Virgin Media Discussion Thread

Rainmaker · 3 Mar 2021 at 01:45

Full loss of services (broadband, TV and phone) in Liverpool, again. This is getting annoying now! ETA for fix is six hours, so that's something. What I wouldn't give for proper FTTP in this area. I can't even jump to FTTC as our area has no capacity, and the checkers say the max available speed is 3Mbps. :rolleyes:

Avalon · 3 Mar 2021 at 02:44

Rainmaker said:
Full loss of services (broadband, TV and phone) in Liverpool, again. This is getting annoying now! ETA for fix is six hours, so that's something. What I wouldn't give for proper FTTP in this area. I can't even jump to FTTC as our area has no capacity, and the checkers say the max available speed is 3Mbps.

Any chance it was planned and linked to Gig1 rollout? That’s one outage I would be prepared to accept.

Rainmaker · 3 Mar 2021 at 02:51

Avalon said:
Any chance it was planned and linked to Gig1 rollout? That’s one outage I would be prepared to accept.

We've been on 'Gig1' for a few months now mate. There have been a few such 'wobbles' lately, and curiously when it does go down they always seem to happen around 00:05.

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The fix ETA is currently 06:05 according to the status page, so we'll see... It was back up within an hour last time, but no such luck today. Currently tethered via EE 5G and leaning on NextDNS for blocking, since my own servers are obviously now down. I do wish VM had a proper status page with details of the issues and network info. That'd be really cool.

ETA: Speedtest on Gig1 via WireGuard VPN, for extra nerd fun.

Avalon · 3 Mar 2021 at 03:21

Rainmaker said:
We've been on 'Gig1' for a few months now mate. There have been a few such 'wobbles' lately, and curiously when it does go down they always seem to happen around 00:05.

The fix ETA is currently 06:05 according to the status page, so we'll see... It was back up within an hour last time, but no such luck today. Currently tethered via EE 5G and leaning on NextDNS for blocking, since my own servers are obviously now down. I do wish VM had a proper status page with details of the issues and network info. That'd be really cool.

ETA: Speedtest on Gig1 via WireGuard VPN, for extra nerd fun.

22ms via VM and VPN isn’t too bad - not seen Clouvider since the LET days. Back when it was BY, they did list planned outages and send emails on scheduled area works, but generally the broadband/TV side was planned for after midnight on a working day as it was likely to have the least noticeable impact. Like you, I am stuck between FTTC that’s too slow and no FTTP, I love my remote servers, but I really would prefer to run everything in-house and that’s not viable on the current uplink.

Cromulent · 3 Mar 2021 at 05:22

Does anyone know when Gig1 is going to be available for business customers?

Cyber-Mav · 3 Mar 2021 at 07:37

Vm do have a status page for issues in area

robfosters · 3 Mar 2021 at 08:42

Is gig1 really worth it for the average household who just game, stream and use internet on mobile devices?

xb8browney · 3 Mar 2021 at 08:54

Not for the average household no, but this is a computing enthusiast forum.

Journey · 3 Mar 2021 at 09:21

I've just had some marketing material posted through my door yesterday offering Gig1 as a special introductory price of only £62 per month! I though that was the normal price? :confused:

I doubt I'll be switching from my 5G now though, constant 700+ Mbps down 70+ Mbps up less than £4 per month, I'll wait until FTTP arrives.

Cromulent · 3 Mar 2021 at 09:36

Journey said:
I doubt I'll be switching from my 5G now though, constant 700+ Mbps down 70+ Mbps up less than £4 per month, I'll wait until FTTP arrives.

Which mobile provider are you with to get those speeds for that price? My phone contract has ended and I am looking for a new SIM-only deal.

Journey · 3 Mar 2021 at 09:47

Cromulent said:
Which mobile provider are you with to get those speeds for that price? My phone contract has ended and I am looking for a new SIM-only deal.

I am using Three, the SIM is just a bog standard offer that was from HERE and I used Quidco to get further cashback. It's a good deal as long as you don't mind sending an e-mail every couple of months. Before you commit to any network it is worth getting some SIMs to test, and look up where your masts are on Cellmapper.net and figuring what happens at certain times of the day as well.

Cromulent · 3 Mar 2021 at 09:55

Journey said:
I am using Three, the SIM is just a bog standard offer that was from HERE and I used Quidco to get further cashback. It's a good deal as long as you don't mind sending an e-mail every couple of months. Before you commit to any network it is worth getting some SIMs to test, and look up where your masts are on Cellmapper.net and figuring what happens at certain times of the day as well.

Thanks for the information. Very useful.

Journey · 3 Mar 2021 at 10:01

Cromulent said:
Thanks for the information. Very useful.

No bother at all, I'm worried about getting another deal next year that is better, I've ended up with 3x of these SIMs now, one for the Home router, and two for handsets.

HEADRAT · 3 Mar 2021 at 10:11

robfosters said:
Is gig1 really worth it for the average household who just game, stream and use internet on mobile devices?

To be honest I queue most of my downloads up anyway (overnight), currently I get about 580Mbps and the average Linux distro maxes out my connection, I'd love some more upload but 1gig1 isn't super for that.

robfosters · 3 Mar 2021 at 10:56

How much do you 1Gig guys pay for your service?

xb8browney · 3 Mar 2021 at 11:03

I think at £62pm for 1gig they are just making hay till other providers get bigger coverage because the areas that now have city fibre or similar are like £45 and often symmetrical.

I expect in the next 24 months that price will come down by 30%.

Journey · 3 Mar 2021 at 11:08

xb8browney said:
I expect in the next 24 months that price will come down by 30%.

Needs to be more than 30% if they want to compete with the ever increasing number of ISPs that will be offering fast FTTP with much better stats and upload.

£29 on an 18 month contract in 24 months time will seem average.

Ayahuasca · 3 Mar 2021 at 11:19

I would be very surprised if Virgin lower the price of their Gig1, their customer numbers have grown in the last year and they've never really priced their top tier offerings based on the competition.

Journey · 3 Mar 2021 at 11:21

Ayahuasca said:
I would be very surprised if Virgin lower the price of their Gig1, their customer numbers have grown in the last year and they've never really priced their top tier offerings based on the competition.

That is because realistically they have always been ahead on speeds, and never had other providers on a level pegging or better.

Sp00n · 3 Mar 2021 at 11:22

With the wider roll out of FTTP services it will be interesting to see how VM is affected, as said, VM have never really had much competition up until now.