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poor performance

ShaunIOW
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

I've been with Vodaphone broadband for the past 11 months and am stuck with them till Nov next year, and they have to be the worst broadband ISP I've been with since my first 20 years ago - I'm supposedly on Superfast up to 63Mbps but the most I ever get is 38Mbps, and quite regularly it drops to lower than even the 35Mbps guaranteed minimum speed (I have a screen shot of a speedtest showing 12Mbps) although according to my account the minimum is 40Mbps, it's tech support that insist it's 35Mbps and my connection is OK, which it isn't as at times it's so unstable it's unusable with numerous dopped connections and as someone housebound something I rely on.  Streaming live sport is unwatchable especially Sunday afternoons and evenings, even if I select the SD feed and in an online game I play sometimes the fps is as low as 7, but even on those low speeds there is no reason why the streaming shouldn't still be OK as even 4k streaming only needs 25Mbps and HD 2Mbps, so it must be down to something their end. or they're throttling things, the Vodaphone router says my connection is 43Mbps and line supports 51Mbps.  I've checked all my connections here and am using managed switches I can monitor the network speed on (everything is connecting at 1Gbps), and and am using Cat 5e or better cables with wireless only used for tablets and Amazon Echo devices and BT Openreach changed my Master Socket for the newest version 18 months ago and got me to 51Mbps download from the 45Mbps i was getting (how I miss those days).

 

I spent ages on the phone to tech support on Saturday and they just won't listen to what I'm saying and trying to explain and just go off their own script all the time insisting my connection is fine which it clearly isn't (and even insisting I'd had no drops when their router reported 11 disconnections), with my last ISP I had a steady 51Mbps download speed, and I've never got close to that with Vodaphone and I've had more dropped connections in the 11 months with Vodaphone than I've had in the past 20 years combined with other ISP's and really regret joining them on a 2 year contract, and the cheeky sods keep sending me emails to upgrade to their new Pro service which the cynic in me suspects is why the current service is so crap hoping I upgrade (although the new one offers nothing I need as the back up 4G wouldn't work well here anyway as Vodaphone mobile signal is rubbish) to the more expensive service.

7 REPLIES 7

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Reading your post is really disheartening. Being with Vodafone for the last 16 months I do not believe their broadband to be any worst than most. The problem is that if things are not working correctly they are not set up to correct it. They seem to be unable to understand how FTTC broadband works, and to know how to resolve it when it doesn't (Basically get Openreach to fix it)

I honestly don't how that can be improved until Vodafone realise that broadband is not like mobile and needs a different skill set to support it.

Mark
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hey @ShaunIOW As we don't have any account access here we can only offer general troubleshooting and from what you've written it sounds like you've already been through this on more than one occasion. If you pop us a private message via Facebook at Vodafone UK, or on Twitter using the handle @VodafoneUK and we'll be able to look into this for you.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I tried that but didn't really get anywhere. 

The online checker said I may have a problem, but all I got was that my speed was higher than the guaranteed minimum (which they say is 35Mbps but on my account it says 40Mbps minimum and is what I was promised when I first joined) and I was getting 51Mbps with my previous ISP (and all checker say my line will support up to 63mbps), if I don't get that sort of speed and only get a Mbps or 2 above the slower up to 36Mbps, what is the point in paying the extra?  I'm bieng charged for the hifger speed so feel I should be getting it, I was also told they do limit speeds and use traffic management which I don't think is on.

The problem isn't just the speed which seems ok when I'm chatting to tech support but goes up and down at other times when I can't call and I have screen shots showing as low as 12Mbps, but it's also the quality of the connection with streaming sometimes unwatchable as it freezes every few minutes even though the programs are at best HD and 2Mbps is good enough for that (live sport is the worst) and even a game Ip[lay which doesn't have high specs (Guild Wars 2) which I've been playing since 2012 with no issues has been virtually unplayable at times the last few weeks due to lag and stuttering, and i get quite a lot of disconnects from the net now and recently started getting connection unstable messages on zoom, but tech support don't seem interested in any of that and just repeat the minimum guaranteed speed mantra.

