£80 set up fee??!!
 

Just called VM today as 50mb is now available in my area (stockton-on-tees), was all ready to order the new service until the lady informed me theres an £80 set up fee.....seems a bit bloomin steep!....I can understand the £30 for the engineers visit..but what the hell is the other £50 supposed to be for? Anyway I didnt bother...thats way too much, I know you get a free router but I dont need it, I already have a top of the range wireless n router...I dont even use the wireless, its working atm as a gigabit wired router.

Is there any way of avoiding the router and possibly getting the £80 reduced?...I mean I am already on 20 meg and will pay more per month for the 50 meg too. Are other peeps actually happy to pay this amount?

Paul.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

£80.00 Fee is fixed sorry. :(

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

I think they'd get a lot more subscribers if the £80 for someone to click a button somewhere was reduced or scrapped, tbh.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

You should always expect to pay a premium to adopt new technology early.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

They don't want too many too quickly, D3 network as built couldn't handle it.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

The router and USB adaptor are worth more than £80 but if you want 50Mb then you have no alternative but to pay £80.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Well the higher monthly charges I am OK with...thats where (imho) I am paying for the premium service...but £80 just to get on board..nah...not worth it, will wait till it drops, 20meg will do for now.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Everyone pays for it who want the bragging rights in the pub.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

No price is fixed with VM. I did a relocate outlet at a customers house today that should have cost £99, He got it done for free. Now you tell me why some people have to pay for this service and some dont?. This is not a one off, it happens all the time.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

The £80 fee for 50Mb is fixed and the is no way round it.

The £99 relocation charge is not the same kind of fee as the are different solutions for specific criteria.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

This is what's wrong with the world these days people want everything for free or cheaper, 50Mb is a premium product (thats what VM say) so you have to pay a premuim price.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

If you want 50Mb then you pay the £80 installation charge, if you do not want to pay the charge then no 50Mb install, even staff have to pay the £80 charge as it is a Premium Product that no other supplier can offer at the present time.

You want it then you pay for it!

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

What a load of nonsense!

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Staff have to pay that, staff can't pay that as we can't get it yet well some of us can lol ;)

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

If we want it we have to pay the install and I know one person who has.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Really? Kindly explain why then I'll offer a rebuttal based on how the network has been deployed ;)

Simply saying 'What a load of nonsense' is somewhat lacking in detail to say the least and if you're going to suggest I'm speaking nonsense you could at least offer some facts as to why :)

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

OK I'll save you the bother.

As you know 20Mbit is moved onto the DOCSIS 3 network along with the 50Mbit customers and there are 3 channels in use in most areas, 3 x 51Mbit. There are maybe 1 or 2 8.8Mbit upstreams available.

What you evidently don't know is that most of a legacy CMTS is being moved onto each 50Mbit MAC domain - In my CMTS's case if you were to move 75% of the customers across, not an uncommon combining apparently, you are dealing with 300 20Mbit modems on 2 8.8Mbit upstream and 3 51Mbit upstreams, not including the 50Mbit customers with no STM.

Presently the loading is around 100 modems of all tiers to an upstream, so you can see why a big uptake of 50Mbit with its' un-STM'd bandwidth restrictions might be problematic.

Any further questions have a check on your tools or log directly onto a 10k / BSR for how many nodes a single 50Mbit downstream group is spread across relative to a standard downstream.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

why are the 20mbit dudes still being stm'd then if docsis 3 is supposed to be all singing and all dancing?

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

I didnt think we could get 50mb on the staff package?

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Not at a discounted rate, we can at full price though including activation and install fee.
I was quoted £52 per month for 50meg.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

As Mags said it is not available on the staff package we have to pay full price and the £80 install.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

I don't want to start an arguement of any sort. Simply what you said earlier was rubbish.

Also they will eventually be moving all the tiers over, although 10MB will be using DOCSIS 2.0 rather than 3.

They wouldn't do that if it wasn't able to handle it!

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Sorry, you can't just say I'm talking rubbish then say that you don't want an argument and not back it up in any way.

I said that the network as rolled out cannot handle a high uptake, I didn't that this couldn't change which of course it will as time proceeds.

