100M Small Download Speed Upgrade

Ignitionnet · 25-11-2011, 14:39

Just to let those interested know VM are currently slightly upgrading the 100Mb service, this is so that you can reach 100Mb speeds after overheads on the connection.

At the moment the service is capped to 102.4Mb, leaving people reaching about 98Mb best case, due to new regulations coming in next year 10% of customers must be able to reach the appropriate throughput for a service to be advertised at that speed.

VM evidently didn't fancy selling 100Mb as 98Mb so they're increasing the downstream cap from 102.4Mb/s to 110Mb/s giving people about 105Mb/s.

It's quite common among cable companies to do this, it's called adding 'fluff'. A number of operators cap around 10% higher than the provisioned rate, VM are joining them.

Probably safe to assume 10Mb and 20Mb will receive caps of 11Mb and 22Mb, 30Mb is already capped at 33Mb, 50Mb is already capped at 53Mb and is receiving a different upgrade.

ileikcaek · 25-11-2011, 16:02

Seems pretty fair to me! The 33Mb cap on 30Mb is good as it is, most get at least 31Mb (I've never dropped below it) from what I've seen in speed test results.

BenJSmyth · 25-11-2011, 16:09

When does this take effect from and where did you get this info?

I'm intrigued

AndyCalling · 25-11-2011, 16:57

What 'different upgrade' is the 50meg service receiving?

Chrysalis · 26-11-2011, 20:55

My guess 80mbit/sec or around that bit.

VM seriously going to the "I dont care" on oversubbing.

---------- Post added at 21:55 ---------- Previous post was at 21:51 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickymallory

Seems pretty fair to me! The 33Mb cap on 30Mb is good as it is, most get at least 31Mb (I've never dropped below it) from what I've seen in speed test results.

Lucky you.

I havent been able to get 31mbit outside of 4-10am for about 2 weeks.

Hard to say if most get 31mbit/sec. I dont think any data out there for that, the latest samknows figures also really need an update as was before 100mbit launched.

Ignitionnet · 26-11-2011, 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenJSmyth

When does this take effect from and where did you get this info?

I'm intrigued

They've started the rollout already, and dream on

---------- Post added at 21:56 ---------- Previous post was at 21:56 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyCalling

What 'different upgrade' is the 50meg service receiving?

I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you.

---------- Post added at 21:57 ---------- Previous post was at 21:56 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

My guess 80mbit/sec or around that bit.

VM seriously going to the "I dont care" on oversubbing.

No and no respectively - this is the main driver for the moves to 8 downstreams.

Chrysalis · 26-11-2011, 23:25

Not sure how you can say no to my 2nd comment, as VM have a poor record for dealing with congestion, so for you to say no to that would mean VM doing a policy shift. Planning for 8 downstreams is just PR talk at this time, given how long its taking to even get every area to 5 downstreams never mind 8, 8 could be years away.

Ignitionnet · 27-11-2011, 08:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Not sure how you can say no to my 2nd comment, as VM have a poor record for dealing with congestion, so for you to say no to that would mean VM doing a policy shift. Planning for 8 downstreams is just PR talk at this time, given how long its taking to even get every area to 5 downstreams never mind 8, 8 could be years away.

I can say no quite easily, I just know stuff and increasing oversubscription rates can be mitigated in a number of ways, both controlling supply of bandwidth and demand. You also forget that downstream upgrades don't go anywhere near the level of increased usage that upstream upgrades bring, there's only so much to download.

4 -> 5 downstreams is a far more complicated job than 5 -> 8. It needed line cards to be replaced in the case of BSRs and a shift to I-CMTS architecture in a number of cases on the Cisco.

I would recommend looking at how the line cards are broken down, multiples of ports per line card, etc, it would make more sense than assuming that the line card replacement required to go from 4 to 5 or in the case of many Cisco 10ks even just 3 to 4 downstreams is replicated in going to 8.

I'm not aware of it being PR talk, I've not seen VM make big news of this. Beyond us nerds no-one really gives a monkey's about how many downstreams VM are using in each service group.

kwikbreaks · 27-11-2011, 11:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

increasing oversubscription rates can be mitigated in a number of ways

The most certain mitigation is the one I'll be using as soon as I can - Infinity. As far as I'm concerned they've blown it as far as my custom goes. Only question is whether I'll wait for Infinity or move to Be on ADSL before it comes.

Ignitionnet · 27-11-2011, 12:16

That's certainly one option for people. I would suggest a combination of capacity upgrades and traffic management however are VM's ways forward.

Billy-Bob · 27-11-2011, 12:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

My guess 80mbit/sec or around that bit.

At the risk of attracting the ridicule of some of the know-it-alls on this forum, this is precisely what I have been experiencing consistently on my 50Mb connection now for the last 10 days. I have cleared my browser cache, rebooted my modem on multiple occasions, and tried a variety of methods to measure my download speed - which is coming out at a rather more variable than usual 50-75 Mb/s. The config file still says limited to 53000000 downstream, but that isn't what I'm getting. So either VM have a fault on their rate-limiting system, or something else is going on.

morley04 · 27-11-2011, 13:28

Could you give us a clue to what the 50mb upgrade will be

? or is it STM time for us guys

Ignitionnet · 27-11-2011, 17:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billy-Bob

At the risk of attracting the ridicule of some of the know-it-alls on this forum, this is precisely what I have been experiencing consistently on my 50Mb connection now for the last 10 days. I have cleared my browser cache, rebooted my modem on multiple occasions, and tried a variety of methods to measure my download speed - which is coming out at a rather more variable than usual 50-75 Mb/s. The config file still says limited to 53000000 downstream, but that isn't what I'm getting. So either VM have a fault on their rate-limiting system, or something else is going on.

No ridicule here!

The config files will change when it's time. Unsure why you're getting close to 80Mb but that is not the uplifted speed.

morley04 · 27-11-2011, 18:27

So theres an uplifted speed increase

ileikcaek · 27-11-2011, 18:42

Kinda hoping for a slight bump on 30Mb but I think that is less likely with most 30Mb customers being ex 20Mb customers and that was a "free" upgrade minus the Â£30 activation/superhub fee. Still a bump to 40Mb would be nice! I guess people in the know cannot say too much, like usual, there's probably an NDA on the upgrades VM are doing.