 

Six months before I joined Vodaphone, Plusnet had OpenReach replace my master socket with the newest type and that increased my speeds to the 51Mbps from the 45Mbps I had been getting which is why I don't understand why the Vodaphone one is so shoddy as I know my line will support faster and the rest of my equipment is the same as before, and even when I isolated everything else and only had the laptop connected via a Cat6 cable to the vodaphone router with nothing else connected and wireless turned off it was no better.

 

This is what BT Openreach reports:

 

internet.jpgSpeedtest 7.jpg

Cynric
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

.@ShaunIOW Here's the problem with VF, they measure the line speed using "Sync Speed" and the rest of us use what we experience and tools like Speedtest. Sync Speed is the "what the connection can deliver on a good day" kind of speed, a bit like the VW/Audi emission figures which turned out to be not quite what was stated in the literature. 

 

However the OpenReach screen which you shared is quite telling as the Max Observed is only 42 on a line with a range of 40 to 60 and a handback speed of 32, so it looks like you are right on the edge of what is acceptable to start with. Add a bit of over-capacity demand at peak times and I bet your speed hits the floor. Sync Speed is shown on the THG3000 router in one of the admin pages and I would not be at all surprised to hear that it shows a good value at the same time you are suffering.

 

You have already had some help from OpenReach when with your previous ISP, so unless they can try moving your connection to another rack in the street cabinet I don't think that they can do much more. I might suggest moving your DNS settings on the router away from the VF ones, but that may not be the answer. The trouble is that amateurs like me don't have access to all the "toys" that VF should be using to assist you.

 

VF seem to forget the old saying, "the customer is always right". 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I've already changed the DNS from Vodaphone's, and you're correct about the router showing much higher stats.

 

Line Quality.jpg

lionatus
4: Newbie

Tell me about it. SSE all fine but router was a nightmare. So back to Vodafone and now CAPPED at 44Mbps. 10+ years at this address with average of 78, even with vodafone but switched as SSE was cheaper. Now paying more than 200% of SSE charge but a drop in speed of at least 40%. Read that bill is for SUperfast Pro 2 or whatever it is. The 2nd highest tier on Vodafone and my speeds dropped 40% but the charge is more than double the £15 I was paying SSE. I checked with Openreach minimum 59Mbps, asked them to run diagnostics on the automated system, all fine there must be cap but its not been applied by Openreach. Contacted SSE, same story same numbers. Contacted Vodafone, we'll raise a query. Weeks later no change and no message to say how the query went. Contacted today, you're getting the guaranteed minimum of 32 we CAN'T help. State I'm on PRO broadband currently guaranteed for 59 at my address told your contract says 32 CANT HELP. States Openreach will help if there's a problem, told your above contracted minimum CANT help. See below for responses from my old supplier SSE and Openreach who actually own the lines. VODAFONE refuses to make an engineer request as I've tried twice to no avail. Your internet is capped probably because they are over-subscribed in your area and want to make sure they have room for more sales.

 

Hello Mr Jeffrey,
 
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
 
I have checked and you were on 'Fibre Plus' with us.  This was not capped, only the standard 'Fibre' package would be capped and that would be at 40mbps.
 
I have also included below the speeds available to your line when using SSE as a supplier with Vodafone as a wholesaler.
 
As you can see, anywhere between 55 & 74mbps would be classed as acceptable for your line.
 
I hope this helps and please let me know if you are happy to close off this query after the information provided.
 
Regards,
 
Martin
THATS SSE
 
NOW OPENREACH

Hi Alan,

I tried to call today but sadly could not get through. I am very sorry to hear that you are not experiencing the speeds you have had in the past but we would not cap your service as we only provide the network the service travels along.
If there are any restrictions on your service this will need to be raised to your provider who will manage this with us on your behalf.

It may be that you need a broadband engineer to attend to check the parameters of your current service but this should be visible to your provider and they would need to arrange any engineer visit.

I am sorry but this is not something we would manage here and we will need to guide you back to your provider to have this investigated as it is their service and you are their customer.

We will work with your provider to get this matter resolved if they feel they need our assistance.

I do hope this is all resolved soon

David Checkland 


Customer Resolutions Team
Openreach