Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

As I don't see a thread for it at the moment:

http://bit.ly/8YZnEt

Virgin Media, the UK's leading internet service provider, today announced it would begin the roll-out of a 100Mb broadband service, the fastest available commercial product in the UK, by the end of 2010

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Complete with Traffic Management :p

At the moment I'm loving 50mbit - just hope I don't get managed any time soon.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Qoute [ Virgin Media's cable network means it is able to deliver very close to advertised headline speeds, unlike its ADSL competitors**, or that claimed by other operators' embryonic investment in fibre. ] Qoute.

I wouldn't like to be on the same pipe as someone receiving 100Mbps, I would imagine it will cause contention issues for everyone else.

You would think VM would want to get their current top tier running properly first

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Will this be a whole new package or an upgrade to an existing one?

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Great news - I won't be getting it but I would hope that once this was rolled out, VIP package customers would get upgraded to 50Mb from 20Mb :)

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

From the press release it looks likely it's a new tier - XXXL?

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

It's now official - VM name their tiers after american clothing sizes :D

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Americans still have "M" sizes do they :D

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

roll it out now!

I dont want to wait until Dec 2010!

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

They'll be running out of X's soon

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I rather doubt that 20Mb will go to 50Mb due to the cost involved having to swap every single modem out, so best to nip that one in the bud now.https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2010/02/4.gif

---------- Post added at 10:15 ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 ----------

Yes it is our XXL equivalent. :erm:

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Exactly the 20mb and 50mb products use different technologies.

50mb is on the Docsis3 platform, which I believe can ramp up to 200mb.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Watching the video, the product may be launched in 2010, but it says it'll be rolled out in 2011.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Great news about this but I am wondering what would you actually use this for?

I mean with that 3 strike rule probably coming into play is 100Mbit needed for browsing and stuff or am I missing something here (if so please tell me :) )

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Haha, what a joke. Berkett always the PR spinner. When their network's not oversaturated to the point they can't deal with it, I'll believe the hype. When they offer a half-decent upload speed and not the minimum 4Mbit they can get away with, I might consider paying for it.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Because there are many households that don't just have one nerd sat downloading the whole internet because he/she can. Throw an XBOX360 into a standard setting of a couple of desktops and a laptop downloading and 100Mb would be useful without anything illegal being downloaded.
Higher speeds raise the bar for those on lower speeds too as inevitably the benefits are passed down with improved(hopefully) infrastructure and pricing, it wasn't too long ago I was paying for the same for 3Meg as I'm now paying for 20meg.

Enjoy your 2meg and a 2gig cap then LOL.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I always forget that people (including myself) have multiple computers/consoles that use the internet :dunce: Thanks for the reply.

Nice if they did pass on the benefits to people on lower speeds :)

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

In reality, the cap is actually 40GB, and I'm not in charge of the connection. Plus, we don't and won't get cable around here.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Think OFCOM will disagree with you there http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tel...bandspeeds.pdf

On average, customers on Virgin Media's 'up to' 10Mbit/s cable service received speeds over twice as high as 'up to 8Mbit/s' DSL customers.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Any chance of sticking to the topic? We know there are many oversaturated ports on Virgin's network right now, and there are also far more that aren't saturated.

100Mbit, little use to me but devil in the detail. For my ickle family here we couldn't justify 50 as we don't cane newsgroups. The stuff about it being useful for people with 2 laptops, a desktop and a games console isn't really valid. 50 is ample for each machine to watch a couple of HD streams simultaneously and leave capacity for browsing, email and gaming on top, the crunch comes if one of the stations starts doing anything upstream intensive.

Dan, I know you're reading the thread :p: - 100Mbit = PR, 50/5 with perhaps an extra cost 50/10 option and 100/15 with an extra option for 100/20 or 100/25 as a minimum = product :)

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I personally wish they would concentrate on expanding the network and getting more cable out there than making the speeds faster. What happened to those 50,000 more homes that were meant to be added during 2009, did it actually take place.

Maybe I'm just bitter as this latest annoucement leaves us non-cable areas feel we are sinking even further into the dark ages and the divide is getting wider.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

No, they didn't add 50,000 more homes, they did 100,000.

