New STM/Virgin traffic managent confirmed - so that's why it's slow!

[Sput]

This article explains why speeds have suddenly dropped - it's Virgin's new traffic management system designed to ensure that we don't get what we pay for.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/networ...-Management/p1

So, Customers too need a new system - our new "Value Management System" - wherein when they deliver poor value for money we close our accounts. My call is now on it's way!

[trojjer]

Damn, that's really taking the cake -- they want to throttle us for 15 out of the 24 hours in a day?! I grumbled I bit when I read about the introduction of the first policy, but I haven't noticed too much of a difference. Then again, I've only started downloading a few TV programmes and films (er, yes, iPlayer and Creative Content films, of course) -- I'm far from the "Top 3%" of heavy users.

Lately we've been considering switching back to ADSL (Pipex wasn't so bad before Hasselhoff...), but the whole BT line quagmire seems like a right mess, and I'm surprised at how satisfied I am with the cut back from 4Mb "L" to 2Mb "M". Despite the stupid names, and the fact that I was told by a customer service rep that "There might be a increase from 2M to 4M, in line with the 4M to 10M"... It remains to be seen whether or not I'll end up paying less for the same speed as before, but I remember starting with Telewest at 512K and eventually getting 4M, which was nice.

I just hope that "opting out" of the Phorm monster via the webwise site, and blocking the cookie in Opera, will keep the monitoring at bay... Or they could at least give their victimssubscribers some of the targetted ad revenue they'll receive!

[refraction]

unfortunately ADSL isnt much better these days. You either get a god awful service, or you get small limits for most of the day.

the best ADSL i had was with UKFSN who are an entanet reseller. I was limited to 30gb a month from 8am to 10pm weekdays, but evening/nights and all weekend gave me a 300Gb limit.

[Sput]

Originally Posted by trojjer

Damn, that's really taking the cake -- they want to throttle us for 15 out of the 24 hours in a day?! I grumbled I bit when I read about the introduction of the first policy, but I haven't noticed too much of a difference. Then again, I've only started downloading a few TV programmes and films (er, yes, iPlayer and Creative Content films, of course) -- I'm far from the "Top 3%" of heavy users.

Lately we've been considering switching back to ADSL (Pipex wasn't so bad before Hasselhoff...), but the whole BT line quagmire seems like a right mess, and I'm surprised at how satisfied I am with the cut back from 4Mb "L" to 2Mb "M". Despite the stupid names, and the fact that I was told by a customer service rep that "There might be a increase from 2M to 4M, in line with the 4M to 10M"... It remains to be seen whether or not I'll end up paying less for the same speed as before, but I remember starting with Telewest at 512K and eventually getting 4M, which was nice.

I just hope that "opting out" of the Phorm monster via the webwise site, and blocking the cookie in Opera, will keep the monitoring at bay... Or they could at least give their victimssubscribers some of the targetted ad revenue they'll receive!

Like you I am not a heavy user and so I object the the vicious throttling that they propose to introduce to everyone. This is not in my contract and so I have already objected. Much to my surprise they offered to cut my monthly bill for the 20 meg service to £20 so I accepted. However, I have explained that if the service gets worse then I am cancelling the service and moving to another ISP.

[Gary L]

New 12 month contract come with the deal?

[Sput]

Originally Posted by Gary L

New 12 month contract come with the deal?

Not for me, but I anticipate that all new customers will have a contract incorporating the the new traffic management system.

[info4u]

I dont see how limiting uploads during the day is going to work well

Ok most people will be working 9-5 so it wont affect them that badley but people use uploads for email use, image uploads, text transmitting via php, video uploads

this will specially affect regular Youtube users and Facebook/My Space

As for advertising there may be a small clause that says subject to different areas so their advertising may still be inline and correct.
That is of cause if they have started it

Plus having worked for Virgin Media under Telewest Broadbanf franchise they normally tend to write to customers and select an X amount of good paying customers with a good service record with the company to ask them if they would mind in participating in the trial to test it for about 2-3 months then they tend to roll it out nationally

[Sput]

Originally Posted by info4u

I dont see how limiting uploads during the day is going to work well

Ok most people will be working 9-5 so it wont affect them that badley but people use uploads for email use, image uploads, text transmitting via php, video uploads

this will specially affect regular Youtube users and Facebook/My Space

As for advertising there may be a small clause that says subject to different areas so their advertising may still be inline and correct.
That is of cause if they have started it

Plus having worked for Virgin Media under Telewest Broadbanf franchise they normally tend to write to customers and select an X amount of good paying customers with a good service record with the company to ask them if they would mind in participating in the trial to test it for about 2-3 months then they tend to roll it out nationally

Indeed it is a trial and hopefully the comments you make in your final paragraph will be followed this time too. However, we do need to recognise that the bottom line for most customers is "are we getting good value for money?" Current broadband performance is very poor and if this form of traffic management is introduced as well, then, I fear the worst.

