Why am i only getting half the advertised speed?

Question

My ISP offers an internet speed for 20mb VDSL for 2 months and for free!

So i signed up for no money charge, and a tech support came to my house to set up my new Internet, he showed and confirmed me on the router statistics info that my router should be syncing at: 22570kbit/s download and 1119kbit/s upload.

But when he opened up speedtest.net to test my internet speed, i only got 9-10mb download and 1mb upload.

And when he tried to download something from a trusted websites like Mediafire and Mega, i was getting only a consistent of 1.1MB/s. (bytes not bit)

He told me he can do nothing about it, and this is the maximum speed i could get from my house, and i think he mentioned something about copper wires not configured well in my neighborhood and something about a wire loop.

Is there really nothing i can do to complain to my ISP to force my speeds to go higher?

Here's some DSL statistics shown on my router page:

SNR Margin (dB): 18.7db down , 30.1db up

Line attenuation (dB): 17.6db down , 3.9db up.

Thanks.

Solution

Why am I only getting half the advertised speed?

The router statistics info that my router should be syncing at: 22570kbit/s download and 1119kbit/s upload.

Notes:

• The line can take up to 10 day for a line to sync at its final speed.

• The actual throughput (real time) speed will be somewhat lower since it has an allowance to cover IP, ATM and other various overheads.

• The maximum throughput speed on a line syncing at 8128 under ideal conditions would be just slightly over 7Mbps.

• Other factors such as exchange contention, ISP restrictions or your IP profile will affect your actual throughput speed.

SNR Margin (dB): 18.7db down , 30.1db up

Line attenuation (dB): 17.6db down , 3.9db up.

These figures are good. Based on your 17.6 db down attenuation you are about 1.3 km from the DSLAM and your maximum line speed is about 26000 kbps.

You should speak to your ISP about not receiving the advertised speed

Source SG DSL Speed Calculator

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Further reading

• Line Stats - Explanation

Comments

[Admin]

VDSL speed depends on the distance (of the cable routing not the shortest direct disatnce) from the telephone exchange as well as the condition of any cabling.

[Admin]

@DavidPostill the DSLM Cabinet is close to my house. (Look at my Line attenuation above)

[Admin]

Then talk to your ISP.

[Admin]

Ok. Thank you. I knew it's on their end. Even though my modem/router reports 20mb, which is strange...

[Admin]

17.6 db translates to roughly 1.25 km. So you should get a speed of over 20 Mbps increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/…

[Admin]

Wait! I think i found out something! I think my ISP is throttling down my speed! Because when i press test button in speedtest.net my speed pushes out to 18 then goes down to 14, 12, 10, 9, 8, 9 then stays at 10! That's why i get my advertised upload speed which is 1mb!

[Admin]

Then talk to your ISP ;) If they are advertising 20 MB and capping at 10 MB then they are breaking the contract. Is it a UK ISP?

[Admin]

speedguide.net/dsl_speed_calc.php > VDSL2 max speed 26086 kbps with attenuation of 17.6db

[Admin]

Sorry for the delay. Yeah just as you said, they're definitely capping my speed to 10mb. Even speedtest.net shows a speed of 20mb at first glance, then slows drastically to about 9-10mb. This is also not the first time, this also happens to 4G/LTE users. Someone from the same ISP found out a way to breakthrough their capping by doing some kind of proxy method and achieved higher than 50mb speed on 4G LTE! Where he was getting only 12-15mb lol.

[Admin]

So who is your ISP?

[Admin]

Called STC. From Saudi Arabia.

[Admin]

Did they put you on the wrong package by mistake? stc.com.sa/wps/wcm/connect/english/individual/internet/atHom‌​e/… shows up to 10Mbps and up to 20Mbps.

[Admin]

Yeah. It first they put me on 10mb, then when a tech support came and set up everything, i told him to increase the speed to 20mb for free. He then called someone to change my speed to 20mb which at first was reporting on my modem/router as 10mb. Then he rebooted my modem, and now reports 22mb. But i guess the speed is still the same... I think they missed something!

[Admin]

They changed the report of the speed, but they haven't changed my real speed to the DSLM Cabinet!?

[Admin]

Maybe they thought you wouldn't notice the difference. A lot of people wouldn't :/

[Admin]

Still suspicious, the modem reports 22mb. But i'm getting 10mb, so where does the problem lies? My line stats are perfectly fine. I'm sure it's on their end. Does reporting and getting speeds are two different things?

[Admin]

Sorry, no more ideas :/

[Admin]

Ok. I'm calling my ISP right away. Thank you man!

[John Hark]

Great! I called the tech support and he told me that they forgot to upgrade my 10mb to 20mb and apply it for my connection, now they successfully switched my line to 20mb, now i'm getting about almost what is advertised to me: 19.74mbps download speed. So it turned out it was their fault after all. I think i misunderstood something here. lol

[DavidPostill]

Glad you got it sorted ;) Your new speed sounds about right given there are some "overheads" as noted in my answer.