Virgin 50mb!

[Jay]

I trialled the 50MB service for 4 months... Back to 20MB now, cant afford the huge price tag (even though i get £10 off due to trialling..)

The service was and has always been FANTASTIC in my area... I hear so many negative comments, a shame that the superb comments rarely get a peak...

Thats because few people will post a positive reaction although VM's nework is not equal and I know a few people who work in their core network and they say that some of their areas are very poor.

[Sputnik]

I trialled the 50MB service for 4 months... Back to 20MB now, cant afford the huge price tag (even though i get £10 off due to trialling..)

The service was and has always been FANTASTIC in my area... I hear so many negative comments, a shame that the superb comments rarely get a peak...

I've been a cable customer since it was Telewest back in year 2000 and I've often sung their praises but, Since Virgin took over it has gone downhill in certain areas (mine being one of them) and the customer service is just plain silly.

I've now decided that in this area I can get a faster service on a phone line and for less money.

At the end of the day, It's horses for courses and in this area Virgin is only good for the knackers yard.

[Agent]

Since Virgin took over....It's horses for courses and in this area Virgin is only good for the knackers yard.

Virgin did not take over anyone. It's the same company - they just re-branded themselves under the Virgin banner.

[Apex]

VM 10Meg and all fine here , might be tempted by this

[Sputnik]

VM 10Meg and all fine here , might be tempted by this

I get 10Meg on the 10Meg package (which I downgraded to) but, When I was on the 20Meg I only averaged 8.5Meg. The highest speed I ever got was 14Meg and that was only once.

[Sputnik]

Virgin did not take over anyone. It's the same company - they just re-branded themselves under the Virgin banner.

Ok, Since they have worn the Virgin banner, They are useless!

[Betty_Swallocks]

Apart from some speed issues just after they upgraded us from 10mb to 20 I haven't had any problems with them. Solid 20mb download at all times unless I get myself throttled and I know the criteria for that so I can decide whether I get throtttled or not.

I won't be going for the 50Mb though. If it had been a straight upgrade like the one from 10 to 20 I'd have stuck with it but tbh the extra cost has made me examine whether I actually need to 20 I have. I think I'm probably going to downgrade to 10.

[Dreaming]

I'm going home to Leicester for xmas where we have I think the 4mb package (it might have been upgraded).

It would be nice if it was 50mb! Although the problem I find with bandwidth is not having a fixed limit, but having it when you want it. For example: 99% of the time I'm just browsing, but if I buy a new PC game I want the whole game downloaded now, dammit! So do I go with the smallest package which is fine for me most of the time, or the biggest package which means that 1% of the time I get the stuff in a timely manner?

Since there is no physical limitation on the fibre optic cable as far as I'm aware - it's just NTL throttling - if they let people download in ultra-fast bursts (like real 50mb/s) that would be best for me really. Though I'm aware some would abuse it and just max out the connection non stop. I'm sceptical about the idea of absolute bandwidth caps as well as plainly put, they suck. Left4dead is something like 6/7gb, some monthly caps are smaller than that.

As for the experience, Virgin is the same as when it was NTL - to the extent I still call it NTL and go to NTL's website for support etc. I find it pretty good on the whole, except for when I was diagnosing a broken modem or something a few years ago (I assume, since the ultimate resolution was a new one) and the tech support guy in India was an absolute nub and kept telling me to do stupid things like open internet explorer and go to www.google.com, does it work, ok unplug your PC and try again - even though I told him I had exhausted those options already. Took 40 minutes for him to say they were going to send an engineer round!

[Blastuk]

...
Since there is no physical limitation on the fibre optic cable as far as I'm aware - it's just NTL throttling - if they let people download in ultra-fast bursts (like real 50mb/s) that would be best for me really. ...

there's a sucker right there, hey my isp uses fibre too!

[Barrichello]

The service was and has always been FANTASTIC in my area... I hear so many negative comments, a shame that the superb comments rarely get a peak...

Likewise. Had no problems at all for two years with my 4mb (that got free upgrade to 10mb) i nearly always download at full speed, cant remember any down time at all.

[smokeygt4]

Ok, so apparently its available in scotland, midlands and sawf London.

But, its 1.5mb up stream.

Now i've long said that bit-torrent is simply a moronic technology designed to greatly increase the cost of the internet bit by bit, without the user realising the true cost.

But can someone who can be bothered, calculate how much of the upstream will be gone simply in ACK'ing all that 50mbit down?

Is it even enough?

I read this about virgins cracking down on bit-torrent
(sorry i can't post link newbie)

The UK’s second largest ISP, Virgin Media, will next year introduce network monitoring technology to specifically target and restrict BitTorrent traffic, its boss has told The Register.

The move will represent a major policy shift for the cable monopoly and is likely to anger advocates of “net neutrality”, who say all internet traffic should be treated equally. Virgin Media currently temporarily throttles the bandwidth of its heaviest downloaders across all applications at peak times, rather than targeting and “shaping” specific types of traffic.

The firm argues that its current “traffic management” policy allows it to ensure service quality at peak times for 95 per cent of customers while still allowing peer-to-peer filesharers to download large amounts of data.

The details and timing of the new application-based restrictions are still being developed, Virgin Media’s Kiwi CEO Neil Berkett said in an interview on Monday following the launch of his firm’s new 50Mbit/s service. They will come into force around the middle of next year, he added.

[Sputnik]

When I rang virgin this week to cancel their service, They told me they plan to offer a 200Mb service in the future - I don't know how as they struggle to provide more than 8Mb on the upto 20Mb package in my area.
When he eventually gave up trying to persuade me to keep them, He admitted that the service was over subscribed in my area now. Who is to blame for that? In my opinion, Virgin are as they should stop connecting people when they have reached the limit of their network.
The thing with ISP's is people seem to put up and shut up. Yet, they would not pay for a full tank of petrol and accept half a tank - whats the difference?

After all, As Virgin have always been so proud to point out that their own network gives them the edge over other ISP's that use BT phone lines, Shame they don't point out this don't work if they supply too many customers in an area. But, Of course it's not their fault they sold half my bandwidth to my neighbour is it?

[Kumagoro]

I have 10 Mbps Virgin and with speed tests I get about 9.7 consistently and when downloading
for websites with decent bandwidth like say Microsoft I can get 1.2 MB/s down and the pings
are reasonably good.

However when surfing around it often takes a while to connect to sites and a while to load them
and very often when I click on a link i get a 404 but when i reload it, it works. Even with a fresh
install or using different computers it does the same thing. A friend of mine has decent 6 Mbps
ADSL and that just seems to zip around sites compared to mine... weird.

[ipcam]

Higher speed from virgin doesn't give you freedom to surf and faster download. Virgin traffic management suck!

[Chris P]

Bethere 48mb is being trialed in London at the moment

[Barrichello]

Bethere 48mb is being trialed in London at the moment

Would be interesting to some im sure, but still that same old problem.....

Requirements

* BT landline required