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Airband real speeds?

fingers

Casual Member
Hi all, after a prolonged session of engineers visit to sort our adsl from plusnet (started with upto a flaky 4.5Mbps ended up with 1/1.5Mbps) I decided to go with Airband (only real alternative we are rural) and signed up for a 20Mbps service, Survey and instalation were fine and we seemed to be getting 20Mbps and without doubt it was a marked improvement. But here's the rub, at 20Mbps I thought streaming at 1080 would be fine, even with my daugter Youtubing or facetiming, but it isn't so I checked with their speed test which, over the last 3 months has returned upto 21Mbps, this has now settled down to an average about 17Mbps but the independant speedtests only get to10/11Mbps so I questioned them on this, they could find no fault/reason and they stood by there figures as the only ones applicable. Has anyone else got Airband and do your figures test the same? Am I right in thinking that they should supply the required speed (ish) in a real world scenario and not on their own optimized server?
 
Which speedtests did you run? Was it one offered by Airband themselves? Generally I wouldn't never use the ISPs own tester as this may not always reflect true real-world performance and you never know if they're fiddling something.

What do you get on our tester?

You can also test in other ways, such as by trying to do a download of a big file from microsoft.com and measuring the speed.

The usual caveats apply though, such as the need to ensure you're doing the test via a wired link to your router (not WiFI) and while nothing else is making use of the connection (a lot of systems run patches and updates in the background - raising local network load).

Also can you explain a bit more about your experience of streaming at 1080 HD? What actually happens (buffering?). Even 10-11Mbps should be more than enough for a full HD stream so it may be more related to poor network routing/peering on the ISPs side or a rubbish DNS server (you could always try a free DNS like Google Public DNS or OpenDNS).
 
Thanks for the reply. Your test gives d 9.8 u 4 which is about the same as broadband speedtest and the one supplied by ookla.
Streaming can be interupted by buffering, quick stop starts and (in Amazon prime) a downgrading of picture quality.
Current test done hardwired but with no other users in the house and are consistent with single cable from router tests I did before.
 
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I've seen others say they get an average of around 10Mbps too from Airband's 20Mbps tier, so this seems more like a common issue with their network. However thinkbroadband does give them a median speed of 27.9Mbps, but then they've included their faster packages too (not only the 20Mbps tier).

I believe it's always a conflict of interest when an ISP operates their own speed test. When they host their own test they effectively eliminate the variables that you're here to test (e.g. the internet route itself). Assuming that's how they've done it here.
 
I've seen others say they get an average of around 10Mbps too from Airband's 20Mbps tier, so this seems more like a common issue with their network. However thinkbroadband does give them a median speed of 27.9Mbps, but then they've included their faster packages too (not only the 20Mbps tier).

I believe it's always a conflict of interest when an ISP operates their own speed test. When they host their own test they effectively eliminate the variables that you're here to test (e.g. the internet route itself). Assuming that's how they've done it here.

This is pretty much the conclusion I've come to the annoying part is they aren't very cheap.
 
Hi all, after a prolonged session of engineers visit to sort our adsl from plusnet (started with upto a flaky 4.5Mbps ended up with 1/1.5Mbps) I decided to go with Airband (only real alternative we are rural) and signed up for a 20Mbps service, Survey and instalation were fine and we seemed to be getting 20Mbps and without doubt it was a marked improvement. But here's the rub, at 20Mbps I thought streaming at 1080 would be fine, even with my daugter Youtubing or facetiming, but it isn't so I checked with their speed test which, over the last 3 months has returned upto 21Mbps, this has now settled down to an average about 17Mbps but the independant speedtests only get to10/11Mbps so I questioned them on this, they could find no fault/reason and they stood by there figures as the only ones applicable. Has anyone else got Airband and do your figures test the same? Am I right in thinking that they should supply the required speed (ish) in a real world scenario and not on their own optimized server?

I have been using Airband for sometime now in rural Shropshire and pay for a package of 30Mbps . At first I was a pioneer in my area and on a good day speeds reached 30Mbps At non peak times, at other times I was lucky to get above 10Mbps.
During the last few weeks the speed at peak times doesn’t get above 2.0 Mbps. I have raised this and the service manager claims there is nothing wrong their end. I contacted Ofcom they have asked me to record the speed tests for an evening
i spoke to the service manager this afternoon and he tells me he had contacted two other customers on my link and at the time they were both receiving good speed of 35Mbps. I think really Ofcom themselves need to run tests for the sake of some customers who don’t technically understand. The problem is the server state this verbally but don’t send engineers out so I can physically see this evidence.
I wonder how many more subscribers to Airband suffer this problem. It’s not quite what they put in the tin!
 
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Just an update. Airband have looked at my problem in depth and responded well. I now have a speed which averages 30mbps which I am happy with. When this system works it is “green” and surely is the future. Bye Bye BT!
 
I was with Speednet Scotland Wifi, got fed up ringing them up weekly to get the download speeds back, as they added new consumers they forgot to check on previous customers on the same mast and did not ensure channel separation, speeds dropped with overlapping bands. They did respond to the calls but why not just check neighbouring customers after adding new ones and not wait for the call.
.
 
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