Soldato
Nice little upgrade for £7
Virgin Media Discussion Thread
- Thread starter macca40
- Start date
Anyone have any idea how the VM/o2 thing works? I registered with o2 for Volt benefits a few days ago and I've just got a confirmation from o2 that the benefits are active, and indeed they are, I now have 100GB of mobile data instead of 50GB etc. Great, but I don't care about that, I'm just wondering if I will get any speed upgrade on the VM side.
I'm on 500Mbit right now. Supposedly I'll get a free upgrade to the next tier, not sure if that'll be 630Mbit or 1130Mbit but either way it's all good. I just have no idea if it'll automatically kick in one day, whether I'll get nothing because I'm on 500Mbit or if I need to contact VM. Not really much info out there about it.
I'm on 500Mbit right now. Supposedly I'll get a free upgrade to the next tier, not sure if that'll be 630Mbit or 1130Mbit but either way it's all good. I just have no idea if it'll automatically kick in one day, whether I'll get nothing because I'm on 500Mbit or if I need to contact VM. Not really much info out there about it.
Long time no speak
It should be applied by VM in due course now you're registered with O2 but as the process is new, I highly doubt it's automated. Also if you're in contract on a discounted deal, the system was set-up in such a way that any order to change the service code on the account to give you a faster profile will remove the existing offer code and discount, I would imagine someone would have thought about that by now, as applying automated credits comes out of a different budget than the sales budget that it's supposed to, but you never know. Profile wise they seem to have dropped any mention of M600 on the site for me now, it's only showing M500 or Gig1 when I log in, so fingers crossed you end up on Gig1.
Only been about 6 months since VM finally went live in our area and this morning I was surprised to see some contractors feeding some fibre cable using the existing route that VM contractors used to lay the initial cable.
Went outside and was greeted by a Community Fibre rep, turns out getting up to 3gb down/up fibre in our area from December this year. (Their 500mb package is currently £35pm, 1GB - £45pm and 3GB £89pm)
I'm on Gig1 at the moment and don't think anything faster than this will prove to be useful, however the fact they are pretty much offering the same upload speeds as download is a huge bonus.
Unfortunately still in contract for another year but nice to finally see some competition, gone are the days where only FTTC were available.
It will be interesting to see if VM have any plans to change their packages, quite frankly 50mb upload just doesn't cut it these days.
Went outside and was greeted by a Community Fibre rep, turns out getting up to 3gb down/up fibre in our area from December this year. (Their 500mb package is currently £35pm, 1GB - £45pm and 3GB £89pm)
I'm on Gig1 at the moment and don't think anything faster than this will prove to be useful, however the fact they are pretty much offering the same upload speeds as download is a huge bonus.
Unfortunately still in contract for another year but nice to finally see some competition, gone are the days where only FTTC were available.
It will be interesting to see if VM have any plans to change their packages, quite frankly 50mb upload just doesn't cut it these days.
Permabanned
I don't really do much uploading so never been an issue on VM, more would be nice of course.
The problem with the ever widening download to upload ratio is that the poor upload speed can start affecting downloads and increase the need for QoS to get a good service across users. Even without the obvious upload activities such as video calls, online backup, video uploads etc the downloaded data still need to be acknowledged (albeit in ever more efficient manners) and every request for content is an upload. Many web pages/games make numerous continual requests for small amounts of data and this all adds to the upload issue.
According to my pfSense box when we're not using online backups, video calls etc but watching a couple of hours of online video a day our download to upload ratio is about 14 to 1. On weeks we do use those other services more we've reached as high as 5 to 1.
The VM 1Gbps service I am on has a ratio of 21.7 to 1 and this means for us the upload speed can often be the limiting factor. Even the previous M600 is over 15 to 1.
When I upgraded from M600 to the 1Gbps the operator asked my reason for upgrading and was a bit surprised with my answer that I wanted the extra 10Mb upload
According to my pfSense box when we're not using online backups, video calls etc but watching a couple of hours of online video a day our download to upload ratio is about 14 to 1. On weeks we do use those other services more we've reached as high as 5 to 1.
The VM 1Gbps service I am on has a ratio of 21.7 to 1 and this means for us the upload speed can often be the limiting factor. Even the previous M600 is over 15 to 1.
When I upgraded from M600 to the 1Gbps the operator asked my reason for upgrading and was a bit surprised with my answer that I wanted the extra 10Mb upload
The problem with the ever widening download to upload ratio is that the poor upload speed can start affecting downloads and increase the need for QoS to get a good service across users. Even without the obvious upload activities such as video calls, online backup, video uploads etc the downloaded data still need to be acknowledged (albeit in ever more efficient manners) and every request for content is an upload. Many web pages/games make numerous continual requests for small amounts of data and this all adds to the upload issue.
According to my pfSense box when we're not using online backups, video calls etc but watching a couple of hours of online video a day our download to upload ratio is about 14 to 1. On weeks we do use those other services more we've reached as high as 5 to 1.
The VM 1Gbps service I am on has a ratio of 21.7 to 1 and this means for us the upload speed can often be the limiting factor. Even the previous M600 is over 15 to 1.
When I upgraded from M600 to the 1Gbps the operator asked my reason for upgrading and was a bit surprised with my answer that I wanted the extra 10Mb upload
The most recent 2Gb trial used the same upload profile as Gig1 which is slightly concerning, but using DOCSIS 3.1 down and up should allow for higher upload profiles. Reading that in combination with the government criteria requiring 200mbit for funding, I would expect the upstream to see a bump to at least 200Mbit sooner rather than later.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Aug 2018
- Posts
- 3,565
Unfortunately there are occasions where the N66U will definitely be limiting you, especially over Wi-Fi. If you have any Wi-Fi 6 devices and want to stay with something familiar then the Asus RT-AX86U works very well though is on the expensive side. If you don't have any Wi-Fi 6 devices then the Asus RT-AC86U will work great and still gives >500Mb's over Wi-Fi and is a much better value proposition.
