Virgin media and exploding cable modems

[mehmeh]

*Snip*Yes you can have a movie in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee but what good is that. Because after you've downloaded that movie and watched it you have to wait another 24 hours before you can do it again because you've been capped *snip*

Thats exactly the reason I have jumped ship. I know truely unmetered broadband for this price is a dream and granted most companies have policies in place so the minority don't bring the network to a stand still. What I object to is the way VM have choosen to implement the policy. Most companies give an indication of a set monthly allowance on the cheaper packages, the more expensive stuff just has the good old fair usage policy, even O2 and Be* have one of some form or another.
If you really extract the urine, you'll get asked to curb your usage, if you ignore that, sooner or later you'll get slapped with a throttle or cut off entirely I imagine. Virgin by comparison have choosen to penalise every single customer. Dare to download a game for Steam or the occasional big file and thats it, crippled! Very few customers hit the STM, hell, even I've learned how to work around it, but just the simple fact it exists is what annoys most people imo.

Would make far more sense to operate a policy similar to every other ISP and while there at it, stop this 50Mb headline grabbing rubbish, untill they are really able to deliver those speeds to the kinds of customers who will buy them, i.e Pirates!

While we're all having a rant. I was extremely disappointed with the upstream on the 50Mb package. 1.3Mb is common on 8Mb ADSL these days and if I understand the technology, cable connections allow for allot more?, where are the 1:1 connections, or even something a beyond the pathetic 512Kb you get on 10Mb. Internet is as much about uploading as downloading these days and imo Virgin are missing another trick. Offer decent uploads and the ratio loving pirates will come running and be happy to pay you a decent price for it too! (Then you do this thing they sometimes do in business these days, INVEST back into your infrastructure in order to maintain growth). Or you could just STM them all and if they say anything, threaten to report them to the F.B.Aye!

[moogle]

While we're all having a rant. I was extremely disappointed with the upstream on the 50Mb package. 1.3Mb is common on 8Mb ADSL these days and if I understand the technology, cable connections allow for allot more?, where are the 1:1 connections, or even something a beyond the pathetic 512Kb you get on 10Mb. Internet is as much about uploading as downloading these days and imo Virgin are missing another trick. Offer decent uploads and the ratio loving pirates will come running and be happy to pay you a decent price for it too! (Then you do this thing they sometimes do in business these days, INVEST back into your infrastructure in order to maintain growth). Or you could just STM them all and if they say anything, threaten to report them to the F.B.Aye!

Would love 1:1 ratio connections. No one ever offers that and even if Virgin did from what I've read they also traffic manage the upload too

[mehmeh]

Would love 1:1 ratio connections. No one ever offers that and even if Virgin did from what I've read they also traffic manage the upload too

Yep, no upstream limits during the daytime, but there is on an evening between 1500-2000 hours. As an idea, on my 10Mb/512k connection its 700MB. So unlike the downstream, you do have to put in some effort to hit the STM. Course no doubt all that would change if they provided more and educated/encouraged people to put it to use.

Shame, but there ya go. I'm looking forward to my 1.3Mb come next week so don't even care anymore LOL!

[Mutley]

Sorry to reserect a slightly old thread....but this brings up an irritation of mine - Virgin's STM (Subscriber Traffic Monitoring) system. Talk about a sledge hammer approach.

I've been with Virgin (NTL before, Comtel before that) for a long while. I have very few problems with the service. It goes down very rarely (so rarely that I can think of few other things that are more reliable). Bandwidth stays consistent most of the time (given peak usage times and the problems you typical get across teh interwebs).

What annoys me is how STM is implemented. I saw on Steam this weekend I could play UT3 for free. I thought, "meh, why the hell not?" until I saw the download size - about 8GB. For my service level that would blow straight through the STM ceiling, and have me throttled to 25% of normal bandwidth for 5 hours...and this was during the day on Saturday.

I think this is pretty ridiculous. As use of the internet increases, and demand increases as so much of our content shifts to internet based resources, more bandwidth is needed not less! This isn't going to get better, Virgin Media!

I'm not unreasonable, I know there is only so much capacity to go around, and that upgrading UBRs and cable modems is time consuming and expensive, but HONESTLY!!

[moogle]

It's only two weeks old so it ain't a big resurrection.

If you think VM's throttling is pretty ridiculous then switch. If you don't want to switch then let VM throttle you

Are you on Be/O2 now mehmeh?

[Mutley]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm switch!

Yeah perhaps I should just bite the bullet.

[CrazyMonkey]

Email the Managing Director of Virgin Media Broadband, i emailed them about a random price increase seriously ****ty customer service. The guy i spoke to had a HEAVY and i mean HEAVY indian accent, i had to decrypt half the rubbish he spewed out. He was also very rude and unprofessional.

Had a response in the day from the MD and he personally said the guy would get a bollocking and i also received a large discounted price

Mmmmmm i love complaining.

[HermansArmpit]

My 10mb line is constantly throttled no matter what time it is. Usually down to 2mb (which i paid an extra tenner a month to upgrade from) or 4mb.

Its an absolute disgrace. I realise they have peak times and fair usage policies but I can't use it when I'm in bed or at work.

Gonna check my contract because I'm cancelling as soon as I can.

[mayhem]

Yhe just email the MD if you need his email ill post it on here. allso say ive been reading the thread on here about the Exploding modem and every thing it says is true lol ... Me im still on virgin for the moment as we cannot lose our telephone number just yet ....

[Koolpc]

Well, been told my 2mb is going up to 10mb free next month!!

Even if it goes down to 2mb now and again i will still be happy!!