Unlimited download package from ISP, but is the ISP throttling?

[vitamin32]

Hi,

I have been having issues with my broadband speed in which over the last few months it has dropped significantly.

I can accept that during rush hour everyone sees a drop off, but having done speed tests during non-rush hour I have been getting very similar speeds all the time, no real spikes, almost as though I am hitting a set threshold much lower than my router connection speed reports I should be getting. There is possibly a throttle of my connection, as I have upped the ammount of data download over this period, so I am thinking have I been throttled due to hitting my so called "Unlimited" cap?

I have tried a different router, different micro filters, direct connection to the master socket, different wireless channel and direct connection to the router.

I am pretty close to the exchange and here are my stats:

Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 6 db 2 db
Noise Margin 13 db 19 db

I did some speed checks this week, mostly apart from one time all are non-rush hour speedtests and this is what I got:

21-Nov-2011

Time Up Down
0910 1928 376
0925 1928 376
0940 1920 376
0950 1928 376
1005 1920 376
1015 1920 376
1022 1920 376
1030 1896 376
1102 1816 376
1313 1920 376
1424 1928 376

23-Nov-2011

Time Up Down
0910 1904 376
0954 1928 376
1030 1928 376
1035 1928 376
1412 1920 376
1447 1920 376
1532 1920 376
1534 1920 376
2118 1264 376

24-Nov-2011

Time Up Down
1113 1920 376
1131 2088 376
1214 1928 376

From these stats I am flat lining at 2Mbps, where my router details I should really be getting around 7-8Mbps

Is my link being throttled? my ISP is SKY Broadband Connect.

thanks for any feedback
Mr Vit

 

[gavinhuet]

Hi, I was getting something similar on Sky BB and when I phoned them and explained it they talked me through some steps to work out the problem.
Basically I had a telephone extension plugged in where the phone line enters the house and this then ran to where it got split via the filter to the modem and phone.
We ended up changing it to put the splitter first with the modem directly into that. My line went from 4mb to about 7mb.
I then replaced the filter (a cheap Homebase one) with a older but more expensive Belkin one, rebooted the modem and the line went up to 13mb.
Running speed tests I can see an actual speed of just over 10mb on the line now.

 

[Mr_Ceee]

If you are on the Sky Broadband connect package then they do apply throttling. The only packages they don't throttle are the Everyday Lite and the Unlimited packages. I think this has something to do with the connect package relying on BT Wholsale where as the other packages do not and are only available in exchanges where sky have their own equipment.

 

[beerhunter]

my ISP is SKY Broadband Connect.

First of all Sky Connect is NOT an unlimited package - far from it. Not only are you limited to 40GB pcm, throttling is applied to Sky Connect based on DAILY usage. See below.

"We will monitor your Sky Broadband usage during peak times from 5pm to 12am each day. This is when the majority of customers use the network and when speeds could be affected by the excessive usage of a minority. If we consider that your usage is excessive during peak times we may slow down your connection for the rest of the day so that it has less affect on others." Source - Sky.

Second, because Sky do not buy enough capacity from BT to support the product at peak times, you will find that performance will drop at those times even without any throttling.