A connection speed of 20 Mbps would equate to an IP Profile of 17.64 Mbps and a maximum throughput of about 17 Mbps.īefore discussing the best online speed tests that are available, it is important to consider the conditions in which you should run an online test. For example, the IP Profile for an ADSL2+ connection is 88.2% of the connection rate (so is less efficient than fibre broadband where the IP Profile is 96.69% of the connection rate). With conventional ADSL2+ and ADSL broadband, the IP Profile is also lower than the connection speed. So, if you’re getting these speeds in an online speed test, you simply cannot do any better. For a connection speed of 40 Mbps, the actual maximum throughput of your connection would be about 37 Mbps. So, if you are lucky enough to have a fibre broadband connection with downlink connection speed of 80 Mbps, the actual maximum throughput of your connection would typically be about 75 Mbps. Table: Downlink connection speed, IP Profile and actual throughput for fibre broadband IP Profile is 96.69% of the connection speed for lines enabled with G.INP As shown in the table below for VDSL fibre broadband, the real throughput (for example, measured by an online speed test) will be significantly lower than the connection speed. Secondly, IP packets don’t only contain useful ‘payload’ information and also contain headers about the information sent. Firstly, there is an overhead in getting the IP packets from the ISP to your modem, which is reflected in the so-called “IP Profile”. the real speed for the applications that you use) will be lower than the connection speed. It is important to realise that because of the way the broadband system and the Internet have been designed, the actual throughput of your connection (i.e. The connection rate is the speed at which your router communicates with the DSLAM equipment (situated in the exchange for ADSL and ADSL2+ or your fibre street cabinet for VDSL2 fibre broadband). So, depending on what fibre broadband subscription you have, this can be (depending on the service chosen) up to 80 Mbps or 40 Mbps in the downstream direction. When talking about speeds, many ISPs refer to the connection speed (or “sync speed”) of a broadband connection. Realise that throughput isn’t the headline connection speed Only premises situated within 1 km of the exchange are likely to achieve a downlink connection speed close to the maximum possible. Similarly, as described in our article entitled Chart of ADSL and ADSL2+ Speed Versus Distance, the speeds of conventional ADSL2+ and ADSL broadband decline with distance from the BT exchange. So, if you are located 1 km from your local street cabinet, you’ll typically only be able to achieve a connection speed of 25-30 Mbps.Ĭhart of FTTC fibre broadband downlink connection speed versus distance from the street cabinet This is because speeds are dependent on the distance to the exchange (for conventional broadband) or to the street cabinet (for fibre broadband).Īs shown in the chart below, fibre broadband connection speeds decline with distance from the fibre street cabinet. Just because your ISP claims that your broadband connection offers speeds “up to 24 Mbps” (for ADSL2+ conventional broadband) or “up to 80 Mbps” (for VDSL2 fibre broadband), it won’t mean that you’ll be able to achieve such speeds. In major part, this is due to its use of many geographically-distributed servers, which allows you to run a test on a server that is located physically close to you.įirst set your expectations based on distance if you are using basic broadband or fibre broadband Use our online speed testīelow is our online speed test, provided by Ookla, which we believe is the most accurate online tester available based on extensive measurement. Provided that you take the right precautions and choose the right online speed test (like the one below), an online speed test can be reasonably accurate and a useful tool to assess a broadband connection. Bizarrely, one particular speed test (the BT Wholesale test) massively overstates performance. It’s not surprising that broadband providers completely ignore any online speed tests that have been performed by their customers. In most cases, because of the many factors involved, they may indicate that your broadband connection is performing much worse than it really is. You need to be very cautious with online speed tests. We identify the best and worst online speed tests. We’ve lost count of the number of people that have told us that their broadband connection is not working properly because an online speed test has reported low or highly variable speeds.
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