Virgin Media Discussion Thread

jubei · 28 Aug 2016 at 10:57

Chief Wiggum said:
Yep - ping me your email via trust and I'll send you the referral

Done, thanks a lot it's much appreciated

thewanted · 28 Aug 2016 at 10:59

Chief Wiggum said:
Yep - ping me your email via trust and I'll send you the referral

Hey

How long is the referral code valid for? I'm moving house at the beginning of November and will more than likely be ordering VM because I can only get ~23mbit with BT Infinity.

If you don't mind giving out more mates rates codes, I'd really appreciate one

Swifty55 · 28 Aug 2016 at 12:10

thewanted said:
Hey How long is the referral code valid for? I'm moving house at the beginning of November and will more than likely be ordering VM because I can only get ~23mbit with BT Infinity.

If you don't mind giving out more mates rates codes, I'd really appreciate one

Check for congestion issues...

thewanted · 28 Aug 2016 at 12:24

Swifty55 said:
Check for congestion issues...

I've had a look on the VM forums for my new post code and area, and there have only been 2 complaints in the past ~2 years. I've had trouble with Virgin in the past, so I will definitely be using the 30 day cancellation period to my advantage if I decide to go for it.

zoomee · 28 Aug 2016 at 12:31

Whats the current mates rates deal?

I've been on mates rates deal for about 2 years now - XXL TIVO + HD + Unlimited calls + 200MB BB started off at only £56 per month. They've jacked the prices up now to nearly £70 per month now!!

Everytime I ring them they give me some crap about how they can do a better deal - they can never beat the deal for value and keep trying to persuade me to move to a crudder deal with less features for a slightly bit less cash.

DOH NVM - Seen the thread for Mates rates - looks like I'm still on a great deal compared to them prices lol

Chief Wiggum · 28 Aug 2016 at 13:36

thewanted said:
Hey How long is the referral code valid for? I'm moving house at the beginning of November and will more than likely be ordering VM because I can only get ~23mbit with BT Infinity.

If you don't mind giving out more mates rates codes, I'd really appreciate one

I'm not sure (they don't say) - Might be better to wait until closer to the time

jubei said:
Done, thanks a lot it's much appreciated

No probs - you should have mail

Spikey · 29 Aug 2016 at 17:54

Anyone getting terrible buffering with youtube? Bloody awful on VM, generally my connection is spot on bar YT buffering. Still haven't sorted this after all these years?

WantoN · 30 Aug 2016 at 01:24

Finding the Superhub 2 ac wireless performance is not great.

Anyone have any experience with modem mode? Can you recommend a good router? Preferably one I can hide out of sight?

Not a big house, 200mb broadband. Up to 5 devices, generally 1 - 3.

NexusK · 30 Aug 2016 at 10:32

Spikey said:
Anyone getting terrible buffering with youtube? Bloody awful on VM, generally my connection is spot on bar YT buffering. Still haven't sorted this after all these years?

This past week i've had to keep refreshing the page to get Youtube vids to even start.

ChrisD. · 30 Aug 2016 at 10:44

I had terrible buffering in 2012, nice to see they've fixed it.

NexusK · 30 Aug 2016 at 19:14

Virgin are bringing out a 'gamer' tier of broadband this week. 200mb down, 20mb up and no upload throttling. £5 pm on top of the normal 200mb package. Suposedly they are 'shaking up' the other tiers too.

Paywall so either google virgin media gamers tarriff and click through or use incognito mode on browser to view http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b212349c-6dd3-11e6-a0c9-1365ce54b926.html#axzz4Iq9z5PaT

Edit - copy/pasta of the article :

Broadband providers have changed their attitude towards video gamers. Once seen as the bane of telecoms companies for clogging the web during peak times, gamers have now become an attractive target market.

Virgin Media will this week launch the first broadband tariff aimed directly at video gamers, who need fast download and upload speeds.

Online gamers are often frustrated by “lagging”, where a network slows down during play and potentially hands an advantage to rivals with better broadband connections.

But the huge investment in fibre by the telecoms industry has paved the way for a rapid increase in the popularity of online video gaming, opening up consoles to a global network of players.

Average broadband speeds more than doubled between March 2013 and 2016, meaning titles with high-resolution graphics and complex gameplay suffer less disruption when played online. Yet speeds are still below those available in countries like Japan and South Korea.

UKIE, the British interactive entertainment trade body, said that consumers spent £4.2bn on video gaming last year, making the UK the sixth-largest market in the world. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, said that almost a quarter of internet users played a video game once a week, with the number rising to almost 40 per cent for 16- to 24-year-olds.

Video game fans tend to subscribe to higher-tier products to avoid download limits. Virgin has worked with Gfinity, the listed British esports tournament operator, to tailor and test its new package and said that the “vast majority” of the trialists had agreed that they would pay extra for the increased upload speeds.

Virgin’s new tariff will provide download speeds of 200 mbps, in line with other packages, but upload speeds of 20 mbps, more than a third faster than other services. The package, which will cost an extra £5 on top of the cable company’s top-tier product, will not be subject to “throttling”, where speeds are constrained, in peak times.

Virgin’s play for gamers is not the first time a British telecoms company has tried to tap into the lucrative market. BT ran an advert last year claiming that its Infinity product’s “super responsiveness” was ideal for online gaming and better than Virgin Media’s network. That backfired when the advertising watchdog banned the ads as “misleading” following complaints from its rivals.

