Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Just to let those interested know VM are currently slightly upgrading the 100Mb service, this is so that you can reach 100Mb speeds after overheads on the connection.

At the moment the service is capped to 102.4Mb, leaving people reaching about 98Mb best case, due to new regulations coming in next year 10% of customers must be able to reach the appropriate throughput for a service to be advertised at that speed.

VM evidently didn't fancy selling 100Mb as 98Mb so they're increasing the downstream cap from 102.4Mb/s to 110Mb/s giving people about 105Mb/s.

It's quite common among cable companies to do this, it's called adding 'fluff'. A number of operators cap around 10% higher than the provisioned rate, VM are joining them.

Probably safe to assume 10Mb and 20Mb will receive caps of 11Mb and 22Mb, 30Mb is already capped at 33Mb, 50Mb is already capped at 53Mb and is receiving a different upgrade.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Seems pretty fair to me! The 33Mb cap on 30Mb is good as it is, most get at least 31Mb (I've never dropped below it) from what I've seen in speed test results.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

When does this take effect from and where did you get this info?

I'm intrigued :)

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

What 'different upgrade' is the 50meg service receiving?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

My guess 80mbit/sec or around that bit.

VM seriously going to the "I dont care" on oversubbing.

---------- Post added at 21:55 ---------- Previous post was at 21:51 ----------

Lucky you.

I havent been able to get 31mbit outside of 4-10am for about 2 weeks.

Hard to say if most get 31mbit/sec. I dont think any data out there for that, the latest samknows figures also really need an update as was before 100mbit launched.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

They've started the rollout already, and dream on ;)

---------- Post added at 21:56 ---------- Previous post was at 21:56 ----------

I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you.

---------- Post added at 21:57 ---------- Previous post was at 21:56 ----------

No and no respectively - this is the main driver for the moves to 8 downstreams.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Not sure how you can say no to my 2nd comment, as VM have a poor record for dealing with congestion, so for you to say no to that would mean VM doing a policy shift. Planning for 8 downstreams is just PR talk at this time, given how long its taking to even get every area to 5 downstreams never mind 8, 8 could be years away.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I can say no quite easily, I just know stuff and increasing oversubscription rates can be mitigated in a number of ways, both controlling supply of bandwidth and demand. You also forget that downstream upgrades don't go anywhere near the level of increased usage that upstream upgrades bring, there's only so much to download.

4 -> 5 downstreams is a far more complicated job than 5 -> 8. It needed line cards to be replaced in the case of BSRs and a shift to I-CMTS architecture in a number of cases on the Cisco.

I would recommend looking at how the line cards are broken down, multiples of ports per line card, etc, it would make more sense than assuming that the line card replacement required to go from 4 to 5 or in the case of many Cisco 10ks even just 3 to 4 downstreams is replicated in going to 8.

I'm not aware of it being PR talk, I've not seen VM make big news of this. Beyond us nerds no-one really gives a monkey's about how many downstreams VM are using in each service group.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

The most certain mitigation is the one I'll be using as soon as I can - Infinity. As far as I'm concerned they've blown it as far as my custom goes. Only question is whether I'll wait for Infinity or move to Be on ADSL before it comes.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

That's certainly one option for people. I would suggest a combination of capacity upgrades and traffic management however are VM's ways forward.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

At the risk of attracting the ridicule of some of the know-it-alls on this forum, this is precisely what I have been experiencing consistently on my 50Mb connection now for the last 10 days. I have cleared my browser cache, rebooted my modem on multiple occasions, and tried a variety of methods to measure my download speed - which is coming out at a rather more variable than usual 50-75 Mb/s. The config file still says limited to 53000000 downstream, but that isn't what I'm getting. So either VM have a fault on their rate-limiting system, or something else is going on.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Could you give us a clue to what the 50mb upgrade will be:erm:? or is it STM time for us guys:rolleyes:

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

No ridicule here!

The config files will change when it's time. Unsure why you're getting close to 80Mb but that is not the uplifted speed.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

So theres an uplifted speed increase:shocked:

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Kinda hoping for a slight bump on 30Mb but I think that is less likely with most 30Mb customers being ex 20Mb customers and that was a "free" upgrade minus the £30 activation/superhub fee. Still a bump to 40Mb would be nice! I guess people in the know cannot say too much, like usual, there's probably an NDA on the upgrades VM are doing.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

It would be nice to see a little increase of some sort hopefully they wont take months to roll these new config files.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

i got 100mb but really get over 97 mb on speed tests

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Be a tad more than a 'slight bump'.

You get nothing as part of the smaller increases as the 30Mb already has 10% on it, but do look forward to a speed increase next year :)

---------- Post added at 21:00 ---------- Previous post was at 20:58 ----------

Which is exactly why VM are pushing the rate cap from 102.4Mb to 110Mb, you will see over 104Mb after.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

So will 50mb see an increase next year aswell ? Im just hunting for answers as im bored at work.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

great, i could have kept my vmng300 and had a free speed boost that worked :spin:

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I can see them turning 100meg into something silly (150/15?) to one-up Infinity and 50meg turn into something that matches Infinity.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I think 50 will just see the 10% fluff on top so instead of 53mb max it will be 55mb I suppose unless they have some tricks up there sleeve

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Ignore DOCSIS1 (10 +20) because VM do and you have...

33Mbps nnMbps 104mBPS with nnmBPS costing ~ £7.50 more than 33 and £10 less than 104.

To coin an (idiot) phrase - do the math.

Currently 50Mbps is poor value over 30Mbps imo and if 30Mbps had been announved at the time I'd have taken it when upgrading from 20 rather than upgrading to 50Mbps.

I'd far rather they sorted out the oversubscription issues than pushed headline speeds higher. I was told that my area upgrade was complete but almost immediately it became just about as bad as before - a single 100Mbps high volume user can easily stuff up the current low capacity local pipes. I'm obviously no network genius but I think if asked I could have predicted that no sanctions, unlimited 100/10 on 200/18 pipes would lead to this in some areas. I'd just have hoped I didn't live in one but sadly I do.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

You should come and live in my area dude, when I rang up the other day they said the utilisation on my UBR was negligable and I was the only 100mbit user on it (not that I believe them) but perhaps that is why I have always got my max speed (up and till now :D )

it would be nice if they made them 80/8 and 150/15, it ain't gonna happen though. I can see it going to 60/6 to make it more of a jump from 30 but still significantly less than 100

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

That would be the sort of increase I'd expect to see. You're lucky that your area isn't busted - around here you'd probably only get the 10Mbps I downgraded to regardless of which on you picked. I guess they'll sort it out eventually but their track record on theses issues isn't good.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Just to clarify 100Mb is not getting uplifted to anything bar the 110Mb downstream to give extra fluff for overheads, so no point in speculating on what it may or may not be going to :)

All other tiers, however ;)

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I wonder how much fluff you could download in a day with an extra 10mbits?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I am guessing upstream is left out in the cold as normal?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Is there a time frame for these minor updates ? :monkey:

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

A bit of upload fluff would be nice too, only ever hit 9Meg up on our 100meg connection, but its good we're getting the extra 10Meg down :D

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I think it will happen once VM has rolled out 100mb to all remaining areas.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Theres your mistake.

People on 100mbit can find enough to download to keep it busy pretty much 24/7. Tons of media content out there. Given it only takes 1-2 in any given area to cause problems its quite easy to see the serious misjudgement thats occured.

Next year when the xbox 720 is released microsoft whispers are the games will be download only no physical media, games I expect will be 10-40gig in size on average, demos will likely be at least half that size as well. But in terms of media currently available there is raw bluray been released multiple times a day at 40+ gig a pop very capable of keeping 100mbit lines busy.

Someone with your experience not only should think usage will increase, they should expect it.

Incidently VM have now officially confirmed downstream is "very highly" utilised in my area and its finally been escalated.

I remain curious of course on what 50mbit is getting of course and its good the fluff is been added in regards to complying with regulation but at the same time I feel my concerns are very valid.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Right, clearly there are people who have the storage and indeed the will to download 30TB/month.

It's no mistake it's a combination of common sense and fact. A 100Mb line pulls 1TB/day, over 20 full Blu Rays, even storing these on optical media would be impractical. Of course there's sufficient content to download 30TB/month, one could just re-download the same file over and over again all month, does this seem likely?

I fully expect usage to increase I'm not naive I just think, as usual, you're hijacking a thread because of your own service issues and with that in mind will not respond to further posts from you in this topic.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

IMO Chrysalis is perfectly right - VM need to concentrate more on alleviating oversubscription by whatever means works and I expect that will be traffic management rather capacity increases. "Adding fluff" and increasing XXL speeds to bring them closer into line value wise with XL and 100 is purely for marketing purposes.

Oversubscription has moved me from happy bunny to definitely a lost customer long term (when I can get Infinity) and quite probably a lost customer immediately to Be ADSL once I've looked at the costs involved - this following a supposed upgrade which still leaves my CMTS oversubscribed by my definition but not VMs.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Hi,

Sorry to be a bit thick, but I figure if I don't ask, I won't find out:

What is the nature of the overhead?

