[Mark Rejhon]

Hello,

Everyone I've read says that Fibe6 Internet that's bundled with FibeTV, runs at 25 Mbps when all the TV's are turned off. Some new subscribers don't quite realize this. This should be a selling point for FibeTV, or eventually should be. It only slows down to Fibe6 speeds when 4 channels are being watched/recorded simultaneously.

Does Bell have any plans to bandwidth-limit the connections to 6 Mbps in the future?
Any plans to offer reduced tiers (i.e. 2 or 3 channels) for Fibe 12 / Fibe 16 users?
Any plans to offer premium speed (i.e. 40 Mbps) for people closer to the CO?

Mark Rejhon

 

[Boavista]

In my thread about my whole Fibe experience, i posted some speedtest images of what i got doing verious things. With no tv's on i think i got 26.XX/ Down and 6 megs up.

One csr i spoke to said they were planning on capping it at 6 soon.. but i dont think thats very valid.

 

[joepro]

I would definitely be interested in a plan that would allow 1-2 more HD feeds. My line tests suggest I could sync as high as 58mbps.

 

[UkuNZ]

The reps I spoke with effectively told me it is actually a fibe25 connection which goes down to a minimum of fibe6 when TVs are on. They used the higher speed as a selling point so I'd be fairly disappointed if it was later capped

 

[000]

Interesting, what would the internet speed be when Fibe TV and Fibe 25 are combined?

 

[pshine]

You cannot combine them. A pre-req for Fibe TV is Fibe 25, however, you will only be charged for Fibe 6 (in Ontario).

 

[Mark Rejhon]

There's only one choice.
FibeTV is actually a Fibe25 connection that's only being advertised as Fibe6.
(It's a 25Mbps/4Mbps sync)

 

[000]

Can you pay $5 to get the full 7mbps upload?

 

[pshine]

@000 - Not sure if I understand the question.
There is no 7Mbs upload. In Ontario you get Fibe6 and Quebec you get Fibe7 with Fibe TV (again, your connection must be able to support Fibe25 as a pre-req to get Fibe TV).

As for upload ??? you get approx. 3.5Mbs per second for uploading with a Fibe TV connection (all things being equal). (at least that's what a speed test will give you)

It would seem that if you are not using the Fibe TV bandwidth (i.e. no TV's running) you can get approx 23.5 Mbs for downloads - at least that's what I'm getting. One of the other threads has speeds that other Fibe users are getting.

 

[Mark Rejhon]

pshine,

000 is referring to Fibe25 which, does, indeed have 7Mbps upload. (This is unrelated to Quebec's Fibe7)
FibeTV lowers the upload sync to 4 Mbps.

 

[ScaryBob]

You cannot combine them. A pre-req for Fibe TV is Fibe 25

Theoretically, two fibe 25 lines could be combined or commissioned separately. The only thing that would limit that is the availability of equipment at Bell and Bell's willingness to do so. Teksavvy will commission two DSL lines in order to double DSL speeds using MLPPP. I've never heard of Bell doing it though.

 

[pshine]

@Mark Rejhon - my bad.... I will never know the love of Fibe25 since I have Fibe TV (or Bell allows us to have both concurrently).. dreaming..

 

[pshine]

Looks like Bell has capped the internet speed for those with Fibe TV - this morning I am getting 6.2Mbs when running a speed test.
It used to run around 24Mbs.... oh well, we knew it had to happen.

 

[joepro]

I haven't checked mine yet because I'm at work, but on the bright side this could mean they are coming out with higher tiers? And hopefully a profile that allows at least one more HD feed?
EDIT:

Just checked and I haven't been capped yet. Hope I'm not jinxing it by posting here.

 

[pshine]

Just did another speed test at 10:00pm and got just over 17Mbs over the Fibe link with 1 HD stream going - looks like whatever happened this morning to knock it down to 6Mbs has disappeared. .... very strange

 

[ErikBRak1m]

Just did mine while watching the Stamps & Roughriders game on TSN HD. All in all, not bad, especially considering that the TV is running. I'm going to have to try it with the Fibe TV shut off, though. I'm curious just how much more it might go up.

 

[ErikBRak1m]

What I have found out, after discussing this seemingly-increased-speed-even-while-the-TV-was-on situation with a Bell Tech. Support Rep., is that currently speed is not being "capped" for FibeTV users. Come Oct. 31/Nov. 1, though, a "speed cap" will be put in place. I have been told that a letter is coming shortly that will state this. If you signed up for the Fibe 6 plan with Fibe TV, you will still receive that; however, if you desire more speed, upgrades to Fibe12 or even a Fibe16+ service will be available for $5 and $10 charges respectively over and above the Fibe 6 plan.

 

[unleashedlive]

What I have found out, after discussing this seemingly-increased-speed-even-while-the-TV-was-on situation with a Bell Tech. Support Rep., is that currently speed is not being "capped" for FibeTV users. Come Oct. 31/Nov. 1, though, a "speed cap" will be put in place. I have been told that a letter is coming shortly that will state this. If you signed up for the Fibe 6 plan with Fibe TV, you will still receive that; however, if you desire more speed, upgrades to Fibe12 or even a Fibe16+ service will be available for $5 and $10 charges respectively over and above the Fibe 6 plan.

I just got off the phone and was told it's still Fibe 25 (when not watching tv) and a guarantee of Fibe 6 while watching. No mention of a cap. You do have option to buy faster though, 12, 16 and 25.

 

[pedepy]

i just tested my speed, still fast ..

thing i don't understand though, if fibe 25's their fastest service and you already need to be hooked up to it in order to receive the tv service, how would you be able to receive 25mbps internet and tv on the same wire ?..

 

[Mark Rejhon]

pedepy,

That's because it is IPTV.
IPTV = Internet Protocol TV

It's just that when you turn on the TV, your Bell FibeTV is instantly "streaming" the TV channel over your Internet connection, from Bell's private video network. When you stop watching TV, the streams stop. In other words, FibeTV streams your television over Internet. If you turn off the TV, it closes the streams, and you can use the whole capacity of your Internet connection.

The wire runs at the same speed at all times 24/7, at 25 Mbps, whether the TV is on or off. What
is happening differently is that it transfers some of the "speed" for television, when you turn on your television or record something.

For the semi-techies here: Each channel on FibeTV is a separate multicast stream in a mostly industry-standard TCP multicast standard. When you change channels, switching TV channels is simply commanding the receiver to focus on a different TCP multicast stream. In the other words, it tells the remote VRAD (a video-enabled DSLAM) to send a different stream. Even though the channel changing requires switching between data streams, the architecture and H.264 video (MPEG4) even beats the channel-switching speed of cable and satellite, despite it being essentially remotely-channel changing rather than local-channel changing. Only what you are watching and/or recording, are being transferred over your connection. The lower networking layers, such as raw IP and UDP, and all lower layers such as VDSL sync, runs unchanged at a fixed 25 Mbps sync, regardless of whether or not the TV is on or off. The Internet just simply dynamically slows down or speeds up to make room for the TV data streams, as there's really good QoS on television -- the QoS is so optimized for television that you can't interrupt or stutter the TV streams by downloading simultaneously. To the end-user, it's all transparent, and behaves just like another (but good quality) cable box that also happens to have good PVR recording features. When capping is implemented (if it is), it is an artifical, software-based cap to throttle the speed of your Internet connection so that your Internet connection is the same regardless of whether your TV is on/off.