200M : Best Package

[Matthew]

I'm on 200Mb costing me £47 a month, probably well out of contract, what is the best price I can get this for does anyone know? Happy to recontract, internet only, anyone offer any tips to getting best deal out of VM.

[General Maximus]

I wouldn't bother with customer services, I would go straight to retentions and see what they say. Play dumb and don't mention speed and say you have had an introductory offer from someone like Vodafone through the post for £22/month and you was wondering what options were available to you. They'll offer you a silly price just to keep you are tie you into a new contract. When I rang up to upgrade from 200mbits to 350mbits a couple of years ago I was happy to pay more for it because because I was so far out of contract I ended up getting it for free plus receiving a discount.

I think the important decision you are going to have to make is whether you want to try and push for a discount on your current price or go for an upgrade. I have a feeling they'll try and offer you a discount on a higher tier rather than save you money on your current one.

[Matthew]

Just rang up, same speed for half the price. Been out on contract for 2 years and not received my letter. Quite happy with that, couldn't justify the upgrade to 350mb but really happy with the price cut!

[General Maximus]

nice

[Matthew]

Does anyone know what a HSD Subscriber Tier refers to, it was mentioned on the call around a possible provision issue?

[General Maximus]

I never heard VM use it but it won't affect your provisioning (them physically putting you on a specific tier). I can only assume High Speed Digital Subscriber refers to the top tiers whether it will be 1gbit, 500mbits and maybe even 350mbits. I assume (again) that there are certain metrics VM work to in terms of planning capacity on the network and say the network can withstand x amount of 1gbit customers and if there are any more than that then there might be a congestion issue. It is possible this might be what they are referring to, your area is currently oversubscribed and there are pending upgrades/relief work in the pipeline. VM were notorious for this back in 2009 ish where they deliberately oversubscribed to make more money and there were a couple of years where the network was diabolical and usable in some areas of the country. Since then they have been proactive in network upgrades and they have always put the capacity in place prior to unveiling a new top tier. The lockdown has probably screwed up their schedule for this year big time so there are bound to be a few blips as they get back on top of things.

Tbh I wouldn't worry about it. Your "provisioning" won't be affected at all as your tier remains unchanged and you are "provisioned" for 200mbits. Whether or not you get 200mbits is something else. I wouldn't obsess over it, speeds fluctuate and unless you need something toute suite does it really matter in this very instant whether you get 200mbits or 150mbits? All of my chunky downloads happen over night when I am asleep so it doesn't matter how long it takes as long as they are complete by the time I wake up. The only time I would cry about my download speed is if it affected my gaming during the day.