Commissario
Cheers, I'm unlikely to use wifi6 much/at all for a long time as almost every room in the house has cabled networking (the only things that use wifi don't need anything like that speed), so I'll have a look at the Asus RT-AC86U.
It was rather a nice upgrade, and a little unexpected
Soldato
My wife is due an upgrade with EE would it be worth me looking at a deal for an iPhone via VM/O2 do we think? She’d be paying around the £45/£50 per month
Long time no speak
It should be applied by VM in due course now you're registered with O2 but as the process is new, I highly doubt it's automated. Also if you're in contract on a discounted deal, the system was set-up in such a way that any order to change the service code on the account to give you a faster profile will remove the existing offer code and discount, I would imagine someone would have thought about that by now, as applying automated credits comes out of a different budget than the sales budget that it's supposed to, but you never know. Profile wise they seem to have dropped any mention of M600 on the site for me now, it's only showing M500 or Gig1 when I log in, so fingers crossed you end up on Gig1.
Aye, been a while, hope all is well
I've actually been working up your way a fair few times recently, have to catch up sometime.I left everything well alone and didn't get in contact with CS at all which seemed to pay off. VM activated my upgrade today so I went from 500Mbit to Gig1 for free.
Happy enough with that, especially for no extra cash.
Aye, been a while, hope all is well
I left everything well alone and didn't get in contact with CS at all which seemed to pay off. VM activated my upgrade today so I went from 500Mbit to Gig1 for free.
Happy enough with that, especially for no extra cash.
Nice result
Number is still the same, although I don't do social media and haven't at least 4 years.
MSE have 15GB (30GB via VOLT) O2 SIM only on 12 months for £8/m, Quidco is £13, I think you just talked me into jumping network and upgrading to Gig1 with 3x the mobile data I currently have for less money.
Last edited:
Associate
Decided to give Virgin another go as my VDSL connection keeps flipping between Fastpath and Interleaved. Kit arrived yesterday. Thought some work had probably been done with the congestion issues in the area. Left a BQM running and this was the result:
Yeah, no thanks. Red blocks were due to me swapping between a Pfsense router and an Asus router, thinking there was some issue. Other than that, the connection was idle for most of it. Power levels were fine, so couldn't blame them. Decided to cancel under the cooling off period. Atleast the VDSL doesn't suffer from congestion.
Yeah, no thanks. Red blocks were due to me swapping between a Pfsense router and an Asus router, thinking there was some issue. Other than that, the connection was idle for most of it. Power levels were fine, so couldn't blame them. Decided to cancel under the cooling off period. Atleast the VDSL doesn't suffer from congestion.
Would be very interested to hear of any progress you make with pfSense connected to multiple ports with link aggregation to beat the gig Ethernet limitation as I'm in exactly the same boat. Contemplating upgrading to giggle but 'losing' 200Mb of it would be really annoying.
Thanks, does seem a bit of a faff to say the least. Assuming the Hub 5 will support the full 1.1Gbps speed over its 2.5GbE port, this seems a far cleaner way to go so may hang on to see what happens with this. I have a strong suspicion the new hub is a pre-cursor to a 2.2Gbps service in the new year.
Was it the two well publicised 2Gbit trials and the 3.1 roll-out due to end this year and general availability of the SH5 with 2.5Gbit port stated as being next year that gave it away?
Was it the two well publicised 2Gbit trials and the 3.1 roll-out due to end this year and general availability of the SH5 with 2.5Gbit port stated as being next year that gave it away?
Naaaaa. Too subtle.
Naaaaa. Too subtle.
Bigger question: When do we get the required 200Mbit upload?
Presumably when the upstream channels move to 3.1 as I can't see them holding back on that till the 2028 deadline, the political pressure to be able to include VM's roll-out in the gigabit availability numbers must be reasonably large at this stage. So they can either increase the uplink, or revise the criteria.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...-definition-of-gigabit-capable-broadband.html
Technical Definition of Gigabit-Capable (August 2021)
Infrastructure that can support gigabit-capable downstream services directly or via third-party providers without restriction, as set out below:
a) wholesale infrastructure capable of supporting gigabit-capable downstream wholesale and retail services directly or via third-party providers without restriction, as set out below.
b) connections that are gigabit-capable (capable of delivering 1000Mbps or more download speeds) at the time of delivery of the connection without the need for future hardware upgrades or modification [this principally applies to CPE but also backhaul/other network upgrades] i.e. gigabit capability to be available from day one and if the consumer takes a slower speed it must be soft upgradeable without undue delay. At least one wholesale product with a download speed capability of at least 1Gbps and an upload speed of at least 200Mbps with busy hour performance as laid out below.
*edit* Apparently moving upstream to 3.1 is more problematic than I imagined, and would require another round of physical upgrades *sigh* Though apparently they have done 200+ here:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...-2-2gbps-broadband-to-homes-in-berkshire.html
Broadband ISP Virgin Media (Liberty Global) has announced that they’ve just successfully completed a new trial, which pushed their new DOCSIS 3.1 based network to “hyperfast” 2.2Gbps download speeds (and 214Mbps upload speeds) in the Berkshire (England) market town of Thatcham.
Last edited: