Re: 20 Meg From June
 

for the record i was 1 of the lucky ones who did not have ANY teething problems when my 3 meg was upgraded to 10

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Yes, it makes up for the poor ADSL around here.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

This has already been covered in a fairly big way I think :)

My connection has no STM at all nor protocol based throttling.

The fact that they see fit to have the STM at peak times only just suggests that rather than being a permanent selective measure to punish heavy downloaders they do not have the capacity to handle the traffic that customers generate so use this instead until capacity is upgraded.

Upgrades are on the way I know, which is good if a bit late. STM shouldn't be necessary especially with the system in use in Warrington and the fact that that same system is offering 24Mbit unthrottled, shaped or capped in Sweden.

Lots of people will I imagine be very busy breaking areas down for VoD and broadband upgrades. :)

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Nope. Line can resync from time to time a little lower or higher.

Speed tests are (when the server can handle them) nearly always 17Mbit or higher. That speed test was a little off, upstream is usually a lot higher, around the 1Mbit mark.

Downloading legal content from newsgroups tends to tick along at around the 2150kB/s mark.

---------- Post added at 14:50 ---------- Previous post was at 14:49 ----------

Depends, London used to be very busy :(

Dublin has been a bit indifferent on occasion as well.

I'll try some tests later when I get home.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Nice carl!

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Anyway, back on the topic of Virgin's 20 Meg. (there are other sections to talk about other services ADSL aren't there?)

I agree with Zingle, there will be a big temptation to downgrade to 10 if all three tiers get upped. But i usually end up taking the top tier just because i can! More money than sense i know! Main reason to keep the 20 is to keep the wife happy i think, she doesn't like waiting for downloads!

Almost getting to the point where you can download a file (compressed at about 800mb) without much of a wait at all. With 20 i could prolly make a cup of tea and come back and it would be there.

With such a speed wouldn't it be a good time to do a pucker download service? (unless they are going to and i am slow on the uptake)

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Well considering that to download a blu-ray disc you're looking at needing at least 20gig of disk space then there might still be takers for the 20mbit service.

Personally I think that 4meg currently is a good median but as I said from my first post ever on these forums until now -

" Better latent networks first " : " Speed second "

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

You have to think around the line of "what" people will use it for.

Sure, people may want it for downloading illegal content but 20Mb will allow people to do a lot more at the same time. For instance:

A family has 3 PCs. PC 1 is having a voice chat and playing an online game while downloading a game demo. PC 2 could be having a video chat and checking emails and PC 3 could be full out downloading from 3 or 4 places. Not one PC will be "unable" to do a certain task because they do not have enough bandwidth so video, voice and gaming will be unaffected.

Families are getting more and more internet enable devices all the time from PCs/Macs to Games Consoles and PDAs.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

WRONG

If I had a big red marker I would cross out the post too.

What makes you think an upgrade in your download speed will have a beneficial impact to the way an Internet route is delivered to the rest of your PCs ?

Update the upstream and latency then maybe you'll get a better share of bandwidth between your machines.

If I were to come over to your home network and utilize you upstream the effect would be the same on all your machines : REALLY RUBBISH BROADBAND.
The effect would be the same no matter what speed your service is 10meg 20meg 50meg whatever.

FAO Virgin : Better lattency and upstream please

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

He's right there DGX. Using those examples you have, without good latency everyone in the house will be cheesed of apart from the downloader.

Having regular half second gaps in the stream that still maintains the speed because everything comes in the other half second is really really annoying when you're doing something that is realtime focussed - e.g. gaming and voice comms.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Actually yep (oops). I forgot about the upstream bit that virgin don't (yet) offer. GRR. I guess that is what I get for living in my dream world :P. No need to be so harsh on it though? A?

Plus a decent router would be needed to distribute the traffic like the ones that offer priority features.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

True dont worry about me its not personal just the way I write. (Like a complete pratt on these forums :)

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

ALRIGHTY THEN :p

We do need better upstream though.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

20Mb sounds good but I'd like them to sort out my 10Mb first.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2007/03/93.png

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

seconds that! It seems that, like most - if not all - BB providers, ephasis is on downstream :shocked:


MORE UPSTREAM PLEASE!!

in all honesty, I would be very, very happy if i had 10Mbit down and 1 - maybe 2 - Mbit up (that is, ofc if i actually got a reasonably close speed to 10Mbit down)...and maybe slightly better routing :confused:

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Hi all,

I agree with Steve,I prefer more upload that download and also static ip

TECHMAN

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

They won't give much more upstream though, the network can't handle the speeds we have now, this 20mb speed will be used in the PR war, most people won't be able to get it and the 'up to' will be thrown about.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

someone at virgin is misinformed or they have deliberatly lied.


The statement includes them saying 10meg is available in all areas. Not correct.

It is somewhat more evidence that they may pull the plug on there analogue areas eventually.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Its definately 20mb rolling out from 1st May.
wil be £37 full price, but should be available with dual or triple discounts.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

???? Does this mean our current 10Mb maybecome 20Mb or do you think we will have to pay £2 extra?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Is there any proof if it is comiing out on 1st may.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Well its definately a rumour if that helps. :erm:

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Thought the press release says IN JUNE... :S.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I think the Downstream speed needs to be left alone and the Upstream speed needs some drastic attention..... :p:

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Lets be honest, the only people who will see the main benefits of the doubled download speed are the Usenet folks, as without a download manager and multiple connections, your average web file server struggles to meet the speeds (Well, most of the ones I end up using in any case) and as for torrents, to get that kind of speed you'd be using well over half of your upload bandwidth just to support the overheads, leaving too little for actual data uploads, meaning speeds would drop due to not sharing. All this being said, I still want it, because its bigger, and bigger as we know, is always better...

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Theres many reasons for 20Mb and some servers such as Virgin's own and the UK Fileplanet servers for instance can cope with 20Mb easy. Just depends on what it is you want and where you get it from really but I am with you, I wont turn down +10Mbit on my download :).

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Any decent (private) bittorrent site can easily fill a 20Mb pipe, along with usenet and a lot of the bigger sites out there like the BBC, Google, Youtube, Microsoft....
As far as gaming is concerned, if you're getting crappy pings or packetloss with 10Mb then you will with 20 since most online games shouldn't be swamping 512k of upstream. It all balls down to routing and Virgin's tends to be worse than BT's especially across the Atlantic since I suspect they use cheaper (read congested) providers.

20Mbit/s coming in May
 

Hi all. A press release from Virgin Media has just been released announcing that 20Mbit/s broadband (768kbit/s upload) will be available from May. The price will be lifted from £35 to £37 per month.

Full release is here http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/p...156&highlight=

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

Ooooh......
Will the upgrade (and price rise) be applied to all exisiting 10Mb customers automatically, or will we get a choice?

Rob

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

£2 extra to double your speed!? Poor you!

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

Not complaining about the extra £2 ;) just wondering if I'll need to contact them in order to get it....

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

Fair enough, I'm sure some people will however! It's only 10 less fags for the month :D

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

Zeph, that is if those fags are still £2 per 10 ;) knowing the gov by the time that NTL gives us 20meg we will be paying £3 for a pack of 10 :P

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

nothing about what us 2mb people will get?

I doubt they will have:
£18- 2mb
£25- 4mb
£35- 10mb
£37- 20mb
£50- 50mb??? [pure spec!]

that would be ridiculous!

Surely it should be [atleast]:
£18- 4mb
£25- 10mb
£37- 20mb
£50- 50mb

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

It reads that they are putting up the price of 10meg by £2 and as a sweetener they are double the download and increasing the upload.

Thats one hell of a sweetner.

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

Mmmm, I wonder how it will affect all those that have been given 'offers' to stay, will they be paying £19.50 as opposed to £17.50 p/m for their 10mb connection :shrug:

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

I have that VIP package, which is £85 per month and includes Broadband XL. So will I now pay £2 pound more as well?

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

This has been posted before IIRC, £2 increase is only if not in package. VIP get upgraded to 20 meg and price stays £85.

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

Just out of interest, if you have three for £30 and pay the difference between M and XL packages, does that go up by £2 as well?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Hopefully they will upgrade all tiers to something like: medium 4Mb, large 8Mb and extra large 20Mb. ie double all levels??

this would keep them ahead of the cometition.

what do you think??

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

They can increase, bring them all into line, pretty much anything.

This is the beauty of the VM cable network, as soon as a competitor gets close, well nearly close, then they just raise the bar that bit more.

Not sure that the upload speed increase is any great thing, but then, upload saturation does cause more problems than download saturation.

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

the upload increase is still bad :-(


is there really any particular reason why upload speeds are soo slow - is it a limit of the cable technology or something?

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

I would expect them to stay as is. I got upgraded yesterday to 10meg for 95p and was told that the package im now on is a price for life. Still, £2 more, that means ill be paying £38 for 20meg and Talk unlimited, still cant complain.

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

£38.95 ???:disturbd:

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

yes correct it's a limitation of the technology. it's a lot more costly to give you more upstream.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

We haven't heard anything about the other levels changing, so I don't think they're going to - at least not for the moment.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Can't believe they are going to increase the price to £37, its expensive as it is... rip off

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Why?Who else gives 20MB at a cheaper price?:erm:

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Be & UK Online, with Be i'm close enough to get 20Mb, friend on my street gets it and pays £24.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Who else gives 20MB at a cheaper price, for people that don't live next door to the exchange then?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

So switch?

Re: 20Mbit/s coming in May
 

ohh come on carm.., you know full well the docsis1.1 can do 1.3mbit upload easy enough, you might have a point about the cost after its gone outside the VM UK network... but even then thats a copout as eveyone else manages that cost today just fine....

---------- Post added at 19:50 ---------- Previous post was at 19:46 ----------

noone gives 20 MegaByte (MB) at a cheaper price, you ment Megabit OC,
however MANY others DO give 768kbit and way above that, at a FAR better prices, swings and roundabouts i guess, true cable is more stable over the longer term.

its interesting that the WASP (wireless ISP's) give far better 1.4Mbit/s uploads at better cost too, however not everyone can get access to these as yet.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I agree

Vote with your wallets!

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

but how does that encourage your prefered supplyer to change their ways and give you the end user what you want to pay for in the long term?.....

the fact is if you turn the arguments around and replace the download rates with the upload rates then it becomes clear that while VM can slaughter any comers (the antiquated DOCSIS 1.1 can do a hell of a lot more see the uncapped upload rate reports around here for instance) but choose not too, why is that?.....

its interesting that they dont even try and use the vast upload PR advantage and that at least would be a very clear and real advantage but for the cost of carrage after the VM core network, but then they are now the international core member of the global club (i forget the award right now) and are able to sub-let their VM core or dark fiber to 3rd partys and so undercut the likes of BT for carrage if they wanted to , after all if you have the uk's core traffic coming over one or two of your cable routes then its simple maths to add in your VM traffic on to others cores in return for mass discounts.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

How will the older modems cope with 20 Meg? i've got a silver home 120, is this up to the job?

S

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I reckon the now 2mb service will be rebranded to S (small), 4mb M (medium), 20mb L (Large) and 50mb XL (Extra Large), once they roll out 50mb. So i very much doubt 2mb users will be upgraded.
My main concern about this upgrade is the modems, as mentioned in the post above, i have the Ambit 120 too, and it struggles with 10mb, i'm pretty sure it won't handle 20mb!

From this forum i've noticed that there's still a lot of customers on this modem, and the other older ones that begin with T (sorry can't remember the name).
If only they'd just post out modems to the customer, rather than faffing about with needing an engineer, it's gonna cost them a fortune in man hours if they have to send out an engineer to every single house on 10mb that needs a new modem, not to mention all the people who will upgrade to 20mb for a month just for the sake of it, who also have old modems.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

The 4mbit service should be replaced by the 10mbit service so 10mbit for £25!

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

How does this affect customers with the VIP Package, do they get the increas or do they have to pay £87.00 ?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Stop moaning and move to someone else then (and leave more room for the rest of us who are more than happy to pay it).

JFYI, I can't even get 1/2 that speed from anyone else around here.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Same here. Was one of the reasons I went cable.

At more than 2 miles (not that far really!) from the exchange ADSL becomes more and more inferior.

Have to say though that with the 20mbit upgrade, it is a real shame they're not increasing the upload beyond 768kbit - I thought 20:1 was a crap down/up ratio!!!!!

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I have 10Mb, i signed up for 10Mb for £35 not 20Mb for £37 - what was the point in reducing the price if they were going to just going to increase it again.

You are being used as a sheep, they are trying to rake in as much money as possible from people who will follow.

This country will never get a good deal on broadband like other countires in the world if people continue to support these high prices.

Be is going in the right step, but it still isn't good enough, and i will continue to moan, this is the only way they will listen.

---------- Post added at 22:38 ---------- Previous post was at 22:36 ----------

Wish it was that easy, i switched phoneline from ntl to BT, they wouldn't leave me alone, i got over 7 calls from them offering different offers, call after call i told them i was not interested, they dont get the message.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I'll be very hapy to pay £37 for 20Mb, but the question is will it still cost £37 for the 50Mb+

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I don't think it will.

They will have a major uper hand against other ISPs and will take full advantage of it by charging rip off prices and people will think "WOW £500 for 50Mb AWESOME!!!!1 IM GONNA GET THAT"

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Exactly. Remember when 4Mb was launched - at £50 and a shedload of people still signed up for it.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

let he war of words begin again. :D :D ........press and media gurus from both sides are earning their cheques this month !!!!


http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3...gin-media.html


Ming

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

lol at Sky! Are they just gonna come out with something pathetic like that everytime Virgin one ups them :rolleyes:

And I think it's shocking how DSL providers (not just Sky) peddle the whole "up to 16MB" thing. Average Joe has no idea that most people will never see anywhere near that speed :(

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Bethere top package is now £40 pm now so cable is a touch cheaper.But you now get 2.5mbits if close to the exchange and you will get a slightly lower download speed.

Link Information
[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]Uptime:0 days, 12:04:36[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]Modulation:G.992.5 Annex M US 56[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:2,217 / 17,942

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Soo true!

Just glad i can get cable in the first place. Feel sorry for some of my m8's who have got adsl packages like this (one of them with the SKY broadband package). On the whole, their speeds are AWFUL - SKY being one of the worst in terms of speed. :td:

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

so any answer for those people who need a modem upgrade like NTL Home 120 users. Will VM charge £50 for a swap to the newer modems

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Yes, but you have to remember that Virgin Media's network has a LOT more coverage than Bethere's. I can't get Be, or come to think of it ANY ADSL2/LLU service in this city.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Good luck to them squeezing 20Mb down my line they are struggling to get 2Mb for my 10Mb package at the moment, there must be a knot in the cable somewhere?? LoL!

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

that's the 'be' 'pro' option - which gives you the 2.5meg upload. the 'be' £24 option gives you upto 24meg down and upto 1.3meg up - cheaper and better than cable but only if you are living close to the exchange.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

This does have a fair use policy and they won't specify what is fair!

You also have to be within 1 mile of the exhange to get anything like 20mb.

Check with http://www.samknows.com/

I am only 500m away and am very tempted by bulldog who will do me 16mb for £25 with absolutely no restrictions.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Bulldog are THE worst company i have ever dealt with, its not just me, their own members forum is full of bewildered people, personally i am amazed they are still in business.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Seems they have a lot of billing issue and are in fact a bit of a farce...

But two mates of mine have both had bulldog telephone lines installed recently (one in a new built house and one ex blueyonder line) and live within 1 mile of the exchange.

For the past 3 months they have mocked me with 8mb stable connections and no outages or limits...

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Any news on what will happen with the other packages such as L, which I am on. Will they be upgraded from 4 to 10mb?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Not for AT LEAST 6 months I'd guess.

VM refuse to say when, but they have confirmed that it won't be happening when the XL packs are upgraded...

I think M should stay the same but go to £15 and that L should go to 8mb.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

So I wonder what will happen to 4mb customers.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Quite agree, the only thing they ever got right was a constant 8 meg, while it worked. In a total of 3 months with them, i had over 3 weeks with no phone or bb.
I still owe them about £100 but they cant send me out a final bill, its something they dont do, their whole company is perculiar. :confused:

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I would have thought that was fairly obvious?

You tell them you aren't happy by going elsewhere and whilst leaving, letting them know why you are leaving.

I suspect if that person can get 20meg like they say they can with another provider, yet are still with VM, then it might not all be truth necessarily.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Sadly the exact same thing is true of ntl/telewest/VM. They use UP TO 10mb, when there are growing amounts of people on this forum who can't even receive 1mb speeds on a 10mb service. We live in a world where marketing is everything, and neither company are gonna choose truth over something that will bring new customers in.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

But isn't that due to over-subscription of UBR's and poor network management; versus the inherent hardwired limitations of ADSL over a POTS line....

