Hi there,
We are receiving appalling speeds during the day and in the evenings on our recently activated (15 days ago) Vodafone broadband. It can be decent in the early hours for example at 4am, I recoded a speed of around 60Mbps but during the day it rarely exceeds 17Mbps (22% of the promised speed) and yesterday it went as low as 3Mbps (just 4% of what was promised) for a prolonged period where I experienced a dropout from an audio only radio station!
As an IT specialist I have done a lot of work to help the tech support team nail down the problem. I have run tests from several wired computers, using different ethernet sockets on both the PC and on the router. I have run tests from PC to PC on the local network where the speed is fine.
If I go into the router settings, I can see the connection speed to Vodafone is at a constant 74Mbps. I have stated multiple times that I believe the problem lies with the Vodafone network, specifically the route our house is taking through Vodafone to the rest of the internet. This is apparent in the fact that the slowdown occurs at the times when it is likely a considerable number of people are using the service. I also suspect this slowdown is caused by extreme traffic shaping which is entirely unacceptable. If you offer a promised connection speed, you should fulfil that promise. I appreciate that there may be times when this is not possible, but come on 3% of the promised speed for 100% of the promised bill - that's not right is it?
I have been through the online support script four times, each time as member of the support team has tested the line and (as expected) found no problem. They have advised me to change router ports, reboot the router etc. Nothing has made any difference. I eventually got our issue raised to the level 2 tech support team. 72 hours later they sent us a text to say that there was absolutely nothing wrong at their end and that my issue must be caused by the WIFI. How any expert is able to miss the numerous times where I have clearly stated that we were having problems with wired connections is beyond me - do they read their notes?
We were previously with Sky and we had a consistently fast connection speed at all times of the day. This would demonstrate that a) There is indeed no connection issue between our house and the ISP and b) This is an issue isolated to Vodafone. I hear that sometimes the problem can be caused by a lot of traffic at the exchange. However, since all services share the same exchange, this doesn't explain why Sky was able to provide a fast connection yet Vodafone isn't.
We need this looking into and looking into fast. If it is not possible for Vodafone to resolve this issue we will have to go elsewhere. We need a fast broadband connection to work effectively and as Vodafone has failed to get anywhere near the promised speeds. If this issue cannot be resolved, we will be forced to go to another provider, probably Sky or BT both of whom we've had in the past and both of whom are able to (for the majority of the time) provide the speeds they promise.
Looking forward to your advice
Thanks,
Damien
