What is typical broadband speed for rural location?

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tims

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#175742 10-Jul-2015 12:22

I live in a small rural town in Central Otago about 19km from the nearest exchange (Ranfurly). The broadband speed here has never been great but lately it's becoming increasing slower more times than not.
I'm fairly close to the line equipment box (<60 M) and probably have one of the better performing broadband connections in town.
Using the app speed checker (I can only connect via wifi) l get these typical results.

When the internet is relatively fast I'm getting:
Ping 130 to 250 ms
download 1.3 Mb/sec to 1.6 Mb/sec
upload 0.5 to 2 Mb/sec (sometimes my upload speed is faster than download).

When it's slow either speed checker does not work at all or speeds are in the range of:
Ping 400 to 900 ms and
0.5 to 0.8 Mb/sec both download and upload.

As I mentioned above I believe I have one of the faster broadband connection around - there's some fed up locals around!

Are these speeds typical of rural broadband? The speed has never been great but could it be a fault or maybe we have old line equipment that needs upgrading?
We plan to have a meeting soon to discuss what we can do with sending multiple fault complaints at the top of the list.

Any thoughts appreciated.

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michaelmurfy

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#1340558 10-Jul-2015 12:43

You're connected to the DSL cabinet PTA/T - it appears to be a ASAM (not quite sure what model) not on Fibre so around 4-16mbit shared between everyone but are in a 5mbit max zone.

It looks like you're about 400m away from this cabinet so the problem appears to be local cabinet congestion. Also not on the RBI upgrade roadmap

Here is an excellent blog post written by Steve with your situation: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/sbiddle/8780

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

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pjamieson

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Chorus

#1366507 14-Aug-2015 17:24

I just want to let those that keep saying there is no point logging a case to Chorus about Congestion know that this is incorrect. Short term there will be no change yes, but these should always be put through the RSP as they are all logged in Chorus (my team actually does it), reported on regularly and push for more investment (how else do you thin the recent 20 Exchange upgrades happened?).

If you are experiencing Throughput issues (speed much less than your connection speeds), you are probably Rural and either fed from a Conklin (with E1 Backhaul - up to 7.8Mbit/s) or ASAM with E1 (or ATM Fibre Backhaul with 10's of Mbit/s Backhaul). However ATM Backhaul can also be sub-tended off other ASAM's, which limits their capacity.

The minimum regulated Throughput legislated by the Commerce Commission from 2006 is 32kbit/s over a 15min period (0.03 Mbps download on your Speed-test) and DSLAM's do not allow less than this when full. Most users are far above that, but that doesn't meet today's Internet needs for Video etc in some peoples view, but worth remembering you are connected to a BASIC UBA connection.

The National Government agreed to extend the Rural industry subsidy until 2019, which may cover your area. In the end these Legacy Cabinets need to be upgraded in the next several years, they were not meant to last forever.

For Throughput issues you (and anyone else complaining in your community) should call your Retail Service Provider (RSP) so they can log a case with Chorus (after the normal troubleshooting to ensure it is not something else) for a "Slow Throughput" case to Chorus Assure (Faults). These will come back as to whether there is an upgrade currently planned or not. But they are all logged and will dictate the priority of future investment when it becomes available.