Just thought I would write a quick post about my new Virgin Media 20MB broadband connection that I had installed the other day. I was a bit dubious at first about what speed I would achieve once it was installed as the media is currently full of scare mongering over the actual speed verses the advertised rates. Although in my opinion it is clearly stated in most cases that the speed will be ‘up to’, in any case if you are using ADSL you can see what speed you are likely to achieve using our broadband line check tool, unfortunately we can’t provide the same estimate for cable packages.
Sorry, back to the Virgin Media connection, I have to say it is fantastic! I am constantly achieving broadband speeds of between 18-20MB which is much better than I expected and the connection has worked flawlessly since it was installed. With my new connection working from home on the Internet is actually easier and quicker than being in the office.
I did have to get an engineer to come out and install me a new modem, I was previously connecting through my Virgin Media TV Box and apparently that would not be able to handle the 20MB connection. But the engineer came and went without any fuss and checked everything was working before he left. My only hope is that Virgin do not implement any traffic shaping on me as I have been downloading quite a lot since the new connection was installed, seeing as the price of the Virgin Media XL Broadband Package is quite high I hope they don’t otherwise they may soon lose me as a customer.
All in all I have to recommend the Virgin Media 20MB broadband connection as it is the fastest I have experienced and hasn’t had any problems so far (fingers crossed).
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mark gilbert said on 17 Aug 2007 at 10:29 am #
I have just taken Vigin media up on their offer , not the XL 20mb package mind but the one to get my money back in 30 days!!!
Why? because they have completely misrepresented the situation. Drill down on the 20mb link and you’ll see that this is really a 10mb service (ableit on testing only ever getting 3.5 on average) being rolled out to 20mb. Well apparently this has been going on since May but has yet to reach my area (South London)
See now this is what irks me so , why on sign up request my postcode to see if virgin are active in my area but then not be able to tell me what the true picture is.
If only these Large media companies would wake up to the fact that truthfulness in business relates to loyalty, the 20mb hook i got caught on is just that a HOOK to reel in the punters.
The other issue is this. OK so its 10mb or up to 10mb as they say , which in itself is fine as i’m aware of the reasoning behind not being able to guarantee network speeds but lets look a that figure again 10mb is not actually the case is it because as i mentioned earlier on average testing over 30-50 times over 2 days at very differing times of day it really was only 3.5mb which is just 1 third of the target.
so times that by two for my 20mb connection and really whats on offer here is a one third of 20mb so my shiny nice 20mb service that may arrive in my area sometime soon would probably be 7mb ….f…ing woopeee
I work in IT want a tip try bethere.co.uk 24mb adsl does what it says on the tin my business clients have it and the service is great. it’s just a bloody shame they are not in Kenley y
Tony Grey said on 22 Aug 2007 at 3:39 pm #
I know a few people who have had a similar probalem with their Virgin Connection. They keep ensuring them that the service will improve, but i think i’ll mention about bethere.co.uk
Darth Littlejohn said on 23 Aug 2007 at 8:52 am #
People are forgetting that because cable doesnt suffer from the postcode lottery curse of ADSL, it doesn’t mean that it does not have its own problems. If everyone on your street is using cable then you defs aren’t going to get the full whack of your 20MB service.
James said on 23 Aug 2007 at 9:17 am #
Well in my street I do seem to get the 20MB connection offered at most times during the day, I have had the connection just over a week now and so far so good. The only downside so far is that it is not cheap.
All broadband providers do seem to have some issues with service levels and I don’t see this stopping anytime in the future unless we move to a fiber optic infrastructure like that of Sweden or some countries in the far east.
I will update this post if I start to notice any fall in performance levels.
Darth Littlejohn said on 23 Aug 2007 at 9:33 am #
We do need a better fibre optic network in this country.
And I do agree with you about the media scare over advertised broadband speeds - if people can’t be bothered to read smallprint it’s their own fault if they don’t get the speed they think they should be getting.
richard carrey said on 23 Sep 2007 at 12:20 pm #
Ny experience is that when my VirginMedia XL installed about one month ago it was delivering about 17Mb download. I noticed things getting a bit sluggish recently and over the last 24 hrs show an average of 2.9Mb download with a max of 4.3 Mb and a minimum of 0.5Mb. Upload speeds are pretty stable at 0.7Mb. Looks like they reel you in and give decent bandwith at first then throttle it back. I’ll be contacting them for an explanation. Seems the OFT are taking an interest in the mis-representation and cynical advertising techniques being used in BB selling.
Hywel said on 01 Oct 2007 at 8:45 am #
Sounds like you’ve overused your ‘Unlimited’ cap. You will be throttled if this happens - its happened to me before. Sucks I know, but I thought everybody now knows that ‘unlimited’ doesn’t mean unlimited!
Jason said on 22 May 2008 at 2:04 pm #
I have just been the phone with VM for 40 mins demanding a refund.
Ever since joining VM (from Telewest) I insisted that I be put on the fastest broadband they can offer, I paid my bills every month without fail etc. this morning an engineer came out and checked our line, everything was fine until he said that we were only getting 4mb, i said are you sure because we should be getting up to 20mb (I they say they are suppling 20mb I would be happy with anything from 15mb to 20mb), he then said thats funny because they dont even supply 20mb to your area - WHAT!!!!, well why the hell are they charging me for 20mb if they dont even supply it.
Straight on the phone, 40 minutes later still not happy as they are now saying that i have to tell them how long I havnt been getting 20mb, I said I dont know because I just assumed that if you ar esupply 20mb then I should be getting something near that (15mb-20mb=happy), they said they cant refund me until I tell them for how long I havn’t been getting 20mb
Still arguing with them now, they wont accept the fact thay have been charging me for 20mb but only supplying 4mb
Eze said on 21 Sep 2008 at 10:58 pm #
I can’t understand why Virgin calls itself the fastest UK broadband. I mean, BE (bethere.co.uk) offers download speeds of up to 24MB. I’ve been with them for a couple of years and the service has been great. Isn’t that a little bit of misselling on Virgin’s part? I do like the Virgin brand in general, but I simply don’t agree with their claim on this one!
Marjane said on 25 Sep 2008 at 10:10 am #
I think for a while Virgin were the fastest in terms of average speeds, but Be have always theoretically been the fastest available.
If I remember rightly, O2 (which uses/owns the Be network) currenlt hold the record for the fastest connections on average???