• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Branson/Bolt Keep Promise

Status
Not open for further replies.

Butts

Veteran Member
Joined
16 Jan 2011
Messages
11,323
Location
Stirlingshire
I had heard that Virgin Media were supposed to be doubling download speeds foc from various propaganda from the "bearded ones".

I was rather sceptical being on the "beggars package" however having just downloaded something from BBC I Player I noticed the speed had doubled from 8-9mbs to 17-18mbs.

Makes a change for an undertaking to be honoured :p
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

starrymarkb

Established Member
Joined
4 Aug 2009
Messages
5,985
Location
Exeter
Indeed, the cable was laid up to next door, they will not extend it the 20 feet to mine, but I still get all the literature saying you can get xxxMB per second and many channels through the door. Go in the shop and "we can give you slower internet then your current ISP for more money and a freeview box", annoyingly there are no plans to enable this road for fibre to the cabinet (aka BT infinity)
 

Bungle73

On Moderation
Joined
19 Aug 2011
Messages
3,040
Location
Kent
I had heard that Virgin Media were supposed to be doubling download speeds foc from various propaganda from the "bearded ones".

I was rather sceptical being on the "beggars package" however having just downloaded something from BBC I Player I noticed the speed had doubled from 8-9mbs to 17-18mbs.

Makes a change for an undertaking to be honoured :p
I'm not sure why you're surprised. They've been increasing the speed every few years. I started off on 512K (when it was Blueyonder) and atm I'm on 10Mb. I expect that to double when they great around to doing my area.

It's easy when you can exclude large swathes of the population ;)
That's what you get for living in the sticks! :p
 

Butts

Veteran Member
Joined
16 Jan 2011
Messages
11,323
Location
Stirlingshire
I'm not sure why you're surprised. They've been increasing the speed every few years. I started off on 512K (when it was Blueyonder) and atm I'm on 10Mb. I expect that to double when they great around to doing my area.


That's what you get for living in the sticks! :p

Nice to see your Cat back......the suprise was it just happened after the hype going on for ages....there was no official notification ie from xxx it will start.

"Sticks".....Falkirk well relative to London I suppose so :p
 

Bungle73

On Moderation
Joined
19 Aug 2011
Messages
3,040
Location
Kent
Nice to see your Cat back
Thank! :D

......the suprise was it just happened after the hype going on for ages....there was no official notification ie from xxx it will start.

"Sticks".....Falkirk well relative to London I suppose so :p

I'm sure they sent me an email about it, and the details were available one the website.
 

richw

Veteran Member
Joined
10 Jun 2010
Messages
11,213
Location
Liskeard
constantly get virgin media, delivering junk flyers about their tv and superfast broadband.
Only problem i have is that virgin media dont have their "cable" in Cornwall, and i live down in the far end of cornwall as well. Surely a waste of marketing resources sending flyers on a monthly basis to places they dont serve within a hundred miles of!
 

Drsatan

Established Member
Joined
24 Aug 2009
Messages
1,884
Location
Land of the Sprinters
I used to live in Exeter and I'd receive plenty of junk mail from Virgin Media advertising TV, phone and broadband deals; however, many of these deals are misleading since they don't include line rental! Interestingly enough, my last ISP was Plusnet and I had to pay line rental even though Plusnet are part of BT!

In Exeter, Virgin Media's service is notoriously unreliable. There was a demonstration outside the Virgin Media shop in Exeter high street a couple of years ago protesting about how unreliable Virgin media is, and how connection speeds were considerably less than promised. I've also heard in other areas Virgin Media will throttle downloads even if you're using their unlimited tariff.

In other words, unless you want to be screwed over, don't bother with Virgin Media!
 

sonic2009

Established Member
Joined
19 Jan 2010
Messages
4,915
Location
Crewe
I've just moved into Bishops Cleeve in Cheltenham, I've had no few than 5 adverts for Virgin Media in the past two weeks!