I presume 102.4 Mbps is raw data rate, and 98 Mbps represents the encoded ethernet packets (frames? datagrams?)
If so, what is in the 4.4 Mbps? and is it encapsulated? Is it associated with the modulation / demodulation process?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?

Phil.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

IP and TCP headers Phil, 40 bytes per 1500 byte IP datagram leaving 1460 bytes for usable data.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Oh.

Cheers Ignition. I was hoping it might be more interesting than that!

:)

Phil.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Download speeds of over 100Mb (110mb), including the fluff on top, would at the moment be pandering to a completely unnecessary arms race.

It will take some time for video, game and data technology to catch up with 100Mb, let alone 200Mb or 400Mb+. If commerce really needs that much they can get it now anyway. It will be some time before all but the most BB hungry student houses will need even 100Mb.

I agree with all those who say that from now on ISPs should concentrate on increasing capacity and moving towards connections that are more symmetrical. e.g. 10:3 would be fine for most of us. Quality of service should now be the mantra. VM needs to take that on board or become 1st choice only where they are the only choice.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

It's nothing to do with an arms race it just relates to how the products are advertised. The rules are being changed so that ISPs can only advertise the speed 10% of their customers can achieve.

Without the fluff people can't get 100Mb throughput.

As far as the rest goes 100Mb is not getting upgraded to 200Mb any time soon so no worries there. 200Mb as a new tier around Olympics time.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Perfect for scrubbing any benefit from 8 downstreams and of use only to those addicted to downloading by the TB daily. Oh - and the marketing wonks.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Traffic Management v2 will deal with that.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

heh you read my mind, I guess those who get the 8 channels last will probably get just in time for 200mbit.

Dissapointed ignition now wants to ignore my posts, and traffic management v2 may deal with it better than whatever is in place now but at the same time traffic management shouldnt replace capacity, it should only complement it.

In terms of storage the content will either get trashed or burnt to removable media. Some people download and burn all day long.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Any info on "Traffic Management v2"?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I reckon some people are actually magpies who download and burn all day long, but actually they transfer their largess to the cloud because they can. They then say that they have a massively awesome collection of music and films in the cloud which they never watch or listen to. However, this is cool because wow it's awesome man. Bring on 400mb/40mb man.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I would like to know that as well because although p2p traffic management should be in effect on all tiers, i tried it for the first time last night and had no probs whatsoever whereas on 50mbit it would crawl to a halt on Saturday evenings.

My guess is that we are going to be screwed and the previously non-stm'd 100mbit will be stm'd, they did the same once they had rolled out and got everyone on to 50mbit

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Bring it on although I suspect there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth when it does arrive if it actually works unlike the POS they currently have in place which is so easy to circumvent. Perhaps as the Generalissimo suspects it will be a simple byte count and cap arrangement - if so and they really want to sort out oversubscription it will need to be a lot more aggressive than now.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Combination of byte count and port load, with progressively more aggressive penalties as high usage continues. In other words once degraded if you keep caning it for all it's worth you experience further degredation ;)

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

So is that goodbye to the already dishonest "unlimited" advertising?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I think it is far too easy to start faulting VM for their services. Surely other providers are not perfect either and by simply leaving one provider to go to another is not the answer.

I'm sure VM don't want to lose customers as with any company but quick fixes to issues you may have are rare with any provider.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

:confused:

So rather than voting with his wallet he should just continue to pay for a substandard service?

Just as well most people aren't such subservient customers, operators would have zero incentive to supply decent services.

Of course no service is perfect but imperfect and unusable are very different things.

VM have never matched the stability or latency I achieved with ADSL, they only win for download speeds, indeed I ditched a 50Mb cable service mid-way through contract for a 16Mb ADSL service due to VM's inability to provide a stable service. I would be unlikely to be with them now if it weren't for that I'm unable to take Sky here.

It is both desirable and essential that consumers punish companies that supply substandard service by taking their business elsewhere.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Got any sort of figures, will the limits be similar to the current stm. Will it coexist with NNTP and P2P throttling?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Speed Upgrades.

This is my guess

10MB > 20MB
30MB > 40MB
50MB > 60MB
100MB stays the same
New tier of 200MB in 2012

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Hopefully they will get rid of the P2P/NNTP throttling and just rely on the new traffic management. The P2P stuff has been constantly interfering with things it shouldn't.

But hopefully they do the sensible thing and do it entirely based on local needs and not just a hard limit nationwide. Some areas are capable of handling much more than others, and the current system has shown its not very effective to just have one rule for everyone. But I did say sensible and we are talking about virgin here..... :)

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

1 out of 5.

