120M : Best way to escalate a utilisation fault?

[Kushan]

It's ALWAYS worth complaining. There's a reasonable chance that it's not utilisation but a fault instead and the only way to alert Virgin is to ring in and complain about it.

Plus, the more people that ring in, the more likely they'll be to expedite a fix.

Even if you can't get the issue resolved, you should be entitled to some money off your bill - but you will have to phone in when it's slow.

[craigj2k12]

Originally Posted by Kushan

It's ALWAYS worth complaining. There's a reasonable chance that it's not utilisation but a fault instead and the only way to alert Virgin is to ring in and complain about it.

From looking at the VM forums regularly (not recently, ill admit), the large majority of faults seem to be congestion, id say as high as 80%, as i say not been over there in a while but when i was a regular most of the complaints were lack of speed

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by craigj2k12

From looking at the VM forums regularly (not recently, ill admit), the large majority of faults seem to be congestion, id say as high as 80%, as i say not been over there in a while but when i was a regular most of the complaints were lack of speed

Yeah, there is a distinct probability that if you're getting slow speeds, it's congestion caused by over-utilisation. Chances are, that's what it is. However, sometimes it actually isn't, sometimes it's noise causing the symbol rate to drop (Along with overall bandwidth) and things like that. Even if it's a slim chance, it's still a chance.

Even if it is congestion, the more that call in, the better the chances are of an expedited fix. You'd be surprised at how many people don't bother. Even if it's so slow as to be unusable, don't presume that others will have called in.

[ianch99]

I thought I would update this thread with a status update: I emailed the CEO office with the fault details and after a couple of days, I received a call from a very helpful person in the Complaints Team. I went through the problem with her esp. the part about the auto-fix dates being divorced from reality. She said that my original fault (opened in Jul 2012) was in fact still open and she would phone the headend manager in Southampton to find out what is actually going on. Today, she responded with this update from the Network manager responsible for the work:

We have now completed the Cat C work at Southampton which should provide some relief in the areas we have split and we are doing everything possible to complete the current edge design.
Unfortunately the H2 2013 BAU resegmentation design has been delayed due to the Headend at Southampton requiring a complete overbuild and difficulty in obtaining the equipment required

They give an estimate of June for completion of all the works relating to this fault. No idea what the "H2 2013 BAU resegmentation design" is but at least I have a realistic end date plus someone I can contact if this does not play out as indicated. They also gave me 50% broadband reduction for six months to save me having to ring in each month.

I know that our area should not be having this problem in the first place but I have to give credit to VM for the customer service response in this case.

[Kushan]

It's funny the difference just being open and honest with your customers can make.

[horseman]

Originally Posted by ianch99

..... No idea what the "H2 2013 BAU resegmentation design" is ,,,,,

Second Half of 2013 "Business-As-Usual" planned (Cat C?) resegmentation....
perhaps?

[broadbandking]

Its the high number of students in Southampton that is causing the issue the network can't handle it.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by broadbandking

Its the high number of students in Southampton that is causing the issue the network can't handle it.

Not really the students' fault though, is it?

[ianch99]

Would customers routing in from Winchester be affected by customers (Students) in Southampton? I guess this depends on the network topology and which network segments route into which CMTS (Southampton has 9 of them I think). Only VM has the answers to these questions I suppose

Question for the cable network gurus: where is utilisation actually measured? at the CMTS? If so, can you have one network segment overloaded but others under-utilised for the same CMTS? Not that it matters, just curious ...

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by ianch99

Would customers routing in from Winchester be affected by customers (Students) in Southampton? I guess this depends on the network topology and which network segments route into which CMTS (Southampton has 9 of them I think). Only VM has the answers to these questions I suppose
[SEPH]: The effect of Soton on Winchester would likely only be at peering points and then if both geographies were trying to do the same thing. So, generally and IMO, no.

Question for the cable network gurus: where is utilisation actually measured? at the CMTS? If so, can you have one network segment overloaded but others under-utilised for the same CMTS? Not that it matters, just curious ...
[SEPH]: There are several measurement points, but if the network is properly designed, the two that matter are the CMTS and the line card to wwhich your segment is connected. The current CMTS models rarely get overloaded. The line cards, however are the termination point for user circuits and they are the first port of call when investigating utiliation. A simple resegmentation puts one or more optical nodes onto another line card. A more complex resegmentation, when all line card slots are used and running at normal capacity, then another CMTS has to be found for line cards to go into. All of what I've just mentioned can be considered as a repatching exercise.

So yes, one line card can be under-utilised while another can be over-utilised. Network Team will look at that, see if it's a trend and then load balance accordingly.

[Eeeps]

Can you not also have a situation where a physical cable is over utilised Seph?
(i.e. cable has a fixed number of channels available but all are used).

This case requires the physical splitting of the cable segment and the addition of optical nodes. These new nodes will require fibre and power (and a home).

Eeeps

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Eeeps

Can you not also have a situation where a physical cable is over utilised Seph?
(i.e. cable has a fixed number of channels available but all are used).
This case requires the physical splitting of the cable segment and the addition of optical nodes. These new nodes will require fibre and power (and a home).

Eeeps

I'll take "overutilised" to mean, say 90% of capacity. The capacity of 8 downstream channels is c. 400 Mbps. That can't be utilised > 100% obviously.

If you mean a user's cable to the home, then if the sending end can deliver at the sync speed (say 100 meg), then across the 8 bonded channels, the user is only utilising 25%.

If you mean the aggregation cable back to the optical node, then it's easy to reach 90% on those 8 downstream channels with, say, 20 users realistically downloading at 20 Mbps (a delivery rate from the sender).

[Saint man]

I too am affected by overutilisation in Southampton and would think that this predicted date would be when I might get better speeds in the evening. However what worries me with the reply ianch99 got was the part quoting: difficulty in obtaining the equipment required.
Anyone have an idea what this might be?
Normally people are told on the Virgin help site it is due to not obtaining permission from councils or who ever for digging and the like.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Saint man

I too am affected by overutilisation in Southampton and would think that this predicted date would be when I might get better speeds in the evening. However what worries me with the reply ianch99 got was the part quoting: difficulty in obtaining the equipment required.
Anyone have an idea what this might be?
Normally people are told on the Virgin help site it is due to not obtaining permission from councils or who ever for digging and the like.

The response I got from the CEO office was that the outstanding work required equipment due to be delivered in early May. There was then approx 8 weeks of work so realistically this is a June/July time frame for this fault.

My cable/network segment is sotn8-2-0-gw.15-1. You can get this by clicking here and noting the host name displayed. For example mine is: cpc66073-sotn8-2-0-cust72.15-1.cable.virginm.net

If you are on the same CMTS (sotn8) and the same cable (a.k.a line card??) then you almost certainly are covered by this fault (F002097435). If you are on another CMTS and/or cable then you may be covered by a different fault ..

It seems that support is told to give a standard response on why utilisation faults can take time to resolve. This includes that planning permission may be needed, etc. Customers are told this independently of the actual work needed to be done for the fault in question. VM are just giving out the worst case scenarios to cover themselves in case they are unable to complete the fix in a timely manner. It would be fascinating to know what % of utilisation faults actually requires planning permission and/or roads being dug up

Don't forget to ring support and claim a discount if you are being affected by consistent speed slowdowns ..

[Saint man]

Hello ianch99,
cpc4-sotn12-2-0 for me, perhaps a different problem, I have been quoted a Virgin fault reference of F002478187.
Will leave it a few months and check again with Virgin to how my fault ticket is going.