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Telus High Speed Turbo - Acceptable?

9K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  x katt x 
#1 ·
I have limited knowledge on internet download speeds and many out there seem quite knowledgeable about this.

Wondering if someone can shed some light on what might be acceptable download speeds with the Telus packages?

I live in Kelowna and have been on Telus High Speed Enhanced (V5) internet for many months... maybe even years. My concern is I have the Siemens Gigaset SE567 Modem/router and rarely get download speeds over 2Mbps (checking with Speedtest.net). Even my Telus iPhone gets faster speeds! And the Telus website advertises High Speed Download speeds of between 1.5 to 6.0 Mbps. Why am I nearly always getting speeds from 1.5 to 2.0 Mbps?

http://www.telus.com/content/internet/highspeed/compare.jsp

With many websites now streaming HD video and live TV it seems 2Mbps isn't quite enough to get the job done. So I've ordered Telus High Speed Turbo because their website (above) advertises speeds between 10.0 to 15.0 Mbps.

This upgrade should be connected monday but I am wondering, are others with the 'Turbo' package getting speeds under 10.0 Mbps? and if so, why? and can a Telus tech do something to increase it? What would be acceptable especially when they advertise a minimum of 10.0 Mbps?

Just throwing my thoughts out there because I am worried it will be less than 10.0 Mbps when I am paying more and hearing stories of 6.0 with Telus Turbo etc.

I appeciate any feedback :)
 
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#2 ·
There are a number of technical reasons why your line speed may be as low as it is. The main one is probably distance from the Central Office since a DSL signal degrades over long distances.

Telus has laid fibre-optic cable to nodes (FTTN) in each neighbourhood for Optik TV and higher speed internet. If the installer can connect the copper wire from your home to the fibre-optic node, then the distance will be short enough to give you good line speed.

If that's not the case, the installer may be able to do other things to improve the line speed.

Since Telus advertises High Speed Turbo as 10 - 15 Mbps, you should check that you can at least reach 10 Mbps. If you can't then you may decide to stay on "High Speed" which will be capped at 6 Mbps. BTW, Telus doesn't guarantee a minimum speed since network conditions can vary, but the installer should be able to demonstrate that the line can at least reach 10 Mbps.
 
#3 ·
Can you give a general idea where you live in Kelowna? There is HS service to my parents-in-law place (road full of farms in the lower Mission area) and when we use it, we get 6Mbps DL speeds (which is what we had them signed up for). We're using an old Siemens modem we had lying around so I doubt if it's your modem.

Their area is good for 1HD/2SD Telus TV service.

Haven't followed the phone lines to see how far they are away from a box.
 
#4 ·
High speed turbo is advertised as having a 10.0 - 15.0 mbps speed. This varience is due to the way ADSL/VDSL work. The further you are from the DSLAM (the equipment that actually gives you your internet access, the port and related gear) the more the signal is attenuated by cable length. This attenuation causes the speed to be decreased in response.

If you qualify for Highspeed turbo, then you are within the range that is required to get those speeds (10.0 - 15.0 mbps). The qual tool makes the calculation based on your total distance from port to modem and gives the OK or NO GO depending on the theoretical calculation it makes. If TELUS will give you the service it is because you qualify. This means the service should work, if it doesn't it will only be a matter of cleaning up your circuit and then things will work as they should. Cleaning up is doing things like removing bridged taps, clear capping your FX pair, dedicating your internet jack in the residence and separating the data from voice services using a POTS splitter. These are all things that may well be abit geek speak to you, but they are the type of routine measures required to get an otherwise qualified line to perform properly when it won't.

In the end, what matters to you is, if you qualify, TELUS will make it work correctly in the cases where it doesn't right away. You will get between 10.0 - 15.0 if you get highspeed turbo, thats a certainty. If you don't, and it can't be resolved, you will be notified and moved to a slower less expensive service.

If someone is getting 6.0 and is paying for turbo, its because they haven't made a service call. That or they are quoting download speeds from specific websites. The speed at which you can download from any specific website is not a realistic or accurate way to measure your internet connection speed, as this has many factors unrelated to connection speed, such as the number of clients using the server at that momnent, the route required to reach the server, packet loss on that route that can be caused by faulty internet routers, the servers actual connection speed. There is no way to get 10mbps from a webserver that is only willing to grant 3mbps access. Thats not a failure or weakness of your internet connection, thats a result of the connection to that particular server or how it is configured. There is no way any provider can guarentee a download speed from any particular website or server, since that is beyond their control. If you can achieve the correct numbers on a speed test, or using a meter such as a dynatel or other test gear, then your connection is verified as being correct, regardless of how fast you can connect to someone elses website or server.

Hope this makes it clearer. Rest assured if you qualify, you will get the rates quoted (at all hours of the day or night) or you can call in and have it fixed. :)


- another TELUS tech
 
#5 ·
Well, today I woke up after a night shift and checked my speed upgrade and am pleasantly surprised. :D (I live near Costco)



I will check it again at different times but if it holds steady above 10 Mbps, I think this will work great! Thanks for the great responses ~ they helped me understand this better!
 
#6 ·
Have Both Telus & Shaw

Just had Shaw installed and have my Telus still connected and did the online tests on both and Shaw download was averaging 24.5 and Telus was 2.5 yet most Internet pages loaded exactly the same with Telus occassionally seeming faster page loading at times?
Anyone explain how there could be such a supposed difference in the download tests yet little if any difference in page loading?
 
#7 ·
Shaw's 24.5 mbps is due to Powerboost, that's not the real speed. Webpages are fairly "light" in size, therefore you probably won't notice any difference if the speed is 5 mbps or 100 mbps. Where you would notice the difference is when downloading large files.
 
#8 ·
Enhanced tops out at 3.0 Mbps, so it's no surprise you were hitting a ceiling of 2Mbps. The pricing is the same for 3.0 as it is for 6.0, which one you get depends on the fastest they can get to your residence/ports available. Sounds like they gave you the fastest they had when you signed up but faster tiers became available afterward. :eek:
 
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