---------- Post added at 20:24 ---------- Previous post was at 20:23 ----------

Yes and yes respectively! :)

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

That's what I'd like to see them sorting out as a matter of urgency. Of course that's hardly an unbiased opinion.....

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I would like to know which one is correct.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

50mbit. It is going to be another 2 years before they get round to doing 200mbit here I would think.

sweet, that means i'll never be stm'd because my area has got extremely low utilisation which makes me wonder why we are never one of the first areas to be upgraded. They do the trials here so if it works perfectly you would have thought they would just make the change permanent instead of putting it back to how it was only to upgrade it/us again

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Really ?

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35339801-post40.html

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Ja, they started flapping about 100mbit just as I got upgraded to 50mbit two years ago and I have only just got it which is why i want a vmng300 because i know I am not going to need a shub any time soon (sorry for going off topic)

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Will it be considered reasonable if the script has to throttle 24/7 and a large % of users to keep the load down?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Just rebooted the superhub and we seem to have received this!


Primary Downstream Service Flow
Downstream(0)
SFID 598
Max Traffic Rate 110000000 bps
Max Traffic Burst 10000 bytes
Mix Traffic Rate 0 bps

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2011/12/42.png

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

it's fluff

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Tell me and kill him. Problem solved.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Should I be scared?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I know this?

Was simply stating we have received the new config for it

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

If this is true (and you have got my hopes up on false pretenses in the past) this is the most sensible, fair, and logical thing VM has ever done.

---------- Post added at 18:21 ---------- Previous post was at 18:20 ----------

Indeed, my area doesn't even have the full 50mb service yet, 100mb will be another 6 months to a year, 200 isn't even close.

---------- Post added at 18:23 ---------- Previous post was at 18:21 ----------

I used to be like this, literally caned my 0.3/0.5/0.6/0.75/1.5/4.0/10.0 connection 24/7 to within 90% of it's maximum theoretical capacity for days or weeks on end. 75% of my total income would be spent buying more hard drives to put stuff on. But HDD sizes haven't grown as fast as broadband speeds so now I've started deleting a lot of "single-use" stuff after use :P

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

not been updated yet

Max Traffic Rate 102400000 bps
Max Traffic Burst 10000 bytes
Mix Traffic Rate 0 bps

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

once 100mb upgrades are done im pretty sure wha ti have read about the upgrade it will be ready for 200mb, 400mb, 1.5gbit (well i think it doesnt require another upgrade) ie all teh trials and it bea quick upgrade as the ocnifguration is there for it once upgrade to 100mb the problem i think is all teh headend where out of date and couldnt do 100mb o had to get a big upgrade themself to do it, someoen liek inigition can probally correct me been a while since iready the stuff about 100mb upgrades

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Northampton seems to have been done, Did a random speedtest and saw i was running slightly faster:

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/9244/internetj.png
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2011/12/41.png

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

belfast east upgraded now

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

New config here too. Needed to reboot SH to get it though. :D

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2011/12/38.png

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Seem to be rolling out the new config at a decent pace then :D

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

No, once the 100mb upgrades are done it will only be ready for 100mb, further upgrades are required for proper 200mb. Even more upgrades and a new CPE are required for 400mb.

The total capacity they're putting in per area for 100mb is only 200mb. Not even close for 1.5Gb, most of their current network isn't even remotely capable of handling that.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

New config has been applied here near Crawley too. Had to reboot the Superhub for the change to happen.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

rebooted tonight

110000000 bps

but still can't get over 97 mb on a speedtest

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

I do so love giving you guys these gems, especially when they relate to upgrades of 100Mb, when I don't even have 5Mb upstream available to me yet :p:

The network will be in a position to support 200Mb services once upstream bonding is enabled. All areas on 4 downstreams will have sufficient downstreams available, subject to licencing, to go to 8 downstreams. This is enough to adequately support 200Mb so long as nodes aren't too large. The additional downstreams are supplied through a combination of new line cards and rearrangement of EQAMs.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Good to see my performance graph step up a notch or two.

The upload speed is rather variable and somewhat disappointing. It would be good to see the config changed for that too, so we can truly get 10:1.

http://www.speedtest.net/results.php...19fca2d4&ria=0

Meanwhile how about joining the speed wave!

http://www.speedtest.net/wave/e1169e1735a7c94d

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

No point from VM's angle in upgrading the upstream, they're struggling enough to supply 10.24Mb/s and it's not advertised so not subject to the same regulations.

I would join your speed wave but I'm not sure if my 53Mb downstream would help and my 1.75Mb up definitely wouldn't.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

When VM rolls out 8 downstream channels should they also be increasing the upstream channels to 2? My >350Mb trial modem had 8 channels down and 2 up. Upstream was configured to 25Mb. This gave me 24Mb up.


