ISPA award for 'Best Business Fixed Broadband'

[#1]

Last week I received an e-mail from Plusnet asking if I would participate in the speed test as part of the application (?) for this award. I agreed and installed the test utility on my server. On 26/6/12 I had received an e-mail from Plusnet stating that "We have good news for you. The exchange equipment we use to provide your service has now been upgraded, and we can offer you a faster 'up to 20Mb' service. You don't need to do anything, and we'll switch you over automatically, for free. We expect this to happen within the next 5 weeks." So obviously in the test utility I put the provider as Plusnet Business with an advertised speed of up to 20Mbps.
I just checked the info from the speedtest and the average downstream speed so far is shown as 8.1 with a maximum of 9.7. Since this does not look good in comparison to my advertised speed I checked with the BT site and it is showing that my exchange has WBC ADSL 2+ and WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M with an 'up to 11.5' downstream rate and an '8 to 15.5' downstream range.
I know that until FTTC comes to our exchange, I have to accept what we have. However what has prompted me to submit this post is simply the fact that Plusnet has invited me to take part in this speedtest and I have simply used the information provided to me by Plusnet. But my tests show that I'm only getting half of what Plusnet suggests I could get. I don't know if this will affect the chances of getting the 'Best Business Fixed Broadband' ISPA award, but I think it ought to!

[#2]

Hi Dippy,
Thanks for flagging this.
Ultimately, we send out the email to a wide range of customers to represent a fair cross section of our base; some will have higher than average speeds, and some will have lower. As you'd only just moved over to ADSL2+, chances are the line was just finding it's feet, and the average speed would increase over the next few days. As the initial stabilization period is an industry wide element of broadband deployment, it's something we expect has an impact on the overall average across all providers.
Having looked into your account, it looks as if there was a recent profile change to just under 15mb with a sync speed of just over 16mb, so this should be more in line with your expectations and the estimates you've quoted.
That said, feel free to give us a ring in the event of any issues with the line and the team will be happy to help