Can anything be done about broadband throttling?

I don't want to get into technicalities too much. I get that 'unlimited', in this context, means that there is no limit to how much you can download. However, use it too much and your download speed is 'limited' to 25%.

Call it 'cap', or whatever, it's all semantics, but methinks Virgin don't expect many users to go investigating their download speeds, as most internet users are just casual and don't monitor their up/down. They can call it Unlimited because 95%+ of their customers won't notice the speed limiter.
 
Werewolf said:
The options are...
Download over night/wehn STM isn't in effect.
Upgrade the package to pay for one with no/less STM
Change supplier.

To be honest, given that it's possible to download about 50-100gb a day even with STM on 10mbit i don't think it's bad for the price.
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You missed option d) Have a moan

Seriously, as Werewolf said, it's possible to get near 100gb a day with Virgin 20mb, 50mb is just ridiculous what is achievable. There aren't many suppliers out there now that are truly unlimited with no cap and even they have their problems.

The fact that you want something now and complaining about VM's very fair service, I think, is a little OTT.

Also with regards to Usenet/NNTP traffic shaping nothing is official...yet (iirc):) Even still, the chance to download between midnight and 9/10am still doesn't exactly leave us "shafted".
 
To answer the OP's question: No, there's no way around it. Restarting your modem/router won't reset the limit.

TBH if you need to download large amounts during peak hours, just pay for the 50Mb package. As an added bonus you'll get the game or whatever much quicker. Otherwise try to download during 'Happy Hour' of 3pm-4pm when it's unmetered.
 
There should be no throttling on the 50mbit but im guessing there will be, I don't see why those paying for the highest tier and the privelage of high speeds should be made to suffer too, to borrow someones analogy, it's like paying for VIP class flight then be asked to share your seat with a budget class cheapo ticket. Oh and you can guarantee they will change the caps once peoples download habits move into the later hours, remember last time History always repeats itself especially with Virgin!.
 
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They wont be the highest tier soon with 100Mbit coming from VM and in some areas already here IIRC

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Yep I know about that, 100mbit will be uncapped until they get enough users locked into a 12 month contract and then they will throttle that too, then the same will happen when 200mbit comes out and so on.
 
So it seems their business model is that the highest tier remains uncapped - why you pay the premium for the service. So its not a surprise whats happening - it was inevitable unfortunately. Companies like VM just show no loyalty to their customers...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Yes they seem to throttle the highest tier then not long after the new faster tier one comes along they throttle the current tier under the guise that it is for the benefit of the network so you pay the premium for the new even faster high tier, then later down the line it repeat's itself.
 
gnr26 said:
Yep I know about that, 100mbit will be uncapped until they get enough users locked into a 12 month contract and then they will throttle that too, then the same will happen when 200mbit comes out and so on.
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However, the limits increase with each Tier. Even once 100Mb arrives and 50Mb starts being capped, you'll be able to pull down something like 15GB between 10am and 3pm, and then a further 7.5GB in the evenings. That should be enough to download a game on Steam.
Even if you're throttled to 25% for a few hours, 12.5Mb is no great hardship. I'm on an ADSL Max connection that peaks at 2Mb/s and is unusable the entire evening due to contention. I'm not able to summon up any sympathy I'm afraid.
 
Pete.Dakota said:
but methinks Virgin don't expect many users to go investigating their download speeds, as most internet users are just casual and don't monitor their up/down. They can call it Unlimited because 95%+ of their customers won't notice the speed limiter.
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Whilst I agree with your general gripe this statement is a bit pointless, seen as how the casual user isnt likely to trigger the traffic management either
 
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