Virgin Media to Double Broadband Speed

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Horizon

The upgrade is most welcome, I agree. But I do argue with the "we're getting it for nothing" point.

The last time I looked, I pay a lot of money to VM each month and by VM's own admission, a lot of that is pure profit to them. Aka telephone line rental, which is in fact a connectivity charge. You're paying just for the "privilege" of being connected to their network, they don't do anything for that dosh.

Once VM have the relevant kit in place (which of course does cost them) then whether they're pumping 20mb, 50mb or 100mb down the same pipe is neither here or there. It does not cost VM anymore or less what speed is sent with STM in place.

After network upgrades, usually for broadband, the only real costs for VM lie on their tv side where they do need to pay for things like fixing faulty stbs, agreeing with broadcasters over carriage rights etc and of course staffing costs.

VM are not upgrading the broadband speeds out of the goodness of their hearts. It's a cold business decision based on what they can afford to do, wish to do and what competitors are likely to do. The marketing opportunity that the Olympics brings should not be underestimated.

VM may say they are not launching anything over 100mb this year, although that's not what they've told the City... But I bet they will launch 200mb+ (might even be 1gb) in one location and you'll hear about it everywhere come Olympics time.

I don 't completely disagree with what you're saying (i.e. there's no such thing as a free lunch), however I do disagree that it costs Virgin nothing to pump 50meg down the line rather than 30 or 20. It does cost them more to put in place the extra bandwidth necessary to handle it. Maybe not on an individual basis, but certainly once you add in multiple customers all downloading more. It's fair to say that Virgin needs to spend roughly the same amount to supply 50meg as they do to supply 5x10meg.

Plus, you seriously underestimate how much money Virgin has to spend on things like fixing faults - compare to Sky, who only really have to send out techs to realign dishes, Virign has to have techs to inspect power levels, cables, cabinets, UBR's, etc. as well as the various teams behind them. It costs a lot more to run and maintain a network like Virgin's than you give them credit for.

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

You're the only one confused... Age has always been correct (although for some weird reason it does go up by one each year..

Why can't I cancel it? and why would it benefit me to do so?

And the most obvious question why are you asking pathetic questions??

Personally I think it's quite worrying that anyone would be paying so much attention to your profile

[thenry]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Course some of us are in a situation where VM have been failing to provide what we've already been paying for for the last 14 months. So when more money is spent on unneccessary upgrades for other people and frivolous marketing campains while they're failing to make the investment required to bring existing services up to scratch, we have a perfectly reasonable right to be unhappy.

Not to say I am, just playing devil's advocate here.

I'm unhappy, up needs sorting out ASAP. security flaws are not appealing!!

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

Personally I think it's quite worrying that anyone would be paying so much attention to your profile

I would have called it inattention as realistically to confuse 2 different people with completely different names is a bit worrying.

Should have gone to Specsavers.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Masque

So they are doubling your broadband speed at no extra cost and you do not believe you are getting it for nothing, the mind boggles.

Why not ask to pay more instead.

I am very happy to get the upgrade, but what use is 60mb if I can only use it for a limited time?

I await what the STM will be, but if the reduced speeds on the 60mb service go down to 15mb, I will be happy with that as long as vm can provide 15mb all the time. But, 60mb for a an hour or two during the day which is when I want to use the service, is no use to me.

To repeat, if the 60mb uplift means a truely unlimited 15mb service, that is good news.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Horizon

I am very happy to get the upgrade, but what use is 60mb if I can only use it for a limited time?

I await what the STM will be, but if the reduced speeds on the 60mb service go down to 15mb, I will be happy with that as long as vm can provide 15mb all the time. But, 60mb for a an hour or two during the day which is when I want to use the service, is no use to me.

To repeat, if the 60mb uplift means a truely unlimited 15mb service, that is good news.

If you go by the information so far, STM limits will be doubled so you'll have to download 10Gb in the evening to get hit with it. However you're right in that you should only be reduced to 15Meg, which is still pretty decent.
I think I'd much rather Virgin had lower STM thresholds but only reduced the speed by like 25 or 30% or something, but that's just me. Then again, I'm on 50meg specifically to avoid STM.

[Horizon]

10gb is a couple of proper HD shows, I suspect I'll hit the cap soon enough.

If the 50mb goes to 100mb, stays at the same price and has no STM, that becomes a very attrative option indeed. Will it happen, hell no.

Ah just got the Oops email about the mistaken 120MB upgrade..So they are on the ball at last.

I got one aswell ,i didn't get the upgrade one yet, ..........but can anyone spot the realy big mistake

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Kushan

If you go by the information so far, STM limits will be doubled so you'll have to download 10Gb in the evening to get hit with it. However you're right in that you should only be reduced to 15Meg, which is still pretty decent.
I think I'd much rather Virgin had lower STM thresholds but only reduced the speed by like 25 or 30% or something, but that's just me. Then again, I'm on 50meg specifically to avoid STM.

Have VM abandoned their next comcast traffic management?

Doubled STM limits hardly fills me with confidence in dealing with over subscription.

I would have expected the timing to match the release of the new speeds.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Have VM abandoned their next comcast traffic management?

Doubled STM limits hardly fills me with confidence in dealing with over subscription.

I would have expected the timing to match the release of the new speeds.

You mean the "traffic" shaping that's supposed to slow P2P/newsgroups but ends up slowing lots of other stuff? Officially no and I know loads of people still have issues with it, but I personally have not run into it in months. Seems like they've given up with it in my area - a few minutes ago, I was downloading from a newsgroup at a solid 6Mb/s.

[greeninferno]

will the new upgrades have the "10%" overhead cap on the modem i.e. 66Mbit for 60Mb?

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by greeninferno

will the new upgrades have the "10%" overhead cap on the modem i.e. 66Mbit for 60Mb?

Probably. Someone said before that Ofcom has made it more strict, in that so many customers have to be able to hit the advertised speed so probably.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

I dunno.VM gives us summat for nothing yet again and so many bitch about it instead of saying thank you very much.

It is more than many other companies would offer without charging.

So I'll say it.Thank you very much Virgin Media.

Spot on Maggy.

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by Horizon

I am very happy to get the upgrade, but what use is 60mb if I can only use it for a limited time?

I await what the STM will be, but if the reduced speeds on the 60mb service go down to 15mb, I will be happy with that as long as vm can provide 15mb all the time. But, 60mb for a an hour or two during the day which is when I want to use the service, is no use to me.

To repeat, if the 60mb uplift means a truely unlimited 15mb service, that is good news.

The devil is always in the detail.