120M (Advice) Thinking of leaving Virgin Media 120mb for BT Infinity up to 76mb - Page 3

AdamD · 13-01-2014, 15:28

I never looked back or regretted moving away from Virgin media

I'm on the 80mb FTTC service from BT, it's miles ahead of VM in terms of stability/speed.

I have the HH5 and it works ok for my needs.

tweetiepooh · 13-01-2014, 15:57

It's hard for me to comment too much on a thread like this as I do work for VM. I also get the staff package so the price I pay is brilliant to the service I receive. I can't be unbiased.

I wonder what is going to happen on other networks as more and more people sign up. Surely there will come a point at which extra investment will not return sufficient performance and money to be worth doing at which point what will happen?

Ping is low priority traffic so gets dropped if the network gets busy. That's how it should work. So at the moment "BT" fibre is uncongested so pings are good. Will it remain good with all those new customers streaming TV content?

qasdfdsaq · 13-01-2014, 16:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

I wonder what is going to happen on other networks as more and more people sign up. Surely there will come a point at which extra investment will not return sufficient performance and money to be worth doing at which point what will happen?

Ping is low priority traffic so gets dropped if the network gets busy. That's how it should work. So at the moment "BT" fibre is uncongested so pings are good. Will it remain good with all those new customers streaming TV content?

People have been saying this for the last four years. So far, there's no evidence of any upcoming meltdown or service degradation.

Both OFCOM figures and user experience shows speeds remaining fairly steady or even improving, presumably due to further network investment, over the last few years. So far it's keeping up.

As for pings, they are NOT low priority traffic. Neither VM or BT classify or prioritize traffic by type, although VM do deprioritize P2P during peak hours.

horseman · 13-01-2014, 20:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue166

Below is how my Virgin Media 120mb graph looked Sunday afternoon/evening. I was doing some stuff with my connection but it is starting to get worse each week. I think I will order BT Infinity 2 tonight and order an openreach standalone modem off ebay just incase the engineer won't give one. What do you guys think? ....

Don't forget to also post back on the VM H&S site Lancing thread when you get BT21CN ands gives us an objective appraisal/comparison with VM BB!
We'll miss you!

blue166 · 13-01-2014, 20:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by horseman

Don't forget to also post back on the VM H&S site Lancing thread when you get BT21CN ands gives us an objective appraisal/comparison with VM BB!
We'll miss you!

Don't you worry horse, I will not be dropping my activity on the VM forums. I will remain active as I am wanting to make sure they get the service correct on my segment. (I will not have a VM connection to monitor though - Unless you have any ideas?).

I have no idea what to expect from BT Infinity but after 18 months of complaining on the Virgin Media forums and only 2 months rest bite from high utilisation I feel I am left with no choice but to try FTTC.

Kushan · 13-01-2014, 21:11

I've said it numerous times on this forum, but the best way to tell Virgin how you feel is to vote with your feet - people should naturally gravitate to the best service on offer. "Best" is a relative term, for some people price is what matters most, others care about pings and others want better headline download speeds. No matter what, don't show them any kind of loyalty if you can get a better service for yourself elsewhere.

blue166 · 13-01-2014, 23:52

Can someone please explain the whole BT Infinity activation process -

Where do I stand If I have it installed and notice after 5 days that my pings are terrible,speed isn't great and peak times are just no good.

Where do I stand?

Many thanks,

horseman · 14-01-2014, 08:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue166

Can someone please explain the whole BT Infinity activation process -

Where do I stand If I have it installed and notice after 5 days that my pings are terrible,speed isn't great and peak times are just no good.

Where do I stand?

Many thanks,

I suspect 5 days may be insufficient time due to DLM to reasonably assess your line anyway? I'd doubt you see anything like the peak time contention you get with VM but speeds could take more than 5 days to optimise?
If BT have a similar 28day "Satisfaction Guarantee" as VM's then you'd have at least a month assuming you don't give VM their 30 day Termination notice too early?

kwikbreaks · 14-01-2014, 11:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue166

Where do I stand If I have it installed and notice after 5 days that my pings are terrible,speed isn't great and peak times are just no good.

Where do I stand?

In an alternate universe. In this one that simply won't happen. Had your migration been the other way around FTTC -> cable it may well have done.

Regarding DLM. Your modem syncs at the highest rate it can that maintains the target noise margin which by default is 6dB. If high noise levels force a resync it will do the same again but at a lower rate because of the noise. If that happens several times the target noise margin will be increased to maintain stability. On FTTC you really aren't likely to see noise problems as the line is far shorter than most ADSL connections and you get a decent filtered faceplate installed by the Openreach bloke. Most of the problems with ADSL are caused by internal phone wiring and the faceplate pretty much eliminates those.

Kushan · 14-01-2014, 12:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

In an alternate universe. In this one that simply won't happen. Had your migration been the other way around FTTC -> cable it may well have done.

You say that, but there are plenty of horror stories out there, especially when you need to get openreach involved. Still, the chances are considerably lower than compared to Virgin, I'm just say don't say never.

kwikbreaks · 14-01-2014, 12:40

Openreach are a nightmare but mostly for failing to turn up. I had that once and the new date they gave me was well after the date I'd given VM to cancel so I blagged a discount to stay with VM instead.

If there is a bad sync that will be immediately obvious from a speedtest and a below estimate speed means you can cancel it - that's why the speed estimates are virtually always conservative.

I'll agree you can never say never but the odds are that all will be well.

blue166 · 14-01-2014, 14:16

Well I hope they do make the date that I have selected as I have had to book a day off work for them to do the install. Hope they do not mess me around.

AbyssUnderground · 14-01-2014, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue166

Well I hope they do make the date that I have selected as I have had to book a day off work for them to do the install. Hope they do not mess me around.

They turned up just fine for mine.

blue166 · 14-01-2014, 14:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

In an alternate universe. In this one that simply won't happen. Had your migration been the other way around FTTC -> cable it may well have done.

Regarding DLM. Your modem syncs at the highest rate it can that maintains the target noise margin which by default is 6dB. If high noise levels force a resync it will do the same again but at a lower rate because of the noise. If that happens several times the target noise margin will be increased to maintain stability. On FTTC you really aren't likely to see noise problems as the line is far shorter than most ADSL connections and you get a decent filtered faceplate installed by the Openreach bloke. Most of the problems with ADSL are caused by internal phone wiring and the faceplate pretty much eliminates those.

What would happen if your speeds drop because of noise. Will openreach investigate this? and even fix it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AbyssUnderground

They turned up just fine for mine.

I am hoping for the same

AbyssUnderground · 14-01-2014, 14:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue166

What would happen if your speeds drop because of noise. Will openreach investigate this? and even fix it?

They're obliged to as they provide the service. If it's not fit for purpose or has an obvious fault then they will be responsible. But as said above it'll be less likely due to the massive reduction in line length until it hits fiber.