Virgin doubling broadband speeds and any data allowances

Glenn · Jan 11, 2012, 13:29:41

Will BT follow suit at no cost to the user?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16491614

pctech · Jan 11, 2012, 13:52:22

I doubt it.

zappaDPJ · Jan 11, 2012, 13:52:33

Quote from: Glenn on Jan 11, 2012, 13:29:41
Will BT follow suit at no cost to the user?

Steve · Jan 11, 2012, 14:11:19

Serious question, would anyone who has access to the Virgin media service use BT? My uninformed answer is no, so therefore BT do not have to be competitive with VM products.

Rik · Jan 11, 2012, 14:20:17

I think you have summed up the situation perfectly, Steve.

Technical Ben · