Virgin Media Discussion Thread

z10m · 11 Jun 2022 at 09:15

0007 said:
I consider 10ms high when I consistently get 2ms.

The 10ms @mrk is quoting is probably to speedtest which is irrelevant as VM is prioritising traffic to that. Any actual service will be higher than that and what’s worse is that it will fluctuate a lot.
For example if I ping bbc.co.uk I will get pings fluctuating between 14 and 35ms while speedtest will show me pings between 8 and 12ms (that’s on idling connections as I’m home alone most of the time).

ChrisD. · 11 Jun 2022 at 09:21

Yup, VM prioritise commonly used Speedtest sites.

Sone · 11 Jun 2022 at 13:55

mrk said:
Hmm people mentioning latency, I can get around 10ms on speed tests and that's with a 20 metre Cat5e run to my machine. Nothing spectacular network wise either, Realtek 2.5Gb NIC > TP-Link Gigabit 16 port switch > RT-AC68U > SH3.

VM's upload speeds really do need to be upped though. Yeah it's 50Mb on the Gig1 speed but it is congested most of the day so caps out at around 20-30Mbps it seems.

Seems a bit slow mrk

Journey · 11 Jun 2022 at 16:51

0007 said:
I consider 10ms high when I consistently get 2ms.

I get 11-13ms on 5G on a decent day, so for a VM connection it is pretty pants. I do think that VM overcharge for top line speed, with the rest of the package being somewhat underwhelming of a product, there is no way I'd ever pay £50-60 per month for it.

ChrisD. · 11 Jun 2022 at 17:38

Journey said:
I get 11-13ms on 5G on a decent day, so for a VM connection it is pretty pants. I do think that VM overcharge for top line speed, with the rest of the package being somewhat underwhelming of a product, there is no way I'd ever pay £50-60 per month for it.

They price their broadband without competition in mind. For a long time no one could touch their download speeds and they monopolised. As FTTP and alt nets continue to roll out I expect we’ll see some equilibrium with prices coming.

sandys · 11 Jun 2022 at 18:03

Journey said:
I get 11-13ms on 5G on a decent day, so for a VM connection it is pretty pants. I do think that VM overcharge for top line speed, with the rest of the package being somewhat underwhelming of a product, there is no way I'd ever pay £50-60 per month for it.

No one really pays that though do they, I mean I pay 80quid for the full TV package, multiple tv boxes, 1Gb plus an unlimited home and mobile phone thing, it also came with Quidco, on that level it is pretty cheap.

Journey · 11 Jun 2022 at 18:58

sandys said:
No one really pays that though do they, I mean I pay 80quid for the full TV package, multiple tv boxes, 1Gb plus an unlimited home and mobile phone thing, it also came with Quidco, on that level it is pretty cheap.

Well yes they do, and as everyone is aware you have to do the new customer-retention dance to get a good del once it is over. I dumped VM after a year, I didn't take TV/phone as I don't want it and wouldn't use it, same for the abysmal O2 mobile service round our parts. I have 20 months left on my 5G deal(s) at £3 per month with 700-800 down/60-70 up. I'll see what they are offering then, but they are very lacklustre compared to FTTP, and IMO even a good 5G service.

413x · 14 Jun 2022 at 21:46

How reliable is virgin?

My contract with talk talk is coming to an end and I've been with them for some time. Thier renewal prices have been hard to beat.

But I see the offer for 200mbps for 18gbp a month for 18 months

As I work at home reliability is more important than speed. And usually virgin have poor upload speeds. But this 200mbps offer has enough up.
I don't need this down speed. But it's the first package with viable upload speed.

Also, how do you switch? Is there anything around like with banks and energy where you can just switch without having to cancel over the phone?

ChrisD. · 15 Jun 2022 at 07:00

I’d say the are less reliable than a typical FTTC connection.

chroniclard · 15 Jun 2022 at 07:24

Very reliable for me. Other than a handful of blips

Hotwired · 15 Jun 2022 at 07:53

It's that time of year again and this time I might actually finally see about hopping to a VM business line at home.

Looks like 400/40 plus unmetered phone is 48 inc vat for 24 months.

The deals right now for "new customers" for VM residential compared to my end of contract price are absolutely comical.

AtreuS · 15 Jun 2022 at 16:42

ChrisD. said:
I’d say the are less reliable than a typical FTTC connection.

Totally opposite for me... had virgin for 3 years now and its been flawless... some downtime due to planned maintenance and thats it. I guess it varies around the country somewhat though.

iaqi · 15 Jun 2022 at 19:12

chroniclard said:
Because of the different tech, I assume. If your in a decent area you won't notice it.

I live in north tottenham (north london) . Is it possible to check ? i live in a flat (only the ground floor) and it seems the top floor of our house has vm too . Would this affect speeds/latency ?

chroniclard · 15 Jun 2022 at 19:18

iaqi said:
I live in north tottenham (north london) . Is it possible to check ? i live in a flat (only the ground floor) and it seems the top floor of our house has vm too . Would this affect speeds/latency ?

Dunno, sorry. Seems the only way of knowing for sure is getting it and trying. You do have a Cooling off period. Can you not get fttp in that area?

iaqi · 15 Jun 2022 at 20:26

chroniclard said:
Dunno, sorry. Seems the only way of knowing for sure is getting it and trying. You do have a Cooling off period. Can you not get fttp in that area?

No , fttp is nowhere near our area. we are with bt now, is it possible having 2 internet connections in 1 house?

ChrisD. · 15 Jun 2022 at 21:36

iaqi said:
No , fttp is nowhere near our area. we are with bt now, is it possible having 2 internet connections in 1 house?

Have you looked at Community Fibre, City Fibre, Hyperoptic etc?

iaqi · 15 Jun 2022 at 22:43

ChrisD. said:
Have you looked at Community Fibre, City Fibre, Hyperoptic etc?

Yes , no luck on any. Maybe there are some more, sorry for asking but is it possible to list like all the isps in london that do fibre?

iaqi · 15 Jun 2022 at 22:47

iaqi said:
Yes , no luck on any. Maybe there are some more, sorry for asking but is it possible to list like all the isps in london that do fibre?

Just checked on community fibre again and it says its coming to my area. Does this mean it actually is coming to my area in the next year or does it just say this because i live in london?

Turn · 15 Jun 2022 at 23:38

It will say that just cause you live in London, use the https://bidb.uk/ map to see how far off they are to you in terms of the roadworks they're doing and the postcodes they have live already.
It should also show as planned on BIDB aswell.

iaqi · 15 Jun 2022 at 23:44

0007 said:
It will say that just cause you live in London, use the https://bidb.uk/ map to see how far off they are to you in terms of the roadworks they're doing and the postcodes they have live already.
It should also show as planned on BIDB aswell.

Looks like it says Community Fibre is planned, as well as Openreach Fibre. I'm assuming I'll actually get these available to my area in the next 1-2 years.