Is my ISP throttling my speed? What can I do about it?

mike_nofx · 12-12-2016, 10:42 PM

I'm with Optus for my home phone and ADSL2+ Internet, no NBN available here yet.

Last couple of weeks I've noticed my internet speed has slowed to a crawl, I cant recall my previous speeds but they were quite acceptable, but anyway recently I was getting 0.7mbps which is ridiculous.

Theres something weird going on though, my speed is faster when tested with a VPN on. I'll get to that in a minute.

So far I've made 3 calls to optus and here is my outcomes.

Call 1, my speed is around 0.7mbps, I call Optus and am told my issue is because I haven't reset my modem in 7 days. I give it a reset and no change.

Call 2 (the next day) I inform them my speed is still slow, and there must be an issue somewhere. The Optus person (direct from Calcutta or Mumbai) does a reset from their end and an adjustment to the settings and hey, my speed jumps to 1.2mbps. The operator tells me that since im 3.8km from an exchange the expected speed is 1-2mbps, this is complete BS to me though. I leave it for another couple of days.

Call 3 (today), I call and tell them that 1.2mbps is still unacceptably slow. The woman does a reset and adjustment from her end and what do you know, speed jumps to 2.5mbps. But this STILL to me is way too slow.

Just messing around with the optus speed tester on their website and I decide to do a run with my VPN switched on, I was expecting an even lower speed but was shocked than I am getting speeds of over 6mbps!!

What could possibly be going on? I'm now assuming that Optus is speed limiting my internet and the VPN somehow gets around their speed limiter.

I'd like some advice on what could possibly be going on here.
Is it possible I'm being speed limited?
Can this speed limiter be removed by Optus operators?
I'd also like to know if I should be making a complaint about my service, and to who? Or would possibly threatening Optus that I would make a complaint be enough for them to remove my hypothetical limiter?

Help is very much appreciated. This is very frustrating.