All modems regardless of tier are to be load balanced across the DOCSIS 3 architecture alongside the existing VXR architecture and there will be no further VXRs added to the network. Return path bandwidth will be increased through reclaimation of upstream spectrum from VXRs to Next-Gen CMTS as load shifts, reduction in MAC domain sizes on D3 bonded groups, and introduction of DOCSIS 2 ATDMA upstream modulations and channel widths.

Right now however there is only a straight overlay, no upstream spectrum has been reclaimed, Next-Gen CMTS MAC domains are huge due to hurried deployment, and there's no ATDMA live due to STB incompatibilities meaning that upstream bandwidth is not something in plentiful supply, hence the very low upstream on the 50Mbit service at launch.

If you want an idea of how large an area the D3 bonded groups are covering think about how many downstreams you can get out of the GigE SPA capacity of a 10k and EQAMs. There are 2 10ks serving 50Mbit and 20Mbit to an area with 15 VXRs and at a guesstimate probably nearly 40,000 modems and 100,000 homes passed.

I don't want an argument either, though a debate is fine! The above are the facts as I see them, having both seen D3 overlays done on 3 other cablecos, and based on information from people who are among those doing the VM overlay.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

What is annoying for existing customers is that new customers who order online get a £50 bill credit, effectively getting rid of the "activation fee", whereas existing customers cannot have this.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Well any older modems that may be incompatible with DOCSIS 2.0 will be getting replaced before everything moves over.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Yes but let's not get into yet another discussion over new customer deals and existing customers not getting them.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Everything since the 200 has been compatible, and even modems that don't support DOCSIS 2 can acquire a D2 upstream, D2 is mandatorily backwards compatible. VM could even leave a legacy 1.1 upstream just incase, so no need to ensure everything is replaced that are technical remedies to ease migration.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

I just had the same phone call - said no because of the install fee, thinking there might be a way around it, but it doesn't look like it!

Funny though, the woman said I needed some new wires!

However, my quote per month was £53 odd, even though I have the £11 a month phone already (with free TV). The website clearly states that XXL is £35 a month when taken with the £11 phone package.

My maths ain't great but that's definately £46 a month and not £53. Has anybody else experienced this?

Ta

pk

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

uve stated here that 20mb users will be using Docsis 3.0, ive spoken to u about this before on other posts and u have stated that this is not the case they will be using only docsis 2.0. If the 20mb users are to use and get the full affect of docsis 3.0 surely Virgin would have to replace the modems of the 20mb users to docsis 3.0 compatible ones.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

They will be running on the DOCSIS 3 network Chris, this is backwards compatable.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Plus they are swapping the modems so the 20Mb users can be migrated

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Are they? No modem capable of 20Mbit will have any issues on the D3 network in single downstream mode.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

That does not make sense, I *clearly* am prepared to pay for the service....or are you telling me the monthly charge for 50mb is the same as for 20mb? I EXPECT to pay higher monthly charges..no problem...but £80 just to get that privilege is OTT. Also I didnt need the advice about not signing up...as I said I am sticking to 20meg for now.

To be honest even if they had told me the £80 was for the modem itself I might have accepted that. I seem to remember when NTL first introduced cable to Middlesbrough you had the option of buying your own modem...I think I used that option (it was one of the old chunky US Robotics ones...some might remember!). My issue is that the £80 *seems* to be for... basically... nothing...

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

As I've posted elsewhere they are swapping out anything apart from 250/255/256 and the 5101E for 20Mbit customers

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

I am sorry but they will be swapping out older modems

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Yes, swapping out most Motorolas and dpx100s.
ECP2100s are not being swapped out, not to say they won't in the future.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

I have had 20Mb customers with EPC2100 modems with the flash screen, and we were told if you see a flash screen then we have to replace them, after first checking that one has not already been sent, I hear the record is supposed to be 11 sent to one customer and I have seen 3 sent on one account. [img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

The only time I've seen the flash for a customer with an EPC2100 is when their previous modem was still on the EQ screen.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

I have had a couple plus a few ringing in to get the new modem added to their account with them on the account, I think it is still a bit hit and miss but that is no surprise.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

Swapping modems sure, though the implication was of swapping out 20Mbit customer modems for DOCSIS 3 modems. That was the bit that confused.

Re: £80 set up fee??!!
 

They just want all 20Mb customers to have the latest kit when they migrate them across.