VM Broadband getting better?
 

Maybe it's the holiday season but there seems to be less complaints and VM sniping on this forum than there used to be? Is VM (slowly) increasing the overall quality of their network or is this a false dawn?

For my own experience, my 120M line is now much faster than it used to be. I seem to get my headline speed pretty much 24x7:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2013/08/13.png

Anyone else seen any improvements recently?

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I've been saying this for a while now, slowly but surely the network is improving. There's still a long way to go and plenty of things they're doing wrong but we're getting there. This is coming from someone who used to see how badly outages and utilisation was managed from the INSIDE.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Lots of speed - not so much quality for some people. And a price rise to further kick people. But never mind.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Well they have uplifted my Area and over all its been trouble free since.

I've always said when its bad its Terrible but when its good its actually very good.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Yes - but then you get people in good areas like me getting STM'd and other people in good areas not getting STMd and as far as I am aware we all pay the same price - so who's special?

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Just look at 1 year ago

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/at...e552e091e6.png

And Now still not perfect but getting better :)

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...20-08-2013.png

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I thought that STM applied to all cabled areas? Strange ... is this official VM policy?

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

since i 6 downstream and 2 upstream channels. i dont get stm'd and get full speed all the time yes including evening and weekends. with pretty heavy usage

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Clearly not!

---------- Post added at 12:15 ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 ----------

I have the same. I still get STM'd

Time to complain once again

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Some areas are under a no-STM trial. It's not an official policy, it's no different to some areas getting their doublespeed upgrades before others or having a 200mbit trial. Don't waste your breath complaining.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

lol 200mbit slammed to 50 after 2 min usage oh and forget twitch you tube or anything else (and also your nice new PS4) lol

No thanks! Im itching to get out and use a QUALITY isp!

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Depends what you call quality,

Latency and jitter matter more to me than speed.

By the looks of it, your latency ain't that great.

---------- Post added at 14:05 ---------- Previous post was at 14:04 ----------


I thought speed didnt matter to you?

So what's wrong with unlimited 50Mb?

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

It dosent hence why I am hoping to go back to ADSL

Nothing wrong with Unlimited 50MB and when we had it with no shaping no STM crap and YouTube worked it was fab. But that didn't stay around for long

And it's unlikely to come back!

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

75% reductions haven't been a thing for years now. Your information is outdated.

If we go by the CURRENT traffic management numbers, it'll be a 40% reduction (to 120Mbit) at the most. And that will happen after what I estimate to be ~8250MB of data downloaded.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

my information might be but the VM network and the figures you just quoted are much more so! My facts aren't important but all that you have stated is.

This is 2013 after all.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I...have no idea what you're trying to say here. My figures are outdated? I took them directly from Virgin's site and they are up to date. go ahead, download a load and then do a speed test, your connection will not drop below 60% of the headline no matter how much you download (congestion aside).

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Cool - so your estimations are on the VM website too? Lnk that please?

So what IS 70 out of 120 percent wise? (or 133 whatever) is that 40% to leave 60?

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Fingers crossed they start improving the quality of the men on the ground as well as customer support. I don't mind the poor CS on their forums (even i've had to correct them on occasion and i'm less knowledgable than most of you here) as retentions are usually excellent and if they can't help have always transferred me to someone who knows what they are talking about. What i cant stand is that every time there is work done by VM whether it's their own men or contracters in my street i'm always left without service when they leave. From forgetting to connect things back up to outright damaging the cables, if nothing else at least it's consistent. 3 times in the past year they've done work out there and 3 times i'm left with flashing lights and an engineer visit.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Knock yourself out: http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-ma...hresholds.html

The 40% is a reduction of the headline speed, aka you go from 100% of 120Mbit to having 60% of 120Mbit. None of the traffic management on the download side goes above 40% as otherwise it breaks ASA rules. So if there was a 200Mbit service, it would operate at least at 60% of this (120Mbit) under STM. I don't know what you're getting 70 from or how 40% of 120 leaves 60.

The figures for downloads I have somewhat plucked out of thin air, based on the difference between 100 and 120Mbit's thresholds being about 500Mb and a similar difference between 60Mbit and 100Mbit. Just an educated guess but a conservative one.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Oh that link? the link is a waste of HTML!
After the whole STM'd to 48 thread we all know that that.

I get 70 from what I get when I am STM'd after 5GB. My speed tests actually come in at 67mbps and my meter says 70mbps constant and I get stuck on that for more than 2 hours. - so knock yourself out seeing why that is

So sorry I take what I actually get over a webpage which is wrong any day!

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

That issue that has since been fixed? (Either that or everyone who got caught out by it has suddenly stopped complaining).


~70Mbps is correct. That's 40% of 120, give or take. 40% is technically 72mbit but that's not accounting for overheads and such, 70 is reasonable. If you're getting hit for more than 2 hours, then it's probably because you're downloading more. It's not JUST a 2 hour block and you're done, you'll stay within STM if you keep downloading.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Your pingtest result in your sig has the same 14ms latency ..

