View Full Version : UBR up-grades
Berealwith
07-04-2008, 21:03
I have been waiting for over 6 months now, to get a decent speed from my once great 20mb connection, only to go through a broadband hell and back only to find out that my UBR needs an upgrade....if you were to put a DEFCON level on it i'm at 10. Without boring you all, and some on here are at different stages of finding out that it will come to a UBR upgrade, then your only option is to wait for the upgrade, i have 5/6 weeks to wait
My questions are "How long have you been waiting" ?
If you have had an upgrade does it get better ?
and after is it worth it......as the guy i spoke to said he's has recieved feedback after people have had the upgrade and it is much better....or it's it just empty words ?
If anyone knows can you please inform us......as the light is very dim here
I have been waiting for over 6 months now, to get a decent speed from my once great 20mb connection, only to go through a broadband hell and back only to find out that my UBR needs an upgrade....if you were to put a DEFCON level on it i'm at 10. Without boring you all, and some on here are at different stages of finding out that it will come to a UBR upgrade, then your only option is to wait for the upgrade, i have 5/6 weeks to wait
My questions are "How long have you been waiting" ?
If you have had an upgrade does it get better ?
and after is it worth it......as the guy i spoke to said he's has recieved feedback after people have had the upgrade and it is much better....or it's it just empty words ?
If anyone knows can you please inform us......as the light is very dim here
i hve been told the same since mid febuary given various date all but one have past the last is the 19th of this month,checked on various dates for
updates no one seams to know anything , keeping saying they have got no more news, i have just posted to the support broadband newsgroup
on behalf of all customers asking for a manager or someone higher to give use some news of what is happening
Welshchris
08-04-2008, 00:44
bereatwith, what area u in?
I have been waiting for over 6 months now, to get a decent speed from my once great 20mb connection, only to go through a broadband hell and back only to find out that my UBR needs an upgrade....if you were to put a DEFCON level on it i'm at 10. Without boring you all, and some on here are at different stages of finding out that it will come to a UBR upgrade, then your only option is to wait for the upgrade, i have 5/6 weeks to wait
My questions are "How long have you been waiting" ?
If you have had an upgrade does it get better ?
and after is it worth it......as the guy i spoke to said he's has recieved feedback after people have had the upgrade and it is much better....or it's it just empty words ?
If anyone knows can you please inform us......as the light is very dim hereIt took 5 months and a whole world of complaints for me.
i'm in st1 ( stoke on trent ) ours should have been done back in march or so the engineer said who called today. should be upgaraded 22nd april ( not holding my breath )
GrimUpNorth
08-04-2008, 13:09
In Wakefield. Took one day short of six months from the ticket being opened to the upgrade. Went from slow speeds, 10-15% packet loss, slow response time during peak hours to pretty much full on 20 meg at all times.
Now 9 months on things are starting to slow again, so it looks like they have nearly sold all the spare capacity they installed...
hokkers999
08-04-2008, 14:28
In Wakefield. Took one day short of six months from the ticket being opened to the upgrade. Went from slow speeds, 10-15% packet loss, slow response time during peak hours to pretty much full on 20 meg at all times.
Now 9 months on things are starting to slow again, so it looks like they have nearly sold all the spare capacity they installed...
You can always vote with your wallet and downgrade to 2 meg, save £19/month.
If or when they ever get a properly functional network trade up again.
Here in DE23 i was shown for the Derby area by a broadband engineer 2nd week april now i am doubting it as i dont get anything 8mbs during the day and after 5pm 3mbs and lower its just appauling VM are just a total bunch of idiots when running their business. They have forgotten without us there would be no VM.
Hi,
UBR04 Preston here, been waiting since September 07, 7 months now....
Tickets get raised to upgrade, then when the target dates passes the ticket gets closed and a new one raised ad infinitum...
Finally got SO sick of getting sub 2Mb on a 20Mb connection (Not receiving a single word about the official letter of complaint I sent didn't help) that I rang VM on Monday and got released from contract (4 months left).
So, getting shot of VM in 3 weeks and will NEVER touch them again, I may only get around 5Mb on ADSL but it's a steady and constant 5Mb.
Bri
Berealwith
08-04-2008, 20:14
In Wakefield. Took one day short of six months from the ticket being opened to the upgrade. Went from slow speeds, 10-15% packet loss, slow response time during peak hours to pretty much full on 20 meg at all times.
Now 9 months on things are starting to slow again, so it looks like they have nearly sold all the spare capacity they installed...
Cheers bud for the reply i will keep on top of it after it gets done nice feedback
GrimUpNorth
09-04-2008, 08:31
And as synner said - upgrade dates come and upgrade dates go, but upgrades dont!!
My experience was jan - jul last year, and each time I called the upgrade would be in the next couple of weeks or so.
In the end I made an official complaint to them - not so much about the issues with my connection (though that was annoying), but about the ever changing dates and the promises broken.
The next day I got a call from a nice lady in Scotland - she was a senior complaints manager or something. She seemed to be in a position to knock heads together and get things done and within two weeks things were sorted. I felt that she kept me in the loop with regards to developments, and even called a couple of times after the upgrade to check that things were still OK. She restored my faith in VM customer service.
I dont know if there ever was an actual upgrade or not, but on 'upgrade day' my connection changed from ubr01 to ubr04 - which sorted my issues. So if they just swapped my ubr to shut me up or not I suppose I will never know!!
Now I know that others may well jump on me for saying this, but if you feel that you are only getting X% of your connection speed then it seems fair that while you have issues you should only be paying X% of the monthly subs. I would phone VM and ask for an ongoing credit backdated to when the ticket was opened until the 'fault' is resolved.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Grim
I think my area de23 has been upgraded today i have never been able to get 19.54mbs during the day at 1pm ever i have have done 5 speed test all at different sites and are all coming back around 18.5 +. but i am not crossing my fingers yet as it may just be a fluke.
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/04/38.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
speed test do not give a true figure of your download speed. i was told to try this by another post. go to this web site http://nettest.virginm.net/ and download 4 100meg files at the same time. then add the transfer rate together of all 4 files and see what u get.
yup getting full speeds still + try this virgin site instead http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blu...42_mp_demo.exe
web page can not be found i'm getting
5:22pm and still going strong no traffic management wow
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/04/37.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
Here we go traffic management started at 7pm running at 5mbs now lets hope this goes back up from 9pm.
homealone
09-04-2008, 21:59
Here we go traffic management started at 7pm running at 5mbs now lets hope this goes back up from 9pm.
It normally lasts for 5 hours, so triggering at 7pm will be back up, theoretically, at midnight...
i think i can survive till midnight. just glad i can actually view web pages unlike before.
I've been given 3 different dates now. Each month when it gets to a week before the previous date they gave me I given another date a month later. Its so frustrating. Just out of interest for the guys that have had the upgrade. How did you complain? Letter? Phone calls? Watchdog???
well
one the first day of our area getting upgraded we had traffic management for 5 hours since then i have been getting 20mbs 24/7
slowcoach
14-04-2008, 06:18
Network upgrade for Oldham tomorrow and the day after, hope they don't bodge it. :rolleyes:
Berealwith
14-04-2008, 19:34
Network upgrade for Oldham tomorrow and the day after, hope they don't bodge it. :rolleyes:
I hope all goes fine you you. Please keep us informed. When i started this thread i knew that there are alot of people in the same position(Sticking it out, and waiting for thier UBR upgrade)by the amount of views, im sure this proves it.
I too have had dates that have been and gone. I have what i hope a firm date in 4 weeks i do hope it works out for me and the rest of the people on my UBR.
What i might add this is the last dance for me if this day goes and nothing improves....."the fat lady will sing"
I have helpped lots of friends and neigbours with thier connections, and i have got one guy to go with "Be", more for me to see what speed he gets. that was a month ago and he has the 8mb value and is only a few doors down
i am glad to report after dropping in on him, he gets 7mb in the evening and his web pages open so fast it almost reminds of the days when i was on 10mb blueyonder LOL...so cheers for the feedback from the people who have posted on thier upgrades....i Just wish out of the 1000+ more would have posted
slowcoach
17-04-2008, 22:51
UPDATE as requested:
We had planned network updates for Oldham between Midnight and 6am on Tuesday 15/04/08 and Wednesday 16/04/08, during Wednesday after rebooting the modem I tried to determine if the upgrades had gone ahead or not. Just to be sure I also checked speeds during Thursday as well.
Modem settings:
When I had an Ambit (ntl) 200 modem my Downstream Receive Power Level used to be about +8 or +9 dBmV, after the modem was swapped to a 255 model a while back the Downstream Receive Power Level jumped to +12 or +13 dBmV.
