120M : Virgin Media 150Mb Coming 2014

[Hom3r]

Don't forget you will only get this speed if your processor can handle it.

My old laptop could just about scrape 90meg, my new one got 121meg.

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

To be honest, it would be stupid to do upgrades all in one go, even if there weren't capacity reasons to space it out

i know but they could be a bit more tactful about. They try to sugar coat things and make out it is a free upgrade and it is going to take all of next year and then a few days later we are slapped with a price increase before any of it happens. I know it is a "free" upgrade but if they want to tie customers into 12 month contracts at the point of upgrade then they should tie the price increase in with it as well. It would be an incentive for VM to pull their finger out; no price increase until the upgrade.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

then they should tie the price increase in with it as well. It would be an incentive for VM to pull their finger out; no price increase until the upgrade.

Which would mean that customers would get two price changes next year rather than one, as the price changes are broadband (when taken with a phone), phone and TV.

So customers on any form of dual or triple service would get one price increase in Feb for TV / Phone and then another at some point during the rest of the year.

From a customer relations perspective it would be really bad to do, as you'd have almost continual price increases over a period of time, and the associated activity of letters and calls etc. From a business perspective it's also difficult to manage as you'd have weekly/monthly spikes in calls every time an area of customers got a price increase because they'd had their speed increase.

[telfordcable]

the price rise will affect broadband stand alone too

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by telfordcable

the price rise will affect broadband stand alone too

No, it won't, as they already had their increase last month.

[ethan103]

Originally Posted by Skie

Theoretically I can handle 200meg (EuroDOCSIS 3.0 max out at 50 and it can handle 4 of them), though I suspect 152 might be unachievable if your area has even a bit of congestion. I seem to recall the modem it's built around being rated for 160 meg, but that may be a bad memory.

My area has very low utilisation.

I guess time will tell and I have every faith in that modem to pump out those Megabits !!

[Qtx]

Feel sorry for those in the areas that get done in December next year, just weeks before 2015. More than a year they will wait after this has been announced!

The announcements for VM's upgrades and products are getting longer and longer away from the actual completion date.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Qtx

The announcements for VM's upgrades and products are getting longer and longer away from the actual completion date.

The planned completion timescale for this upgrade is actually shorter than the previous set.

The speed double work was announced in January 2012, will an announced timescale of 18 months http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/01/...speeds-276549/

So far with the new upgrades, I've not seen anyone will an expected upgrade date past the end of next year - meaning it's around 13 months between announcement and expected completion.

This is excluding changes to the plans due to technical reasons

[bubblegun]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

The planned completion timescale for this upgrade is actually shorter than the previous set.

The speed double work was announced in January 2012, will an announced timescale of 18 months http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/01/...speeds-276549/

So far with the new upgrades, I've not seen anyone will an expected upgrade date past the end of next year - meaning it's around 13 months between announcement and expected completion.

This is excluding changes to the plans due to technical reasons

January 2012?

And Uddingston UBR was completed at end of last month so it was late...and the expected upgrade date is July-December 2014 for 152Mb.

Why didn't they do the necessary upgrade work at the same time? Seems like a pointless waste if now doing more upgrade works..just a few weeks later.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by bubblegun

Why didn't they do the necessary upgrade work at the same time? Seems like a pointless waste if now doing more upgrade works..just a few weeks later.

If I had to guess, it's because when the previous upgrade work was started, it wasn't know what further upgrades would be done.

So each area is upgraded to the same planned configuration, to make sure that it can be technically supported in the same way across the network.

Now that the further set of upgrades have been give the go ahead, a new upgrade configuration will be done in each area - so again at the end of the work, each area is the same.

Swapping to a different configuration halfway or three quarters of the way through a project introduces complexity that would increase costs.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by ianch99

Is it a comparable product? Seems a bit expensive to me: http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/ne...st-year-160113

It's about £30 a month with free installation, so yes a comparable product.

Your link is pointing to something else entirely, a trial on-demand service.

[bubblegun]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

If I had to guess, it's because when the previous upgrade work was started, it wasn't know what further upgrades would be done.

So each area is upgraded to the same planned configuration, to make sure that it can be technically supported in the same way across the network.

Now that the further set of upgrades have been give the go ahead, a new upgrade configuration will be done in each area - so again at the end of the work, each area is the same.

Swapping to a different configuration halfway or three quarters of the way through a project introduces complexity that would increase costs.

I do understand that starting a project then changing half-way through would needlessly add unnecessary expense but surely this strategy wasn't just decided in the last 2 weeks?

I'm not just trolling, BTW, due to get Virgin bb (120Mb) again in the next few weeks. Just thought it seemed a bit stupid that upgrades in this area had "just" completed.

[qasdfdsaq]

I'm amused by a certain bunch of people constantly batting on about how the price rises "would happen anyway" as if they're an inevitable part of any contract - shortly after OFCOM just ruled that actually, quite the opposite, prices should stay the same within any two-way commitment.

Even without that, I still recall the old days where my phone bill or broadband service cost the same per month, every month, for five years straight. Funny how the "inevitable" yearly price rise only appears when something "free" is being given out.

[bubblegun]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

I'm amused by a certain bunch of people constantly batting on about how the price rises "would happen anyway" as if they're an inevitable part of any contract - shortly after OFCOM just ruled that actually, quite the opposite, prices should stay the same within any two-way commitment.

Even without that, I still recall the old days where my phone bill or broadband service cost the same per month, every month, for five years straight. Funny how the "inevitable" yearly price rise only appears when something "free" is being given out.

Isn't it stupid that BT line rental has been reduced at a wholesale level by OFCOM over the last few years but all the providers have increased the cost to consumers for the same service?
Virgin who do not even use BT have also been profiteering by using the same "stealth" price rise each year.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by bubblegun

I do understand that starting a project then changing half-way through would needlessly add unnecessary expense but surely this strategy wasn't just decided in the last 2 weeks?

Not saying it was, but it always wasn't decided in 2011, which is when the plan for the double speed upgrades would have been signed off.