Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

For some time now Virgin Media has been claiming the moral high ground, boosted by Ofcom's own survey's, that they have the fastest broadband availability, and that speeds are likely to be consistent. VM are now taking this a step further with http://www.stopthebroadbandcon.org/ trying to get us to sign up to a campagin to stop the misleading use of "up to" broadband speeds especially for ADSL products.

The imbalance of ADSL advertising has always existed, and I seem to recall there being past suggestions from the like of Ofcom that there should be change.

The reality is though, is it not buyer beware and the consumer needs to read the small print? Are VM really totally blameless? There are plenty of incidences cited on this forum where people are ina congested area so don't see the speeds expected. Worse, it's only when you read the small print that people find issues with trafic managment policies.

My view is that before we worry too much about claimed speed advertising, they should first be tackling the misuse of "unlimited" which somehow has become twisted to simply mean "always on" when comared to a now defunct dial up, and yet STM and related policies mean for many their use is far from their envisaged "unlimited".

Perhaps ISPs like Virgin Media shouldn't be throwing stones in glasshouses?

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

Agreed, maybe they should cite average speeds not up-to or theoretical max speeds.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

I see The Register has already picked up on this and quite resonably highlights a need for VM to practice what they are preaching:

:doh:

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

A number of ISPs subscribe to the Ofcom code of practise and give an estimated speed at the time of ordering.

Virgin do give a performance figure however it's a very carefully put one which flatters them over ADSL providers.

Virgin are far from transparent with the variety of limitations they put on their customers' service in order to justify unlimited advertising, it is debatable how much of the moral high ground on being open they can supply while they continue to advertise an unlimited service with 3 separate controls on it and continue to warn customers and terminate their service for breaking a limit they won't give.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie... Need I quote any more from the dictionary?

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

Well, based on the most recent Ofcom results, it would appear that bragging rights in terms of advertised and actual speeds lies with Virgin Media, for the moment.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

IIRC didn't Virgin do this hypocritical thing before?

is it just a mindgame where consumers will think that Virgin are the best if they don't like this practice from other ISPs?

Agreed! they daren't take the lead and do away with 'up to'

---------- Post added at 22:07 ---------- Previous post was at 21:52 ----------

http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/vi...-02072008.html



http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/201...sp-speeds.html


http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/3537...ed-advertising

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

In terms of actual speed, I'm generally very happy with my 20Mb connection, and have very rarely had any issues with it since it was installed in 2001 (then 10Mb). So from that point of view, I'd say I agree with VM's stance.

However, as long as VM have traffic shaping cutting my 20Mb to 5Mb, for any reason, at any time, then I suppose there must be some legal requirement for them to say "up to".

As I've said before, I'm paying for a 20Mb connection, so I should be able to run it flat out 24/7 if I so choose - otherwise, cut my fee by 75% for the same total amount of time that you cut my speed.

Other than that, sort the network out, give a true 20Mb connection (no restrictions at any time), and then you can have the moral high ground all to yourself while taking pot-shots at other providers.

All that being said, after having cable broadband, I'd hope I never have to switch to that phoneline junk. I keep getting letters from BT saying 'come back to us and get up to 8mb broadband and save £100-and-something per year'. Yeah, right... I know I'd get about 2Mb in my area, and even if I could get the maximum, it's still less than half my current speed.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

You had 10Mb in 2001? Pretty impressive given they didn't release 1Mb until 2002 ;)

VM's stance is of course marketing nonsense and given the variety of issues and unhappiness over their own lack of transparency a pretty cynical attempt to win some headlines that has, fortunately, been met largely with derision.

---------- Post added at 09:09 ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 ----------

You're paying for a connection capable of 20Mb, not for 20Mb all to yourself that would cost considerably more.

VM's 'up to' is because they can't guarantee performance, they just want to try and point fingers at the physical restrictions of ADSL.

It's odd - VM wittering on about service quality while degrading the quality of their own services by piling them high and selling them cheap. They appear to want to be premium and cheap at the same time which of course doesn't work.

Now if VM want to impress they can advertise like this and offer a guarantee like this.

Google Translate or Chrome required for the above Swedish links.

Essentially though the ISP advertises a minimum speed alongside the maximum and if you can't get that minimum 24x7 they drop your price to the next tier down - while keeping your modem on the same package.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

This will backfire on Virgin by a lot of it's own customers I think. in it's own forum and any site that comments can be left about the hypocrisy of Virgin.

I wouldn't be surprised if ISP's themselves point out the facts of Virgin in return.
the question that will be asked of Virgin is are you going to take the lead and not use the 'up to' anymore? are you going to do away with STM and all the traffic implementations you use that don't allow the customer to receive the full speed you sold them?

do you think your customers feel deceived by you for not giving them the full speed quoted, because you can't?

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

True it's marketing ploy, and of course only applies to services within their cable footprint.

However, Virgin Media would extremely foolish not to capitalise on their superior on-net offering.

There is no denying that speeds delivered on-net are superior to their ADSL counterparts
it the vast,vast majority. (there will always be anomalies)

Believe me I wish I lived in a VM area, I jump for joy when I hit 2mb with BT during off-peak periods.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

Wonder if I'll get any response from this Tweet..

ignitionnet

@virginmedia given your interest in transparency on speeds have you considered following Comhem's example? http://bit.ly/dj1kA0

For the lazy.

They advertise 50-100Mbps down and 7-10Mbps up on their XXL service, if you drop below 50Mbps down or 7Mbps up you pay for XL but keep the XXL rate cap.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

Translated version.

I doubt they would. they would lose too much money when they slow all the modems down.

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

After a lot of problems due to an oversubscribed UBR, our L broadband has been working great lately, but it would be good for Virgin Media to consistently deliver on their own letter.

http://stopthebroadbandcon.org/letter.php

Re: Virgin Media's campaign: stopthebroadbandcon.org
 

That disclaimer made me smile. It was once said that a PC is out of date as soon as it comes off the assembly line.

I wonder how many times their CS reps tell its customers that their PC's/software are out of date so thats why your BB is slow to get out of putting the price down.

Unfortunately we live in a world where lawyers are behind all promotions just to cover a company's back.

I'm not so sure there is a solution to this problem where by customers are happy and the business remains profitable.