NETWORK CONGESTION
Network congestion can happen at multiple points in the network.
The congestion could be local to you.
This means you may have several people within your home or business using the Internet at the same time. Because you are all sharing the same network, everyone in your network may experience slower speeds.
Backhaul Congestion.
Uniti tower sites are connected to the internet via backhaul links. At times backhaul can become congested and needs to be upgraded. At Uniti we monitor our backhaul closely and will schedule upgrades if any backhaul congestion is identified. Sometimes there may be a delay in upgrading backhaul if we are waiting on equipment, site access or third party approvals.
Congestion between yourself and our core network.
Internet providers typically rely on contention ratios. A contention ratio is the number of customers that the service provider is supporting per the plan speed provided. At Uniti we strive to provide a lowest contention ratio possible but if several customers are all heavily using the network at the same time, your performance will likely be impacted. This is why speeds can drop during peak times.Uniti already has a relatively low contention ratio, however it is not possible to provide a 1:1 ratio at standard prices. The economics just don’t stack up. This is why customers pay a premium compared to a standard plan for an Enterprise Grade service. To enquire about an Enterprise plan, email sales. Congestion can also occur between our core network and the rest of the Internet. We pay for what is known as ‘transit’. This is what connects our network to the rest of the world so you can access content hosted in other countries. We work with several transit providers however, we cannot always control the quality of the transit connection they provide to us. Sometimes certain segments of their network can become congested or fail completely, just like your internal network can or our network can.
FAULTY HARDWARE
Sometimes speed issues can be caused by the devices you are using to access the Internet. You may have a device with a faulty WiFi chip or ethernet port. Your device might not support the speeds that we are supplying you. You might have a faulty cable from your device to the router. It is always a good idea to test with several devices and multiple cables if possible. This helps to eliminate faulty or poor performing hardware.
YOUR NETWORK
You may have routers, switches or cables in your network that are faulty or misconfigured. This is especially true for business customers who could have a complex network setup. We cannot manage or diagnose issues for your internal network. This is normally the job of a IT consultant or network administrator or if you are a residential customer this is might be up to you.
When connecting devices at your home or business to the wireless router’s Wi-Fi connection, it is important to understand that speeds will likely fluctuate. This may be due to the changing distance from the router or obstacles (rooms/walls/furniture/people) between you and the wireless router. Other wireless devices or radio interference may also impact wifi speeds. Whenever you are experiencing issues with speed you should try to rule out any internal network problems before contacting us. This will help to save you a lot of time and headache.
CONTENT LOCATION
The content you access online from websites, apps and games all come from servers. Some servers are located overseas, some are local. Some have ample processing power, RAM and bandwidth whilst some don’t. Some might be really popular at particular times and become congested. All of these factors could influence the speeds you achieve when accessing content. Our transit partners network may also influence the speeds between you and the content server.
SPEED TEST
If you want to test your Internet speed, we suggest using the Ookla speed test tool. We recommend testing using a laptop or desktop computer that is connected to your router via ethernet cable (testing wirelessly is not a true reflection of the speed you are receiving). Try to make sure there is no other activity on your network while running the test, as this can affect speed also.
Once you have loaded the Ookla speedtest site, mouse over the triangle located under the ‘Begin Test’ button to bring up the server list. Try testing at different times and outside of peak times (typically between 7:00pm and 11:00pm) to make sure it is not a congestion issue. Try not to test too often either, as constant testing impacts the network and will impact speeds for other customers.
If you have followed the instructions above, have tested multiple times over different time periods and you still do not achieve plan speed, please contact support. Please provide us with your results so we can best help you to troubleshoot the issue.
