Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

They can look at it all they want, same as this illusive 100Mbps they were supposed to be looking at but until it's available to their customers at a reasonable price I don't give a flying fig.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

:clap: I second that.



As always, nothing about uploads, *yawn*

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

8x4 8 downstream 4 upstream modems. These chipsets have been around since the start of last year.

This doesn't mean much - the modems released with the original 512kbps services were in theory capable of 38Mbps and since the ntl:Home 120 this theoretical capacity went up to 51Mbps.

http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-...teways/SBG6580
http://www.cisco.com/web/consumer/su...m_DPC3010.html

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

It is certainly starting to look interesting... especially with what could happen to the lower tiers, they may be gradually switched to the docsis 3 network with just 50, 100, 200 and 400Mb/s packages.

I don't feel there will be a need for the 2, 10 and maybe 20Mb's tiers in say 5 years time. They can upgrade equipment as contracts end and the customer takes a new contract. IMO it makes sense and the "the customer may not need 'x' speed" argument may be valid right now but it wont be valid in say 5+ years.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Interesting to see if they can do it, I will be happy so get on a trial.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Of course all customers will be on DOCSIS 3 eventually, just it's a tad early to even be mentioning 400Mbit products given that we're still on 50Mbps.

It's like releasing 512kbps and saying that VM are looking to 38Mbps back in 2000 - absurd.

What the technology can do and what will be released are very different things... don't get excited or even consider things 'interesting' yet.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

50Mb is here, 100Mb is on the way, 200Mb is starting trial.... whats not to be excited about! Some people prefer to have the fastest speed available and will pay for that privilege as well, I for one cant wait for these faster speeds to be rolled out, its certainly more progress than any other ISP.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

40 meg upload please :)

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

It's only bandwidth, not worth getting too excited about especially when 200Mbps is 2 years away from release, probably be out around Olympics time, and 400, no idea. Most people just want it to pull moviez, warez and stuff down at higher speeds which will get them a slap in the not too distant future anyways.

BT have trialled 1Gbps, means nothing until I can go to a website or make a call and place an order.

I'm hoping for a service that doesn't fall over for a week at a time, my primary reason for ditching Virgin right now, Telewest cowboys neglecting various areas on their network while waiting to be acquired and Virgin forcing 50Mbps out of networks without making the investment to ensure they can cope with them.

Couldn't care less about the downstream upgrades they are cheap and easy. The good bit for me and many others will be upstream as it'll force Virgin to, reluctantly, upgrade the networks appropriately.

So I'm more excited about 50/5 which thanks to Telewest's bodgery in the past and VM's bean counters won't be here in this affluent South-West London suburb until at the earliest April - June 2011 - just in time to be beaten by BT making 40/15 available in March.

EDIT: Just as a note 200Mbps was being trialled last year in Ashford, 100Mbps and up was trialled 4 years ago, 50Mbps upstream has also been trialled. Trials mean nothing for the products, things like the 10:1 rollout we're seeing happen now mean something.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

less is more as they say. Although we cant see how things are going to change over the next couple of years I can quite confidently say that I think I'll be quite content with 100mbit in two years time and I would prefer to have 100/40 next year instead of VM spending a tonne of £££ and doing months of tests for me to get 400/40 in 5 years time.

But like Ignitionnet said, 10 years ago i was on 512k and thought it was bees knees going from 5k/sec on dialup to 70k/sec. Maybe I'll be sitting here in 2020 on a 1gbit connection reminiscing about the good old days when I was on 50mbit :)

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

How about they solve the problem of me having to wait in some kind of queue to play any VOD on a weekend, because my area is 'busy', before they make plans for huge bandwidth changes. Sort the TV network out VM. You obviously don't have enough TV bandwidth to start with.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I'm on 50mb BB and it doesn't mean squat because most of the websites I go on dont put out 50mb speeds when browsing so unless I am actually downloading something that can use the 50mb which its rare I ever get beyond 2 maybe 3 meg on newsgroups. so it seems pointless to rush out any other BB at the moment until the internet in general sorts itself out.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

They've got the bandwidth, it's the capacity to utilise that bandwidth to its fullest is the problem. More modems would be a good start.

I always used to say on forums that you don't need faster speeds, yet strangely as the speeds have gone up, I've found a way to make use of it.;)

But I echo what has been said, bring on 200mb, 400mb etc, but it's no good if I can only use that for a limited time each day.

For a good start, it would be nice for 20mb, to be 20mb all day. Whereas at the moment its a 5mb unlimited service boosted to 20mb for a small period during the daytime. It's only a real 20mb service at night. But that's not how VM sell it or market it...

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

You'll be waiting a long time. Historically, demand for high speed has always outstripped supply, and the fix has always been just around the corner.

All that actually happens is that fix is applied, and then something else comes out that makes even greater use of network bandwidth than people originally planned up to the point where the network can barely cope.

Then someone comes up with a fix for *that* problem and the whole cycle starts again.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Ooh wow, 400Mbit downstream. That's like, wow.


/sarcasm :rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

That only 70,000 people have signed up for 50Mbit makes me wonder about this. We're far too stingy with how much we are prepared to pay for extremely high speeds to be seriously in demand.

The applications aren't really there for 50Mbit yet and there is zero demand or use with the exception of downloading the usual interesting content for 100Mbit.

Purely e-peen flexing in response to BT's wider deployment of 40/10.

I think Virgin may be wiser to ensure the bandwidth is available to customers on demand and services of a reasonable quality in terms of speed, variation at peak and off-peak periods, jitter and latency. If this is done at the same time as their e-peen exercising then all good but for me even though it isn't cool quality should be taken care of as well as headline speed.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Thats what I mean. There isn't anything out there really that can give you full 6mb second download. infact I've never come across anything that fast so far. the most I have had is about 5.5mb

So why increase to 100mb is stupid there isn't anything out there for it.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Newsgroups give me 6.6Mbps download on 50Mb.

The infrastructure is there if you have a need for it, it just depends what you use your connection for. I still find it amazing though that some people get faster broadband because they think it will make web pages open quicker...

:)

The reason to introduce 100Mb is obvious, it will help push demand for applications that CAN utilise that kind of bandwidth. If we dont have it then we dont know what we can do with such a fast pipe into the home. The possibilities for an ISP with a connection speed like that are endless, with online TV being the biggest reason.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Igni is totally correct though. Get the utilisation at peak times sorted out, the ping and jitter.

If they go for quality over quantity (which is a pipe dream) they could qutie rightly say they are the best!

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

The thing is: That is not in VM's (or any ISP's) interest. Their ideal customer would be some who pays for 50 meg by direct debit and, at most, browses the odd web page. Not someone who canes their connection downloading stuff and watching videos.

I said earlier that Demand has always outstripped supply. If you ignore headline speeds, this is still true in some areas.

However, I can't think of a single application that the average person would need that would take advantage of even a correctly functioning 50 meg connection. Maybe once a few movie download services have started.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Most houses have multiple devices, phones laptops, consoles, pc's even fridges, I think that's where 50meg may be of use.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I don't for a second believe that VM want people to give up their cable TV service and watch HD over the DOCSIS cable network, not paying VM for that privilege and tying up a ton of bandwidth on the CMTS. VM budget on the order of 100kbps per customer, more on the overlay network but certainly not enough for many people to be streaming simultaneously.

Online TV is the cable company's worst nightmare. Resource hungry, takes money in VoD and linear TV revenue away.

The reason to introduce 100Mbps is obvious. BT are doing 40Mbps and potentially 60Mbps with the rollout being more widespread and hitting over half of VM's cabled areas by Spring 2011. It's no coincidence VM suddenly took an interest in upstream speeds when BT began deploying 2 and 10Mbps :)

---------- Post added at 23:23 ---------- Previous post was at 23:21 ----------

Yup fridges are a real bandwidth monster :D

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

How come you get that I use astraweb and lucky if 90% of the time I only get around 2mb

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I use Astraweb as well, the Unlimited DSL plan for $11 per month, within 5 seconds of starting any NNTP download I will achieve 6.6Mbps (wired to gigabit router, SSL encryption).

If your only achieving 2Mbps on 50Mb while using Newsgroups thats certainly a concern.

:(

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Try one of their other servers and ports.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Whilst I agree that VM's priorities need to include quality of service for their existing internet products, they also need to be aiming for the stars. I have made an argument for 100Mb plus HERE.

The typical household, let alone student residences or businesses, will want cloud applications for multiple users plus all the other stuff, and for it to feel that all the resources are on the desktop. For that you need bigger and better bandwidth.

By the way I consistently get my full 50Mb. My average is 50.40Mb, with my best only yesterday.

http://www.speedtest.net/rank/1444706164.png

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Businesses are a totally separate issue.

You seem to be confused. Cloud storage and cloud applications are two different things. The main issue with cloud applications isn't bandwidth it's latency and jitter. The apps I use as part of my work are largely web based, no real urgent need for high bandwidth, the primary problems I encounter relate to latency to the remote server and protocol based inefficiency.

You seem to have jumped on cloud applications due to VM mentioning it in a press release. The actual quote referred to cloud gaming, which according to its' developer requires no more than 5Mbit/s or so even on HD, what it does require is extremely low packet loss, low latency and little jitter.

As I mentioned on your 'argument' for 100Mbit/s plus 20Mbit downstream and 2Mbit upstream would be quite adequate until you get to the seeding and leeching of torrents at the end of the list which will eat as much bandwidth as is available and no amount of bandwidth will ever be enough for anyway.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

The only reason I subscribed to the 50mb product was because it wasn't traffic managed like the other tiers
I wouldn't be surprised if when 100 or even 400mb comes out, the 50mb tier will start being traffic managed to "encourage" people to upgrade to the new premium offerings.

As for 400mb, I would sign up for it, if it had a decent upload, but given that we're probably going to get a measly 5mb for the 50mb product, I think i'll stick with my current offering.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

indeed you beat me to the punch.

for me 20mbit download is enough, 2mbit upload (post upgrade is also easily enough).

So what would excite me is a latency/jitter upgrade. keep my latency steady and stable.

not like this.

Pinging bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=120
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=120
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=120
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=120

the problem is the fix is infrastructure upgrading, an isp to justify that has to have something new to market aka higher speeds or higher usage. Which then sucks up any capacity created, a endless loop.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

If I currently get speeds of 1 MB in the evening on a 10 MB service, can I expect to get 10 MB on a 100 MB service?

Perhaps VM should sort out their current infrastructure first before they set themselves up for even more complaints on their community forums. Maybe this is their solution though: deliver even higher services so when they're over subscribed the speeds will be higher than the current services. 10 MB down when it's peak time is better than 1 MB right.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

The whole point in these faster speeds is more capacity. The reason there are speed issues in some areas is due to overuse (some well known student areas) or the network design from the legacy cable days making upgrades tricky.

The recent 50Mb upgrade solved a lot of capacity issues over the whole country but ongoing work is required to improve things further. I wouldnt always assume that faster speeds mean neglecting the current customer base, if anything faster speeds mean upgrading the existing network infrastructure to improve service for all.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

What he said. Actually 50Mbps was a side effect of other work, not the original intention. The BSRs and Cisco 10k's were being introduced to the network for capacity relief as the previous uBR7246VXR had reached end of life, that they were DOCSIS 3 compatible was a huge bonus!

The 50Mbps DOCSIS 3 overlay network resolved downstream congestion issues however due to it being done on the cheap it created upstream congestion issues which are being resolved as part of both the 100Mbps project and the 10:1 ratio project. Taking several nodes and combining them across 4 downstream channels giving 200Mbps of downstream capacity and only 1 channel of upstream for each 1/4th of the downstream nodes at about 9Mbps of capacity wasn't really wise given the legacy network was most often a split of 38Mbps downstream, 4 x 9Mbps upstream.

In some respects these products follow on from each other very well, little things like when doing a resegmentation for 100Mbps doing three of them, splitting the previous single area into 2 then splitting each of those reducing the homes passed per node by 4 times ready for the 10:1 project are pretty efficient.

This will certainly be a more expensive year than the 50Mbps rollout :)

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Hi I have a 50 Mb connection and I got a letter from VM today headed Detrimental use of my broadband connection and asking me to move a large proportion of my uploading and downloading outside the busy 9am-9pm period and as far as I can see this is just another way to apply their traffic management policy to customers with 50 MB so whats the point of introducing a 400MB for who knows what restrictions VM would apply --regards

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

You have not been traffic shaped, all they are advising is to do your thing outside of the hours in the letter.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Hi Masque Thanks for your reply -Can you tell me as you are a Virginmedia Staff member what would be an acceptable amount of data for me to download during the hours of 9am to 9pm so that i dont inadvertently affect the enjoyment of other users in my area as stated in the VM letter-- regards

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

If you have received a letter then it may give you a figure that you have downloaded, I could not give you a figure even if I knew it as that would be in breach of my contract due to it being business sensitive information.

The hours in the letter should give enough leeway even for the most prolific downloader.

Maybe another non - employee will be able to post such a figure for you.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Ask Virgin yourself, you should have a contact on the letter. Going by previous experience they are so reluctant to give an actual figure, for PR reasons, that they'll probably give up and leave you alone. This is exactly what they did with another person who pursued the matter, wanting to know how much he had used and how much was acceptable. :)

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Hi Ignitionnet Thanks for response
Yes a name and numbers on the letter I will give them a call and i will ask them to clarify the situation

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

When you were downloading was it still running at full tilt? If so there wasn't much contention so their letter is based on some internally set limit rather than what they claim about it impacting others. If you were still running full speed then I'd suggest that should be a good lever in requesting their limits.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Hi kwikbreaks Thanks for your response

Yes was running around 5000kbs during downloads but my first inkling that i was infringing on their acceptable use policy was when i received their letter on the 16th july 10 so I gave VM a call today and was told that this is a standard letter they send to customers when they see unusually high usage between the busy 9am-9pm period and all they are asking me to do is to move the bulk of my downloading to outwith these times.They were not able to give me any figures of what is acceptable between the hours of 9am-9pm so any big stuff i might want i will download outside these hours. I dont have a problem with this and I will do as they suggest but the point i was trying to make in my initial post was whats the point of introducing a 400mb download speed when there are all these restrictions on lesser ones such as traffic shaping and acceptable use policy and whatever else is in force at this time--regards

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

How can i find out when it will be in my area?

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Try and get it in writing.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

you havent got the letter because of how much you are downloading between 9-9, you have got it because you are downloading more than 500gb a month and VM are saying that it is a huge amount and without them actually actually looking at your download patterns, they have sent you a letter by-the-by asking you to move your utilisation to nights just to make sure that you arent doing it during the day as you are downloading so much.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Stuff that. Download what you want when you want to be honest.

If they bother you again ask them for details on what they consider acceptable and when, simply saying that it's a 'standard letter' isn't good enough.

To answer your original point some people benefit from increased speeds for the sake of the increased speed rather than the amount of data it allows them to download. I don't use that much but do occasionally wish I still had the XXL service when downloading a large file, then I remember how crap the reliability was in this area and it soon passes ;)

---------- Post added at 11:07 ---------- Previous post was at 11:06 ----------

Do you have references for this? I have not seen any specific figures mentioned and indeed people under 500GB have been contacted.

VM do have very specific usage figures just FYI - granularity is hourly.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

More downstream would be nice, but it's upstream I'm more interested in. The current 1.5mbit max upstream is just a joke. It should be at least 20mbit, if not more.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

And what would Virgin call this? XXXL? XXXXXXL? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL?

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

lol, funny but it is heading that way.

When VM drop the 10Mb package (it is going to happen apparently) I think 20Mb XL should become M, 50Mb should become L and 100Mb XL or something. or they should just name them by the speed, 20Mb, 50Mb, 100Mb. their current naming scheme is beginning to be too much.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Why would they drop the 10Mb package as the majority of people are on 10Mb and to upgrade them would cause them to lose money.

10Mb is a good base package and it is highly unlikely that it will dissapear.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Yeah, I was joking slightly as all they do nowadays is bump off the lowest speed. You're idea is good, but I think the next adjustment will probably be:

L: 20mb
XL: 50mb
XXL: 100mb

And then after that maybe:

L: 50mb
XL: 100mb
XXL: 200mb

Then eventually:

L: 100mb
XL: 200mb
XXL: 400mb

But this is a far and distant future. :p

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35064382-post5.html

Apparently Berkett has already said that 10Mb will go.... maybe not for a little while. but I think it will.

