Virgin Media Discussion Thread

Associate
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Just upgrade Ultimate Oomph M600 to the new Ultimate Volt just to get 1Gbps as you cannot upgrade existing Oomph package since Monday apparently.

45 min web chat that got no where followed by 59 minute phone call to get it all sorted as it was the operators first such change :(. Had to take a new SIM (O2) but I use it for broadband failover so no big deal there and the O2 mast is nearer so should be better than the limited 4G channels that the EE based VM SIM is allowed to use plus the O2 mast is half the distance away and better line of sight.

...and I thought it would take 30 mins max!
 
Soldato
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The more interesting point is after the multi gigabit trials, we now have a device capable of providing what will presumably be offered as Gig2 and - finally - does away with the TI/Intel Puma historic issues rather than mitigates them. The limited rollout for 2021 to existing customers seems odd, almost like they haven't got the stock on hand to push a national rollout for Gig1 users at present. My initial take on it would be once they've finished rolling Gig1 to all regions by the end of this year (they need to hurry up if still following the old change freeze process), they plan on offering faster headline speeds. I would imagine in order to not have your advertising challenged/banned/be fined you want your CPE to be capable of providing your headline speed to a single device via a LAN connection, hence the need for 2.5Gb. From memory to satisfy the latest government criteria for 'Gigabit' which is likely what any available funding is conditional on, they need to offer 200Mbit up too. Between this and the plan to re-pull fibre in existing ducts the next few years are going to be interesting.
 
Soldato
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@Avalon, indeed. I was posting from the car earlier (parked up, obviously) so didn't say much. Your thoughts pretty much echo mine. We're due BT FTTP in the next two years so between those and VM's improvements I'm hoping for a significantly more self-host friendly connection by then (i.e. more upstream, better latency). Whether that's through BT's FTTP or VM overhauling things and providing multi-gig, who knows? Either way I'm excited to upgrade the edge router and network to keep up haha!
 
Associate
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Still using a Hub2, as I refused an 'upgrade' to the one that causes ping spikes etc. I ignored a call from virgin about upgrading my router a few weeks ago, I wonder if that might have been part of the hub 5 trial?

Now I'm wondering if I'll be offered a new Hub 5?
 
Soldato
Joined
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Can't wait for upload speeds to improve.

1000 down and 50 up is a crazy difference.

Last lot of 2Gb trials were still on 1Gb (52Mbit) upload profile :rolleyes:

@Avalon, indeed. I was posting from the car earlier (parked up, obviously) so didn't say much. Your thoughts pretty much echo mine. We're due BT FTTP in the next two years so between those and VM's improvements I'm hoping for a significantly more self-host friendly connection by then (i.e. more upstream, better latency). Whether that's through BT's FTTP or VM overhauling things and providing multi-gig, who knows? Either way I'm excited to upgrade the edge router and network to keep up haha!

OR have yet to make any estimate on when we're getting FTTP, annoying as it's available locally on the new build streets close by (including the property our move fell through on). So I have to pin my hopes on VM and hope that between the published Gov. criteria being 200Mbit up and the plan to roll out FTTP (all be it potentially RFoG) that someone will offer a credible upload. The first one to do so saves me an average of three figures a month on remote hardware :\

I’m due to move house in the next month into a gig connected area, I’m currently on 500mb at the moment and will be changing up to gig1 service. I wonder if I can wangle a nice hub 5.

Nobody in sales or M&T placing your order can specify the equipment type sent, technically relations could arrange a SRO for equipment swap afterwards, but even then no guarantee that you would get a SH5, it's done based on the service code on the order automatically and what's available in your area as well as the stock available in the local stores warehouse. Given it's a brand new Hub and they have made a big statement about only being available to existing customers via invite, I suspect they simply don't have the stock to throw at new installs at this stage, if you look at the timing they suggest they will make them available to new customer, it is straight after the DOCSIS/Gig1 roll-out finishes. My money is on a Q1 push on SH5 and faster than Gig1 service as it's now a much simpler process to push faster profiles for a while.
 
Soldato
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Hilarious they've just announced this and I get an email offering me the Hub 4. Is the Hub 4 any better than the 3? I don't have any issues at the present time.

Technically yes, realistically not really unless you plan on getting faster speeds, at which point they'll send you a 4 or 5 or whatever else at that point.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
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Would the HUB 5 be ok with 350 speeds?

I gather VM will say not but that's just to try to get you to upgrade speeds.

Likely a moot point, at present they're invite only and we don't know the exact criteria at this stage. Hypothetically I can't think of an obvious reason why a SH5 couldn't run lower profile speeds, but nobody is getting one till Monday afaik and it's presumably backwards compatible with earlier DOCSIS standards (upload channels currently used on Gig1 for example), the profile can be whatever is set. It's possible to put dependancies in place for each service code, so for example you can't key an Analogue TV service code onto an order where the customer only has digital services, it would technically be possible to do that for different classes of equipment, eg you can't key an order for Gig1 against an SH2 as they can't handle the channel bonding requirements.
 
Commissario
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Panting like a fiend
I got a call last night offering us an upgrade from 200mb to 1gb for an extra £7 a month as a loyalty thing (we've been with them since they launched cable modems in our area), I can't remember if they said we'd be getting the superhub 4 or 5, so i'm hoping that if they're starting the roll out of the 5 we'll get that.

Now I'm wondering if i'm going to have to upgrade my venerable Asus RT-N66U as that looks like it only does about 600mbs between wan and lan.
 
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