Every VM internet subscriber in your local area sends and receives their internet data to and from a Universal Broadband Router. The UBR represents a single connection onto the Virgin Media network, and thence onwards to the internet itself.
VM, along with all other ISPs, is a 'contended' service. The contention ratio is the number of people sharing one single connection to the VM network. AFAIK VM operates a contention of 50:1, which means there should be no more than 50 customers sharing any one chunk of bandwidth (I'm not sure how many chunks of bandwidth each UBR administers - it may well be more than one).
The actual number of people connected to the same UBR as you will fluctuate as people take up or cancel their service. But if they have a persistently good few months and sign up a lot more people, your UBR can end up as 'oversubscribed' - i.e. there will be a lot more people connected to it than the UBR has bandwidth available to share at the desired contention ratio.
When your UBR is oversubscribed, you're more likely to suffer a slow service as at any given time, more people are liable to be trying to use the connection along with you.
The solution is to 'resegment' the UBRs in your area, splitting customers more evenly between them or possibly installing additional ones.
This is a quick and dirty explanation from a non-techie - perhaps one of our VM tech members can offer a fuller, more accurate version.
Join CF
You are here: 
