Internet speed cap

[Bush Badger]

I basically moved into a new apartment a while back, its quite new only constructed maybe 6 years back. I was told that the internet that I paid for every month should have a connection speed of 1gbp/s but due to the "structural limitation" of the building the internet will be capped to 100mb/s. I also have a really crappy rental modem and I am using a CAT5E cable that came along with it, if I upgrade those will that somehow make a difference. Excuse my lack of experience in this field but could a "structural limitation" even be possible let alone it being recently built?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lenovo1984]

I'm not familiar with apartments, but is your connection run through some switch before it goes to your apartment? If so, it may be a 10/100 switch. That's all I can think of. 

[Princess Luna]

7 minutes ago, Mr Magic Man said:

but could a "structural limitation" even be possible

Yes this is a real problem, I live in a condominium and because of poor installations and too many houses with high speed plans there is a limit that can't be overcome.

[IgorM]

8 minutes ago, Mr Magic Man said:

I basically moved into a new apartment a while back, its quite new only constructed maybe 6 years back. I was told that the internet that I paid for every month should have a connection speed of 1gbp/s but due to the "structural limitation" of the building the internet will be capped to 100mb/s. I also have a really crappy rental modem and I am using a CAT5E cable that came along with it, if I upgrade those will that somehow make a difference. Excuse my lack of experience in this field but could a "structural limitation" even be possible let alone it being recently built?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

They can only be referring to the cables installed. Otherwise they are fooling you by offering a crappy modem and a bad coax installation.

[Spotty]

Not sure how it works where you are, but it's possible that the ISP only services/owns the lines up until the apartment building, and then the lines beyond that are owned/managed by the apartment. It's unlikely that the ISP owns/services a direct line to each individual apartment.
Fibre will be delivered to the apartment complex, and then it's up to the apartment complex to distribute that to each individual apartment. Depending on what hardware the apartment is using and how many premises/services that need to be connected, that could be the reason for the limitation. You may need to speak to the people in charge of managing your apartment building to find out more information.

If this is the case then there's not much you can do about it. Best thing to do would be contacting your provider and inquiring if they have a 100mbps plan that is cheaper than the 1gbps plan you're on now since you won't receive those speeds anyway.


 

[kirashi]

4 hours ago, Mr Magic Man said:

I basically moved into a new apartment a while back, its quite new only constructed maybe 6 years back. I was told that the internet that I paid for every month should have a connection speed of 1gbp/s but due to the "structural limitation" of the building the internet will be capped to 100mb/s. I also have a really crappy rental modem and I am using a CAT5E cable that came along with it, if I upgrade those will that somehow make a difference. Excuse my lack of experience in this field but could a "structural limitation" even be possible let alone it being recently built?

Thanks in advance.

3 hours ago, Spotty said:

Not sure how it works where you are, but it's possible that the ISP only services/owns the lines up until the apartment building, and then the lines beyond that are owned/managed by the apartment. It's unlikely that the ISP owns/services a direct line to each individual apartment.
Fibre will be delivered to the apartment complex, and then it's up to the apartment complex to distribute that to each individual apartment. Depending on what hardware the apartment is using and how many premises/services that need to be connected, that could be the reason for the limitation. You may need to speak to the people in charge of managing your apartment building to find out more information.

If this is the case then there's not much you can do about it. Best thing to do would be contacting your provider and inquiring if they have a 100mbps plan that is cheaper than the 1gbps plan you're on now since you won't receive those speeds anyway.

Can confirm; as someone who is privy to the way internet is provided to condos and apartments in the Vancouver, Canada area, I'd definitely have a talk with your building management about this. It sounds like someone told you the lines coming into the building are capable of 1Gbit speeds, but each unit is probably capped at 100mbit for even distribution of speeds throughout the building, and this is probably being done by building management on the master account feeding the building itself.

 

This is often known as a bulk building or tenant building in ISP speak, which means that even though you might have your own account with your ISP, the codes applicable to services on your account have to adhere to the rules set forth for the entire bulk building as a whole. This means you might be able to downgrade/upgrade within a certain range of plans offered by the ISP, but may be capped at a maximum even if the ISP provides more than 100mbit speed packages.

 

Talk to building management and blame them if this is the case, since they ultimately would be the ones who negotiated a deal with the ISP when the building was first built. If building management plays dumb, find new building management or move to a building with management that actually cares about its' tenants. (Obviously easier said than done, but I've learned sometimes you just can't fix poor or unwilling manglement.)