Slow Internet Speed

Tammy

Dear Swisscom,

I am a subscriber of DSL und NATEL® Pro. The internet speed should be very fast (20MB/S). I had good expereice and felt satisfied before. However, since September or October, I found the internet speed connected to abroad become much slower than before. The speed of swisscom internet to Taiwan is not stable. I have following findings for my internet.

1) I usually link internet to a webtv in Taiwan. The speed was always around 300₄₀₀ kbps, which is very smooth. However, since this October, I found the speed become only 100 kbs and had serous lag when I linked to this Taiwanese webtv in the evening. It was very strange that the speed was slow only during the evening time. The daytime and midnight are OK. During these two weeks. the situation become worse, the speed drop to 30~ 50 kbps, and even during the day-time, the speed is also very slow ( 100kbps).

I thought it was a problem from Taiwan side. However, I tried the Stadtantenen AG Baar, and Wasser Zug 's cable internet in my friends and neighbors' house. At same time, the speed throught Stadtantenen Baar and WZ are normal at 400kbps. Then, I tried the swisscom internet at my friends house in Cham, the speed to Taiwan webtv is also as slow as in my house. Therefore, I concluded the speed of Swisscom intenet become much slower and not stable lately. It was not a problem from Taiwan side. It is also not the line proble in my house, either. It is a gerneral problem for all swisscom internet user.

2) The swisscom internet speed within Switzerland links seems not affected. My bluewin TV works normal no matter in the day time or enveng. The website speed test seems normal all the times, no lag, functions are normal.

3) However, the speed link to Taiwan ( watch webtv in Taiwan or downlaod files from Taiwan) become not stable. During busy hours especially in the evening, less than 100kbps. In the midnight (after 2:00AM ) and early morning, the speed could be 400kbps ~ 1000kbps which is normal as before. Could you advise what might be the fators affect the internet speed and make it unstanble in different time?

4) As we thought there might be some traffic jams during the transition severs in other countries, but we don't understand why the internet through Stadtantenen AG Baar, and Wasser Zug is normal. But sametime, the swisscom internet is very slow?? Do Stadtantenen Baar and WZ use different transition servers in different countries from Swisscom?

5) In the past, I watch the NBA.TV with 3000kbps speed, which could run very smoothly. However, druing the busy hour, I also find many lags when I perform the NBA.TV with 3,000KBPS speed. This is also a evidence that make me feel the internet speed of Swisscom to link abroad has become very slow during busy time. Slower than cable tv and internet providers.

Please kindly study my problem and find solutions. I guess the problem might be the bandwidth to abroad in Switzerland is limited. If there are too many users to link abroad during the busy hour, the speed become much slower. I am not sure if this is true.

However, I had a good expereince before september and all the speeds were very normal and great. I hope Swisscom could find a solutions on this. Otherwise, I am very sorry to say that I might have to switch to Wasser Zug for cable TV provider for better internt service.

Await your valued reply and investigation on my issues. thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Tammy

Today, I tried again to watch NBA.tv in the evening. Regular lags eigther by 3000kbps or 1600kbps really disturb me to watch the games. I tried again with Wasser Zug cable in my neighbor's house and the speed is perfect on speed 3000kbps or 1600kbps. I am sure the bandwith of Swisscom internet to abroad is much slower than cable internet in the evening. I really feel disappointed. How could I enjoy a high speed like I used to have in Swisscom? What happened? What should I do?

Does anyone has similar situation? Should I change to other DSL or cable provider? Since these two weeks, the Swisscom internet speed become worse. I really regret to upgrade my internet speed but get worst internet speed afterwards. If I could not have higher speed and brandwidth to link abroad, why should I pay more.?? Help!

Tammy

I tested my internet speed and got results as the link: http://www.cnlab.ch/speedtest/Controller?page=UserReport&language=en&userid=6536589060242571264 The speed seems normal for my house to connect to Swisscome. But, why I have very limited speed to link abroad such like server in Taiwan or NBA.TV? I tried this morning again, the NBA.TV could run at 3,000 Kbps without any lag. But in last evening, the NBA.TV could not run at 3000 kbps??? The internet speed test on the evening and early morning have same good results. It really shows that the brandwidth to abroad website of Swisscome internet will have serious traffic jam during busy hours such as 17:00 ~ 02:00? Could you test your brandwidth to abroad? It is really not stable during the evening while other cablt internet speed is still normal?

