General : FAQ on Virgin Media's WiFi Sharing

[qasdfdsaq]

In Dundee city centre you'll probably find 95% VM public WiFi.

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Wait I mean Perth.

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Actually I'm not sure.

[Kushan]

I don't think it really matters. Ultimately, the takeup is irrelevant if you can't get the coverage when you need it. Even 99% will have not-spots.

[qasdfdsaq]

I'm talking about market share. Not sure why anyone cares about WiFi not spots...

[DaMac]

Originally Posted by pip08456

Why all of a sudden when it will be speed resticted it would cause congestion beggars belief.

It's like most things, until you experience you discount it, i notice in my street a slow down in service at peak times, my 4k netflix buffers like a bugger on sunday afternoon/evening so if they have extra bandwidth available, give it to me, not some person sat on the park.

[roughbeast]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I'm just a nerd who is interested in statistics, Pip.

VM are promoting their own version of BT FON - which I admit can be useful.

So, in my area, which I had already mapped for cabinets & nodes, I'll walk the walk and note the number of BT FONs and VM Public WiFi.

I'll post the results in the VM Forum (Superusers) and await my curry offer from VM.

Simples, Pip.

I'm not totally over the moon with BT FON hotspots, those in residential areas anyway. It is a bit hit and miss. I don't actively search for them, but on those occasions I walk or park outside one I can hear my phone log on automatically via the FON app. The reception I get varies considerably, from the unusable to just about OK for surfing. The only time I get acceptable broadband is if I am in the house of a friend or family member with a hotspot.

For VM to be better than this they will need to ensure a good signal through bricks and mortar and/or sufficient speed to make up for distance from the SH.

Testing my ASUS N66U on the kerbside outside my typical semi I achieved 3.27Mb down and 5.34Mb up with my Android phone whereas I would normally get >100Mb in the same room as the router. Surfing was OK. Next door has BT FON. I was able to log on from the street but the Ookla speedtester couldn't find a test server. Surfing was not possible. Then I tried my Fon router. located in the attic. Indoors I squeaked 0.72Mb down and 1.29Mb up. Surfing slow but doable. In the street I got 1.25 Mb down and 7.49Mb up. Surfing OK.

Now I appreciate that angle and walls to go through would have varied, but this surely gives us an idea that VM's plans are based upon a lot of uncertainties, unless they have something up their sleeve.

This BTW is FON's hotspot map. https://corp.fon.com/en/maps

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by roughbeast

I'm not totally over the moon with BT FON hotspots, those in residential areas anyway. It is a bit hit and miss. I don't actively search for them, but on those occasions I walk or park outside one I can hear my phone log on automatically via the FON app. The reception I get varies considerably, from the unusable to just about OK for surfing. The only time I get acceptable broadband is if I am in the house of a friend or family member with a hotspot.

Pretty much this. Hence why I basically never use them.

[roughbeast]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Pretty much this. Hence why I basically never use them.

I'd rather have 4G

[DaMac]

... which is the way forward if your out and about, not searching for a load of cobbled together weak signals.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by roughbeast

I'd rather have 4G

I do.

[admars]

bit of a bump, I had forgotten about this, seems this has been quiet for a while?

http://about.virginmedia.com/about/wifi

www.virginmedia.com/virginmediawifi

so at the moment the superhubs as hotspots isn't live, but if you have a virgin mobile, you can use hotspots. I assume that's contract and PAYG?