Why is my vpn Wi-Fi connection faster than Telus direct?

[Shatnershairpiece]

No one can explain this to me. Speed test with Telus direct gets me 25-30 on a 75 line. Use a VPN, I’m back to 75. This is testing with iPad Pro and latest iphone 11 pro. Direct Ethernet connection on pc is fine. 

Telus Tech has tried installing extender, replaced the new model modem. They get it working temporarily, but the next day, the speed is back down again.  It’s a small apartment, so the extender should not be needed. They say it should not be possible for a VPN to get better speed. I agree, but they can’t explain it.  It’s hilarious. I connect to belgium on vpn and I get better speeds than Telus in Vancouver. 

[xray]

How are you testing the speed?

[Shatnershairpiece]

Speedtest

it will give me 30 on Telus and vpn goes right back up to 75. 

[xray]

Which server are you connecting to with VPN vs without VPN?

[Shatnershairpiece]

Telus on both.

[xray]

I'm surprised Speedtest would choose a Telus server when you are on VPN. Which VPN are you using? 

[Shatnershairpiece]

Nord. Also tried with different servers on speedtest. The odd thing is I tried testmy.net from California (recommended as better than Speed test) and the speed evens out (75) on vpn or direct with Telus. Wondering if it’s a speed test app problem. 

[xray]

I did a test using the VPN built into Speed test and got much lower speeds. I also tried tests with single and multiple connections with little difference between the two. So for me it's behaving the way I would expect. I'm on Android.

You said that it behaves normally when testing on a PC. Perhaps it's an artifact of the app on iOS specifically. Are you able to do a test with an Android device?

[xl]

Possibilities...

• some VPN's use compression.  This can confuse speedtest.
• I have an office VPN... things run so much faster as the processing happens remotely away from home on the corporate network.

[Shatnershairpiece]

Also tried expressvpn (Seattle) and got 75 down with speedtest.  No vpn, it connected to Shaw in Vancouver, back down to 30. Both vpns, Nord and express vpn,  offer faster speeds than no vpn.