[ NNSquad ] Re: Subject: Re: [IP] "Entry level pricing"

[Russell Smiley <im.russell.smiley@gmail.com>]

George Ou wrote:
> If you're getting 1/5th the speed, then it sounds like your particular line
> quality is so poor that your sync rate is only 768 Kbps.  However, your case
> is the exception and not the rule.

It's actually wireless DSL (wimax) so there are no sync rate problems to 
speak of except the throttling performed by the ISP to limit subscriber 
rates. Signal strength is not a factor since I am close enough to the 
basestation to get full strength (and in any case wimax is not 
particularly susceptible to signal strength problems affecting data rates).

My suspicion is that the ISP has completely oversubscribed the backhaul 
network to my basestation - this is confirmed by the fact that the 
actual wireless network is managed by a joint venture between my ISP and 
another and the other ISP advertises 2Mbps (for the same cost).

> Consumers should always verify their own speeds at places like speedtest.net
> and if they don't get 80+ percent of the advertised sync rate on
> speedtest.net or some nearby test server (due to a lower sync rate), they
> should demand their money back.  Some DSL modems are also better than
> others, and sometimes you may have to power down the modem for 5 minutes and
> power back on to get the DSLAM to reset its sync rates on your port.

It is well known that ISPs optimise for speed test results on popular 
websites. My speed test results have always indicated full speed which 
is completely contradictory to my experience with any activity other 
than running a speed test. I observed optimisation of this kind directly 
with my ISP in relation to virus update downloads from well known 
websites such as mcafee and norton (slightly different issue but it 
illustrates directly that ISPs do optimise for specific sites).

> Now I do think ISPs bear a lot of the blame for the lack of a transparency
> standard, and they also need standards for delivered versus advertised.  It
> would seem to me that ISPs should proactively monitor sync rates for
> customers and either fix the cable quality or drop the customer's speed plan
> and give them the lower rate instead of expecting consumers to figure this
> out for themselves.  That would go a long ways towards gaining better
> customer satisfaction.

Agreed.

Russell.

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