I wouldn't choose Virgin anyway as they don't cover my area!

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
 

Mojo

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
7 Aug 2005
Messages
20,382
Location
0035
My parents have a similar problem; their house was built around 2000, but the cable only goes half way along the road serving the original housing. Virgin Media consistently offer the best services that would meet their needs (and would enable them to avoid the awful service from BT), but unfortunately it is not available.
 

SS4

Established Member
Joined
30 Jan 2011
Messages
8,589
Location
Birmingham
I've heard off a couple of mates that Virgin like to throttle your speed at peak time and if you're using the bittorrent protocol at any time, legal or otherwise.
It riles me that Virgin advertise such speeds (conveniently forgetting hidden extras) and that TiVo was a brand-new service when in the US it's been around long enough for it to become used as a verb meaning to record.
 

Bungle73

On Moderation
Joined
19 Aug 2011
Messages
3,040
Location
Kent
I've heard off a couple of mates that Virgin like to throttle your speed at peak time and if you're using the bittorrent protocol at any time, legal or otherwise.
It riles me that Virgin advertise such speeds (conveniently forgetting hidden extras) and that TiVo was a brand-new service when in the US it's been around long enough for it to become used as a verb meaning to record.

Virgin's Traffic Management police is clearly laid out on their website: http://help.virginmedia.com/system/...&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable

They're not the only ISP that does this.

The Virgin TiVo box IS a new service. Don't forget that there was a standard TiVo box sold in the UK some years ago, buy it was killed off by Sky+.

Also, I think we need to differentiate between Virgin Cable (which usually delivers a constant speed) and Virgin ADSL (where speed can be affected by factors like the number of other users, and distance from the exchange). I have the former.
 

Yew

Established Member
Joined
12 Mar 2011
Messages
6,538
Location
UK
Virgin doubling speeds on their ADSL has Killed my parents Sky ADSL, from 5mb this time last year, to 0.6 these days. I really need to persade them to ring up and shout at sky.
 

gswindale

Member
Joined
1 Jun 2010
Messages
788
Interestingly enough, my last ISP was Plusnet and I had to pay line rental even though Plusnet are part of BT!
Name me an ADSL based ISP which does not require either line rental paid to them or BT.

The connection is provided by the phone line - therefore you have to pay line rental.
 

WestCoast

Established Member
Joined
19 Jun 2010
Messages
5,574
Location
Glasgow
In other words, unless you want to be screwed over, don't bother with Virgin Media!

Never ever had a problem with Virgin Media that was not resolved to my satisfaction, going right back to Telewest days in the late '90s. You'll find people who have had problems with every ISP/TV/telephone provider in the country. Having a Virgin connection avoids the BT line (and associated rental/hassle) completely, which from my point a view is a very good thing.
 

Bungle73

On Moderation
Joined
19 Aug 2011
Messages
3,040
Location
Kent
Virgin doubling speeds on their ADSL has Killed my parents Sky ADSL, from 5mb this time last year, to 0.6 these days. I really need to persade them to ring up and shout at sky.

What has Virgin ADSL got to with Sky ADSL?
 

Bungle73

On Moderation
Joined
19 Aug 2011
Messages
3,040
Location
Kent
Never ever had a problem with Virgin Media that was not resolved to my satisfaction, going right back to Telewest days in the late '90s. You'll find people who have had problems with every ISP/TV/telephone provider in the country. Having a Virgin connection avoids the BT line (and associated rental/hassle) completely, which from my point a view is a very good thing.

Indeed. I've been more than happy with my Virgin Cable service, and any problems have been sorted out swiftly. They even sent me a new modem the other week when I used their forum to discuss an issue.

I just wish they used UK call centres though.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I thought they all used the same infrastructure? hence more traffic on virgins network, means less capacity on skys?

All ADSL services use traditonal phone lines, but I've never heard of one ISP's service affecting another's.
 
