VirginMedia Capping

peterattheboro

peterattheboro

peterattheboro

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Joined
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Middlesbrough
Surely it's about time VM removed their capping system?

I'm on 20mb and rarely abuse the connection.

Today I was downloading a game via Steam but the install was corrupt after my son turned off the power at the switch so I had to download it again.

Of course i've gone over the limit and now i'm limited to downloading at 560k/s.

My point is that in this age, there are so many things that you can download legally that these caps should either be raised or removed altogether.

Are we likely to see this happen in the future?
 
If you want uncapped, buy the uncapped package.

I really don't understand people who complain at VM's capping system, at least it is well documented and simple to understand.
 
I could buy the uncapped package but i'm getting a sweet deal of XL everything at £30 a month.

If I went for 50mb I'd lose the mates rate and would have to fork out £50 activation and an extra £30 a month so that's £60 in total.

Still, 20mb is fast enough but with the advancements in digital distribution, surely the caps should be altered?
 
I didnt loose mates rates when i went from 20mb to 50mb

It was an extra £7 or £8 p/m
 
You have to pay a lot to get no caps.

The caps aren't that fair really, they're so small that you often can't download a large file until 9PM at night, at which point everyone else is on their PCs and the whole network seems to grind to a halt in this area. It's a bit of a pain, especially since at peak times the network performance is so slow, yet these times overlap with those at which there is no download limit. I don't think the cap times were thought up with any research, just plucked out of thin air it seems.
 
peterattheboro said:
My point is that in this age, there are so many things that you can download legally that these caps should either be raised or removed altogether.

Are we likely to see this happen in the future?
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You misunderstand why the caps are there to begin with. The aim of the caps is to improve average contention and bandwidth during the peak usage period in the evening. VM don't really care what it is you're downloading they just don't want you saturating your connection at the busiest time of day because this effects other customers who may not even be heavy users. To this degree it's perfectly fair IMO.

They really should just upgrade their network, but then everyone would end up paying more. The message is simple: do your heavy downloading off-peak or be prepared to pay extra for the priviledge. As always you can vote with your wallet and move to someone who doesn't cap, but I guarantee you it will cost you more (hint: Sky have an identical policy to VM, they just avoid talking about it).
 
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So why then do the caps stop at 9PM and are active all through the day when most people aren't home?

It doesn't make sense.
 
Perhaps, but I find it slower at that time of night. Even less people browse through the day, so why caps all day long? Why not just at peak times, say 4PM to 11PM? The limits through the day aren't that punishing though.

It's just annoying as the network performance at peak times is still dreadful despite all this traffic management. I know my area is oversubscibed too.
 
peterattheboro said:
The guy on the phone was telling me porkies then.

Did you have to pay the £50 activation aswell?
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I had no problem going from 20mb to 50mb when i rang up (had a very competent lady)

Although my Dad, had to speak to 4/5 different people, before they realised they needed to re-add mates rates.

I had the £50 install fee dropped but had to pay £20 activation.
 
I see no problem with it either, at least they are up front about it and clear about. I've downloaded big files and never been capped you just have to be clever when you schedule your downloads.

I tend to download PS3/360 demos between 6am-8am or 1pm and 2pm. And I also watch what I download and if I know a file will take me over the threshold I shall wait until 9pm to download it. It's not really a massive issue.
 
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peterattheboro said:
I could buy the uncapped package but i'm getting a sweet deal of XL everything at £30 a month.

If I went for 50mb I'd lose the mates rate and would have to fork out £50 activation and an extra £30 a month so that's £60 in total.

Still, 20mb is fast enough but with the advancements in digital distribution, surely the caps should be altered?
Click to expand...

If your paying such a low price for all that i can't see how you can complain about it, if you want uncapped you will have to pay the extra and go on 50m.
 
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