Checking the modem settings on Wednesday the Downstream Receive Power Level is now -4.1 dBmV which does indicate that some changes did take place.
No other modem settings appear to have altered and the connection never dropped.
Browsing:
I have never been impressed previously with cable's browsing speed and I always put it down to a characteristic of the cable network, however, during Wednesday and Thursday browsing was a good deal faster than ever before with sites loading instantly, jumping from site to site is really impressive now, busy sites still have a delay but that is due to the site server struggling to cope.
Download Speed:
On Wednesday with 10 connections to known fast servers I was getting 19Mb/s from early morning through to around 8.00PM, which is unusual as speed usually drops to 10mb/s or less around 4.00PM. At 8.00PM the speed did drop to 10Mb/s until Midnight (perhaps the update had only been partially done) at which time it went back to 19Mb/s.
On Thursday (tonight) the speed only dropped to 18Mb/s at 8.30PM but was back to 19Mb/s from 9.00PM.
Peak time speed has been impressive tonight but jumping from site to site is even more impressive.
One final download before posting (10.45PM) shows download speed still at 19Mb/s.
I am really happy that VM have finally sorted out the area especially as I do not have any other viable alternative, ADSL being a pathetic 512Kb max here.
System Spec:
Ambit 255 Modem (Ethernet connection)
D-Link Dl-604 router with WAN port set at 100Mb/s (Wired connection)
64Bit Debian Lenny (Testing)
Firefox version 2.0.0.12 Browser
DownThemAll Download Manager (Firefox extension)
Berealwith
18-04-2008, 10:13
Many thanks for the update "Coach" i to have seen some changes here today i am just checking mine but i am gonna be busy today so it might be tomorrow for my final post. but all checks look good upto press.
Berealwith
18-04-2008, 12:54
oops spoke to soon i did think it was wierd to have an earlier than quoted ubr upgrade. But i haven't seen 19mb speed tests come back for a while i just got abit excited....Now its back to the slow browser pages....it was 9.45am this mornning when i tested it
You must have been day dreaming. :sleeping:
Berealwith
18-04-2008, 21:14
ok just got back in after a long day and being stuck in a traffic jam on the M62 near leeds...only to find out that the date for my UBR upgrade the first week in May has now been changed to wait for it .............................. September......................................Wha t the hell is that all about.........just waiting on support.newsgroups to double check it .............OMG........i (Lost for words...runs off to hit something)..............Berealwith SLAMS THE DOOR>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> BACK IN A BIT
slowcoach
19-04-2008, 11:10
ok just got back in after a long day and being stuck in a traffic jam on the M62 near leeds...only to find out that the date for my UBR upgrade the first week in May has now been changed to wait for it .............................. September......................................Wha t the hell is that all about.........just waiting on support.newsgroups to double check it .............OMG........i (Lost for words...runs off to hit something)..............Berealwith SLAMS THE DOOR>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> BACK IN A BIT
Our network upgrade notice only appeared a few days before the actual upgrade took place, I had been checking the list for a while and there was never any mention of Oldham, I was beginning to think we would never appear on the list. :dozey:
Will see how it performs over this weekend, so far still downloading at 19Mb/s.
Berealwith
19-04-2008, 11:27
"Berealwith" <**************> wrote in message
news:AW7Oj.76674$5o5.58614@newsfe15.ams2...
> Many thanks Quote "then we can be 100%
>>> sure the date is correct."
> .......... I am a professional person who expects 100% answers, and i'm
> sure you are to. So can we have an answer that will make it crystal clear
> what date is now set for the Preston UBR cable.ubr05.pres.blueyonder.co.uk
> upgrade.
>
<snip>
Hello Berealwith,
The date set for this UBR is 05/09/08 however this can be subject to change.
