers that have the BIGGEST & MOST EXPENSIVE bundles are "not liable to traffic management"  So much for NOT having a two-tier internet then...


And for those non-geeky-techy sorts that made it to here, well done, have a gold star.

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2 Responses to “Throttled”

James Dennis said...

Hi Dan, been a whilse since I been about so thought I would come and catch up... some great posts and debates going on :o)
As for BB speeds, Virgin do not throttle there 50mb package which I have. I dont see the problem with a two tier system. Throtteling has been going on for years, BT used to be one of the worse. I do not know what there new infinty deals are like though.
I like my BB fast and available when I want it, so I am a Virgin 50mb fibre optic customer...
You pay for what you get I guess.

Kim said...

I'm with sky which is truly unlimited bandwidth and NO throttling whatsoever