JMC

I have experienced the same exact problem, which started sometime in October. When i test my download and upload speeds via speedtest.net they seem fine however I am exeriencing severe issues with my actual download speeds. I called Swisscomm several times however they keep telling me that the issue is not on their side. It took over 4 hours to download a movie from itunes. I am also experiencing issues when streaming from slingbox and downloading PS3 content from Sony. I highly doubt that the issue is with the Sony or Apple servers. What is going on Swisscomm? Please address this issue.

djacobson86

I also wanted to add that I am experiencing similar problems for the last 2-3 months. The most notable difference has been connecting to and streaming from a slingbox that is located in the US. From March until late October I experienced no problems at all in streaming from this slingbox and usually had streaming rates of 1,000 KBPS- 1,300 KBPS. Since October the streaming rate has been reduced during peak times(17:00-23:00 and all day on the weekends) to 100 KBPS- 300 KBPS. I know that this cannot be a problem with my computers or the slingbox as I have tested this with multiple computers and when I travel to other countries(such as Germany) I am able to stream from the slingbox at 1,000+ KBPS even during peak times. More importantly when I have tried to stream from the slingbox during peak hours using a friend's internet connection(with Citycable) I am able to steam at normal rates (1,000+ KBPS). If this problem is not fixed it will make it an easy decision for me to leave Swisscom.

JMC

Same exact issue here. I am unable to stream slingbox above 200kbps during peak times. Before October I was routinely streaming at 4,000kbps! I will be switching to cablecom as soon as my year it up.

Roudy

fyi, i have the exact same problem. I have a slingbox set up in the US and also have had issues with speed during the evening hours and on weekends. I test from work and get speeds around 2.8mbs, using in the evening i am between 200-400kbs. When I first moved here in September 2010 my speed was consistently 2.8mbs which I believe is essentially the limit for my connection coming from the US. I would like to switch to Cablecom but that is not an option here unless I paid for a new set up.

In addition i noticed recently, although it could have been around the timing you are indicating, that I can now get HD channels. Before I was told that I could not get them in my location, so something has changed in the last couple of months. Perhaps this is also a change that is restricting my speed.

i have slingbox for ipad also and have tested on multiple computers. It does seem to be the Swisscom internet and an issue on their side. I will switch at the first opportunity if this is not corrected. And I also tested my speed using the global speed test with good results 12 to 15 mbs, so I should be able to stream at 2.8mbs like I can from work.

Roudy

forgot to add, yes I also have noticed that in the middle of the night I get 1.2 to 1.5 kbs so something is limiting my speed in the peak hours (seems intentional on Swisscoms part).

djacobson86

Roudy-

Same thing with me. They just updated(within the last 1.5 months) my apartment building to be able to receive HD. Perhaps that's the problem? I've seen on the french boards where people speak about similar problems when their connections were switched from ADSL to VDSL which I believe occurs when a connection is upgraded to be able to accept HD.

Tammy

I already quit the contract and change to other provider. I am suffering a lot about the low speed during peak hours and Swisscom people told me they can not do anything. It is not their problem.

I am very disappointed about Swisscom reply on my issue and never explain or study why the internet speed linked to abroad website became slow during peak hours since October? I feel they are not interested to study and they just kept mentioning this is not Swisscom's problem. I am very disappointed.

Tammy

I also feel the problem is at Swisscom. I tried other Swiss Cablecom to test the same websites. The speed is normal. Only the swisscom internet is slow to link to these abroad websites at the same time. But Swisscom still told me this is not their problem. I also like an explanation from swisscom.

AndresF

Thank you for your patience. Clarification was extensive and revealed that bottlenecks may occur on occasion in the capacities of certain peering links (with incoming/outgoing international data traffic). Peering links are physical connections between our network and those of foreign partner providers.

What causes these bottlenecks? The growth in data volumes in the Internet of up to 70 per cent a year is proving a huge challenge to all Internet providers. Data traffic to and from the US is especially affected. Over the holidays, the situation was aggravated as more leisure users led to a rise in data traffic.

We are remedying these bottlenecks according to our means. In the meantime, some of the affected connections are now again available without restrictions.

Swisscom

djacobson86

Andres-

Thank you for your message. I have seen an improvement in my connection to my slingbox today and yesterday during peak times. It looks like the actions Swisscom took have worked (for now 🙂 ).

Tammy

Thanks Andres! This is the reply I have expected from Swisscom at the beginning. This email from you told me that you understand where the problem is and you are doing something to fix it.

But a big pity, I already quit the contract and could not to confirm if the swisscom speed to abroad is improved? The reply from the hotline and the emails to me were all told me that Swisscom had no problem at all. It was the abroad websites problem. It really made me upset and feel Swisscom didn't understand what is the difficulties and real problems for this case. If swisscom can not understand my problem, how could I expect the improvements.

If your reply email could come earlier and the techinical people of hotline could told me that they understand my problem druing 12/27~ 12/30 and they need more days to improve and study. i would be willing to waite. It is too late for me to return to Swisscom contract now since I have signed the contract with other provider who had normal speed during peak hours.

Hopefully, Swisscom hotline staff could be more understanding at the first place and try to understand customer's problem. Customers are not waisting their own time to report a problem to Swisscom. The Swisscom staff should convince customers to be more confident that the problems will be solved. If they just easily came to the conclusiuon that the problems are from customers' side, they just push their customers away.

I hope the speed from Swisscom could be really improved soon. The atttitude of hotline person could be more nice to customers instead of just saying " I am sorry, it is not our problem, we can not help"