Welcome to the Increase Broadband Speed Blog, in which we bring you tips to increase your broadband speed.
Substantial Price Decreases in FTTP on Demand from February 2018 May Fuel FTTP Adoption
There have been promising developments that may stimulate the adoption of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). Openreach has recently announced significant price decreases in its FTTP on Demand product from February 2018, which (with the help of a … [Continue reading]
Fibre Broadband VDSL2 Vectoring Finally Arrives
Vectoring has just been switched on on my street cabinet and, in this blog, I discuss the substantial speed increase that has been achieved. I also show you how you can determine whether vectoring has been enabled on your own fibre broadband … [Continue reading]
Review of Synology RT2600ac Wireless Router
Our new recommended wireless router for conventional ADSL and fibre broadband Our new recommended wireless router for 2017 is the Synology RT2600ac, which is a state-of-the-art wireless router that provides the capabilities we believe are necessary … [Continue reading]
Amazon Ultra HD Launch of The Grand Tour Represents Major Milestone
Car enthusiasts have warmly greeted Amazon's spectacular launch of its The Grand Tour series, starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May (who originally presented the BBC's Top Gear). According to Amazon, the first episode of The Grand … [Continue reading]
BT Trials Long Reach VDSL (LR-VDSL)
A major weakness of the Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology that BT is currently deploying for superfast broadband is that speeds are dependent upon the distance of the copper cable that runs between the street cabinet and business premises and … [Continue reading]
Review of Sky Q Ultra HD
Last year, we reviewed the BT Ultra HD (4k) TV service on its launch. We were very impressed with the image quality achieved with BT's flagship Ultra HD football content. We now review Sky's own Ultra HD service, which is delivered using Sky's new … [Continue reading]
Review of Boosty: Bonding ADSL Broadband with 4G or 3G Mobile
With all the press interest in superfast and ultrafast broadband technologies, it is easy to understand the frustrations for consumers and businesses that only have access to basic ADSL services with low speeds. Despite the rapid roll-out of … [Continue reading]
BT Increases its Ultrafast Broadband Target to 12 Million Premises by 2020
BT has announced an ambition to roll out ultrafast broadband to 12 million UK premises by 2020 - two million more than previously announced. Two technologies will be used to achieve this: Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and G.fast. BT's FTTP plans … [Continue reading]
What is G.fast?
While it's still relatively early days in the roll-out of Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) fibre broadband technology in the UK, a new technology is around the corner that will offer significantly higher download and upload speeds. This new technology - … [Continue reading]
BT Increases the Top Speed of its BT Infinity 1 Service to 52 Mbps
Reflecting the availability of a new (so called "55/10") VDSL2 speed profile on BT's fibre broadband network, BT has increased the maximum download throughput offered on its BT Infinity 1 service to about 52 Mbps. Prior to the change, the BT … [Continue reading]
Speed Up DNS Look-ups For Faster Web Browsing
Web browsing remains one of the most popular uses of a broadband connection, and many broadband users judge the performance of their broadband connection by the responsiveness and speed of browsing. Many people assume that web browsing performance is … [Continue reading]
BT Launches BT Sport Ultra HD
At 2.45pm on Sunday 2nd August 2015, BT made history by launching the first broadcast channel in Ultra HD format in the UK. On its new BT Sport Ultra HD channel, delivered by fibre broadband, BT screened the 2015 FA Community Shield - a live football … [Continue reading]
Review of BT Ultra HD (4k) TV Service
New! Don't forget to view our Review of Sky Q Ultra HD As described in our previous article HD and 4k Delivered by Fibre Broadband, Ultra HD content is developing nicely and BT has now arrived on the scene! BT has made a very promising start with … [Continue reading]
Setting Up the Billion 8800NL and 8800AXL For BT TV (Multicast)
Our favourite modem routers - the Billion 8800NL and the enhanced Billion 8800AXL - provide superb performance and represent great upgrades for broadband users using either conventional ADSL broadband or fibre broadband. For fibre broadband users, … [Continue reading]
HD and 4k TV Delivered by Fibre Broadband
In this blog, we look at the delivery of TV services, including the very latest Ultra HD (sometimes termed '4k') services from Netflix, Amazon and BT. Superfast broadband brings consumers the opportunity of enhancing TV delivered by traditional … [Continue reading]
Online Speed Tests: how to use them and which are the best
I’ve lost count of the number of people that have told me that their broadband connection is not working properly because an online speed test has reported low or highly variable speeds. You need to be very cautious with online speed tests as they … [Continue reading]
G.INP, the New Fibre Broadband Enhancement Arrives
A major enhancement called G.INP has been introduced to my fibre broadband FTTC connection, as part of BT's rollout of a new technology aimed at improving fibre broadband speeds and reducing errors. In this article, I look at G.INP and its benefits, … [Continue reading]
No Signs Yet of Successful Demand Stimulation For Fibre Broadband in BT's Latest Results
The last time I reported on the growth in BT’s fibre broadband take-up was in July 2014. Then, the take-up statistics showed absolutely no sign of an increasing upward trend and pointed to the failure of BT and ISPs to successfully get the positive … [Continue reading]
WiFi Optimisation Guide - how to improve your WiFi connection and speeds
Within the last four months, most households in my local community have migrated from conventional broadband services (delivering download speeds of between 0.5 and 4 Mbps) to fibre broadband. While feedback about fibre broadband has generally … [Continue reading]
Award from the UK Prime Minister
