Virgin Media trials longer bandwidth throttling

[Apex]

Virgin Media trials longer bandwidth throttling

Virgin Media's heaviest cable broadband users will be hit with tighter bandwidth throttling at peak times, as the firm tries to cope with increasing demand across its network.

© Copyright 1998–2009 - theregister

Now me, this might be the final nail in the coffin, recently the speed I have been getting at peak time is laughable.

I am giving serious thought to getting a BT line installed and going with O2/BE or Sky has am getting sick of the poor performance that now seems to have effected the Huddersfield area

[Grey M@a]

Virgin Media trials longer bandwidth throttling



© Copyright 1998–2009 - theregister

Now me, this might be the final nail in the coffin, recently the speed I have been getting at peak time is laughable.

I am giving serious thought to getting a BT line installed and going with O2/BE or Sky has am getting sick of the poor performance that now seems to have effected the Huddersfield area

It's just as bad in the NE, I am constantly throttled even though I wouldn't of used the net at all that day. I log on and bam, I am throttled from the get go, had virgin on the phone about it a number of times. Think I am also on the verge of dumping cable and going back to BT phone with 24mb BE internet.

[Agent]

That's it, I'm done too.

I'm not a heavy downloader at all, and don't touch Torrents but Virgin for me has become pretty crappy in my area (where it used to be amazing). This is just one step too far.

BE say I can expect about 7meg, which is lower than Virgin - but if it's more stable I'm more than happy with that.

[kalniel]

BE say I can expect about 7meg, which is lower than Virgin - but if it's more stable I'm more than happy with that.

They told me 5.5-6.5.. I actually got the full 8

[Lee H]

That's it, I'm done too.

BE say I can expect about 7meg, which is lower than Virgin - but if it's more stable I'm more than happy with that.

About time Agent it's only took you what a year and a half lol

if you cannot get over 8 Mb have you thought about getting O2 broadband as they are the same parent company as Be. Also if you have a contract or PAYG O2 mobile you'll get it cheaper as well so that might be worth looking into.

[0iD]

The problesm I've had with Virgin ADSL too. Like BBC iPlayer, because it uses P2P technology, it gets throttled.

Ah well, I don't care, I'm moving anyway

[Agent]

About time Agent it's only took you what a year and a half lol

if you cannot get over 8 Mb have you thought about getting O2 broadband as they are the same parent company as Be. Also if you have a contract or PAYG O2 mobile you'll get it cheaper as well so that might be worth looking into.

I will need to get a new contract, as I have a cheap Virgin one due to having broadband with them. Is there much saving to be made?

[Jay]

I am dumping my backup 2Mb becuase VM charge me just under £18.50 for it!

[Singh400]

Wow, that sucks. I recently switched from BT to BE. And they are excellent. Download is awesome considering how far I am from my exchange. I'm roughly 1.6KM as the crow files and I pull 11Mbps / 1400Kb/s easy. Upload speed is brilliant too.

If anyone needs a referral shoot me a PM (no connection charge - £24).

[mehmeh]

Allthough I wont be effected by this trial in the short term (I think?) and in this area network seems solid, thats enough for me now too. Be/O2 enabled our local exchange just after christmas but have been putting off the switch. Not anymore, bye bye VM!

[LuckyNV]

That's it, I'm done too.

I'm not a heavy downloader at all, and don't touch Torrents but Virgin for me has become pretty crappy in my area (where it used to be amazing). This is just one step too far.

BE say I can expect about 7meg, which is lower than Virgin - but if it's more stable I'm more than happy with that.

Be estimates are taken directly from BT's records which are usually inaccurate, my estimate from BT is 6Mbps and from Be its 14Mbps, but I sync between 19-21Mbps with Be Unlimited. No traffic shaping either.
The most accurate estimate would be your line attenuation stat from your router and perhaps some guess work by distance to the nearest telephone exchange.

I will say some areas are having some problems with latency and congestion, nothing wrong on my end though.

[Lee H]

I will need to get a new contract, as I have a cheap Virgin one due to having broadband with them. Is there much saving to be made?

http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/packages.jsp

oooh - free SMS messages has been added, I like the look of that

All the prices for O2 customers are discounted and seeing as I'm on O2, when I move guess what I'm getting as my ISP to save more cash for nappies

[UseItNow]

That's it, I'm done too.

I'm not a heavy downloader at all, and don't touch Torrents but Virgin for me has become pretty crappy in my area (where it used to be amazing). This is just one step too far.

BE say I can expect about 7meg, which is lower than Virgin - but if it's more stable I'm more than happy with that.

Ditto.

Looks like I'll be considering O2/Be. Which of these don't have throttling?

[Cozwin]

have no experience with 02 but i am with be and i believe they are pretty damn similar...

But Be do have one very big problem and this annoys the crap out of me and thats is DNS goes down all the time lol.

We also lose sync and connection alot here no idea why.

[Sputnik]

I ditched Virgin 2 months ago. Was paying £37 a month for their UPTO 20Mb, Which never got better than 8.5Mb and the network outages were getting a joke in the end.

Been on Be for 2 months increased upload speed is very good. and I get a solid 8.4Mb downstream. Only thing I can moan about is I should have changed a long time ago.

For anyone concerned about Be's customer service - My mate had a BT phone line installed at 9am, Ordered Be (online) at 11am and it was connected and working by 4pm the same day.

Now that is what I call service!

[LuckyNV]

Ditto.

Looks like I'll be considering O2/Be. Which of these don't have throttling?

Neither have throttling.

have no experience with 02 but i am with be and i believe they are pretty damn similar...

But Be do have one very big problem and this annoys the crap out of me and thats is DNS goes down all the time lol.

We also lose sync and connection alot here no idea why.

Try use OpenDNS, I've used both, had no problems with either, using OpenDNS right now though.