From the q4 release:

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

This.

I'm getting pretty sick and tired of hearing one company rubbing it in for all of us who cannot get it due to their lack of coverage. There's got to be some sort of unfair competition with this, when I can barely get 2mb and yet someone on the same street as me will soon be able to get 100mb.

Also, I wish this company would damn fix the current speed issues we have, instead of just trying to lure more people in, making the situation worse for all.

:mad:

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Course TrustedReviews has just pointed out something I hadn't considered....

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

i think they should concentrate sorting the issues on for 50mb users before causing more problems on the network.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

So much negativity, I'm sure when the majority of people were on 56k they'd have considered 2meg to be overkill but things have to keep moving forward, even if some people move forward at a slower rate, even if they have no need for a new product now, at least the option is there for the future. The fact that some people can't have everything at the same pace as everyone else doesn't mean you stifle innovation or improvement for everyone else.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

If they do not go forward then the will be no need for new kit or fixes for issues such as yours.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Fixing problems before moving forward for their existing customers should be a top priority not trying petty PR stunts to try and come out on top.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

It is not just PR but the future and without the likes of this we would still be using dial up.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I agree with you to a point but we don't actually know whether the problems with 50MB that some people are having will be resolved before 100Mb is launched. I think Ignitionnet, who has inside knowledge says they are working to resolve the issues albeit more slowly than he would like.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

A launch of 100Mbit will not cause any additional problems on the network.

Upgrades in preparation for 100Mbit should alleviate the congestion issues being seen on the upstream.

This will in no way affect ongoing work on any disconnection issues that there may be, the people who would be troubleshooting those aren't the same ones who would handle new tiers.

---------- Post added at 17:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:03 ----------

Also remember Ben that all the routers that have been handed out thusfar have a 100Mbit WAN port, won't be capable of delivering a 100Mbit service appropriately so you may well be right about it being a new tier.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Well the DOCSIS 3 modems have 1Gb port, so it wouldn't be too difficult to swap bits over for a 50Mbit customer upgrading

Have a feeling though it's going to have to be something like the LAN over mains thing for anyone wanting the full speed

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

This is amusing though, from the newsgroups, the first post on the subject:

Think Broadband, comments on the news story

As I said above, 50Mbit -> 100Mbit downstream is just a willy wave for the press, 50 is ample at this time for all applications, it's the other direction where the most significant information will be and for those who aren't heavy newsgroup users will be the deal closer.

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 17:10 ----------

I was thinking more of cost Ben. Not feasible as a tier uplift if you have to send tens of thousands of new routers out.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

100 meg thats nothing check my speed today.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2010/02/7.png

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Yep there bad :D
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2010/02/5.png

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I want 100Mbps downstream and 100Mbps upstream (Unlimited Usage Allowance and non traffic management) at the price of £100 a month please!

Bring it over at Telford :)

P.S. Virgin Media, please do not ask for activation fee and installation charge of £100 one off fee !

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

+1 for Telford :D

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

It won't be symmetrical. It won't be a hundred quid a month. To be prepared to pay 100 pounds a month but not want to pay an activation fee of 100 pounds is odd.

100Mbit will be released everywhere that's on the network though.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Well considering it's using the same modem as 50Mbit I'm guessing (and don't quote me here) that it shouldn't cost any more to install/activate than 50Mbit

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

How about they upgrade the upload speeds to 10mb instead.

This silly willy waving about how amazing we are with such amazing download speeds. They are not needed..50mb is sufficient...Upload is more important to upgrade atm.

whats the upload going to be for 100mb....2.5 mb ? That would be stupid.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Considering VM are doing 10Mb upload trials I see it been more that 2.5Mb.

---------- Post added at 08:13 ---------- Previous post was at 08:12 ----------

Thats is so bad.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Show me the product. VM can trial 200Mbit fibre to the rectum for all I care, show me the product.

Isn't it? 1.35Mbps upstream on over 50Mbps downstream, a ratio of 37:1 and not enough to actually max the downstream without TCP acknowledgement suppression and cumulative acknowledgement. Pretty bad.

