Is there any point getting full speed BB?

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Is there any point getting full speed BB?

StevenRB45

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Putting aside all "11 is louder than 10" style arguments I have a bit of a head scratcher when it comes to renewing my BT infinity contract.

I can either re-sign up for 12 months but around 2 quid a month cheaper for what I have now I.e. standard infinity + an additional 90gb online storage. Or I can sign up for 18 months at a slightly higher cost (about 50p pm) for their highest speed which is currently 76mbps in my area and get 500gb online storage.

If this had come out 2 months ago I'd have jumped at option 2 given my current speed is 37.5 with 11 upload and 22ms ping (on up to 38) but standard is now going to be up to 52mbps. I just don't know if I'll notice the difference given I have no desktop PC, don't run a server farm and the limitations I seem to run into on my current system seem to be in other peoples servers. Xbox live being the one thing I download large files from some days it'll download 5gb in a few minutes others a 750mb file can take 15mins but as far as I can see that's traffic at their end causing the slowdown as that's well below the speed mine will run all day long.

In the near future I am planning to get a 4k TV and streaming box but it seems even my current connection has twice the speed it needs for that (I see a requirement of 15.60mbps quotes online).

Er help? Although 11 is still louder than 10 I do wonder if I'm just paying for unnecessary capacity.
 
Is you Xbox on wifi or ethernet? If wifi I wouldn't bother. As you say, no desktop PC and I'm guessing no mass storage device constantly downloading tv/films so probably not worth it.

The Xbox is directly connected to a gigabit port on the router as its only about a foot from it but even if I was using wireless 5ghz doesn't seem to lose a lot when using a wireless connection. I get 35mbps on 2.4ghz and the 37+ on 5ghz. We do have a laptop but it doesn't get used for much, and a smart TV and a youview box streaming in HD but I'm yet to reach a point where my current connection feels slow and it's about to get 15mbps faster even if I go for the slowest option.

I don't do film downloads apart from streaming sources so at the end of the day as long as it meets minimum specs the rest is for show.

Obviously it'll have uses downloading updates for the laptop e.t.c. but my thoughts are along the lines of once you get past a certain speed of net connection you are more likely to be running into the limit of the download provider than running your own connection at full speed (I may be wrong on this as I've said this just seems to happen quite a lot with XBL and PSN).
 
I'd save the money and stick with the standard speed. As you have noted, the bottleneck seems to be the servers, not the connection. If you are getting 30+ Mb/s actual I doubt you will see a difference. Then again I'm with Virgin at (up to) 200Mb/s with the minimum package that has the TV I want :)

Robert G8RPI.
 
I'd save the money and stick with the standard speed. As you have noted, the bottleneck seems to be the servers, not the connection. If you are getting 30+ Mb/s actual I doubt you will see a difference. Then again I'm with Virgin at (up to) 200Mb/s with the minimum package that has the TV I want :)

Robert G8RPI.

Unfortunately virgin don't recognise that where I live needs internet so not available at all, sky, talk talk etc all use the same bt network but slower.

With your 200mb/s does it ever download at that? Or is it that it'll download at whatever the source will allow eg. 50mb/s and then you have the rest of the bandwidth free for other stuff?

One day I'll get a TV package but TBH between Netflix, You view and freeview I get 90% of what's worth watching eventually..I do plan to get the 4k channels when I upgrade my telly.

It's probably worth noting that "standard speed 52mb/s" is 100x faster than the "broadband" we had when we moved in 4.5 years ago joys of the boonies.
 
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Well rang BT rather than just going with the 1st offer. In summation the original question is moot the max my line can support 31-48mb. However phoning them got a premium TV package, recording TV box, a 12 rather than 18 month contract and still comes out cheaper than their best initial offer and what I'm paying now.
 
Well being with BT the transition didn't go smoothly and I was briefly getting 10mb upload and download speeds however engineer has just left and...
 

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I'm with Utility Warehouse but ultimately its a BT line. Thinking of going to Virgin cable because the speed can drop markedly for no apparent reason and when kids are on TV Mrs is on iPad Netflix it gets decidedly strained.
 
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