5 ms·

Virgin Media: 100Mbps access across entire network next year

7 points by ukdm 17y ago

sliverstorm 17y ago
There is only one question that remains: How do we get Virgin Media onto US soil!? That kind of competition is exactly what we don't have today.
- andyking 17y ago
  Or even: how do we get Virgin Media onto the rest of the UK's soil? Their network coverage, being made up of piecemeal local networks built in the '80s and '90s that have slowly merged and been taken over until they eventually became one company, is rather sporadic. They cover some towns and not others, and I even know of some people who have Virgin cable access down one side of the street and not the other! They don't appear to have any plans to cable any further areas on top of their existing coverage. So while it's fantastic competition in cabled areas, in much of the country BT still have carte blanche to continue their half-arsed "let's perpetually do a trial here and a pilot there and never actually launch anything" approach to fast broadband.
piers 17y ago
The problem with this is that (AFAIK) there are no 100Mbps wifi routers around over here in the UK, so unless you want trailing cables or to have cables fitted professionally you're still only going to get approx 54 Mbps
- rufo 17y ago
  I just did a quick check on amazon.co.uk and I see plenty of 300Mbit-advertised 802.11n routers... is there some regulatory problem or something else I'm missing?
- sliverstorm 17y ago
  The people who spring for 100Mbps will hopefully be aware of this already- they will hopefully be techies! And, finally, maybe one day people will understand that 'wireless' is not a kind of internet, and it does not even necessarily correlate to fast internet. (For a few years everyone I spent time with used 'wireless' to refer to any fast internet, and also presumed if it was wireless it was as fast as money could buy. GAHRGH!) edit: hell, it's already an issue- Virgin offers 50Mbps, and wifi only offers it's (theoretical!) max of 54 when you've got excellent signal strength.
- forkqueue 17y ago
  Not true, 802.11n is widely available here.
ZeroGravitas 17y ago
The nice thing about this is that they only keep three pricing tiers so folk on lower tiers get bumped for free: 10 -> 20Mbps 20 -> 50Mbps 50 -> 100Mbps And unlike DSL you don't get some fraction of this dependant on your location, you basically get what's advertised, consistently.
- fendale 17y ago
  I recently upgraded my Virgin Media 10Mbps broadband to 20Mbps to get a price reduction, and to be honest, I don't notice it being one bit faster. I seem to get about 3 - 4Mbps max download speed, which is what I got before. Maybe there is something wrong with my setup, but I have one box connected directly to the modem with 100Mbps ethernet and I have never seen it go even close to 20Mbps unfortunately.
  - ZeroGravitas 17y ago
    First, are you on Virgin ADSL? Or "Virgin National Broadband" as they brand it. If so you're going to get the same speed variability as any other ADSL provider. I'm talking about their cable service. Anecdotally, any time I've measured I've got almost bang on what I'm paying for (at several speed rates and in three different houses over several years, though all in one general area). More scientifically the Ofcom report about the poor performance of ADSL compared to advertised speed noted that it didn't really apply to cable based systems. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy They got a table there that shows on ADSL you're getting 50% of the 8MB they advertise on average, on Virgin Media you're getting 85% of the 10MB advertised speed. Obviously if some folk are getting 100% then other's can be on 70% and it'll still average out but I'd say it's worth getting your line checked if you're only getting 20% of what you're paying for.
    - fendale 17y ago
      I am on the cable national broadband for sure - def not ADSL. My bill tells me I am on the XL 20MB package. I am still running one of the really old grey modems though. They sent me a new black one ages ago, but I have not activated it as yet. Maybe I should give that a try (have held back for fear of it knocking out my broadband for a few days if things go wrong!) and see if things get better. My speed is pretty good, but I have never been able to push it toward even 10Mbps no matter how many downloads I have going.
buro9 17y ago
Ah yes, but you'll only get 1Mbps or 2Mbps for your upstream (if past and current offerings are anything to go by). Not game-changing... I never tax my 50Mbps connection because without a decent upstream I cannot take advantage of what I have. I imagine I'll downgrade my package when they bump me up so that I just continue with what I have for less cost.
- buro9 17y ago
  Actually I'm wrong... more digging around and I've found this: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/02/25/virgin-media-uk-tops-4-1m-broadband-isp-users-and-preps-100mbps-service.html http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/02/25/virgin-media-uk-... "Trials of faster upstream speeds, including up to 20Mbps, are also underway as they prepare for increasing demand for faster broadband."
almost 17y ago
But probably still capped at 2GB/day before 8pm. If you go over that amount before 8 they throttle down to something very slow for 5 hours (even if you just went over at 7:59 PM, how does that make sense?)
dmytton 17y ago
Whilst you may technically be connected at ("near") those speeds, you'll really be at the mercy of their exchange equipment load. I just closed my broadband account with Virgin Cable due to breach of contract on their part. Their equipment at the exchange was overloaded with too many subscribers in the area, leading to about 90% packet loss at peak, and 20-50% loss at other times. 2 months after reporting the issue and they hadn't upgraded their network, so I left.