Yes I had to disturb the love fest over 50Mbps speed tests :p:

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

100Mbps is going to be a new cable modem again (maybe other charge at £100 for the modem) and activation fee with installation charge could be addition too.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

No it's not.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Until we know the price why complain, o how I have missed your post telford.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Given they have been testing 200Mbit with the same modem they have giving out to 50Mbit customers no it isn't, by default anyway. There may be a new modem but certainly not required.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I think it would be worth getting just so when you are down the pub talking bout your BB speeds and everyone else is on 8-10MB you can casually say I have a 100MB ;)

Hopefully a regigging of he prices will occur and I know they ahve to replace the modems for 20->50 but for a one of payment it would be nice to have that included in the VIP.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I guess if you talk about how fast your internet connection is down the pub maybe, though I'm the weirdo who has dropped 50M for 16 ;)

I don't see why a rejigging of prices would be necessary, when you bundle the prices as they are vary between just fine and pretty cheap. If people don't want to pay the hopefully considerably higher price for the 100 they don't have to.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Then they become uncompetitive. There is no point in pricing products beyond what people are prepared to pay, didn't they say at the investors meeting that they had about 50 000 customers for their 50MB? Also as a VIP customer I pay £86 plus £10 for the Asian collection, it is really hard at that stage to justify another £8 for a BB upgrade.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

What we really NEED is for BT/Sky/Orange etc to start pushing the Faster upload speeds they seem to be acheiving. Then perhaps the PR Gurus @ Virgin will start looking at our upload speed :shrug:

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I pay Sky 58.50/month.
I pay BT 17GBP/month.
I pay Virgin 39GBP/month.

With the exception of the reliability issues on Virgin I get what I pay for and am content. Virgin is being supplanted with an O2 premium 15GBP/month service.

There is nothing uncompetitive about the pricing it's just people in the UK seem to be under the illusion that broadband services should be super cheap due to Sky and O2 subsidising some of their services heavily, then complain when the quality isn't where they would wish it to be.

Prices aren't going to be going down in the market as a whole so the existing VM deals are likely to remain competitive with 100Mbit as a higher priced premium product.

The alternative is that it's rolled out on the cheap with a 3Mbit upstream - no thanks. I would have been happy with a big upstream increase on the 50M and the price staying the same.

I hope it's expensive and that no corners are cut as they were with 50. The pricing on the other products is fine.

---------- Post added at 12:31 ---------- Previous post was at 12:30 ----------

They have somewhat though not nearly hard enough and the Virgin PR gurus are looking at it, that's why it's been in 'trials' for 6 months it's being looked at. Sadly not nearly enough is being done.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

So people haven't flocked to the 50MB and your suggesting a even faster service with an even high price point that even less people will flock to?

Virgin have been good in the past with getting rid of 2 and 4MB services. No reason why they shouldn't continue to do this, especially if they made 20MB the entry level connection, they could crush the competition. Especially with BT adding fibre to areas where Virgin probably operate.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

They don't care that people haven't flocked to it, it is mostly a marketing thing to say they are faster.

20Mbit won't be the entry level connection for a while, 2 was only upgraded to 10 last year and that was as a belated response to ADSL services going to a default speed of 'up to' 8Mbit. 10Mbit remains faster than the average UK connection so zero incentive to phase it out.

BT adding fibre to about 30% of the areas Virgin operate by 2012 is only really going to affect the top end, ISPs aren't going to do an en masse migration of all their users to 40Mbit for the same price as they pay now for an average of 6 - 8Mbit.

Or they could of course just offer overcontended and under-engineered networks for as low a price point as possible. Forget quality let's save a few quid, can always have a good moan when the corners cut to bring that price point come home to roost like they have with the 50Mbit overlay network and its' upstream congestion.

Virgin would quite like to make some money as well as 'crush' the competition. Upgrading 20 to 50 leaves margins a bit sharp, not least because it would require the replacement of over half a million cable modems.

VM reported a very good quarter for broadband additions. Evidently not so uncompetitive.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

There is no point in having a headline figure if no one is on it, that can be just as an embarrassing headline.

They need people to pay for services not just create headlines.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

The 10Mbit 5GB/month email and a bit of browsing people make the money, not the 20 and 50Mbit 200GB/month customers.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

hope it aint gonna be x rated lol

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

100Mb should be called BB100 and 200Mb when released should be BB200

They should quit with all the X's it does get confusing!

