Grumbling about your slow Internet connection? Are those summer photos taking forever to upload to your favourite cloud storage service? Your problem may be an outdated modem and an outdated plan.
Recently a friend called me for some help regarding space on his iPhone. He’d recently returned from a pilgrimage in France and Spain and his phone was reporting that it had run out of space.
This issue is not so much about his mobile as it is with the state of his Internet service plan.
Not being an iOS user, I’d suggested to my friend that he might want to store his photos on the Google Photos platform. I was leery of simply deleting photos from his phone to clear up space, knowing that this would in turn delete them from any iCloud backup he might have.
His phone had several thousand photos stored on it, in multiple folders.
My initial plan was to back up his photos onto his local Windows-based computer and then upload them to Google Photos. Only when these two steps were complete would I do anything with the photos stored on the mobile.
After the initial backup to his local computer, I set about running a small test upload to Google Photos, about 20photos in all.
It was at this stage I discovered something amiss. The upload of the photos was extremely slow, so slow in fact that my friend and I were able to go off for half an hour for a coffee break.
This had me wondering. Was the issue with the computer? It was relatively new and was running Windows 10. Or was the issue with the actual cable Internet service?
I ran several performance tests to make an assessment. I used speedtest.net, fast.com (run by Netflix) and speedof.me.
These speed tests more or less confirmed my suspicion. There was something amiss with the Shaw cable service to the house. The download speed was topping out at 5 Mbps (5 megabits per second), the upload at about 1 Mbps but mostly hovering at around 0.2!
My friend sad, yes, indeed, he thought his Internet service was a little slow and he did have issues with Netflix content performing poorly. He mentioned he’d paid various computer techs from time to time but no one had ever indicated his cable service might be a concern.
I asked if I might see his bill from Shaw Communications. Indeed it showed an entry for “High speed Internet” but there was no indication of the actual service plan or nominal speed.
At this point I told my friend it was time for a call to the company. I told him that I was shocked by the performance I was seeing and frankly I was amazed there were still services with numbers as low as I was measuring.
After about an hour on hold we learned that indeed my friend was on a so-called 5-1 plan that really shouldn’t exist in this day and age. Naturally I pointed out the bill’s reference to “high speed Internet” and I noted the federal government defines high speed broadband as being in excess of 25 Mbps.
In fact the federal government has set a goal of having the entire nation at a minimum performance level of 50 Mbps, far in excess of the 5 Mbps bursts I was seeing on my friend’s computer.
Needless to say there was some back and forth discussion with the Shaw representative. I wanted to see some credit for the years of sub-par service before upgrading to a better performing plan.
The bottom line is my friend ended up paying $20 more per month to move to the company’s top plan with 150 Mbps download and 15 Mbps upload. Furthermore, he ended up with a new modem and combined router, so he was able to retire an old Cisco wireless router.
He picked up the new hardware that afternoon and the following day I installed it for him, in the process simplifying his wireless keys, as well as setting up access for guests.
Another test of the uploading of 20 photos ensued. This time it took just a minute or two. What a relief! I then set in motion the upload of the couple of thousand photos to Google Photos so that I could take care of modifying the connections for his various wireless devices (Smart TV, iPads, laptops).
By the time that was finished I was able to focus on the original problem, the space on the iPhone. With the photos now safely stored in two locations, one local, one in the cloud, I could clear the old photos from the phone.
My friend was happy. Especially so with his new, and dramatically faster, Internet service.
So, check your Internet service. If you are seeing poor performance, have your provider review what you are paying for and what you are in fact getting. Don’t be shy. Demand better. A “high speed” label on your bill doesn’t mean much.
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