--
Kind Regards
*********
Virgin Media Technical Support
http://status2.virginmedia.com/
Well it looks like the goal posts moved 5 months this will now be a year waiting for my "Overloaded, Oversubscribed, UBR to get its upgrade. I have seen VIRGIN go from. Christ whats in a name..........MY ISP GO FROM GOOD TO UTTER CRAP. I have poor web browsing every night sometimes dial up speeds. I work full-time so i can only use my connection what i would call normal Residential times.........Which is agreed by both parties..........so is it not what times should be given at full speed, not the other way round. Then i see complete IDIOTS say its high users, again i bought 20mb as i have 4/5 users in my family and want steady web browsing, and why should i have to justify my useage. As i have bought an UMLIMITED product. I have now emailled a high member of staff at VM and will wait an outcome to this. SO IF ANYONE IS ON THE PRESTON UBR THE NEW DATE IS AS ABOVE FOR THE WORK TO BE CARRIED OUT......could the STM Trials be the reason for the change, yet more un-answered questions from a Crap isp.......And then there is the Statement from VM CEO (Neil Berkett ) i shudder to think about this...................................and finally in the wings............Phorm.......OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in a nutshell "Where is Virgin going for the long term, all i can see is more problems, and more JUGGLING. It's been so long since i was on adsl and my last ISP was "ZEN", which is still tops for speed but they did introduce STM so i moved................and i have got a neighbour to trial "BE" and he gets good speeds.............so subject to "My last Dance" i have to speak to the VM guy, but it looks like i will be moving to "BE"........Oh i forgot to mention "Newsgroups" up and down like a yoyo....i have a topup Newsgroup i pay for so i can take that with me.........I will post more as the infomation comes in............
You might want to drop a PM to Welshchris here on CF -- he escalated similar UBR upgrade scheduling problems in Swansea up to the CEO's Office team.
Mind you, I'm not sure that even they were able to get anything done earlier, or even on the dates they'd said it would be. Perhaps he'd be willing to share his contact's phone number with you?
Reading between the lines of the TS's comments, I'd guess that the upgrade teams are having problems and taking much longer than anticipated, therefore the forward schedules are being radically revised.
Perhaps some of the VM staff can add some clues?
Oh, and hitting return every now and then in your messages would make them much easier for us to read. Please....
;)
Berealwith
04-05-2008, 16:59
Well i have been posting on newsgroups now for weeks about Prestons slow UBR. the thing is i am quite surprised i have been getting emails back from other customers, they all have the same problem.........what the hell do you have to do to make this ISP move it's ass and do something..............it's absolute rubbish, and from what i see. there is no way forward. I am now in my last week with this and i am becoming excited at the prospect of leaving.....................oh the bliss
Well i have been posting on newsgroups now for weeks about Prestons slow UBR. the thing is i am quite surprised i have been getting emails back from other customers, they all have the same problem.........what the hell do you have to do to make this ISP move it's ass and do something..............it's absolute rubbish, and from what i see. there is no way forward. I am now in my last week with this and i am becoming excited at the prospect of leaving.....................oh the bliss
If you're theuser on UBR6 or Bones on UBR5 then you have my sympathies.
All I can suggest is to follow this recommendation, posted to one of the VM newsgroups a week or so ago:
The only time anyone ever answered a complaint of mine was when I wrote
to this address
Chief Executive Officer
Virgin Media Investment Holdings Ltd.
NTL House
Bartley Wood Business Park
Hook
Hampshire
RG27 9UP
They responded very quickly and problem was resolved. I wrote loads of
other letters, to addresses I had been given and not once did I get a
response. I called and even used the online e-mail, nothing.
Good luck!
Berealwith
05-05-2008, 11:51
If you're theuser on UBR6 or Bones on UBR5 then you have my sympathies.
All I can suggest is to follow this recommendation, posted to one of the VM newsgroups a week or so ago:
The only time anyone ever answered a complaint of mine was when I wrote
to this address
Chief Executive Officer
Virgin Media Investment Holdings Ltd.
NTL House
Bartley Wood Business Park
Hook
Hampshire
RG27 9UP
They responded very quickly and problem was resolved. I wrote loads of
other letters, to addresses I had been given and not once did I get a
response. I called and even used the online e-mail, nothing.
Good luck!
So what does this mean i have to go above CS and not through the chain of command. This in it's self shows how the company has failed. Here's a thought what if everybody did this, it underminds the admins,tech help, cs, the best way is to use the system not run over it.........................
If you have to go to the top every time you need a responce, what i think is it's a crap company, and i for one have the wisdom to see it wont get better.
So what does this mean i have to go above CS and not through the chain of command. This in it's self shows how the company has failed. Here's a thought what if everybody did this, it underminds the admins,tech help, cs, the best way is to use the system not run over it.........................
I agree that it's jumping over the 'chain of command' that's failed to offer a realistic solution to the problems on Preston's UBRs.
