Question About My Qwest DSL Service

[gigahertz20]

I live in an area where there is no cable service, so no cable modem. The only ISP is Qwest DSL, and the fastest service they have available is 1.5 Mbps downstream and 896 Kbps upstream. When I download I get about 140-170 kilobytes per sec at best and when I upload I get around 70-90 kilobytes per sec at best.

My question is, what is preventing them from offering faster speeds? When a customer calls in and upgrades their DSL speed, what does Qwest or any ISP do to make the connection faster? Do they just go into their system and allow your modem IP address more bandwidth?

If I can download at 140-170 kilobytes per sec, why can't they increase my bandwidth so I can maybe get around 250-300 KB/sec? Is it usually a signal issue when a DSL provider like Qwest will not offer faster internet speeds?


I was thinking about calling Qwest and asking them if they could speed up my internet connection, but they don't have a faster service plan than the one I'm on. I wonder if they could increase my bandwidth and just charge me a little bit extra even though they don't have an official higher speed plan.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Looking at Qwest they offer a 20Mb service but it may not be availible in your area. Considering you don't have access to cable tells me your not close to a major town or city. So that may be why you can't get more then the 1.5Mb service. Your distance from the line is what is limiting you on your actuall down and up speeds. This is a common problem with all DSL. You can see if they can get you on one of there faster plans but you seem to be location limited. Good luck.

 

[gigahertz20]

Looking at Qwest they offer a 20Mb service but it may not be availible in your area. Considering you don't have access to cable tells me your not close to a major town or city. So that may be why you can't get more then the 1.5Mb service. Your distance from the line is what is limiting you on your actuall down and up speeds. This is a common problem with all DSL. You can see if they can get you on one of there faster plans but you seem to be location limited. Good luck.

I live on the northern outskirt of colorado springs, in an area called Black Forest. It's a 15 min drive to a friends house who lives in the middle of colorado springs and he has Qwest speeds available up to 40 down/20 up. There are a good number of houses where I live, but I guess not enough for Qwest to offer a higher internet speed. My neighbor behind me has a T1 connection through Qwest, he has a home business and requires a high internet speed so he got that. How can Qwest offer a T1 connection but not a faster DSL speed? I wish a T1 line wasn't hundreds of dollars a month or I'd get one too.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

DSL speeds are entirely a function of the distance between you and the phone company's node. If you are on the edge of the service area, there is NOTHING you or they can do to speed up your service. Check the coverage maps for your area. There is always the satellite option.

 

[gigahertz20]

DSL speeds are entirely a function of the distance between you and the phone company's node. If you are on the edge of the service area, there is NOTHING you or they can do to speed up your service. Check the coverage maps for your area. There is always the satellite option.

Satellite is way more expensive and offers even slower speeds. You can't play online games or anything like that with satellite internet anyways because of the latency.

I must be on the edge of the faster DSL coverage, I entered an address that is just down the street from me, 1.5 miles away from my home on the Qwest DSL address site, and it displayed 7 Mbps down, 896 Kbps up. I would die for those speeds.

 

[kranky]

Satellite is way more expensive and offers even slower speeds. You can't play online games or anything like that with satellite internet anyways because of the latency.

I must be on the edge of the faster DSL coverage, I entered an address that is just down the street from me, 1.5 miles away from my home on the Qwest DSL address site, and it displayed 7 Mbps down, 896 Kbps up. I would die for those speeds.

My understanding is that you usually have to be within 5000 feet of the phone company central office (CO) or one of their remote termination points to get the highest speeds. If you are more than 15000-18000 feet away you might not be able to get DSL at all. Comparing to another address 7000+ feet from you isn't relevant unless you are factoring in distance from the CO/remote.

Distance is measured along the actual wire routing, not point-to-point or driving distance. Depending on how the wires are routed, you could be very close physically but 10,000 feet away on the wire.

I don't see how it can hurt to call and request a higher speed. Maybe if enough of your neighbors do that, they will put the necessary equipment in so you can get the faster speed.

 

[bruceb]

This is mostly correct. When you start getting 12,000 or so feet from the central office, line speed on DSL drops. Especially if the copper cables are very old. I am on the outer edge of the limit in Wayne, NJ, with Verizon DSL and I only get 1.7Mbs download speed. There is equipment for High Speed DSL which can improve speeds imensley, but it is costly and the telco is not likely to want to install it for you.

 

[RebateMonger]

As noted, copper DSL is VERY dependent on distance from the telco's "Central Office". The very highest speeds are with fiber optic cable, which can handle MUCH longer distances.

T1 can run longer distances than DSL:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Distance-Restrictions-In-Rural-Applications---DSL-vs-T1&id=482122

Note that a T1 won't have a higher download speed than what you are getting now. T1 would be chosen for its higher UPLOAD speed, for higher reliability, or for its open inbound/outbound ports and lesser restrictions on usage.