Broadband speed question, are Mbits the same as mbps - am I getting the speed I paid for?

[steveinoz01]

Hi

We just changed our office broadband to a full fibre connection and the contract states an 'Assured Symmetrical speed 300 - 1000Mbit/s; Max Contention 50:1'.

When I run a speed test we get 100mbps download and 100mbs download. This is plenty fast enough for what we do but should we be getting at least 300mbps up and down?

Thanks.

 

[RandomGrinch]

Probably the same, but be careful on the capitalisation -
Mbps: Megabits per second
MBps: Megabytes per second

If your speed test result was really 100MBps, then that would be a pretty respectable 800Mbps!

 

[sparkymarka]

Hi

We just changed our office broadband to a full fibre connection and the contract states an 'Assured Symmetrical speed 300 - 1000Mbit/s; Max Contention 50:1'.

When I run a speed test we get 100mbps download and 100mbs download. This is plenty fast enough for what we do but should we be getting at least 300mbps up and down?

Thanks.

What device are you testing it on ?

 

[pcaouolte]

It really needs testing on a wired connection, not over Wi-Fi. You can only get a true speed with one device connected by wire direct to the router and everything else disconnected or switched off.

 

[steveinoz01]

I tested on a wired PC using Chrome and the Google tool that comes up when you search 'speed test'. There are other PC's and phones connected. This is what we get:

 

[steveinoz01]

So it looks like the contract is quoted in MBits (Bits) when more commonly broadband speeds are quoted in Mbps (Bytes) so I need to move the decimal point 1 place in the contract figures.

Thanks all.

 

[RandomGrinch]

To be pegged at 100, could suggest a hardware limitation somewhere on your side, rather than with your ISP.

So it looks like the contract is quoted in MBits (Bits) when more commonly broadband speeds are quoted in Mbps (Bytes) so I need to move the decimal point 1 place in the contract figures

No, your contract and speed test are both Mbps - Megabits per second.

And a 1 decimal place change wouldn't work - this is the world of binary, 8 Bits to a Byte!

 

[Rodders53]

Many network cards and switches were 100 Mbit/s until fairly recently. Your PC may be old school?

Check out the installed network card's Hardware Device details to check if that is limiting you on that PC?

May be worth trying a different Ethernet cable if it is a Giga bit card installed?

Note that, while Wi-Fi speed tests may not be as accurate as wired, some devices such as tablets or phones can at least show if the connection is faster than you have so far tested.

NB the speed test image you have posted is for Mega bits per second not Bytes

 

[steveinoz01]

Thanks for the advice above. So we should be seeing 300 to 1000 Mbps on the speed test I ran if the network is operating at full speed.

If I use my iPhone on Wi-Fi I get 93 down and 69 up. If I plug a 3 month old Windows 11 PC direct into the router with a 2 metre CAT6 cable I still get 100 up and 100 down. There are other devices using the network at the moment so will test again when I can unplug other users but I am surprised I can never get over 100 when the lowest is meant to be 300.

I have just emailed support with the supplier to ask for the engineers readings he took when installing.

Also just checked the info they sent about the Wi-Fi router as it says 'We use WiFi6. This is the latest standard for WiFi and provides many of the same features as 5G mobile. With WiFi6, and with the right device, speeds of more than 800Mbit/s can be achieved over a wireless connection with your Gigabit service.'. That would mean I should get more than 100 on my iPhone 12.

Its looking like we have been limited to 100Mbps instead of the contracted 300 to 1000Mbps.

 

[Alec_t]

Don't forget the claimed Contention ratio of 50:1 max. That could affect your data rate.