If it's the only way of getting something fixed (and hopefully alerting senior management that their systems aren't coping) then I wouldn't feel bad about using it.
Obviously ymmv.
If you have to go to the top every time you need a responce, what i think is it's a crap company, and i for one have the wisdom to see it wont get better.
I (notoriously) recommend people use VM's Tech Support newsgroups to get their problems solved, usually with a high degree of success but I recognise that Preston's long-standing hassles (like WelshChris's problems in Swansea) are in a different league altogether.
If you choose not to use all avenues open to you and if you're convinced that your service won't improve, I'm afraid that you've only one constructive route left to take -- ADSL.
Good luck in finding something better.
Berealwith
23-05-2008, 23:57
In the words of Homer Simpson "woohoo" i have no longer a problem with my UBR
It has taken ages to sort out....................But finally i have sortted it........
I am on ADSL now and ...............Yep its better "woohoo".......
Rgr over and out..........in the words of Status Quo......"Virgin heading down the pipe now"
It's a shame that VM couldn't get their act together to sort out the Preston UBRs and keep you, and I'm sure many more, as a satisfied customer.
Best of luck with your new ISP!
slowcoach
24-05-2008, 11:34
I am pleased you are happy with your new ISP Berealwith.
I would have left after the 20Meg upgrade if there had been a viable alternative for me, thankfully the last network update sorted all the problems to the point that I now get 19Meg any time of day, together with fast browsing.
It would have been nice if they had done the network update before they switched to 20Meg though, the previous 10Meg speed was always spot on.
The main thing is we are both happy now.
Keep coming to the Forum, we need all the Northerners we can get. ;)
Berealwith
24-05-2008, 17:20
lol SC i will bud cheers for the good advice and banter from you in the past...i will keep posting
I have been waiting for over 6 months now, to get a decent speed from my once great 20mb connection, only to go through a broadband hell and back only to find out that my UBR needs an upgrade....if you were to put a DEFCON level on it i'm at 10. Without boring you all, and some on here are at different stages of finding out that it will come to a UBR upgrade, then your only option is to wait for the upgrade, i have 5/6 weeks to wait
My questions are "How long have you been waiting" ?
If you have had an upgrade does it get better ?
and after is it worth it......as the guy i spoke to said he's has recieved feedback after people have had the upgrade and it is much better....or it's it just empty words ?
If anyone knows can you please inform us......as the light is very dim here
The Crawley UBR was upgraded last week, however I have never had any speed problems always 100% max speed. Maybe your area could have done with this equipment.
I only have a 2mb connection and I can't even get 150k some nights. It's even been as low as 30k.
I think I have six dates so far to have this issues fixed, and every single one has gone by and nothing has changed. I am on cpc2-stre3-0-0-cust428.bagu.cable.ntl.com, and it's a nightmare at times. it's getting better, so they are up to something, but it sure as hell ain't fixed.
I have had their main tech guy promising me the earth but nothing changed. I never ring tech support anymore, there is nothing new that they have to say. Since I was finally told it was a capacity issue and it would "ONLY TAKE A SOFTWARE UPDATE THERE SHOULD BE NO PROBLEM" Well I got news for you Mr. Big wig fix it all. I have had two more dates since then and it's been confirmed that nothing has taken place that would fix the problem. So much for that then.
I find emails go ignored, phone calls can get you a retention package or a small reduction, but letters get someone to call you after about two weeks making promises.
I've just posted my third letter this year, even though this has been going on since about November. I really hope they can tell me something new.
slowcoach
24-05-2008, 22:23
I only have a 2mb connection and I can't even get 150k some nights. It's even been as low as 30k.
Before the recent upgrade my 20meg service would some nights drop below 30K, luckily I can choose when to sleep as I work from home so I got used to going on the Net during the wee hours.
Now I am trying to adjust to normal people times. :dozey:
---------- Post added at 22:23 ---------- Previous post was at 22:21 ----------
lol SC i will bud cheers for the good advice and banter from you in the past...i will keep posting
Good man. ;)
Welshchris
26-05-2008, 13:43
Swansea has been put off Twice for some reason, First the UBR was supposed to be done on April 12 and then May 15th and its NOT been done from what i can see.
I understand at all. I was told by some so called top bod at Virgin that all it needed was a software update. Still the time came a went and nothing happened.
I think sometimes they'll tell you anything just to get you off the line.
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