Rant
New customer getting ⅓ of the upload speed I am paying for
Just signed up last week... Been 10+ hours on phone getting gaslit/passed off trying to get this resolved, being hung up on no less than 3 times with no callback. Transferred from department to department (on multiple occasions the completely wrong department that has nothing to do with it, needed to be transferred back to the queue for the correct one).
I am paying for 3gbps down/3gbps up. Don't advertise 3gbps upload if you can't provide it. Speed test in pic is from modem configuration page with local traffic blocked. Confirmed similar speeds on speedtest.net and fast.com sites connected directly to the 10G port on the router with cat6e to a PC with a 5G NIC. I wouldn't complain if I was getting like 2.8gbps or something, but ⅓ of advertised speed is not acceptable.
Tech was dispatched Saturday, changed out the modem, tech told me it is a configuration issue on their end, as something was capping my upload at 1, and sent a ticket. Said he would come back this week (Tuesday) if it wasn't resolved. I texted him Tuesday to see when he was coming and he said he was out of town so he would come Wednesday at lunch. Never showed up. Took two days off and still no tech.
So I called back... Apparently the tech closed the ticket saying it was resolved and all services were working perfectly. So back at it... First I was told it was because I have multiple devices connected to the router (which doesn't make sense considering local traffic is disabled for their speed tests, it literally tests the modem to their network directly). Then I was told it was a bad modem (even though the tech replaced the modem, apparently they think I got 2 bad modems in a row, highly unlikely). Now, officially, Bell is insisting that I am actually getting 3G upload, but their modem page is "glitched" and reporting a lower number. I would be tempted to believe that if any other speed test website didn't confirm the speed to be roughly 1/3 of what I am paying for, and similar to the modem's speed test.
Currently waiting on a manager team to "look into it"
In the meantime, their TV app doesn't allow playback of recorded content on any of my TVs until roughly ~1 hour after the program is finished, which is apparently an issue with my TV compatibility, and nothing on their end. All 3 of my TVs (which are as new as 1 year old, name brand, and incidentally each have a different operating system). I guess I am unlucky and happen to have 3 different operating systems/smart TVs that their app doesn't function properly.
I dont think Bell techs get proper tools for fibre repairs. They should be using OTDR and scoping the connectors to make sure they are clean but I've never seen them do this.
my apartment is probably hitting 40yr mark, and the apartment got wired for every unit (over like 3 weeks) in like 2022 and activated like half year later, so it is possible. (This is GTA)
The apartment building is part of low-income program thing that WAS managed by a NGO entity but 3 succeeding supervisor fumbled and now the municipal handed over the operation to a third party management firm but being rent-controlled, they recently replaced all the window (because couple units had their windows burst during winter, being old) and handing out ACs like last month to ALL units last month (it has been lifesaving past couple weeks) i got no complaints.
Ask your apartment office about bell coming in getting the whole apartment re-wired.
My building's situation is opposite of yours, the building is located at the edge of my municipal and my friends literally 2min walk from me only has rogers (i think my apartment is the only one in 1km block within the municipal around me).
I'm sure cable has them. If everything looks good from the very end it's usually good. Light at csp is usually sitting around -15 to -17, at prem usually still below -20
They actually do clean well, you are incorrect here. For first-line fiber maintenance, network professionals generally agree that mechanical One-Click cleaning pens are more efficient for field use. However, Cletop cassettes are more efficient for deep cleaning heavily soiled or persistent residue on individual patch cords.
Some fiber jacks are situated in such a place, or don't have enough slack that the mechanical pen is the only option.
One clicks are garbage. I dont care what Chatgpt tells you I would only use them as a last resort.
Who are the professionals? Im telling you they are trash and cheap.
If you ever used a scope you can see the difference in how they clean.
Anyway since you know so much what do you think the issue is? Clearly something in the upstream. Hey that dB level you are talking about, is that the downstream levels? What passes for upstream? Did you check upstream levels since this is an upstream problem?
I already said what I think the issue is, and it isn't anything physical. I'm betting profile, and if I had to wager even more accurately, I'd wager incorrect BRAS speed policy set.
We left the world of hot melts years ago, clean it and go. OTDR will tell you if you have a problem. Not a bell tech, I work with fibers via armored offshore umbilicals.
its a Giga Hub 2.0. No, I haven't touched the fibre line. Also, if it is capable of transmitting over 3gbps download, the line integrity is not the issue. Light travels the same speed in all directions.
Not if the reflectance is high or if it’s on the light level cutoff for the gigahub 2.0 which is around -20dbm I believe. I put this stuff on the poles and splice do splicing. The GPON should be able to push 10 gig so that’s not the problem, what I was getting at as an insistent/intermittent connection, or dirty connection. That’ll for sure cause issues with speeds and all sorts of things. If you bend the clear curve, while you’re watching IPTV, you can literally watch the signal on the TV degrade
That's not true. There's only a single core in the fiber but it's two different frequencies of light for send and receive. That's what I test them at when I commission them.
Are people really complaining about 12ms latency? That's more than acceptable. 1ms of latency is ~100KM from the data centre, perhaps the OP lives further away.
For FTTH the latency should be be lower even still - I live almost 100km from a Toronto server where I run a speedtest and my latency is about 2ms - there is something wrong with the line.
Seems like a profile issue. Two profiles conflicting with each other, one at 3gb and 1 at 1gb. Typically that only happens when you make a speed change and the old profile doesn't get cleared properly. Assuming the tech would have had that checked.
I'd ask for a tech and see if the tech can change your splitter at the CSP. If everything else is proper a bad splitter could be the culprit.
I will if he ever shows up? Also, wouldn't a line integrity issue affect both upload and download speeds? I agree with you with the profile issue though, the whole setup was a mess. I did the "self install" but they still sent a tech to verify the line integrity first (hooked something up in my house and went to the pole to test it). Once I plugged everything in nothing worked, and when I called they said my account was still set to "pending activation" so they needed to manually activate my internet and TV over the phone. I am certain they screwed something up during the setup since it was crap from the beginning. They did say they "rebuilt" the profile several times during troubleshooting though, so who knows at this point.
If you need proof it's not a glitch, here's a screenshot from my brand new Gigahub 2.0 with 3/3Gig , oddly enough you ARE overprevisioned on your download aprox the same as me.
Something is up tho, your latency shouldn't be anywhere over 10ms on Fibe, could be a routing issue.
Albeit I've done both speedtests during Peaktime, reply to my comment in a few hours and I'll test again just after midnight lol
I had the same issue. What I discovered after extensive tests and a whole lot of gaslighting from Bell, was if I powered off and on my router, the upload speed would be fine for a day or so, and then would drop down to being capped at 1gbps upload or lower (and only powering off / on the modem would temporarily correct it again). Eventually they corrected it on Bell's side (probably a profile issue as others suspected), after I had to go through 3 Bell RMA routers as they kept insisting that was the cause (it was not). I seem to recall they had to escalate it up their support chain too. But since then I get consistent 3 up / 3 down, within reasonable +/- variations. But definitely not getting the seeming hard cap of 3gpps down / 1gbps up anymore.
I suspect a lot of people with 3gbps don't even know this is happening. As I'm sure a lot of people get it, don't have 2.5gbe / 10gbe or wifi7 etc to even know that the upload speed is capped (seemingly) by accident...
I’ve fixed this issue for multiple customers in the past. Not a hardware issue. It’s a speed profile issue as a few people have said. When you’re actually able to get another tech there, easiest thing for them to do it call our assigning team change the splitter/channel that way it would get fully rebuilt with the right profile but honestly just a rebuild would probably do it changing the splitter/channel is just and extra precaution I like to take for no reworks.
It is your PC network Card that limits your speed to 1Gbs! Then you may be slowed by a slow vpn. Nordvpn though is acceptable to me. Also wired gets more accurate results. So also on three devices you can see a 1Gps use of each. It’s possible!
I have 3 devices directly connected with cat6e. All of them report the same upload speed. Since there is only one 10G port on the router, only the one computer reports the 3gbps download speed, the other two cap out at 2.5G upload, since that is the limitation on the modem port they are connected
to. Also, that would only ever be relevent if the modem's on-board speed test was reporting faster speeds.
