Virgin customers choke on new bandwidth limits RSS

Virgin Media have been accused of hypocrisy after it has been revealed that they shape broadband traffic during peak times, when they have routinely criticised other non-cable providers for falsely advertising their services as unlimited.

Download speeds on the cable network will be limited between 4PM and midnight for traffic which Virgin considers to be excessive, ideally to prevent heavy users of the cable network from adversely affecting the service for casual users.

Size: M customers who stray over a download limit of 350MB during the eight hour peak time period will have their 2Mbps halved to 1Mbps; Size: L punters will similarly see their 4Mbps service axed to 2Mbps should they stray over a 750MB limit and the 10Mbps connection speed available on the Size: XL package will shrink to 5Mbps once 3GB worth of data is accessed.

Despite this, Virgin still claim that they offer an ‘unlimited’ service, as the restrictions do not affect the amount you can download, just the speed at which you can access information.

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5 Comments »Posted by Tom on May 22nd 2007 in Broadband, Virgin Media



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5 Responses to “Virgin customers choke on new bandwidth limits”

  1. Dan said on 28 Jun 2007 at 2:42 pm #

    To be honest I prefer Virgin’s approach to this, rather than some company that either cuts you off or drop you down to dialup speed.

  2. David Hook said on 14 Oct 2008 at 2:44 pm #

    I recently contacted Virgin Media regarding their usage trafficking. My speeds were being cut to 2mb after I exceeded the 3gb limit on my 10mb service. Apprently, even though they are giving you 10mb speeds, the server thinks you have 4mb and is cutting that in half to 2mb. The upgrade to 10mb is not recognised by the trafficking server, so everyone with a 10mb connection is acually paying for a 4mb connection and the other 6mb is the free upgrade. So your connection will not got to 5mb, it will acually go to 2mb.

  3. Tulip said on 09 May 2009 at 10:02 pm #

    I think Virgin should sort out their infrastructure rather than punish customers! I’m a musician, I upload and download high quality large audio wav files in 32 bit 96khz format via FTP to other musicians to work on. 1 minute of this audio is roughly 100mb. Time is money in the music industry and everyday my connection is hammered by virgin for exceeding their ‘unlimited super fast broadband’ speil. Halfing my connection and doubling time spent.

  4. Voice of reason said on 14 Dec 2009 at 8:30 pm #

    They all lie about the services they provide, the limit of the connection is very rarely at the limit you can expect, which is why they advertise it at “around” 4mb connection so they can justify the fact that you sure as hell arent going to get 4mb with the addition of one simple word. And choking people for actually using the service is the height on injustice, thats like telling people ok im going to sell you a car, but if you want one with an engine in it you will have to pay extra. So this news is a non event as corporations have been ****ing over the little people for as long as can be remembered.

  5. John M said on 21 Dec 2009 at 3:05 pm #

    Tulip. I have exactly the same problem. Add to that that I legitimately buy/download large pieces of software, such as PC games through the Steam online distribution platform, as well as not owning a TV, so I stream what I want to watch online.

    My ‘unlimited’ 10MB connection has been cut down to 0.3MB the last 2 days and today it is just under 4MB…That is some heavy handed traffic shaping.

    Also. I pay £26 a month solely for the 10MB connection, but new customers are being charged £17 for the same service. Way to reward customer loyalty eh?


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