Last edited:

Drsatan

Established Member
Joined
24 Aug 2009
Messages
1,884
Location
Land of the Sprinters
Name me an ADSL based ISP which does not require either line rental paid to them or BT.

The connection is provided by the phone line - therefore you have to pay line rental.

I just thought it was a bit strange that a subsidiary of BT would charge you to use a phone line owned by their parent company, that's all.
 

richw

Veteran Member
Joined
10 Jun 2010
Messages
11,213
Location
Liskeard
I just thought it was a bit strange that a subsidiary of BT would charge you to use a phone line owned by their parent company, that's all.

but even BT charge their customers Line rental, approx £13 a month I believe, unless paid by annual direct debit when they give a hefty discount.
 

Sox

Member
Joined
22 Oct 2010
Messages
265
I had Virgin cable for a while and they were brill, unfortunately I moved to the sticks and now rely on BT ADSL infrastructure which is poor.

I know in the centre of towns such as Blackburn, cable is all over the place (ex northern Telecoms Ltd network installed in the 90s) but it can stop rather abruptly once you leave the main built up area.

Disappointingly, Virgin don't seem to have any inclination to extend same (I don't really think they consider themselves to be a infrastructure installation company, just bought up somebody else's assets).
 

jon0844

Veteran Member
Joined
1 Feb 2009
Messages
28,013
Location
UK
It's annoying that Virgin isn't keen on cabling up new build estates, as I'd now have TiVo and high speed Internet now, which would net Virgin a tidy sum each year. Instead I pay over £1000 per annum to Sky and TalkTalk for TV, phone and slow broadband.

It will be another £200 more when I get FTTC broadband and have to pay a further premium per month.

Multiply that by other residents on a new estate and I can't imagine why they won't take a chance on installing cable speculatively.
 

Skimble19

Established Member
Joined
12 Dec 2009
Messages
1,487
Location
London
I've gone from just short of 20mb to around 62/63mb, so I'm very happy with them ATM!
 

carriageline

Established Member
Joined
11 Jan 2012
Messages
1,897
FAYI, there is an email address you can use for Virgin Media. You Email them, and they survey the area and see if it's viable to install new cabling in the are.

It's something along the lines of [email protected]
 

jon0844

Veteran Member
Joined
1 Feb 2009
Messages
28,013
Location
UK
I've been asking via their press office and still got nowhere. The only thing I heard was that they're considering looking at broadband as a future way of delivering TV, presumably when we're talking faster speeds (FTTC/FTTP) - thus saving the need to install their own cable. Not just for the on-demand stuff, but for live broadcasts, meaning you could still use your TiVo box and enjoy a decent broadband speed.

However, it's all gone quiet since then.

I think broadband speeds really need to increase a LOT before this option will be viable, and it also means Virgin loses a lot of quality control that could backfire. Personally, I can't see it happening for some time.
 

Skimble19

Established Member
Joined
12 Dec 2009
Messages
1,487
Location
London
Blimey makes mine look positively archaic - does it take about a minute to download a 1 hour prog on i-player ?
I'd imagine so, but I usually just stream them in HD these days rather than downloading.
 

Bungle73

On Moderation
Joined
19 Aug 2011
Messages
3,040
Location
Kent
I had to call out Virgin to sort out my digi box, and each time I spoke to the Virgin media call centre, I got a Scottish accent, and the Engineer who attended said the call centre is in Wales.

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/V...Swansea-2014/story-16589420-detail/story.html

Last time I had a need to speak to them the guy on the other end of the phone was Indian. They have call centres in India and the UK: http://www.virginmedia.com/nps/CallCentres.html
 

Geezertronic

Established Member
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Messages
4,089
Location
Birmingham
I believe it is first line support offshore with 2nd/3rd/4th line onshore

I have VirginMedia cable broadband & phone and Sky TV - the free TV box which Virgin gave me sits in my bedroom largely unused as it is still so bloody slow compared to the Sky box
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top