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

you said it will never drop below 60 now your saying give or take and technically 40 is 72 so it's actually lower

Never mind - Ill be gone soon wont have to care about [Mod Edit] as our network cant Manage - and it can't if it could wouldn't need it!

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Mod comment - do not try to evade the swear filter.

If this behaviour is repeated, infractions will be given.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

You're argument is that 70 is 2Mbit short of 72. This is pointless because all connections have a small amount of variance, this isn't a VM thing, you get the same results on FTTC or even a leased line. The only reason you get more than 120Mbit is because it's over-provisioned. Never mind the fact that there are overheads to consider here. If you do speed tests on xDSL, you'll still not get the same speed that your modem syncs at.

I stand by what I said. If you want to argue semantics or the ins and outs of TCP/IP, go right ahead, but ultimately you're complaining over nothing.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

It's pretty obvious why, if you understand technology.

Your maximum speed is reduced to 70mbps under STM, which is 72mbps before Docsis overheads as Kushan stated. VM quote STM speeds before Docsis overheads are taken out.

Your speed tests calculate average speeds and need to accelerate the modem to that speed. That acceleration (and any small fluctuations in speed in the beginning, middle and end of the test) costs you a bit and so your average on a speed test is always less than your maximum speed. If you used http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html, rather than another site like speedtest.net you'd be able to see why from looking at the graph.

Normally, this isn't an issue because when you're not under STM your profile gives you more than the 120mb you expect and compensates for the law of averages.

My maximum speed on 120/12 is 126.9mb, but my average comes in around 123-124 usually on Thinkbroadband.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedt...7437280294.png

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

What are you going on about seriously?

Whatever speed you get STM'd to, you can carry on downloading at that speed.

Your example of 200 going to 50 means that at the very least, you have unlimited 50Mb.

(Not 'MB' as you like to put it)

And as you clearly think slower speeds are what we need, 50 Mb unlimited shouldn't even be a problem for you!

---------- Post added at 22:50 ---------- Previous post was at 22:47 ----------


1). Pingtest is different from a speedtest. Do one yourself and find out.

2). I am over 200 Miles away from the server. You are around 50 :/

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

with the 200mb being released sometime this year i bet again there will be a lot of problems again as VM will just upgrade to bare minimum requirements.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I think VM has sure gotten better where bandwidth and latency is concerned. I do however feel that the quality of service can be way too varied, one moment it can be good and it can be good for many weeks but then you get a week or two where it takes a nose dive with disconnections, I get this more than a few times a year.

I just hope 200Mb (or even 240Mb if they keep to the pattern of packages) isn't too expensive (same price and a free boost would be a dream but I doubt that'll happen). I just really want more upload than anything, to get 20 - 24Mb upload would be fantastic, it just needs to be a good price.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

In the overall scheme of things I am happy with this:

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

People have better, people have worse ..

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2013/08/12.png

As a household we're nowhere near as heavy downloaders today as we were back in the "good old days" of blueyonder, aside from of course the occasional software updates, give or take a few game downloads via digital distribution here and there (steam etc) alot of its pretty standard use, browsing and so on

What I have little tollerance for however is lack of reliable service, nothing bugs me than to sit down at the end of the week use the connection only for it to drop me.. if we had any of that with consistency we'd cut the service off like a dead limb and look elsewhere

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

If you're happy that's fine,

I just stated that latency is more important to me than speed and is a greater sign of quality.

Obviously your needs are different and you are happy with higher latency, especially considering in the real world the severs you connect to/people you connect too are hundreds and thousands of miles away rather than 50 miles down the road.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I reckon 200mb will be £15-20 more than 100mb.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I'm not sure, Virgin went to a lot of trouble to merge the 50 and 100Mbit tiers into 120Mbit, I think they'll just up the 120.

They might even ultimately boost everyone to have 50, 100 and 200.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Can't see them upping everyone from 120 too 200 myself.

At first it needs to be a premium tier so they can cope with the pressure, especially if they offer no STM too like they have when they launched the previous top tiers.

I would say a £10 extra a month would get you the new speed.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

They won't update everyone at once, they'll roll it out over a year or so like with everything else. We're still waiting on upload upgrades for all the lower tiers for the speed doubling.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

VM Broadband getting better?
It looks NEW from the outside because of a new lick of paint, but the cancer is still spreading inside...

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I take you have seen the upgrade work that has been done to come out with that comment.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Would love to know what "cancer" it is that's spreading. By all accounts, nothing is getting worse. Either things are slowly improving in places or are largely as broken as they were before.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

I would wait until student season before anyone makes any claims that the network is getting better.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

Not ever area has students.

Re: VM Broadband getting better?
 

as an ex VM customer who had long periods of very bad utilisation issues its my point of view VM are improving. High utilisation reported on this site is significantly lower than it used to be, my own area was also in a better state when I left VM than when I signed up at this property.