New STM/Virgin traffic managent confirmed - so that's why it's slow!

[nomadking]

I'm on 'M' service(2Mb) at the moment, if I upgrade to 'L' and end up on 10Mb, even when affected by STM I can still download at 2.5Mb which is a slightly bigger impact than 2Mb non STM affected service. So if 2Mb is a problem, why isn't a minimum of 2.5Mb also a problem, never mind if I upgraded to 'XL' with a minimum of 5Mb.

[slowcoach]

Originally Posted by |Kippa|

I was on the trial STM being 10am to 3pm and 4pm to 9pm before they rolled it out nationally. I have had to put up with this for over 2 to 3 months now. I get the feeling they will push the STM times more and more, just to see what they can get away with.

Exactly.
They know that they can’t sell 5Mb/s for £37 but by gradually reducing the STM download quota over time they will in effect be doing just that, except for a few hours a day when you will be tucked up in bed.

All this STM thing makes be believe VM 50Mb will carry stm and it will be something like 4Gb then you capped to 5.5Mb

[nomadking]

All this so they can have a headline of 50Mb speed without providing that actual level of service.

[disgruntled]

So now I know why I've been getting pathetic speeds. I'm clearly not happy about this.

I signed up with VM just 2 months ago for the 4mb BB Service and telephone line rental. Their sales pitch was a free upgrade to 10mb, why tell me that if I can't freely use it?, I guess the answer to that is blatantly obvious.

As an ex-Telewest customer just over 18 months ago, I was unable to migrate my services to my new home, I was told they were already over-capacity in this area yet within months I started getting leaflets and letters in my mail informing I could now have VM services but too late, as I was already under BT contract. What had changed?, obviously nothing, they've simply oversold their service and now can't cope with demand.

The thing that grates me most, like most people here, is their "unlimited" spiel. With BT, I was restricted to 40gb a month, not a huge amount but at least I knew for sure where I stood. It's the same with most other companies, you have your limits and they're clear before you sign. VM clearly fail here and as such, their actions are nothing short of scandalous.

To make matters worse for me, yesterday when I tried to end my contract for failure to install my telephone line after 6 weeks, I happened to mention about slow internet speeds. Their immediate reply was "did you call technical support"?, alas, no mention I might have had my speed capped for exceeding download limits. If it wasn't for reading this forum, I would still have no idea about my speed reduction.

Just one final question. If the peak hour is 4-9pm, why am I being punished until 1-2am?

[Zain]

say if you break the limit at 20:50 right your 5 hours of STM starts then....so you gotta wait till 01:50 till your uncapped. (5 hours)

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Zain

say if you break the limit at 20:50 right your 5 hours of STM starts then....so you gotta wait till 01:50 till your uncapped. (5 hours)

Last I heard there is no STM after 9:00pm. it gets turned off completely.
So in your example he should get STMd for 10 minutes.

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by Gary L

Last I heard there is no STM after 9:00pm. it gets turned off completely.
So in your example he should get STMd for 10 minutes.

Unfortunately you heard incorrectly.
Alex Brown has previously stated that he's asked Cisco to include the facility to vary the time that the STM restrictions finish into their firmware but that he's been given no indication when that might happen.

[disgruntled]

My point is, 4-9pm is supposed to be peak hours traffic flow, why am I being punished whilst traffic isn't deemed to be so high?

[Gary L]

So to make it clear they should say that STM is operational during the hours of 10am to 1am.

[Jelly]

Originally Posted by disgruntled

My point is, 4-9pm is supposed to be peak hours traffic flow, why am I being punished whilst traffic isn't deemed to be so high?

If you hit the limit at, for example, 7PM, the traffic management will continue to affect you for 5 hours, stopping at 12PM.

[Gary L]

So to make it clear they should say that STM is operational during the hours of 10am to 1am.
People could be under the impression that the cut off times is when you get full speed back, but you don't as the hours drift into the next time period.

Made it on to The Register already.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05..._restrictions/

I see alex is doing his "no i didnt say that, dodge, run and then not reply anymore" thing again

As i'm sure you'll notice by replies on the ngs, he has been caught out by the fact he said the new trials were not going to be rolled out, then they sneakily roll it out, where have i seen that happen before

Someone asked about overnight STM, as per usual, alex went silent with one word replies...

[LostintheNW]

Just saw the letter they are meant to be sending out...makes no difference to me as I am traffic managed no matter what time of the day, and according to everyone I have spoken to at Virgin they have stated I can only download 120meg before I am capped. All I sodding do on my 20meg connection (have the VIP package so have this speed) is surf the web, e-mail, play my xbox and download demos and updates for games. I have been told this makes me an excessively heavy user as I have the cheek to download a 400 meg game demo or actually play games online.

Not long to go before I move into my new place, where VM don't actually service :-D

[disgruntled]

Originally Posted by Jelly

If you hit the limit at, for example, 7PM, the traffic management will continue to affect you for 5 hours, stopping at 12PM.

I understand fully the theory of your reply but that's not exactly what I'm asking.

Using your example of 7pm and being capped until midnight, I'm being punished for 3 hours past the peak hours of 4-9pm. Being punished 3 hours beyond that timeframe doesn't help traffic flow one iota between 4 and 9pm.

I could almost accept being capped until 9pm if forewarned in the correct manner, but this extra 3 hours seems excessive. Hope you understand my query now.