Virgin Media - Optic Cable - 20MB - Any Good?

Marky

Marky

Marky

Soldato
Joined
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Hey all,

As the topic title suggests - just seen that Virgin Media are offering 20MB download speeds...

Bascially, is it any good?
Is it really 20MB ALL THE TIME?
Is the service constant?
Good support?

Any reason to move from my current "Up to 8MB (But really 2MB)" BT line?

Thanks,
Marky
 
Depends on area i live in Rugeley and my speeds are great, getting 2.3mbs download in normal times and when they traffic shape between 4-9pm my speeds drop too around 1.6mbs. You do know they have a slight limit in that time if you download more than 3 gig you are capped too 5 meg speeds for 5 hours, even if you hit that limit at 8.59pm you will still get shaped for 5 hours.

To me they say what they are unlimited for example this are second month on 20 meg and the first month we downloaded 1.02 terrabytes (brother downloads big files from his work place over nights) the second month we did 900 odd gig, we did specify what amounts we would be doing and they didn't' seem bothered the chap said its unlimited.

My advice is find out what its like in your area as some get over subscribed and speeds are terrible they are also in the progress of upgrading 4 meg too 10 meg free of charge, you do know that they are offering 50 meg this year too VM cable.
 
It's not 20MB all the time, and the support leaves a lot to be desired.

And it's not fibre to the house, it's fibre to the cabinet and then copper to your house. I've no idea how VM are getting away with their current ad campaign.
 
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As has been said it totally depends on how heavily subscribed your area is. The only way to really tell is to go knocking on doors and ask other people on your street :p
 
No internet is what it says Be is upto 24 meg but you won't get it, if you on upto 8 meg bt and getting 2 mb you won't get anywhere the speeds of what 20meg cable can offer you( if your area is good) best bet is goto www.cableforum.co.uk put a post asking about speeds in your area with postcode for example, see what you get back or ask friends etc in your area.

Ive not had to use there customer support yet but i hear its pretty bad.
 
Well if he on upto 8 meg and can only get 2 meg he obviously a good distance from his exchange, i was on 3 meg adsl max best i could get at 1.1km away, i reading you need to be close to the exchange to get anything near 20 meg on BE adsl2 thats if you got it at your exchange.

Thats one thing cable has over adsl it don't matter as you running of a box in the streets so if your are is good you will get the speed.
 
Ah I see what Jabbs was saying.

He was saying "Don't bother getting BE 24mb etc, because they won't be able to offer you anywhere near the speeds that a 20MB cable connection would".

I read it wrongly first too!
 
yeah sorry chaps i not the best with putting things, i have the ideas in my head but they don't always come out as i want, i was basically trying to say if your area is good cable may be your best choice.
 
Marky said:
Hey all,

As the topic title suggests - just seen that Virgin Media are offering 20MB download speeds...

Bascially, is it any good?
Click to expand...
Yes. It's the best ISP in the UK in my option and everyone I know who has it has no real issues with it, including myself! Note that it is the biggest ISP in the country which means you do hear about issues more frequently. In reality it's not really as bad as many people make out.

Marky said:
Is it really 20MB ALL THE TIME?
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Yes, for me at least. Unless I hit the limits of course. Some say it depends where you live but personally I don't agree. I am connected to one of the most oversubscribed, used and abused UBRs on the network, yet my service is almost flawless. Go figure!

Marky said:
Is the service constant?
Click to expand...
Yes. See above.

Marky said:
Good support?
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This is where they let you down a little. If you get through to India then it's crap. If you get through to someone in the UK or use the newsgroups rather than phoning then yes it's usually good.

Marky said:
Any reason to move from my current "Up to 8MB (But really 2MB)" BT line?

Thanks,
Marky
Click to expand...
10 times as fast not enough for ya? :p Even on the worst days I've never seen it drop below 50% of its max capacity.
 
I couldn't possibly imagine using ADSL. My cable has been 100% since day one. Had probably 20hours maybe more of down time in 5 years of having it.

Never ever not had my rated speed (and I've been on ever package, currently had to take our service down a peg to 4mb), absolutely top notch.

Support is crap - but very rarely have to use it.

As said though. All depends on postcode (apparently). I'd head over to cableforum (formerly NTL:Hell) and ask what service is like for others in your local area.

imo ADSL just dosent compair in most circumstances.

Oh, and read this:

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

Personally I have found absolutly no loss of performance during peak hours so traffic management is doing its job. I cannot even begin to argue with anyone who has a problem with it tbh ;)


ta

alec
 
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On the flipside I was getting about 3.5Mb on ADSL (1) and moved to O2 (via Be), and pay £7.50 a month for an 8Mb synched at about 7.5. Can't complain for the price (long-ish line), but I'd probably be on cable if I could get it.

Not sure how the non-promo pricing of cable compares but if you want to save a bit of cash and don't need a 20Mb service it's worth looking at.
 
dont forget VM are doing free upgrades from now to till end of summer, where 4mb people will go up to 10mb if i remember right. So it might be an idea to just get the 4mb cable for now, which will shortly become 10mb, which should be enough for most people, the 20mb will only be of use if your a heavy downloader.
 
Virgin are definitely *not* the best choice of ISP...unless you happen to be very far from the telephone exchange.

As the OP is, it's probably worth going the cable route. At one point it was better than ADSL...now I wouldn't say it is unless you've got a medium to poor BT phone line. If you've got a decent BT line however, ADSL will do you better (Be for instance).
 
Jabbs said:
No internet is what it says Be is upto 24 meg but you won't get it, if you on upto 8 meg bt and getting 2 mb you won't get anywhere the speeds of what 20meg cable can offer you( if your area is good) best bet is goto www.cableforum.co.uk put a post asking about speeds in your area with postcode for example, see what you get back or ask friends etc in your area.

Ive not had to use there customer support yet but i hear its pretty bad.
Click to expand...

adsl & cable are totally different
 
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