10Mb could be Scrapped IMO (at least to new customers after 100Mb is out)... VM will have too many tiers when 200Mb comes out in a few years. 20Mb could then be BB20 and 50Mb BB50

There comes a point when VM will have far too many packages and it becomes really confusing for the less tech savvy.

They could also stop selling the Docsis 1/1.1 packages to new customers after a certain date (mid 2014 maybe) to gradually move new customers onto the Docsis 3 network. It would then be up to customers on the older modems/network to upgrade within, say 8 years before Docsis 1/1.1 could then be deprecated from the network.

Probably sounds stupid.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Shouldn't they put some effort into making the current services run well first? I myself am happy with my little old 10mb service and I've never had a problem with it but every time I visit these forums it is filled with unhappy customers putting up with dire services.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

That is probably because those that are happy generally don't start thread saying that they are fed up with how well their service runs.I have had a 20MB service from VM for about 14 months and except for to small 40 minutes outages in the middle of the night never really had any issue.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

What's the worry about the new modem anyway? It would be free wouldn't it? Orf would they charge you for the install?

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Not quite sure which post you are replying to but I would say anyone not on 50Mb would still have to pay for installation and activation if they chose either 50Mb or 100Mb.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

VM should be thanked for pushing the BB speed higher and getting it out to the people who are lucky enough to be in a cable area.
I agree that the upload speeds do need to be increased as cloud computing is the next big thing and what with people uploading photo's, videos and not forgetting the gaming side, we all do not want to wait hours saving our memories or suffering lag when playing online.
At the moment I'm enjoying the 50mb I have but as my sons get older and become gamers, then 100mb will be a god send!

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

They just want to be able to compete with this

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

They probably have this 100/15 package from BT more in mind along with 60 down 10 up fibre to cabinet.

VM have never cared about staying ahead of what anyone else apart from BT offers you know that ;)

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Is it not going to be the case though that other users will end up having to subsidise the high end 50MB/100MB users. This is afterall a niche market with the majority of the population never needing at most 10MB. Whatever Virgin may think people are still going to migrate between Virgin/Bt to take adavantage of offers even if the Virgin service is faster due to other considerations.

I recently dropped from 20MB Cable to 4MB ADSL and it has not affected my lifestyle in anyway. I am still downlaoding the same and getting the same performance (Actually my pings have improved slightly with ADSL). lets face it the only reason most are on the 10MB service is that they got a free upgrade.

I can't wait for the 1st person to brag about having 100MB in my pub so i can respond why would i want to pay £30+ a month extra for a service i do not need. When does it become no longer finacially viable to stay ahead of the competition.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

You have to look away form one home one connection, most homes you will find more then one PC, with the kids having a loptop or desktop, other mobile devices such as phones, iPod touches. Freeview HD and Freesat HD will soon be rolling out VOD via BB, downloading/streaming HD movies. Heck even TVs are now coming with ethernet ports. It is not how fast you can download but how many devices are downloading at once, even on a 20 MB connection a Xbox live game can be laggy if someone is doing anything other then basic surfing on another machine.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Yep, because the upstream is getting munched so the game no longer has upstream bandwidth on demand.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Oh yes! Shame VM haven't said anything about upload speed. Is there even a rollout time table or will it be like the 50MB and to fit it into this year it will get rolled out to one town in December?

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Good question indeed and no idea, still 'trials' in a couple of areas only.

No upstream announced for the 100M, unsurprisingly. We know how much Virgin generally like to pretend that that annoying upstream direction doesn't exist.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Would people be happy if VM gave 10MB upload on the 100MB service.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

I have always said I consider 10:1 to be a reasonable ratio.

Re: Virgin to launch 100Mbit product in 2010
 

Very pleasing announcement by VM, finally this country is starting to catch up with others who already have super fast speeds.Be a longer wait than that for most. Berkett made clear in his webcast that it will be launched at the end of the year and will be slowly rolled out throughout 2011.

Can go even faster than that. Try 16*50 and that's just with with today's tech, post analogue switch off of course.