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Just moved into a new build and Grain (provider I’d never heard of) set a router up in the house before completion.
I turn up, activate it and get 7 free days with it on their ‘ultra fast 300mb upload and download speed’ and when they ends they call me to see if I want to sign up.
So that’s what I did and it works fine. No issues at all. 4 bed house with me and the wife and two kids 6 & 8.
The free trial ends Tuesday so I need to decide what to do. I’m happy to stay with them for the convenience but I’ve no idea if the 300mb is overkill, they offer a 100mb ‘super fast’ option which is £8 less per month.
I’ll happily pay the extra £8 if I think I’d benefit but I’ve no idea what speed I’m actually getting and if I’d see a difference if I went fit the 100mb.
For reference it’s a 4 bed house, me, wife and two kids 6 & 8. Phone, iPad, Spotify, smart tv (YouTube and Netflix).
Kids have an Xbox but no streaming / online gaming going on. Fairly standard use id imagine.
If you’re each (antisocially!) streaming HD content that’s ~15Mbps each so 60Mbps.
So even 100 is overkill. The only reason to go higher imo would be if you anticipate doing mega downloads.
I’m on 22mb and never experienced any issues, if I was planning on taking over the world I’d want 300mb
Sorry, I should add that my wife WFH 3 days a week. On occasion I’d be WFH at the same time so laptop each, teams etc. not sure if that affects your responses!
100 is fine if the router is up to it.
100 should be plenty, I would think, assuming it's a competitive plan compared to other providers.
You can always upgrade the contract if it's too slow, though it will probably reset the contract and lock you in for a further 24 months.
It depends somewhat if any of your devices are wired and also if the router and your devices support WiFi 6. If the answer to any of these is yes then you might see the benefit of 300Mb. For example I have 1Gb fibre and my kids can download xBox games at 700Mb on a wired connection.
Its all getting a bit daft.
I pay a premium for about 37Mbps. I pay a premium because I work from home and choose to do so.
If there's ever a connection issue that's not down to my ISP, Openreach literally shit themselves when my ISP calls them. Because the people that work at my ISP know their stuff and won't be fobbed off.
On 37Mbps I can stream UHD in the lounge. HD upstairs. Google Home constantly.
And work too, which is data-intensive from an upload POV.
Oh - I'm not a gamer...
What are the total prices, and if you choose not to sign up what are your alternatives?
I paid an extra tenner to have 500 over 100 and while most of the time it is irrelevant, there are times when I know stuff I am doing would impact the ability of the house to watch Netflix etc. We both WFH which was also a factor.
I find having 300mb up quite useful - it's nice to have the 300mb down, but it's the 300mb up that has changed things for me. Let's me treat google drive for backups almost like a local drive.
37mbps is fine for one person, but you and the wife are WFH and the kids are upstairs, 1 watching netflix and one watching prime, all at the same time for example, plus streaming spotify over the the sound system or whatever, then it won't cut it, maybe an 80mbps connection would, but 100 is a safer bet.
300mbps I would say is overkill for the average family though.
It's me and my other half, both WFH.
So often UHD downstairs and HD upstairs. Whilst (ahem) working.
No problems whatsoever. Lack of throttling probably helps.
Sadly lots of new build homes are now locked into the provider that did a deal with the builder or are actually owned by the builder themselves.
18mts terms are common round my way fiber nest are a prime example.
@ewan Agree 100%. The upload speed is far more important, at least for me when pushing code changes, using GCP cli and so on.
37mbps is fine for one person, but you and the wife are WFH and the kids are upstairs, 1 watching netflix and one watching prime, all at the same time for example, plus streaming spotify over the the sound system or whatever, then it won’t cut it
Until April we survived fairly happily on a 10mbps connection.
Family of 5 Inc 3 teenage daughters all watching stuff on their phones/laptops plus streaming Netflix, etc. on at least 1 TV.
And spotify!
No idea how it worked but there was rarely any issue.
We're now FTTP and I've over compensated with an actual 180mbps connection.
OP: you'll be fine with 100.
It’s £25.99 for 100mb and £32.99 for the 300mb.
I could take a look at what BT are offering.
@pk13 on this site we can choose not to sign up with grain. If we do it’s only a 12 month contract.
It’s convenient tho that we move in and we have broadband. Can’t deny that but it doesn’t mean we have to stay with them.
32 quid is about right cheaper than BT/sky currently.
£25.99 for 100mb is a good deal assuming theres no stupid fair usage or throttling going on, and it includes a phone line too.. that's another consideration..it might me VOIP only if it's FTTP, which isn't nessesarily an issue, but you might have to pay a bit more on top for a VOIP service if you want a 'house phone'.
I'd probably suck it and see for 12 months as long as you can actually change provider
Surely VOIP is irrelevant now?
Unless work insist on an extension, of course.
Ran a speed test (are they reliable?!) and it gave me this
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You could try speedtest.net to double check...
But yes they are usualy a pretty good indicator.
Speedtest.net result 288.51
So the connection is good, you just need to determine what package/plan/speed is best for you and your budget.
100mbit will be fine, save your £8/month for fuel bills... I work from home (and not just email, proper remote desktoping) with two kids hammering netflix/steam/ps4. 22mbit ADSL was fine, moving to ~70mbit FTTC was a nice improvement for uploads but noboby else really noticed, and I only went to ~130mbit FTTP simply because it was cheaper.
Openreach literally shit themselves when my ISP calls them
Read this and guessed the ISP in advance. Hello, fellow A&A user 🙂
Are those prices plus or including line rental?
I would be astonished if they were competitive, they're banking on exactly what you're saying, "well, it's in now so..." It shouldn't be hard to novate elsewhere. Shop around. Virgin offers 200Mbps plus cable TV for £33/month without requiring line rental. I'm about to get fibre to the premises (500 up and down) for the same price.
Time Computers knew this back in the 1990s. We had many customers sign up for McAfee AV or whatever it was we bundled because it "came with the PC" so much be approved somehow.
Moved from 38 to 150 and cannot see any difference. BT has internet channels and I see no affect or improvement. Work from home too.
Family of 4 on Vodafone at 55mbps.
It's more than good enough for £19/mo with 2 adults working from home and kids gaming/streaming.
You may benefit from running a booster if it's a big house.
The router will run at 2 frequencies: Fast Wifi is at 5Ghz while 2.4Ghz is slower (20Mbps) but penetrates.
Is there any difference in the minimum guaranteed download speed for both packages, that is relevant.
I live in a rural area and have just signed up to the provider who have installed fibre. They are saying £25 for 100mbps or £25 for 300mbps
obvs went for 300mbps
How big is the new estate?
What backhaul have the ISP installed?
If it's a big estate and the backhaul is too small you're not going to see the claimed speeds once everyone is online and streaming Coronation Street (older man popular TV reference).
Virgin went through a period where they touted their high download speeds but had skimped on the backhaul and it would slow to dial-up at peak periods due to traffic shaping/contention issues.
Don't forget there is a difference between speed and bandwidth although the two are somewhat linked. I go for very high speed as I am impatient and when I am downloading software or other large files I want that to happen quickly and that is a separate thing to how many devices we have streaming, gaming, voip'ing etc.
For sure if you do not download large files then 100MB is plenty but if you do then go for as fast as you can afford.
Thanks for the input.
I’ve signed up for the 300mb .. you sign up for 12 months but you get two months free so I don’t start paying until December. Plus no price hikes over the course of that year. I’ll give it a go for that.