My issue with said article is this though:
Quote:
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The only accurate way to test access speed on 50Mb at the moment is to use a speedtest embedded within the Virgin Media network - this eliminates a number of issues - payload size, routing and internet congestion, bandwidth costs, and gives a truer picture of actual throughput.
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Who cares what the access speed is though? What does it prove if 50Mbit is available inside the Virgin Media network if it's not reachable as soon as you step outside it?
IMHO while it may give a truer picture of your connection to the CMTS it does not give a picture of 'actual throughput' in practise. If there were issues due to routing, bandwidth costs, etc, I'd much rather find them out through a speedtest located at LINX than be constantly told all is fine as I can achieve good performance inside my SP's network.
Thinkbroadband's article demonstrates that they are able to serve 50Mbit to any well connected network, and realistically there is no reason why any ISP in the UK cannot at least provide 50Mbit from their core network to TB or any other site that has sufficient bandwidth - this is what LINX is for.
While it's useful to have an internal speedtest to eliminate issues closer to home I will continue to go offnet to measure my performance. After all, the internet is not hosted on the Virgin Media network, it's merely a conduit to the internet.
Something from these chaps
http://www.ookla.com/ on the VM network would be ideal to assist with resolution of access / transport speed issues though!