Superhub : 200Mbit coming soon? (According to a survey)

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by iNvidious01

My contract is set to expire at the end of August. I guess the time frame for this stuff is later than that?

Renegotiate and stick to 152 then probably.

You guess correctly and retentions should have absolutely no ability to mess with the upgrade cycle this time around anyway.

Sadly no threatening to go to Sky for, err, 'up to 76Mb' if VM don't upgrade you from 152 to 300, send you new kit for free and reduce your bill

[muppetman11]

Seems Talk Talk has priced its York ultra fast residential broadband service at £21.70 with no extra for line rental , wonder if we'll see this extended to anymore areas ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...broadband.html

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Seems Talk Talk has priced its York ultra fast residential broadband service at £21.70 with no extra for line rental , wonder if we'll see this extended to anymore areas ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...broadband.html

There are no plans to deploy outside of York just yet, however there are a bunch of areas they 'might' go to. They also have a bunch more build to do in York.

Anywhere with a CityFibre ring and distribution network, a 'Gigabit City' is a possibility.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

You guess correctly and retentions should have absolutely no ability to mess with the upgrade cycle this time around anyway.

Not even for new contracts?

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

You guess correctly and retentions should have absolutely no ability to mess with the upgrade cycle this time around anyway.

Sadly no threatening to go to Sky for, err, 'up to 76Mb' if VM don't upgrade you from 152 to 300, send you new kit for free and reduce your bill

Originally Posted by Kushan

Not even for new contracts?

New contracts? Retentions?

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

New contracts? Retentions?

Yes?

"I want to leave, give me a better deal or I will"
"aww gee, well, if you sign up for a new 12 month contract, I can do this...", etc.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Anywhere with a CityFibre ring and distribution network, a 'Gigabit City' is a possibility.

Ooh, Edinburgh and Aberdeen both listed.

None of the actual links go anywhere useful though :-/

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Kushan

Yes?

"I want to leave, give me a better deal or I will"
"aww gee, well, if you sign up for a new 12 month contract, I can do this...", etc.

When the response should actually be:

"Certainly... if you could just show me who else can provide you the broadband speed you have now, let alone the one you want to be moved to, early, and at a discount."

This upgrade cycle is somewhat more complex than the previous ones. It will be interesting to see if they do hold their nerve and tell people who try to bargain/blag to go forth.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

When the response should actually be:

"Certainly... if you could just show me who else can provide you the broadband speed you have now, let alone the one you want to be moved to, early, and at a discount."

But that just brings us back to driving customers to cancel their contracts, disconnect, and sign up again as a new customer. Which is more hassle, more work, and more costs for everybody, including VM.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

But that just brings us back to driving customers to cancel their contracts, disconnect, and sign up again as a new customer. Which is more hassle, more work, and more costs for everybody, including VM.

There's a 6 month period where you can't do that, and as I mentioned this time around is a little more complicated.

I imagine existing and new customers will not have a massive amount of difference between them beyond perhaps that new customers will have an initial discount period.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

There's a 6 month period where you can't do that, and as I mentioned this time around is a little more complicated.

6 months where you can't sign up with the same name. Nothing preventing another person in a shared household signing up the day you cancel.

I imagine existing and new customers will not have a massive amount of difference between them beyond perhaps that new customers will have an initial discount period.

We're talking about the speed uplift though, which historically was offered to new customers prior to existing ones. Pricing aside, acquisition and admin costs are significant enough on their own to make an argument against having to close and re-open an account when the same could be achieved by... just upgrading an existing customer to the same tariffs as new customers get.

[Ignitionnet]

I'll repeat that this time around it won't be so simple.

[qasdfdsaq]

Things were never simple to begin with!

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

I'll repeat that this time around it won't be so simple.

We both get what you're saying and I know there's things in place to stop people just leaving and coming back. However, Virgin in the past have always been decent when it came to retentions so far as to give at least the equivalent offers for new customers to existing ones provided they agree to a new contract period - for the same logic Qasi just mention, from the customer's perspective if they're out of contract, why couldn't they just leave and come back?

Anything that keeps a customer locked in is a good thing for Virgin and I doubt there's a huge difference between a new customer and an existing one signing a new contract. From what you're saying, it'll be different this time and I can only presume that it's more than a new Hub that's needed, but it wouldn't be the first time Virgin has sent an Install tech for an existing customer.

Just have to wait and see I suppose.

[Ignitionnet]

Sadly you don't get what I'm saying and I'd be strung up if I explained myself more fully. Sorry.