News - US cable group Liberty Global to buy Virgin Media

[HEXUS]

The cash and stock deal is worth £15 billion.

Read more.

[GingerNinja]

Ah well, there goes another UK company. Not that I'm bothered can't get Virgin Media near me anyhow. What is required is for Virgin to expand their network if they want more customers.

[Smudger]

As I said in the other thread about this - about an hour ago, Hexus News, tsk... - This could get tasty. There's bad blood between the head fella of Liberty and Rupert Murdoch, so hopefully the fallout will be cheaper stuff for us...

[Unique]

i hope this doesn't mean a reduction in the speed rollout, slower speeds, higher prices, less download allowance before STM, the end to "unlimited" etc, and it makes things better to compete with sky etc. if they just leave everything as-is then fine, but i doubt that will happen

[Funkstar]

They were saying in the news this morning that Liberty have stated they are interested in the broadband side of things, and they firmly believe in faster broadband as a way to compete.

I agree with GingerNinja, they really need a significant expansion of their network, like into more cities, not just a expanding into more streets in existing areas.

[Spud1]

This could be a big advantage for the UK market - particularly if they *finally* sort out their awful CS and internal processes..particularly with American owners, I can hold out a little hope for this.

Fingers crossed they invest and work hard to get some more/better content and actually retain customers. Their broadband business is surprisingly good (compared to their awful TV service) and has improved a lot in recent years. They are one of the best broadband providers in the UK, only really beaten by BT in speed terms - i hope that doesn't change...it's one area Sky are terrible in so they really need to keep that advantage.

[Smudger]

I wouldn't agree that the TV service is poor. Tivo is a great thing, the streaming goes through its own 10mbps connection, so it doesn't count towards any traffic shaping. So I can't get a few channels, but there's only so many episodes of 'Babestation' and 'When Dinosaurs Get Drunk' that you can watch...
At the moment, we don't get Sky Atlantic, but from what I can see, the only things on this I might be interested in are Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, both of which are available on disc now...

Oh, and the previous comings together of these 2 in the US might mean we could get a right old to-do over here, maybe even a brouhaha.

[jnutt]

Well I'm with Virgin Tivo, phone, mobile, and Cable. I'm hoping this will expand the services that are available rather than reduce them. Liberty Global hopefully will come up with new ideas and maybe invest in expanding the network because really unless they do that they will struggle to significantly increase the customer base. I would also hope their "history" with the Murdoch empire won't affect our current services.

[3dcandy]

I can't see how Sky can be accused of being slow in broadband terms, everywhere I've used ADSL Sky products with LLU they are consistently the fastest overall supplier in my rough tests!
Regarding FTC products, then yes perhaps they are a little slower, but I imagine they'd be up to speed pretty quickly (!)

[Saracen]

I can't see how Sky can be accused of being slow in broadband terms, everywhere I've used ADSL Sky products with LLU they are consistently the fastest overall supplier in my rough tests!
Regarding FTC products, then yes perhaps they are a little slower, but I imagine they'd be up to speed pretty quickly (!)

Well, Sky are certainly slow as a BB service here - for a supposed 16Meg service I was assured, repeatedly, I could expect to actually get around 13Meg, and in reality, I have yet to EVER actually get even 4Meg, never mind 13Meg.

Virgin, on the other hand, always hit about 95% of the advertised speed. For 16Meg, I always got over 15Meg. It's just a shame CS and admin was so atrocious.

[3dcandy]

Yup Saracen but it's nearly always internal wiring or something on the customers side that is out of the control of Sky or even BT for that matter that can make your speed rubbish. Virgin are lucky enough to be able to control this side far more easily because of their system (if you can call that) whereas ADSL is still tied to old infrastructure. Even so, that seems quite low. I was comparing Sky to other ADSL suppliers, not Virgin. I'm holding my breath too with Virgin now they're American owned...

[crossy]

They are one of the best broadband providers in the UK, only really beaten by BT in speed terms - i hope that doesn't change...it's one area Sky are terrible in so they really need to keep that advantage.

Hmm, I must have missed some announcement then, since according to their websites VM are doing 100mb and BT 76mb. So doesn't that give VM the download speed award?

I'll second the plaudits for VMs broadband, heck I use mine for telecommuting so I appreciate the reliability greatly. In which case Liberty are spot on for concentrating on that. Engineers I've had 'on site' have all been pretty good too.

So like most, here's hoping for better customer services and a strong desire to take the fight to Sky!

[pinkpound]

They are one of the best broadband providers in the UK, only really beaten by BT in speed terms - i hope that doesn't change...it's one area Sky are terrible in so they really need to keep that advantage.

Hmm, I must have missed some announcement then, since according to their websites VM are doing 100mb and BT 76mb. So doesn't that give VM the download speed award?

I'll second the plaudits for VMs broadband, heck I use mine for telecommuting so I appreciate the reliability greatly. In which case Liberty are spot on for concentrating on that. Engineers I've had 'on site' have all been pretty good too.

So like most, here's hoping for better customer services and a strong desire to take the fight to Sky!

BT do FTTP 160mb and now 330mb....

[Unique]

VM are great for broadband, i'm on 100mb service and i literally get 113mb or so at times, like in the morning when i tend to download stuff. and in a few months it will be upgraded to 120mb, so if i get the extra 10% on top as they usually do then thats 130mb+ (as the box is literally a stones throw from my window)

if i couldn't get VM then i'd be lucky to get 24mb via ADSL and have to pay for a phone line too. even going from 30mb on virgin which gave me 33mb solidly, back to ADSL would be a step back. i presume as VM is in the area then no other supplier will offer fibre broadband

[Dark Knight]

I wouldn't even consider going near Virgin Media with the amount of speed limitations. Better off with an unlimited provider.

[ik9000]

BT do FTTP 160mb and now 330mb....

yes, but then they use the same throttling and traffic management as they use on ADSL. Virgin's top tier unlimited really is unlimited. Not so BT's. So a headline 330mb figure is jack all value when BT deem your gaming traffic and i-player HD watching too much and squeeze the pipe. I was soo glad to leave BT. Virgin, for all the customer service headache, have got broadband right.

I am saddened to hear VM have been bought out. I doubt the new folks will keep the perks for the top packages. This is not good news.

oh, and anyone bitching about VM customer service - try Three or Talk Talk. Now there's poor CS if ever there was one.