3 ms·

Just a data point but no, my ISPs have typically delivered within 5% of the 100- 200mbps plan speed the vast majority of the time, at least as a short burst.

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
> at least as a short burst Ok, I worked in telecom and saw the roll out of priority bursting... to me, this makes your data a yes. Every ISP does in fact over sub. They put in boosting and over provisioning to stop complaints. The service would be far more expensive if they had to guarantee sustained speeds, or rather that you had a guaranteed bandwidth potential.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  It's impossible to not "over subscribe" in a strict sense unless you have dedicated bandwidth to and through every peering point of your ISP which most "DIA" service doesn't even have let alone consumer service. It's not really a factor in this question though. The discussion with Frontier is they sold speeds that were impossible to reach, ever, not that the sold speeds you couldn't reach 100% of the time. Most ISPs do not do this, the vast majority will at least hit advertised speeds regularly even if they aren't guaranteed to at any instant.
  - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
    Totally agree. The issue is Frontier seems to have lied their ass off about speeds that wouldn’t ever be possible over POTS. And I’ll concede that oversub for DIA is totally different. Surely it’s still possible somewhere but ever less and less likely considering how much larger a 1Gbps fiber pipe is a 56k connection to 15k people at once. But for actual broadband... I know ISPs over subscribe because I’ve seen it. I’ve been on the calls and in the room when it’s being calculated. Literally everyone does it. Speed boost and overprovisioning are tricks to please customers who are willing to accept “lots of people are online tonight so it’s slow”.

3 ms·

Just a data point but no, my ISPs have typically delivered within 5% of the 100- 200mbps plan speed the vast majority of the time, at least as a short burst.

by porknubbins 5y ago

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
> at least as a short burst Ok, I worked in telecom and saw the roll out of priority bursting... to me, this makes your data a yes. Every ISP does in fact over sub. They put in boosting and over provisioning to stop complaints. The service would be far more expensive if they had to guarantee sustained speeds, or rather that you had a guaranteed bandwidth potential.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  It's impossible to not "over subscribe" in a strict sense unless you have dedicated bandwidth to and through every peering point of your ISP which most "DIA" service doesn't even have let alone consumer service. It's not really a factor in this question though. The discussion with Frontier is they sold speeds that were impossible to reach, ever, not that the sold speeds you couldn't reach 100% of the time. Most ISPs do not do this, the vast majority will at least hit advertised speeds regularly even if they aren't guaranteed to at any instant.
  - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
    Totally agree. The issue is Frontier seems to have lied their ass off about speeds that wouldn’t ever be possible over POTS. And I’ll concede that oversub for DIA is totally different. Surely it’s still possible somewhere but ever less and less likely considering how much larger a 1Gbps fiber pipe is a 56k connection to 15k people at once. But for actual broadband... I know ISPs over subscribe because I’ve seen it. I’ve been on the calls and in the room when it’s being calculated. Literally everyone does it. Speed boost and overprovisioning are tricks to please customers who are willing to accept “lots of people are online tonight so it’s slow”.