I suppose 10Mb will become what 2Mb is currently today, A package you can request if you phone them, but one that is not listed as an option on the website. Nobody said anything about free upgrades, but as with what happened to 2Mb I think it might happen, but the people that get the free upgrade will get stricter STM on the 20Mb. Just like the 2Mb upgrade to 10Mb has.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I am surprised as it will cost money to give free upgrades especially when many other companies on the continent that already offer 100Mb+ broadband packages still offer 10Mb and below services.

Also check out the prices in Euros.

http://www.upc.nl/internet/

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Check out the Upload speeds !

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I'd repackage them

Skyretentions 2mb to match there crappy free broadband

S - 10mb
M - 20mb
L - 50mb
Xl - 100mb.

I also would expect there to be a £15 fee to upgrade from 20 to 50mb to cover the postage of the new modem and return postage of the standard modem

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

if they do offer 20Mb users an upgrade to 50Mb at no extra cost I think it is a fair deal to charge for the posting of the new modem as you say... but 50Mb isn't self install is it? Charging for the modem to be posted and the engineer visit is fair I think... Have VM said there will be a free upgrade from 20 to 50 though?

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

There is no reason why 50meg couldn't be quickstart providing your old modem is locked on ok. :angel:

We are only speculating, virgin have announced nothing set in stone

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

No and I can see no reason to as it would cost to much money as every 20Mb customer would require a replacement modem and in many cases a replacement router.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

hence the reason for charging a fee to be sent the new modem/router as per jb66's idea - maybe £15 is too low but I think £30 - £40 is fair.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Surely thay must've made enough by now to cover that cost with these so called 'activation fees' for 50meg and V+/V HD. Or is that just for the shareholders bubbly at christmas :D

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

And it will still be a lottery as to what speed you'll actually get.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

100 meg plus must be advertised as UPTO, its bad enough trying to install 50Meg on dinosaur computers, imagine 100!!!

I still hear customers saying after I've installed 50Meg, oh my computer is starting up much faster now!

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

They should be using that wording on their current 10 MB package, or perhaps say "over 1 MB if you're lucky". Stupid oversubscribed UBRs!

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Is there currently anything out there that would give you 45+ meg a second download? I dont even think newsgroups go that fast?

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I get at least 48Mb/s on Astraweb with 20 connections any time of the day. I've seen newsgroups saturate much faster connections.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Giganews does.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

It's not so long ago that the Telewest Blueyonder speed of 512K was considered 'lightning fast'

Now I have the standard speed of 10Mbps as part of the Supreme package and it's always on at that speed, not 'up to'.
Several of my work colleagues live in rural areas out with VM cabling and envy the speed and reliability I get from my BB connection.

I feel well served by VM.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Yep I get 6.2MB/s (yes, megabytes) on downloads.

Edit: Oops, sorry for the thread necromancy :).

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

It is quite a fresh thread unlike some others.:D

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Had to giggle,
Cant see 100mb coming to my area for years. Cant even find my area on virgins list of 100 planned rollouts over the years.

Still contract up now may as well go to BT 40mb still a bit cheaper eh?

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

the sad thing is latency and jitter have a bigger affect on snappyness than burst speed.

isp's have lost it somewhat in the last few years, marketing higher headline speeds and unlimited at the expense of quality.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

According to OFCOM in July 2010 the Virgin Media 10Mb package averaged 8.2 to 8.8Mb. This is faster than some provider's 20Mb package. I guess you are one of the unlucky few or else your PC is letting you down.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

VM must have done something, because for several weeks now, before and after the upload speed increase, we have been consistently getting near the 10 MB speed, including at peak times where we were seeing the as low as 1 MB speeds.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I am soon going to contact ofcom on this, today I got confirmation my VM connection is too 'slow' to be part of the trials.

If its the case they rejecting slow users then the results arent credible.

First tho I have gave samknows a 2nd chance to verify what they have told me.

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

Not all ISPs. Be/O2 seem to be doing quite well to keep those two down..

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

If that is the case, ie you are on a 10Mb or 20Mb or 50Mb but getting way below what you should, then you could be be right. That would be dishonest. However if your are on a copper wire connection, then I wouldn't blame VM for not using you for SamKnows trials. ;)

Re: Virgin Media already looking to 400Mbps broadband
 

I am not an VM adsl user if thats what you mean. The modem itself is connected at the full speed.