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Its exactly that.

What I want to know is those of us who where leaving to go to Sky, for 16MB, who where offered the £17.50 for 10MB Broadband for life, do we still get 20MB broadband for that same price? how is that gonna work?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

The reasons are unimportant, if you're one of the customers not getting what was promised you'll be ****ed off, regardless of the reasons.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Then add on the line rental for your BT phone line, and I think you'll find there's not really a case for 'rip off' :rolleyes:

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Dont forget your £11.00 BT line rental

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

BT calls are much cheaper aren't they? That would certainly sweeten the deal. I really couldn't go back to BT though, ntl/VM have their problems, but BT were a bloody nightmare! Mind you, i've been very lucky with ntl/VM, never had the bill problems (apart from them mis-spelling my surname for 8 years, even after changing it about 4 times. lol), and i get 8mb on a 10mb service, so i can't really complain.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

How about putting it this way
VM
24 unlimited phone £24.99pm
up to 4mb BB £24.99pm
total £49.98pm


Sky/BT
line rental £11.00pm
24 unlimited phone £5.00pm
up to 16mb BB £10.00pm
total £26.00pm

Difference = £23.98pm

I know adsl is more prone to be lower than advertised but as the easynet service is really a 22mb service, a larger proportion of people are more likely to be able to get closer to 16mb than if sky had advertised a 22mb service.
The lower price getting on for close to half price also makes it very attractive. Vm need to up all their tiers to higher speeds & take a slice off their prices to really make them competitive, thats if they are serious about competing with sky

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

VM - 2 for £20
Upgrade to 4MB BB +£7
Upgrade to XL Phone + £14

Total = £41 (including free M digital TV pack :))

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Dont you have to have the TV with that to get the 16 meg service?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

yes thats correct but i have been with sky since before cable was around, so thats not an issue for me. There again most people end up with one platform or the other just a matter of choice. Personally having had both sky & the old ntl system running side by side before, i actually prefer the sky system. Maybe if VM improved on the look & use of the system then my view would change.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I have to say if VM offer 50Mb download for £50 p/m with no restrictions I'll take it.

I have 10Mb and can't fault the service (1200KB 24/7), however I feel for people who pay for it and don't get it.

As far as I'm concerned VM is by far the best ISP available in the UK, the fibre infrastructure that VM has is superior to anything BT will put in for the next 5 years at least. A member of my family has recently moved to Supanet on 8Mb/s ADSL and the speeds they are getting are terrible, they'll be moving back to Zen if they can.

As long as VM don't introduce FUPs we'll all be on a winner.

On another point though, I tried to sign up to VM TV through the website and nothing happened - shame really as I drastically want to get shot of Sky as I don't watch it - or the crappy US tv programs.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

mcgeezer, what area of the UK are you in?

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

I agree with you and I moved house and guess what! I was on Supanet in the old house and it was awful! They wouldn't give me a MAC code even after the contract.

Moved house, got VM 10Mb and since October I have had 1.15-1.2mb/s solid. Wont go back to ADSL again considering cable's pings and routes are a lot better too.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

As my 4Mb connection is never faster than 2.5Mb, I'm less than excited.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Can anyone with a 20MB + service post there speedtest results in here. Dont forget to change the settings to KBps rather than Kbps>> http://www.speedtest.net/

Thanks

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Im on 10meg, i get a consistant speed of 9800kbs d/l and 490 u/l

All this for £2.50 a month :)

The 20meg cant come quick enough, but tbh im not bothered about the d/l iv never downloaded something and its d/l at 10meg any way, normally about 100-200kbs, i want the bigger upload speed

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

That's about the same as my 4Meg connection lately :(
It used to be near enough the full 4Meg at all times, but no so now, so just how well is 20Meg going to perform???

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

Not sure if this has been covered (14 pages of info is a little bit much to run through) but last night a guy in retentions told me that the upgrades will be rolling out within the next 8 weeks. He seemed like a really decent chap too.

Just my ickle insight.

Re: 20 Meg From June
 

i worked for NTL and this sounds like NTL to me, some areas will get it earlier, fact, but they say end of june.... for all customers, if they said "next 3 weeks" people would ring to complain cos they dont get it, better to be safe when NTL customers are concerned lol!