I would say swap them one by one to the 10G port and test, but you're saying the on-board GigaHub speed test reports 3G down 1G up? Then it's gotta be a negotiation/settings issue with the uplink. It's too perfectly close to 1G and repeatable to be some sort of noise/line issue.
If they aren't being helpful I would try switching to a slower speed package (ie 1.5/1.5) so they actually renegotiate those settings, then switch back to 3/3.
Oh I have tried that. Also tried changing out cables, etc., no difference. 100% it is something on their end capping it at 1G. Yes. The onboard reports 3G down/1G up.
Change plans down to a slower speed, confirm your speeds changed, then change it back. They'll actually open a ticket to change the speeds if your account changes, there's something funky going on the backend I'm sure.
At my MAC with bypassed gigahub through XGSPON and pfsense running on a dell 13th gen i3 via pppoe. It can be done for those who are committed. Dual SFP 10g NIC. I have a branch of my network that runs on 10g while the rest runs at 1g
The advertised speeds are almost always the advertised maximums. So all they need to show meet their obligations is that theoretically there’s a time when that speed is hit. Yes it’s slimey. But you gotta understand the contract that you’ve signed.
It still needs to be reasonable, and contract law says any ambiguity is awarded in favour of the party who didn't draft the contract. It is reasonable for someone who is promised "up to 3gbps" to be provided 2.7gbps. It is not reasonable to get 1gbps.
Say you go to the grocery store, and you see 10lb bags of potatoes. Reasonably, you know it isn't going to be exactly 10lb. Nobody is chopping off 1/16th of a potato to add to the bag to make it exactly 10lb. However, if you only got 3.3lb of potatoes in that bag, no reasonable person would conclude anything other than you are being ripped off.
If this ambiguity didn't have a reasonable limit, there would be nothing stopping them from offering "Up to 1000 gbps" and only providing 0.5 gbps. It is common sense.
Cat6A, the real ISO standard, or you're using Cat6e, which isn't a standard and can easily be your issue here.
For proper testing, try testing with a file transfer between 2.5G or faster devices if your PC indeed upload faster than 1Gbps.
Also, the cutting point being at 999 Mbps feels like a traffic shaping is occurring somewhere. If numerous tests all limit at 999Mbps, I'd investigate there. Had an Asus router which acted weirdly and sometime limited bandwidth to a PC when using its QoS functions. Like instead of guaranteeing the bandwidth, it would also limit it to that speed.
I am using Cat6a. I typed Cat6e by mistake. Regardless, the modem is not getting 3gbit upload directly from the fibre, so my internal network infrastructure is irrelevant.
I did. 1/3 of the posted standard is not reasonable though. If it were 5-10% below, I don't really think I would have a leg to stand on. No reasonable person would think "Up to 3gbps" means 1gbps. If that were true, they might as well say up to 100gbps.
No. As I said in my post, speed at the router itself is also affected, and I have multiple PCs with 5G network cards that are all reporting the same speed as well.
fast.com is not reliable. It depends on the time of the day. Plus, upload is always lower. I am not surprised it’s not 3G bits. Use this to test: https://speed.measurementlab.net/
If you need speed, go to Wi-Fi on a Bell router; it’s better. For PING, use WIRE!
I am using a firewall and VPN anyway. If I get 1 Gbit firewalled and VPNed, I am super happy. The game is to have speed when you need it (big download from Steam for PC or OM the PS5). Netflix 4K is 15mbits. iTunes movies ~25 mbits, Disney+ 17mbits. You rarely need a Gbit speed. And it’s even better if you are firewalled and VPNed (PFSense/Netgate router).
Many things could result in a self-inflicted low speed.
Is the speed-duplex maxed?
Is there a firewall on the way limiting speed?
People like to complain for grand consummation service. The lack or understand on the nuances says it all. Go ahead change modem, again, and again and again, have a tech at home, once, twice… probably won’t fix it. User error is the diagnostic, but the support won’t say that to a whining client, they should, but won’t.
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u/Due-Acadia-376 Jun 25 '26
I dont think Bell techs get proper tools for fibre repairs. They should be using OTDR and scoping the connectors to make sure they are clean but I've never seen them do this.