Virgin Media Discussion Thread

"Right now you have our up to 60Mb broadband. That's really fast, but between March 2014 and March 2014 you'll be able to supercharge your speed to up to 100Mb broadband at no extra monthly cost."

So March I guess!
 
Footyslayer said:
I've got to wait between August and January :(
Click to expand...

Same here :(

"Right now you have our up to 60Mb broadband. That's really fast, but between August 2014 and January 2015 you'll be able to supercharge your speed to up to 100Mb broadband at no extra monthly cost. We'll email you when it's ready."
 
Tuvoc said:
Yes. I had a bit of a discussion with their engineer, and he said for the vast majority of people uplaod speed wasn't important.
Click to expand...

It isn't if you're network can't support it. Originally build as a content delivery network for cable TV, VM in all their previous incarnations have always resisted increased upstream, because it's not how their network has been built. In fact, for a long time they've gone out of their way to increase headline speeds whilst keeping the minimum upload speeds available to utilise the full download.

They went out of their way to ban any server style applications for a number of years, and even now they have some pretty draconian limits on upstream in the form of STM.

At a time when computers are more powerful than ever, and more able to run server-type applications direct to the desktop, VM is still working on how to prevent people using upstream, instead of enabling them to use new technologies and applications.

DSL product that are equivalent (such as BT Infinity with fibre to the cabinet) offer 60 mbit download and 20 mbit upload. VM offer 60mbit download and 3mbit up, with Traffic Management and Traffic Shaping. It's purely because VM has under-invested in their network infrastructure for years in order to make the books look better for the recent sell-off.
 
Steampunk said:
It isn't if you're network can't support it. Originally build as a content delivery network for cable TV, VM in all their previous incarnations have always resisted increased upstream, because it's not how their network has been built. In fact, for a long time they've gone out of their way to increase headline speeds whilst keeping the minimum upload speeds available to utilise the full download.

They went out of their way to ban any server style applications for a number of years, and even now they have some pretty draconian limits on upstream in the form of STM.

At a time when computers are more powerful than ever, and more able to run server-type applications direct to the desktop, VM is still working on how to prevent people using upstream, instead of enabling them to use new technologies and applications.

DSL product that are equivalent (such as BT Infinity with fibre to the cabinet) offer 60 mbit download and 20 mbit upload. VM offer 60mbit download and 3mbit up, with Traffic Management and Traffic Shaping. It's purely because VM has under-invested in their network infrastructure for years in order to make the books look better for the recent sell-off.
Click to expand...


Agreed, they try to blind people with flashy download speeds, when in fact, the reality is, upload speeds are as you said victorian, the measures needed to inforce the disgusting traffic shaping/management are draconian, and the fair use policy could almost be used against them for not supplying fair usability !!
Plus when you dig into it, the only thing that comes near their claims is the burst speed for downloads, anything sustained tends to drop or get throttled, and streaming speeds are mightily restricted.
 
Tuvoc said:
Exactly the position I'm in. You will get 12Mb upload though, not 6Mb. I got a free trial for one month and I was getting 11Mb up. But they wouldn't do me a deal, so I dropped back to 60+3. I'd be happy with 60+6, why they won't give that I don't know. It was originally 30+3 and they doubled the download but not the upload. I think new customers get 60+6

I can switch to BT fibre, but I'm wanting to get rid of my telephone line, which you can do with Virgin, so Virgin will end up cheaper than anything BT can do, because with BT you need the phone line of course....
Click to expand...

I signed up mid January on the 60MB package and upload is still 3MB even for new customers.
 
Something up with Virgin. Ours has gone to ****. Was downloading and streaming on Friday night, after a while it acted as if it had been throttled. Since then our speeds have been atrocious, just done a Speedtest; 0.39 Mb down and 1.63 Mb up (we are on the 60 Mb package).
 
xibinim said:
Something up with Virgin. Ours has gone to ****. Was downloading and streaming on Friday night, after a while it acted as if it had been throttled. Since then our speeds have been atrocious, just done a Speedtest; 0.39 Mb down and 1.63 Mb up (we are on the 60 Mb package).
Click to expand...

Sounds like one of your neighbours signed up to Virgin. :p
 
That's more like it :)

3317540954.png
 
R3X said:
Is this true ?

What if 4-5 guys on your street have virgin will you suffer and not get full speeds then ?

any work around to avoid this apart from go with bt instead ?
Click to expand...

Somewhat true.

Virgin Media run their network on an oversubscription model. This means they aim to run their equipment slightly above max capacity. This is because any un-utilised capacity = pointless spending = lost profit.

An extra couple of customers most definitely has the power to send the entire CMTS/UBR into meltdown. This is what happens when people suffer from oversubscription problems. Speeds have been known to get slashed by a factor of up to 100 at peak times (someone on 120Mb would end up getting 1.20Mb).

When this happens, Virgin Media will wait 6+ months for customers to start cancelling contracts to ease the congestion. They typically add a new fault on their website and pull out a random repair date within a month. If enough customers end their contracts, they will consider the issue resolved, if they don't get enough cancellations they simply extend the repair date by a few weeks at a time until enough people cancel to ease the network congestion.

Actually increasing capacity is a last resort, they won't do it unless they absolutely have to, and it could take up to a year.

I experienced this a couple of years ago. It lasted several months, but now I'm actually glad I'm one of the customers who stayed. I get rock solid 120Mb/s.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom