BT FON = Faster speed bonus!

Valen

Prominent Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
1,651
Reaction score
371
Points
417
Location
Hillsborough
Hey all

As I work in the industry (Mobile comms) and know quite a few people from BT, it was mentioned that if you have opted in with the BT FON scheme, they provide you with a faster connection! (Unofficially)

I regularly get 44mbps when downloading. (way over the 33mbps estimate and 4mbps over the 40mbps speed limit)

Has anybody else heard this? Seems like a good idea. (I live in an underpopulated area, so noone ever uses my wireless) It's a win win for me!
 
Thats not true at all.

1. You have been put on the 17a profile (and the speeds been uncapped)

or

2. antivirus is messing with you're download results.
 
Thats not true at all.

1. You have been put on the 17a profile (and the speeds been uncapped)

or

2. antivirus is messing with you're download results.


So your 100% sure it's not true?
 
What is telling you that you have 44mbps?

I haven't heard of anyone being 'uncapped' to give more than the standard 40mb. Mine connects at 53mb now, but still capped at 40mb.

As has been said though, the BT FON giving higher speeds is nonsense.
 
I used Nvidia drivers download link and ZEN broadband download files to get my speed, usually sits about 4.3 - 4.4 down. (4.30)
 
I used Nvidia drivers download link and ZEN broadband download files to get my speed, usually sits about 4.3 - 4.4 down. (4.30)

I think the confusion there is Mbps and mbps. If you say you are downloading a file at around 4.3 (I assume you mean MBps,megabytes per second) I can assume that's around 34.4mbps/megabits per second. I guess it depends on what the software is reporting in terms of either speed or file size.

File sizes are often quoted in Megabytes and transfer speeds on broadband using some speed checkers are megabits per second.
If you were downloading at 44Mbps (more than Infinity FTTC can handle at the moment anyway) then a file transfer speed would be around 5.5MegaBytes per second .
As mentioned above some antivirus programmes do give false readings, as I think they buffer the connection.

It can be quite confusing at times.

edit see beerhunters correction below.
 
Last edited:
I think the confusion there is Mbps and mbps.
I think that you may be confused as well.

I assume you mean MB/s = megabits per second and MB/s = megabytes per
second. In both cases, mega is always upper case M, its the b/Bs that differ between bits (b) and bytes (B).

Date communications is usually measured in b/s = bits per second and windows usually reports B/s = bytes per second.
 
Last edited:
Thanks colesy for clearing that up. My max download speed reads @ 4.41. (STEAM doenloads a game @ 4.1)

I thought that was about 4.1 was 41mbps (1 over the 40 max on Infinity)
 
I think that you may be confused as well.

I assume you mean MB/s = megabits per second and MB/s = megabytes per
second. In both cases, mega is always upper case M, its the b/Bs that differ between bits (b) and bytes (B).

Date communications is usually measured in b/s = bits per second and windows usually reports B/s = bytes per second.

Ahh yes, cheers. The old 'type as fast as you think whilst checking for spelling, but not capitals and correct terms' mistake:suicide:
I won't re-edit it again, as Valen got my drift.
 
Thanks colesy for clearing that up. My max download speed reads @ 4.41. (STEAM doenloads a game @ 4.1)

I thought that was about 4.1 was 41mbps (1 over the 40 max on Infinity)

4.41MB/s is 35.28Mb/s
 
5MB/s is 40Mb/s If you ever wanted too know =3

I usually download at 4.5MB/s so that is like 36Mb/s
 
BT should be providing you the fastest speed you can get up to the 40/10 advertised, regardless of whether you opt in or out of FON. I've just opted out of FON as it appears its being used rather regularly, which means my speeds are going down. As I'm using download speed quite a bit recently, I'd rather have it for myself. However, I'm not being mean, aside from living in an area where anyone around here can definitely afford their own internet, I dont use FON when I'm out as I have 3G on my phone and two vodafone mobile broadband contracts on netbooks.

Hopefully, the recent 30/7.5 I've been getting on Speedtest.net will go back up to 37/8 and likewise my Steam downloads from 3.2-3.4 will go back up to 4-4.4, nothing at all has changed in my property since installation, so it seems plenty people using me to alleviate their own bandwidth concerns...
 
Unless they have changed it, FON/Openzone signals given out by homehubs are limited to 512kb/s.

So that won't be the cause of your drop in speed, unless you have about 10 people connected all day long running flat out on it.
 
or a couple of people with several devices downloading on it constantly.....

oh yeah, speedtest went back up to 37/8 yesterday....lol.....

coincidence? could be, but very good timing....
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom