Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Looks like those guys will be the favourites at the uSwitch awards next year for Fastest Home Broadband and Best Broadband Innovation.

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/awards/2013/

Looks like Virgin have some stiff competition :D

Re: Speed doubling?
 

I'll match your nynex and raise you Wigan are the better team!

I'll also add that of the mainstream ISP's (BT, SKY) VM are the only ones with STM.
BTW has anyone thought what will happen when BT and other rivals start offering FTTP?

ATM it is available "on demand" at a cost to providers of £1,500 for the first 500mts what terms they will come up with for users is unknown but as a guesstimate if they wanted to do free install you would be looking at >£35 pm and 18mth min contract.

On the plus side you would be looking at a rock solid 160Mbps down and 20Mbps up (potential to rise to 330/30).

As VM already have fibre "in place" and ducting to their customers they could respond but may/would have to move away from Docsis which would take investment.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

And therein lies the problem.

Big cities and urban areas are generally not full of generous farmers hanging about with empty fields.

(P.S. The "Russell Group professor" was actually an IT support guy rather than an academic :))

VM have experimented with running FTTP over "cheap" infrastructure, e.g. poles and fields.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Mr Bolt said April to June for my upgrade (10MB to 20), but it happened yesterday :cleader:

Now to get the upgrade to 30 MB: Customer Support tell me there's no extra monthly charge, but there's a £20 delivery charge for a Superhub and a new 12 month contract. Got that agreed by Pauls9's budget adviser, called back, got disconnected, called again, got transferred to Technical Support, who couldn't make any changes for 24 hours since the last change.

Ah well, try again tomorrow...

P.S. Could I negotiate better terms?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

It depends if you're in contract or not. If you're not in contract, just go through to retentions and tell them you're leaving.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Pretty sure I'm not in contract. Thanks Kushan.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

you could do, but tbh a one off charge of £20 isn't bad going for a new router (if you need one) and an upgrade to 30mbit. If you are going to go to the effort of rining retentions I would also enquire what the jump to 60mbits would be. If it is only another £2 a month on something it would be well worth it for you.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

In either case, retentions will give him a far better deal than CS will. They'll probably even save him money and give him the Superhub for free.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Thanks guys. I'll give it a go. What's the worst that can happen? ;)

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Lol, August 2012 they said for me. Now saying Aug 2013... lol... gotta love VM.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Does anyone know when upstream will be doubled for all tiers ?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Nope - it's still to be announced

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Thanks. Is it still only those or some of those on 120 that have been given an upstream double ?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

All customers on 120Mbit have a 12Mb upload

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Richard Branson knows

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

good point dude, they are definitely dragging their heels on this one. The capacity is now in place and they have had more than enough time to do their tests and trials and see how the network copes with it.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Maybe that's just it, maybe the network doesn't cope with it.

Here's a question, what would people prefer, doubling of the upload speed to be 10:1 for all tiers, or removal of STM? =D

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Either way VM are seriously starting to lag behind the competition, download speeds are just not as important once you go past 60mb. Even when they do upgrade the upload speed (god knows when that will be) it will still be miles behind the competition now.

I have to do all kinds of work a rounds with VM just to watch youtube and twitch streams without buffering, while my neighbour who is with BT is flawless :(

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Virgin have always lagged behind when it comes to upload speeds. Unfortunately, it's one of the most costly to increase and it doesn't really have a lot of marketing potential - average joe just doesn't know or care about it. Even BT, Sky, etc. rarely mention their upload speeds (Not sure I've ever seen a single advert mentioning it), despite being a good bit better than Virgin. It's just not worth Virgin's time, headline download speeds are much more marketable. As you say, even at 10:1 Virgin lags behind but I can't see them changing that any time soon, the only way they'll compete on upload speeds with FTTC is by releasing a 200/20 service.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

there is at least one advert where BT shown someone upload a photo instantly, but funny enough the ASA slapped BT's wrist for it.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

You can have both if you switch if you move from VM to another provider :p:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I'm weighing up my options , fibre is nearing in my area and we are lucky to be pretty close to the cab , BT are estimating 58.1mb down and 20mb up via the postcode checker as my line is currently with Sky how accurate are these ? I've also looked at VM as we can get a mates rate deal , I'm sceptical however as last time we had 30mb the service was terrible so much so I left early , what's the upload speed on the 60mb service ?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Can we vote for 50/50 with STM at same price as now? or maybe 100/20 same price as now no STM

As some people already get no STM not an option :P

---------- Post added at 15:15 ---------- Previous post was at 15:12 ----------

Mines outside my house but no new cab for some time to come :/ I think we would get the 80/20 for sure my friend does her flat is about 100M from the box and we would only be max 50M? from it - but there is room to put it right next to it.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Upload speed on 60meg is currently 3mbit. If you're thinking of going for that mates rates deal and upload matters to you, the extra £5 a month for 120/12 is probably worth it. Was to me, anyway. Even with the STM, the mates rates price is a pretty good deal all in all - assuming the network is up to the task. You could always check with a neighbour to see how their Virgin is.

