20MB is official and the CS bod you spoke to should have known that - I'd phone up and complain that they didn't. We should not have to put up with CS staff who just fob customers off with a load of waffle that isn't true - this happens far too frequently. It is so much better to say 'I'm not sure, but I'll find out' than tell fibs, but apparently many people don't get that. Now I've got that off my chest, here's quite a bit of info from a VM/tech geek (not staff!):
The 20MB service is being widely mentioned by VM in various press releases, interviews, etc. They also plan to launch 50MB nationally to cable customers and are trialling 100MB. They don't have to do major infrastructure upgrades to deliver up to 50MB (at least), so you can bet they'll be launching it ASAP as it beats all the other consumer ISPs big time. You can find this and more info by watching the VM launch video -
http://www.thomson-webcast.net/uk/di...a4acaa74dcf5d0 or navigate to it via the VM homepage, click 'About Virgin Media' at the bottom left of the page, then click 'Press Office'). You have to fill in a registration form, but the info you enter isn't checked before you see the vid - i.e. there's nothing stopping you from putting in fake info, but naturally I wouldn't advise that, a-hem. More details are in their Annual Report (including info they're not heavily publicising yet on plans to roll out VM TV to their ADSL customers).
All internet services get slower in the evening. ADSL providers can suffer from the problem even more so than cable. Cable is consistently shown to provide the best speeds when you take into account the fact that ADSL rarely provides the theoretical maximum speeds providers advertise and the actual rate you get can go up and down a lot. With ADSL, the further from the exchange you are, the slower your speed - this is not the case with cable. Also, like cable, ADSL services are 'contended' (but to varying degrees), so speeds drop when lots of people fire up their PCs.
Also, the download speed depends on various other issues. Obviously, the speed of the server you are downloading from is pretty important. Unlike almost ever other ISP, VM has no 'fair usage policy' that sets a monthly download limit (though they might have a word if you start running a major porn server from your bedroom).
As it is now estimated that over 1/3 of all internet traffic is bittorrent/P2P-related, VM (like some other providers) use 'bandwith-shaping' which stops this type of traffic from jamming up the network. So, although your P2P may run at 1MB on your 10MB VM service in the evening, that doesn't mean that your web-browsing, email, etc isn't going faster. What would you prefer, slower P2P or being forced to pay extra every month for going over an annoying download limit (which can be very bad for gamers and fans of internet TV/radio)?
It's a difficult situation and just changing providers is unlikely to help. The best way to find out about other options is to as people who live pretty close to your home. Long-term, wireless (e.g. WiMAX) may provide another option, but this is some way off.
And with regard to the price doubling - not true. There will be a price increase for XL VM cable broadband to 20MB - £2 more per month - which seems pretty reasonable to me.
As BT's 21st Century Network (
http://www.btplc.com/21CN/) is only planned to deliver 24MBs by 2010, I think cable will have the edge over ADSL for a long time.
All that said, don't get me started on how ridiculously fragmented and nightmarish it is to deal with VM Customer Services, why so few people who work for them seem to know much of the above, and why VM still doesn't have a decent information system for it's customers and staff so that we all get the same, correct information when making enquiries. Also upload speeds need to increase. Hopefully Mr Branson is onto it...
As I'm not VM staff and am not all-knowing, I might not be 100% correct, but think most of this is pretty accurate.
Hope this is useful for you
