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The Gadget Show: Broadband Truth Campaign(UK only)

Think you're getting a great broadband deal? Think again. With many people falling short of the "up to" speeds offered by their ISP, we're campaigning for the truth: advertised speeds reflecting what we're actually getting.

Join us - test your speed here and let us know what you think below. The result is an indication of your speed in kbps (kilobits per second- please note that speed is measured in kilobits and megabits rather than bytes, a common mistake).

Due to the overwhelming response of the campaign, it might take a minute or so for your test to start. This is because we are limiting the amount of users on the speedtest at any one time, to ensure that the results are not compromised by very high usage. Thanks for your patience!

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gadgetshow.five.tv

Marty8370 - contributor
Published: 760 days 17 hours ago | Article | PlayStation 3 | Xbox 360 | Wii | Sony PSP | Nintendo DS | Xbox | PlayStation 2 | GameCube | Gaming | PC | Industry News

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The Gamer Zone is for members who want a more friendly and civilized discussion. This section is heavily moderated by the N4G staff, so leave your fanboyism at the door please. Members who are unable to behave in a mature and respectful manner will be temporarily or permanently restricted from posting in the Gamer Zone. Using words such as Xbots and Sony droids, or other words from the console war vocabulary, is strictly prohibited in this Zone.
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Rama26285 - 760 days 17 hours ago

1 -

This story is just a bit old to begin with (first saw it on their show at least two weeks ago), but I'm even more surprised by how many channels you got away with including.

Whoever approved this should be ashamed.

Is this even Gaming/Industry news? Probably the only channel this should be in is Tech and it's probably the only channel you haven't included!! Amazing lol

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Marty8370 - 760 days 17 hours ago

2 -

Have you checked your broadband speed.:)

P L A Y B 3 Y O N D

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Rama26285 - 760 days 17 hours ago

2.1 -

Yeah, I check my broadband speed regularly. I've recently moved house and I get significantly less than what I used to in my previous address. The reason for this? I'm living further away from my local exchange, so of course my speed is going to be less.

In my last address, I was with Sky and the advertised speed was up to 8mb and I was getting 8.5mb very comfortably. At my new address, I'm now with BT and the advertised is up to 8mb, but I'm getting 1.5mb. But the thing is, I knew I'd get that little, as when ordering they do a test on your line to tell you what speed you'd get. I live a good 6 miles away from my exchange, so I'm not surprised. I'm just glad I can get any service!

It's only the uninformed and those who do not understand the way broadband work who complain about their speed not being as fast as they'd thought.

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ravinash - 760 days 16 hours ago

2.2 - @ Rama26285 - have you ever thought that maybe they can do better?

Its one thing to know that if I'm this far away from my exchange and have this number on phones plugged into the line...then yeah, sure the speed will be slower.
But if in my case - I'm with orange, their deal is if you have one of their mobiles you can get 1mb broadband for free or 8mb broadband for £5 a month. Now if i'm paying for the 8mb broadband I expect it to be well above the 1mb, otherwise what the hell am I paying for.
there have been time where the speed has been under 1mb as the service is unusable at that time.
I'm paying for the service and expect to be given what it says on the tin.
I don't expect 8mb...but seeing as I live 600m from the exchange...I expect far better than 1mb.
I should also point out that before i was with bulldog, and although the service was crap, they did get better speeds...so its not the line thats at fault.

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mighty_douche - 760 days 17 hours ago

3 - Cable.

i have 10mg, and its ALWAYS 10mg. a dedicated line is always gonna be better than piggy backing on a phone line.

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Marty8370 - 760 days 17 hours ago

4 -

Well I'm understand perfectly, and I'm 100% behind this campaign. If the result of this campaign gets my ISP too up my broadband speed, thats fine by me.

BTW - Would the ISP's like it if I paid upto £25 a month(and only gave them a fiver). Exactly they would'nt.

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mighty_douche - 760 days 17 hours ago

4.1 - while i do agree.

when you signed the contract it would of clearly stated "up to", same ass all of the deals. if you are getting a lot less than you thought you should of done your research before signing your life away.

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Rama26285 - 760 days 17 hours ago

4.2 -

The problem though, is that I wouldn't expect this campaign to do anything. All the companies cover themselves by putting 'up to' in front of their advertised speeds. The only way speeds will increase is if they put more broadband exchanges around, or if less people use the internet.

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ben806 - 760 days 17 hours ago

5 -

the thing is though sky told you what you would be getting before you made the deal. no other company does that and thats the problem if sky can tell you why not the other companies?
(and i am getting my advertised speed btw)

EDIT- Good adive from the chap below me, bubbles

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Rama26285 - 760 days 16 hours ago

5.1 -

I ordered onling with BT and right at the beginning of the process they do a line check to tell you the speed you should get. Every company has the ability to do this (I believe - at least all the ones I've used) and perhaps you just need to ask them to do it if they don't tell you.

Around 90+% of broadband companies use your standard phone line and thus using BT's service. If BT have the ability to check your line speed, then so do all those companies. Just ask, they should be able to tell you. If they can't, think twice or check another company who can as they're pretty much all the same.

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peksi - 760 days 17 hours ago

6 -

I tried the speed test with our university's 622Mb connection that is a part of a high performance global university network.

The test gave me 10Mb download, 5Mb upload. Clearly they have a bottleneck somewhere down the road so do not take that test too seriously.

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Marty8370 - 760 days 17 hours ago

7 -

Take the test multiple times and at different times of the day. Complete the form with your results. The more broadband users that do this the better the end results of the campaign will be.

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BrotherSic - 760 days 16 hours ago

8 -

I have alot of complaints about adsl isp.

1 - contract length - I only live at uni for 9 months but most isps are only offering 18 month contracts. Even the 12 month deals are stupid. Only Virgin and Bethere were available for a shorter contract and BeThere is not available in the centre of nottingham.

2 - Line speed in an apartment block - we got told we could get 5mb instead of the advertised 8mb which would be fine but the best we have ever had is 2mb. On an evening you struggle to stream youtube lol We put this down to alot of people using the same exchange but surely we should have been told about this.

3 - overpriced - If I was getting 8mb I would pay the current £25 bill happily but it's a rip off for 2mb. I have always used virgin (ntl) so I have never experienced adsl until now and I now see how poor it is!

Virgin 20mb all the way! you can get phone including all calls, tv, and 20mb for £37 :)

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Dpa - 760 days 12 hours ago

9 -

This is BS, 99% of cases its not the ISPs fault its the phone companies. Its physically impossible to go any faster than your line allows until BT lay new phonelines

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sandip787 - 760 days 12 hours ago

10 -

eyyy?
im sure ive got 512kbs (crap i know), but its saying my D/L speed is just over 2 megs!
hmmm i wonder if virgn have automatically upgraded the connection?

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RussDeBuss - 760 days 8 hours ago

11 - I Agree this is BS

What do they think they can achive from this. As DPA said, its not ISP's intentially slowing your line down. If you have a up to 8 meg service or MAX rate as it is known, your line will run as fast as it can up to 8meg, and thats it.

They all advertise as UP TO 8 meg so they are not conning anyone, if people dont understand what they are buying then its their problem, they should research. Also most people that dont understand what they are getting only browse the net and dont care about the speed, even if they yhink they do. Once you get past 1 meg the net is no better for web pages.

The only way people will get faster broadband is if the money is put in by bt to upgrade the network, which costs money and the costs will be passed onto the ISP's and then to the customers.

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