BT's broadband boost could slow down unlucky customers

 

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By Stewart Mitchel

Posted on 20 Aug 2009 at 17:46

A minority of customers upgraded to the new BT 20Mbits/sec ADSL2+ internet connections could actually see their download rate slow down, according to experts and BT.

As part of its 21st Century Network, BT recently upgraded 40% of the UK's homes and businesses from the old "up to" 8Mbits/sec ADSL Max service, and most subscribers should see an increase in broadand speeds.

But due to the vagaries of ADSL over copper - including distance, line noise and stability - some unlucky ISP customers will actually lose out through the upgrade.

"People who are currently around the 3-3.5Mbits/sec range could find that they actually get a slower connection once they are upgraded," says Andrew Ferguson, an ADSL expert at the market analyst thinkbroadband.com. "When people switch to ADSL2+, they might find the line flips between speeds and BT will slow your line down to make it more stable."

BT stresses that "vast majority" of customers moving to ADSL2+ will see an increased performance.

"ADSL2+'s more sophisticated network management ensures that the fastest, most reliable service is provided for each line. For some applications a line's stability can be more important than speed," a company spokesperson told PC Pro.

"But there may be issues over the speeds of a minority of lines that previously had not experienced issues with an up to eight meg product when migrated to ADSL2+.

"BT aims to minimise this by identifying customers that may fall into this category, and migrating them onto ADSL2+ products that deliver a comparable performance to fixed rate and IPStream Max products."

According to thinkbroadband's Ferguson, tinkering with router settings could help users maximise download speeds. "For some people, switching their line down to ADSL2 (without the plus) will actually make it run faster," he says.