Right now the upstream is not very consistent. As you say VM seem to be struggling to deliver. Two up channels would spread the load, would they not? Surely they would have to be capable of finding an extra channel up when they roll out 200Mb/20Mb.

13 folk have joined the speed wave so far. Your connection would be one of the better ones.............. apart from your upstream. ;)

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

i' m getting 104 mb download on speedtest but no faster than 9.4mb upload any one know if virgin media was upgrading the upload speeds too ?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Check 2 comments above this one. ;) Ignit usually knows.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35346870-post80.html

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Yes I know, and no they aren't.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Its more likely

10+20 goes to 30
30 goes to 60
50 gets upgraded to 100, 100 stays the same and possibly a new service in 2012.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

There's already a second channel in most areas and a third in some, these aren't yet bonded though.

The standard configuration seems to be 45.8MHz, 35.8MHz and 27.4MHz.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

the 200 and 400mb trails are being done in the same areas that have the same upgrade as what getting done and if virgin didnt future proof it then there dum because they need ot pay mroe money out, i think yoru right about 1.5gb as it ina one area trial and using a different configuration

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

how will you know its enough, based on what?

its not based on the 100mbit data.

what happens if the node is too large.

simply put its enough as long as either noone actually signs up for 200mbit or if they do sign up they dont do any sort of sustained downloading at the same time as high utilisation periods.

Your info of whats going on is appreciated however your extra comments seem very out of touch with reality.

---------- Post added at 18:50 ---------- Previous post was at 18:46 ----------

given that upstream is already stretched in significant numbers of areas, how are you confident simply bonding existing highly utilised channels will handle 20mbit upload speeds?

its logical to assume double burst needs double capacity.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Good questions Chrysalis. Ignit's answers will be useful.

My >300Mb trial modem had two bonded channels up and 8 down. I don't understand, yet, the significance of the bonded bit.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Unfortenatly i dont expect an answer.

Interesting info from yourself that in your trial VM were capable of bonding many months ago yet never rolled it out yet. The main significance of the bonding is that the 200mbit service will have a 20mbit upload and the upstream channels are only 18mbit in capacity. So to allow 20mbit it needs 2 or more of the channels. However my concerns relate to overall capacity of these channels as I highly suspect not too many areas have 20mbit of unutilised bandwidth available on existing channels.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

So what will happen to the customers who cannot take advantage of the new channel bonding as the VMNG is only capable of 4 downstream and the upstream im not sure about.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

the VMNG300 can handle 4 upstreams

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Oh right so will we have to either upgrade or will they swap the old modems ( Free ) so we can make use of the 8 Channels or will it cost us the £70 odd for the Hub

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

they will give them out for free, ill probably be keeping the VMNG for lower ping times, hopefully the upstream bonding will help this further

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

And is this 100% confirmed on the free super hub or just what we would like?

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

they give them out at the drop of a hat anyway, youll have no problem getting one for free

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Really lol might see what they have to say if lets say my modem becomes sick for a few days then pulls through if the hub is rubbish

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

wouldnt try it, youll never get teh modem activated again, i had to go to the CEO to get mine back :(

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Iv'e heard of people being able to keep both MAC on there account so they were able to swap between them.

Re: Small Download Speed Upgrade
 

Due to excess complaining and either colouring threads due to or directly turning them to the capacity problems in his own area I as a general rule don't see his posts let alone respond to them, sorry!

Significance of bonding relates to statistical contention - the more members of a certain group that need to saturate their capacity to fill a pipe the less likely it is to happen.

100 x 10Mb users on a 100Mb pipe are far less likely to have 10% of them using capacity at the same time and maxing the pipe out than 10 x 10Mb users on a 10Mb pipe.

Now the contention ratio is the same, 10:1, however you need 10 people in the group of 100 to simultaneously max their capacity versus 1 person. The first situation is unlikely, the second one inevitable.

Even without upgrades bonding improves the equation, it's harder for say 150 customer to use 36Mb of upstream capacity than it is for 75 to use 18Mb.

For more on statistical contention Google is your friend, it's a well explained phenomenon both mathematically and practically in broadband networks.

The key part about the bonding was that to preserve the 10:1 ratio between downstream and upstream VM will need to bond 2 upstream channels as their current use of 16QAM only gives 18Mb of capacity. It's not about how good or otherwise it'll be, it literally has to be done and works fine so long as the network is managed properly in terms of number of customers on each segment and appropriate traffic management.

The key components of Virgin's problems right now are the number of customers per segment (too many) and the traffic management on 100Mb specifically (none).