[Paranoimia]

I'm not normally one to complain about STM, and have managed to work around it quite nicely. I do download a lot of stuff, though nowhere near the new 3 and 6GB limits.

However, I am getting a little hacked off now. The reason being that if I want to just browse a few web sites and send e-mails, I'd go for a lower speed. I have a 20MB connection purely to download stuff faster. I know some have issues with their service, but I've been happy, since I actually do get pretty much the full 20MB for pretty much 100% of the time.

To me, there seems little point in providing such a fast service if you're going to prevent people downloading at full speed - that's what high-speed broadband is for, in my personal opinion. Anything else, you don't need much more than 4MB.

These high-speed services aren't cheap, and Virgin would do better investing our money into upgrading their network, rather than paying tech bods to find ways to cripple our download speeds.

[Sput]

Originally Posted by Paranoimia

I'm not normally one to complain about STM, and have managed to work around it quite nicely. I do download a lot of stuff, though nowhere near the new 3 and 6GB limits.

However, I am getting a little hacked off now. The reason being that if I want to just browse a few web sites and send e-mails, I'd go for a lower speed. I have a 20MB connection purely to download stuff faster. I know some have issues with their service, but I've been happy, since I actually do get pretty much the full 20MB for pretty much 100% of the time.

To me, there seems little point in providing such a fast service if you're going to prevent people downloading at full speed - that's what high-speed broadband is for, in my personal opinion. Anything else, you don't need much more than 4MB.

These high-speed services aren't cheap, and Virgin would do better investing our money into upgrading their network, rather than paying tech bods to find ways to cripple our download speeds.

You have accurately summarised my own views, and the views of many other subscribers, on this situation and I fully support what you say. Well, done.

[TehTech]

Originally Posted by Sput

You have accurately summarised my own views, and the views of many other subscribers, on this situation and I fully support what you say. Well, done.

To both Paranoimia & Sput:

[Sput]

I have just discovered that this guy is none too happy either:-

http://blog.northmore.net/2007/12/11...agement-sucks/

[Paranoimia]

Cheers guys. I also take issue with what Virgin say:

"The trial aims to prevent or reduce the effects of a minority of users abusing the network and preventing the majority of subscribers from having the network performance they desire.

For the vast majority of customers, upwards of 95% of the base, their experience will be a more consistent speed (both upload and download)."

I say to Virgin: Sorry, but that's not my problem. If I'm paying for a 20MB connection, I should be able to run it at full capacity 24/7 if I so choose; that's NOT abusing the network, it's simply making full use of a service that I am paying for. You need to upgrade your network accordingly. If you don't have the capacity, don't offer the service.

If I spend the equivalent of 5 days of the month being forced to run on a 5MB connection because your network can't support the advertised speeds, then you should adjust my bill downwards accordingly.

As it is, you will have two p***ed-off customers instead of one. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is NOT the way to do things.

[Sput]

"The trial aims to prevent or reduce the effects of a minority of users abusing the network and preventing the majority of subscribers from having the network performance they desire.

For the vast majority of customers, upwards of 95% of the base, their experience will be a more consistent speed (both upload and download)."

I could not agree more with Paranoimia. Moreover, if Virgin are correct in that only 5% of thier customers are causing problems then surely they should take action against the 5% causing the problem rather than applying the restriction to all of their customers.

A simple analogy is drawing petrol from a petrol station. The 95% good customers pay for 20 gallons of petrol but when they complain that only 10 gallons has been delivered are told that this is because 5% of bad customers have taken more than their allocated 20 gallons and so the petrol station has to limit supplies. The analogy is not technically perfect but it does illustrate the unacceptable stance being adopted by Virgin!

[trevortt]

Bethere are supposed to be a good ISP.