Virgin, owned by Liberty Global, has spent £3bn to expand its cable and fibre network and is set to buy one of the UK’s largest WiFi networks, Arqiva’s hotspot business.

It is also understood to have worked with Sony’s PlayStation team in developing the new gamers product.

The offer, which will cost about £50 a month excluding line rental charges, is part of a broader shake-up of Virgin Media’s packages due to be announced this week. The cable company, which has 5.2m British users, will raise the price of its line rental in November, the latest in a series of price rises this year.

Swifty55 · 30 Aug 2016 at 20:13

NexusK said:
Load of crap

Would be viable if it wasn't for major congestion issues...

Steampunk · 30 Aug 2016 at 22:39

Increasing the upload speed will do nothing for gaming. It's their network latency that's the problem, and there's not many games that will benefit from 20 mbit over 12 mbit on the upload. It's just the usual nonsense marketing.

NexusK · 31 Aug 2016 at 06:54

Steampunk said:
Increasing the upload speed will do nothing for gaming. It's their network latency that's the problem, and there's not many games that will benefit from 20 mbit over 12 mbit on the upload. It's just the usual nonsense marketing.

It seems to me it's more aimed at streamers. They're the ones who seem to have been most vocal about upload speeds and more especially the severe throttling on upload in the evenings and all weekend. I've read countless complaints about streaming to Twitch on Virgin.

chroniclard · 31 Aug 2016 at 07:09

WantoN said:
Finding the Superhub 2 ac wireless performance is not great.

Anyone have any experience with modem mode? Can you recommend a good router? Preferably one I can hide out of sight?

Not a big house, 200mb broadband. Up to 5 devices, generally 1 - 3.

Never had an issue with mine, can get the full 200mb over wireless.

(With an ac device connected)

Well....never had an issue with the performance, its the dropping out that is the issue......

ChrisD. · 31 Aug 2016 at 08:58

NexusK said:
It seems to me it's more aimed at streamers. They're the ones who seem to have been most vocal about upload speeds and more especially the severe throttling on upload in the evenings and all weekend. I've read countless complaints about streaming to Twitch on Virgin.

But the core issue is their network congestion, not upload speed. Lack of throttling won't help if the back end network can't cope with the traffic.

NexusK · 31 Aug 2016 at 10:15

Dooksy said:
But the core issue is their network congestion, not upload speed. Lack of throttling won't help if the back end network can't cope with the traffic.

Except for the fact that the majority of people have no problems with congestion. They've spent a fortune upgrading the network over the past couple of years and just because you might have had a bad experience doesn't mean the rest of us have, all you ever post in this thread is how rubbish Virgin are, it's time you moved on.

ChrisD. · 31 Aug 2016 at 10:21

NexusK said:
Except for the fact that the majority of people have no problems with congestion.

Based on what evidence/statistic?

Are you saying that VM do not have congestion issues?

Despite the fact it's widely reported not only in this thread (not just by me) but their forums are full of people complaining. I constantly see people on my Facebook complaining about peak time speeds and issues trying to stream using YouTube etc.

NexusK said:
Just because you might have had a bad experience doesn't mean the rest of us have, all you ever post in this thread is how rubbish Virgin are, it's time you moved on.

I have had two poor experiences in two separate post code areas, the second one where VM assured me that there were no utilisation issues before I went back to them. I am well aware that there are those who do not experience congestion, which included myself back when I lived in Salisbury and 50 mbit was the maximum.

VM have congestion issues, that's a fact and one you can't refute. I post that VM have these issues when they use sales talk to try and persuade people back and lock them into contracts, when in fact what they have advertised in said sales talk won't help the core issues within the VM network.

Glanza · 31 Aug 2016 at 10:28

Wonder if you do go for the 200/20 package if they'll move you to another system and hopefully get off the normal congestion issues, As it says you won't be throttled.

Would be great for me as still getting anywhere between 10 and 150mbps after 6pm.

Supposed to be resolved next week but I'm not hoping for much, if it isn't I'll be cancelling when I get the letter through regarding price increase and going back to normal fibre as at least the speed was a constant 65mbps.

NexusK · 31 Aug 2016 at 10:33

Dooksy said:
Based on what evidence/statistic?

Are you saying that VM do not have congestion issues?

Despite the fact it's widely reported not only in this thread (not just by me) but their forums are full of people complaining. I constantly see people on my Facebook complaining about peak time speeds and issues trying to stream using YouTube etc.

I have had two poor experiences in two separate post code areas, the second one where VM assured me that there were no utilisation issues before I went back to them. I am well aware that there are those who do not experience congestion, which included myself back when I lived in Salisbury and 50 mbit was the maximum.

VM have congestion issues, that's a fact and one you can't refute. I post that VM have these issues when they use sales talk to try and persuade people back and lock them into contracts, when in fact what they have advertised in said sales talk won't help the core issues within the VM network.

I'm not even sure this deserves a reply as you are using your problems and some posts on facebook to try and make it seem like the majority of people have congestion issues, which is just daft. Now go and look at Facebook or help forums for other providers, guess what... they'll be full of complaints too because happy customers don't post.

We get it that you hate virgin but quit trying to make your problems sound like they are network wide. Some areas have problems, most don't.