This month, I was honoured to receive a national volunteering award from Prime Minister David Cameron. This is in recognition of my volunteering work on broadband, including support to Connecting Cambridgeshire and helping residents in my local … [Continue reading]
BT Fibre Broadband Take-up Creeps Up to 15%
On the 31st July 2014, BT announced its financial results for the quarter ending June 2014. It announced that its fibre broadband network covered about 20 million premises, and that about 3 million of these had signed up, making take-up about 15% of … [Continue reading]
Early Deployment of Vectoring is Essential to Avoid a Crosstalk Crisis with FTTC Fibre Broadband
Latest! Read our most recent article: Fibre Broadband VDSL2 Vectoring Arrives (Nov 2017) We have just been connected to FTTC fibre broadband, giving us the opportunity to observe the adverse effects of crosstalk interference on speeds and … [Continue reading]
Review and Guide For the Billion 8800NL
New! The Billion 8800NL has been upgraded to the 8800NL V2, and now incorporates two external antennas to improve wireless range. We are really excited to bring you our review and optimisation guide for the new Billion BiPAC 8800NL wireless modem … [Continue reading]
Bonded DSL: Bonding Three and Four ADSL Lines (Part 2)
This is the second part of our independent review of bonded broadband solutions from UK-based Evolving Networks. In our first review, we tested the bonding of two DSL connections. In this article, we present the results from bonding three and four … [Continue reading]
Sluggish Take-up of Superfast Broadband Emphasises the Need For Demand Stimulation
As an enthusiast for superfast broadband, widespread availability of superfast broadband services across the UK cannot come too soon! With BT's commercial fibre broadband roll-out coming to end with the provision of fibre broadband to around two … [Continue reading]
Review of Bonded ADSL From Evolving Networks
Part 2 of this review is now available by clicking on this link: Bonding Three and Four ADSL Lines (Part 2) ADSL bonding is significantly cheaper than a leased line and provides businesses with resilience. Since there is so little published … [Continue reading]
Raising the Awareness of ADSL Bonding Through an Extended Trial With Evolving Networks
Broadband users struggling with low speeds from an individual ADSL or ADSL2+ connection often wrongly assume that the solution to their problem will only come with the deployment of fibre broadband. While the pace of fibre broadband roll-out has … [Continue reading]
Fibre Broadband (FTTC) Self Install and the Risks to Broadband Speeds Without a VDSL Faceplate Filter
The accountants seem to have been actively working in BT recently, with a number interesting, financially-motivated decisions taken. These revolve around optimising BT's services to better reflect the practical costs of installation of fibre-optic … [Continue reading]
BT's Fibre Broadband Penetration is Still Under 14%
BT has just announced its results for the third quarter to the end of December 2013, and they show continued progress in the roll-out of superfast fibre broadband, as shown in the figure, below. BT announced that it had passed more than 18 million … [Continue reading]
TV and Video Driving the Demand For Superfast Fibre Broadband
When we try to explain to people why they should subscribe to a fibre broadband service if fibre is available, the discussion tends to move quickly to TV and video services. One of the reasons is that many people using conventional ADSL and ADSL2+ … [Continue reading]
Latest Pricing Positions FTTP as a Niche Product
BT's Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) on Demand service has been surrounded by a great deal of mystery. While some critics have pointed to Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology adopted for BT's mainstream roll-out as not providing the best long-term, … [Continue reading]
Best ADSL Modem: Our Recommended ADSL/ADSL2+ Modem Router
Particularly for broadband users living a significant distance from their BT exchange, the choice of modem router can make a substantial difference to the speeds that can be obtained on ADSL and ADSL2+ lines. Modem routers are certainly not all the … [Continue reading]
What's Involved in a Fibre Broadband Customer Installation?
I was lucky to witness the very first customer installation of superfast fibre broadband associated with the Connecting Cambridgeshire project. The installation itself was very quick, and is captured in the video below (together with before and after … [Continue reading]
First Fibre Cabinets for Connecting Cambridgeshire
Connecting Cambridgeshire celebrated its first milestone - the first ten fibre street cabinets going live for the project - at a special event in Grafham. Connecting Cambridgeshire has one of the most ambitious objectives among BDUK-related roll-out … [Continue reading]
Usage of Superfast Connections is Almost Double Conventional Broadband
Ofcom has published its 2013 Infrastructure Report Update, with some interesting statistics on the state of broadband in the UK. The report shows that superfast broadband networks are now available to 73% of UK premises, up from 65% in 2012. This is … [Continue reading]
Fibre Broadband to 98% of Merseyside by July 2016
A partnership of five councils led by Liverpool City Council has signed a £15.9m contract with BT to make high-speed fibre broadband available to 98% of homes and businesses in Merseyside by the end of July 2016. About 89% of premises should be able … [Continue reading]
Fibre Broadband to 91% of Berkshire by September 2015
Members of the six Berkshire unitary councils leading on the ‘Superfast Berkshire’ project and the Local Enterprise Partnership have signed a contract with BT that will see high-speed fibre broadband becoming available to around 91% of premises … [Continue reading]
Fibre Broadband For East Riding of Yorkshire by December 2015
East Riding of Yorkshire Council has signed a £14 million deal with BT to bring high-speed fibre broadband to 42,000 premises in the East Riding of Yorkshire by December 2015. The Council has not divulged what percentage of premises this equates … [Continue reading]
Fibre Broadband to 97% of West Yorkshire by Autumn 2015
A £21.96 million contract has been signed between four West Yorkshire local authorities and BT to extend high-speed fibre broadband to 97% of households and businesses "across the majority" of West Yorkshire by the end of autumn 2015. BT is … [Continue reading]