I never usually bother checking my bb speed but, after checking out infinity, I did on the BT website (so I am a bit sceptical about the results), and discovered the connection between the exchange and my house, is 8.97mb, and could be improved; download speed is 7.78mb, upload 0.91mb, poor. I am not finding it to be slow and would not, consequently, regard it as poor. Because I did the check on BT's own website, I am wondering if the results it gives me are designed to persuade me to upgrade, thus spending more monthly. Would infinity make a notable difference? Can anyone tell me what speeds they are getting on BT bb (not fiibre/infinity)? Thanks.
btw, is it correct that plusnet is owned by BT?

The results on the BT Websites Speed Tester are not rigged. It's outcome may however be worded to 'make you aware' of faster alternatives!

If you want to double check your speed try an alternative such as:

http://www.speedtest.net or
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

Your quoted speeds are pretty typical for an ADSL line. If it is good enough for your needs then there is no need to do anything (except perhaps shop around for a better deal).

The improvement mentioned is probably trying to offer you BT Infinity. If available to you it would likely increase your speed significantly - how much depends on the product you buy. BT offers up to 38Mbps and up to 76Mbps services.

You cannot predict exactly how much yours will improve based on your present speed alone because instead of talking to the exchange your router would talk to the cabinet in the street which may be very much closer than before. Most providers offer a checker to give you a good estimate however.

Most people who buy the 38Mbps product will get that download speed.

Upload speeds increase to up to 9.5Mbps or 19Mbps again depending on product, which is a significant improvement when you actually want to send things like photos.

As to whether you notice a difference - well if you didn't change your present usage maybe not, but I think a lot of people who move to superfast services start using their internet in different ways, particularly for things like live and pay TV movie services, which were just impractical on their old ADSL service.

PlusNet is owned by BT Group but run as a separate business. They also sell fibre broadband packages which are cheaper than BT but with 'less frills' (e.g. no free TV Sport). e.g. their 'Essentials' up to 38Mbps Fibre Broadband package.

EDIT - Just checked and yes, you can get Fibre Broadband in Workington. I moved to fibre two years ago and would never go back again unless forced to live somewhere that didn't have it.

Simpley put if you find your current connection ok for what you do then whats the point of upgrading?

BUT...i will say this

that i do find the extra speed handy if i'm streaming HD content or uploading large videos, thats when you really notice the difference between (vdsl2) aka infinity vs (adsl2+) aka bt total broadband.

Plusnet is owned by BT but it acts as its own company with different products and prices generally targeting the cheaper segment of broadband.

Thanks guys. Confirmed my thoughts exactly. I do not experience any problems with the service. I was surprised to read the speeds could be better, as it is quite fast, never have to wait for a page to load, for example. I really don't think infinity would be of any benefit to me. I'm unsure as to where the cabinet is but, as my neighbour has infinity, it is within range. tbh, his connection is much slower than mine.

Are you connecting to his wifi to test this? That will not give an accurate representation of his speed. Wifi gets slower as distance/interference increases.

Infinity is much better than standard ADSL - would never go back. The upload speed is one of the best things about it.

If you look at http://dslchecker.bt.com you will see the openreach estimate for your line.

He is a good friend of mine and, when my laptop was having a new hard drive installed, I was using his desktop.

You are wrong'ish, it completely bypasses any banding or profiling you may have incorrectly on your line so it will give you the fastest speed possible even if you are not getting it.

I was getting 75/18 on the BT Wholesale speedtest yet the entirety of the internet said 40/10 and of course BT only trust their own speedtest.

After a lot of nagging BT looked in to it and my package was Infinity 2 but the system was profiling it to Infinity.

I'm on ADSL2 and getting 13Mbps previously with BE now with Sky - why does the BT/Openreach estimator only show up to 7Mbps for my line.

Are they being ultra conservative or really fobbing me off in the hope of me choosing Fibre.

Could someone explain that checker to me!

For WBC ADSL2+ it has a column for "Downstream line rate" which is "up to 4" and also later a column for "Downstream line range" which is 4-7.

On both Sky and formerly with Be I got 7Mbps so it seems correct (if a bit pessimistic!) for my line if the 4-7 column is the one I should be looking at!

The checker gives "up to 4" as this is the speed which Openreach will pass on to providers as an estimate. ISPs have been under fire recently to provide a realistic estimate of speeds... So what they do is give a lower, conservative estimate, because nobody will complain if they end up getting a faster speed than the original estimate.

The range 4-7 is indicative of the variance in the estimate. Due to various factors, the speed will fluctuate, especially on long lines. It may be 7 on a good day, and then 5 or 6 on the bad ones (interference, wind, rain etc).

Not all telephone lines are the same, some are better than others. It sounds like your one always performs well, but someone else at a similar distance from the exchange will perhaps sync at a lower speed, due to the condition of the line, the actual line length, the equipment used etc.