I guess if the service is still terrible, you can always leave again.

As for the post code checkers, they're not amazing but I've found them to be in the right ballpark at least.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Thanks for the great Info Kushan , I haven't even seen the mates rates deals yet if I'm honest its just we have a family friend who can get us on if we wish. When we were last with VM we had 10mb and the service was flawless , we upgraded to 30mb and at first it was excellent but slowly deteriated , over utilisation was given as the reason fix dates came and went with no real improvement. Since then my area has been upgraded for the double speed and the 120mb date is given as the end of this month not sure if this work would remedy the issues I had.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Well I assume the 28 day guarantee will apply to MR?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

All areas have now had 120Mbit enabled and it's now listed on the website http://store.virginmedia.com/broadba...and/index.html

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Does that mean upload increases across all tiers will commence January 2014 https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2013/12/1.gif

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

That page says:

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

nope, 50mbit customers will still be on 100/5 and when VM bump everyone up to 120mbits they'll go straight to 120/12

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Any news on what Virgin Media business will do for their broadband customers? Soon the 50 Mb/s service from VMB will be on a the slow side compared to the rest of VM

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Oops my bad, I'm guessing the website change was done a little bit before the final hubsite then.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I think he was asking about other tiers (30 and 60), to which I'd guess "umm, no" for now. We can only hope that these next upgrades will also involve some upstream upgrades down the line.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

a long time ago whe it all started they did say that the lower tiers would only be made 10:1 once the relevant customers had been upgraded to 120mbits. No that that is finally over (or soon to be) I would hope they would officially complete their speed doubling program by making the lower tiers 10:1 in February before they move on to anything else.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

There's definitely work going on the upstream channels, though, we've seen that but I'm guessing it's a lot harder to upgrade than the downstream. Hopefully as you say, they'll begin upgrading back to the 10:1 ratio again and stick to it.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Is the plan to move to QAM64 across the whole network for upstream? Still 16 here off the New Malden node

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Same here, I have no idea what their plans are but people seem to think they're working on doing it network wide.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Makes sense. The New Malden area was in poor shape I gather though was improved when the first speed doubling on the downstream happened.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

So for most of the 3 years since the 10:1 upload ratios were announced, they haven't actually had 10:1 upload on most packages. But they still keep pushing download speeds higher and higher.

You can see where there priorities are...

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Leechers.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Can you blame them? Most people wouldn't know the difference between upload and download speeds and most people would only notice their download speed increasing anyway.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I can blame them, yes.

I recall them saying (or at least giving the impression) all future packages would maintain a 10:1 ratio.

They didn't even maintain a 10:1 ratio to the end of the rollout!

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Coming soon..... blah blah

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Still waiting for my 6mb upload of my 60mb, can't see that ever increasing.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Actually most wouldnt notice the latter and higher upload will be more noticeable.

The average joe aint going to feel the difference between 30mbit and 100mbit.

However social media and the cloud becoming more and more popular upload bandwidth is now playing a bigger role. The difference between 2mbit upload and 10mbit upload as a comparison is way more noticeable.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

This, I think even extreme power users would be hard pressed to need more than 100 down, but would definitely use more upload speed.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

10:1 ratio are to staying until 2020 say virgin media

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Staying requires them to actually be here in the first place.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

exactly. It has been nearly a year since VM officially started the speed doubling program so it has been a year since everyone's ratios were 10:1 and even before that it wasn't for long. It took the forever to upgrade me from 50/1.75 to 50/5. I think I had it for 5 months before I upgrade to 100/10. Statistically speaking I think everyones connection have spent more time non-10:1 than they have been 10:1 so it isn't something VM should be able to state/advertise because it isn't true.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Still only 60/3 here has anyone been upgraded to 60/6 yet?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I think you're both overestimating the technical know-how of the average user. Most don't even realise that their connection is asymmetrical, they just see one big number and assume that the bigger number is faster than the other ISP's number. Uploading is definitely becoming more and more common, but it's still not common enough that most people will realise that it could be faster. They might notice if you increase upload speeds, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll notice that Virgin's is slower than BT's or whatever.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

BT FTTPoD will beat virgin media very easily!

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Virgin Media FTTPoD is 10 Jigabiggeruberbits!

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Well have a think of common internet activities.

Streaming video - so youtube, netflix, iplayer and the like. The user doesnt have to wait for a download, they just have to wait for the initial buffering, if they on a good isp thats it, no more waiting. A 30mbit connection will handle all those services without an issue at HD quality as long as there isnt congestion screwing it up. I am able to watch netflix super hd on a 2.4ghz 20mhz wifi channel no problem.
Uploading video - things change, its waiting time if you want to upload your own videos.
downloading/uploading photos - yes one has to wait but downloading a photo at 30mbit/sec, the wait should be short and sweet, however uploading high res photos at say 2mbit/sec not so sweet.
Browsing websites - internet shopping, twitter, banking, news sites, forums etc. all these should be a doddle at 30mbit/sec, 100mbit/sec wont make one bit of difference, of course in this neither does upload bandwidth, unless of course you are uploading 'whilst' browsing, then browsing becomes a laggy process. Not if you have say 20mbit/sec of upload bandwidth and your provider has a few gbit of shared upload capacity tho, then its barely noticeable.

Common activities even shows how upload capacity of both the end user and provider can affect things.

However I do agree with you that some users been so dumb lets VM off the hook they dont think isp congestion/limitations is the cause of their slow service. Instead VM tech bods have them fooled its their temporary internet folder clogging things up.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I'm certainly not debating the pros and cons of Virgin, just that some people (In my opinion, most people) are simply unaware of factors outside of the headline download speed. I certainly had to explain upload speeds more than a few times when I was there, though it was incredibly rare occurrence that upload speeds were ever mentioned.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Virgin will be soon doubling my d/l speed which is great, sometime in the next or following quarter....BUT I and probably WE all have it already.
I use a VPN and its great for what I need but it does slow down D/L speed a little until now.
I did a speed test while using the VPN and it was double what I have without it.
I was flabbergasted my flabber was truly gasted. Checked again on regular internet and it was back to 30mgs.
So it is obvious to me that my speed is being throttled until the big announcement by VM that they have doubled my speed !
So if you peeps have a vpn try it now see what your speeds are.
Now we can get the use of faster d/ls today than be kept waiting by VM.
I can understand the business strategy of VM in doing this as I am sure they can understand why we want to circumvent it .

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

sorry dude but it doesn't work that way

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

You can't trust the reliability of most speed test site results thought a VPN as there are a few factors involved that can totally screw the numbers up. The faster speed you saw was a false result. You won't get faster than the speed VM have sold you.


There are a few exceptions when a faster VPN result can be true, such as when it routes you around a congested peering point for example, but generally you shouldn't believe the usual speed test sites results if you are connected to a VPN.

As an example, I one got an 65Mbit upload speed when connected via a VPN yet I only had 40 down/10 upload from Sky at the time.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

Compression.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

I just can't get my head round it. Because peoples say here, they got 152Mb with 8 downstream on the superhub, while other still got 6 downstream on the superhub but both still same max out speed 160Mb?

What's so special about downstream 6 or 8 on the hub?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

It just means some of us are special. If we're getting 152 on 6 channels, then we'll get bumped to 202 (and probably 20 up) when we go to 8. If you're on 8 channels and only getting 152 then maybe it's time to cancel as VM are being evil and ripping you off ;).

Cheers

Grim

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

My response is less grim. It's not very technical either.

My understanding is that those areas that have been re-segmented to alleviate congestion have mostly modems on 8 channels DS rather than 6. You can deliver 152Mb or more in areas that haven't been re-segmented, but users would be more susceptible to the effects of congestion. They will achieve 160Mb in tests at times when their local cabinet or node isn't being heavily used, e.g. just for surfing. There will be times when they are more likely to get less than 152Mb than those on 8 channels.

Somebody add to this or put me right if needs be.

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

broadband has been supercharged from up to 60Mb to a whopping up to 100Mb.

i done speed test only getting 40mb do need to give them a call?

Re: Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed
 

No, you need to do a wired speed test