Shaw → [BC] Will my download decrease if I drop from 20 plan to 10

Ok, before all the smart asses respond, read. Of course I know it will reduce if I was ever getting anything over 10 during reasonable hours I am awake. Got your attention did I.

Lately I have been on Shaw's a-- because I know they cannot
deliver. But they have changed something so off peak I actually see speedtests over 10 download. Once I saw 18, never been seen in all my time. The technician that called to cancel my housecall and told me they had a local problem and I should see improvement was right, I have seen download speedtests I never saw before. But when it counts in the evening its still 3-4 or less. Obviously congestion and shaw can't provide any better.

So my question, I have been paying for 20, if I change my plan to 10, which would be fine if I ever saw it, will my now evening average speed drop because I changed from a 20 plan to 10 even though I never get 10? If so, what is your explanation.
I still believe shaw collects a lot of money from people for high speed plans who never achieve their speeds when people are awake and about, who needs 20 at 3 am?

Well if you can't get to 10 during the evening, then downgrading to HS10 shouldn't hurt since I think if it is due to congestion it doesn't really matter how large your maximum is.

Measure your upload and unless its higher than what is advertised (512K) from the 10 plan at peak hours, its safe to pick the plan that matches the download speed you get.

I say this because i am not sure if you got your 20 quite a while back and if they did not decrease the upload on the 10/20 packages since then. You might be lucky and have a 20/1 package still. If its the case you would see quite a bit of difference by downgrading to only 512K upload instead of 1024K if that's what you currently have.

Good luck!

If you are on a 10mbps line 7.5/8-10mbps would be acceptable. There is always overhead that has to be handled.

So many factors that detremine your speed.. wired/wireless/router/direct to modem?

Thats logical, but I wonder if shaw doesn't have some way to dribble a little less download to HS10 users during congestion, thereby allowing HS20 users a little more even though its all speeds well below HS10 anyways during congested times. Here in Nelson most waking hours are congested times, we are underserved, and no one gets speed during normal waking hours.
speedindex stats support that, from 3000 individual ip addresses taking speedtest.net last month the avg was only 4.2 download. Shaw only has HS10 and up packages.

Maybe they are throttling residential customers in favor of giving business customers who pay more better speeds? Just a thought to ponder..

In Nelson switch to business and look at what they can get

Nope, this isn't done. This is no QOS difference between Res and Biz. That might anger the net neutrality folks.

Oh I know

Dual and Raven,

This may be subjective,
but from my observations, when matching the plan to the average "possible" speed, I did notice a decrease in download speed for lower plans.

I.E. with 25Mbit I'd be getting 7.5, with 10mbit same modem, same building, I'd be getting 6.5-7.

This may be somehow related to upload overhead (shouldn't mathematically)

Again, this is subjective, and I've always been a proponent of matching Shaw plan to physical observed average (as noted in my 2008 review)

Also, my opinion is regarding DOCSIS 2.0 network on SB5120; I have not noticed anything of that nature with DOCSIS 3.0 SMC set ups.

I have had the Unlimited 250 now for almost half a year. To date the best download I have ever seen outside the speedtest.shaw.ca website is 12MB/sec. period.
I keep the package based on the upload speed and unlimited bandwidth, nothing more. Even this is increasingly hard to do now as the node is getting loaded up they are enforcing literally every form of p2p throttling they can, so this almost negates any difference you have between 5 and 15Mbit uploads in therms of p2p. Wasting my money the past 2 months as its worse than ever.

I was saying there is no QOS difference between Biz and Res.

If you actually mean peer 2 peer you should try a free usenet trial from Giganews. They are fast on BB250

Uhh, 12MB/sec would roughly equate to a 100mbit network card cap.. are you connecting to your modem with a 100mbit port speed? I'd check that. Most consumer routers still only have 100mbit ports. Also note many consumer grade routers can only do 40-70mbit (when doing NAT/SPI) so you'd want to find a router certified to NAT/SPI over 250mbit to actually get those speeds.

100mbit/8=12.5megs/sec and the half meg would cover much of the overhead..