7 points by ukdm 17y ago

There is only one question that remains: How do we get Virgin Media onto US soil!? That kind of competition is exactly what we don't have today.

andyking 17y ago
Or even: how do we get Virgin Media onto the rest of the UK's soil? Their network coverage, being made up of piecemeal local networks built in the '80s and '90s that have slowly merged and been taken over until they eventually became one company, is rather sporadic. They cover some towns and not others, and I even know of some people who have Virgin cable access down one side of the street and not the other! They don't appear to have any plans to cable any further areas on top of their existing coverage. So while it's fantastic competition in cabled areas, in much of the country BT still have carte blanche to continue their half-arsed "let's perpetually do a trial here and a pilot there and never actually launch anything" approach to fast broadband.

piers 17y ago

The problem with this is that (AFAIK) there are no 100Mbps wifi routers around over here in the UK, so unless you want trailing cables or to have cables fitted professionally you're still only going to get approx 54 Mbps

rufo 17y ago
I just did a quick check on amazon.co.uk and I see plenty of 300Mbit-advertised 802.11n routers... is there some regulatory problem or something else I'm missing?
sliverstorm 17y ago
The people who spring for 100Mbps will hopefully be aware of this already- they will hopefully be techies! And, finally, maybe one day people will understand that 'wireless' is not a kind of internet, and it does not even necessarily correlate to fast internet. (For a few years everyone I spent time with used 'wireless' to refer to any fast internet, and also presumed if it was wireless it was as fast as money could buy. GAHRGH!) edit: hell, it's already an issue- Virgin offers 50Mbps, and wifi only offers it's (theoretical!) max of 54 when you've got excellent signal strength.
forkqueue 17y ago
Not true, 802.11n is widely available here.

ZeroGravitas 17y ago

The nice thing about this is that they only keep three pricing tiers so folk on lower tiers get bumped for free: 10 -> 20Mbps 20 -> 50Mbps 50 -> 100Mbps And unlike DSL you don't get some fraction of this dependant on your location, you basically get what's advertised, consistently.

fendale 17y ago
I recently upgraded my Virgin Media 10Mbps broadband to 20Mbps to get a price reduction, and to be honest, I don't notice it being one bit faster. I seem to get about 3 - 4Mbps max download speed, which is what I got before. Maybe there is something wrong with my setup, but I have one box connected directly to the modem with 100Mbps ethernet and I have never seen it go even close to 20Mbps unfortunately.
- ZeroGravitas 17y ago
  First, are you on Virgin ADSL? Or "Virgin National Broadband" as they brand it. If so you're going to get the same speed variability as any other ADSL provider. I'm talking about their cable service. Anecdotally, any time I've measured I've got almost bang on what I'm paying for (at several speed rates and in three different houses over several years, though all in one general area). More scientifically the Ofcom report about the poor performance of ADSL compared to advertised speed noted that it didn't really apply to cable based systems. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy They got a table there that shows on ADSL you're getting 50% of the 8MB they advertise on average, on Virgin Media you're getting 85% of the 10MB advertised speed. Obviously if some folk are getting 100% then other's can be on 70% and it'll still average out but I'd say it's worth getting your line checked if you're only getting 20% of what you're paying for.
  - fendale 17y ago
    I am on the cable national broadband for sure - def not ADSL. My bill tells me I am on the XL 20MB package. I am still running one of the really old grey modems though. They sent me a new black one ages ago, but I have not activated it as yet. Maybe I should give that a try (have held back for fear of it knocking out my broadband for a few days if things go wrong!) and see if things get better. My speed is pretty good, but I have never been able to push it toward even 10Mbps no matter how many downloads I have going.

buro9 17y ago

Ah yes, but you'll only get 1Mbps or 2Mbps for your upstream (if past and current offerings are anything to go by). Not game-changing... I never tax my 50Mbps connection because without a decent upstream I cannot take advantage of what I have. I imagine I'll downgrade my package when they bump me up so that I just continue with what I have for less cost.

buro9 17y ago
Actually I'm wrong... more digging around and I've found this: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/02/25/virgin-media-uk-tops-4-1m-broadband-isp-users-and-preps-100mbps-service.html http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/02/25/virgin-media-uk-... "Trials of faster upstream speeds, including up to 20Mbps, are also underway as they prepare for increasing demand for faster broadband."

almost 17y ago

But probably still capped at 2GB/day before 8pm. If you go over that amount before 8 they throttle down to something very slow for 5 hours (even if you just went over at 7:59 PM, how does that make sense?)

dmytton 17y ago

Whilst you may technically be connected at ("near") those speeds, you'll really be at the mercy of their exchange equipment load. I just closed my broadband account with Virgin Cable due to breach of contract on their part. Their equipment at the exchange was overloaded with too many subscribers in the area, leading to about 90% packet loss at peak, and 20-50% loss at other times. 2 months after reporting the issue and they hadn't upgraded their network, so I left.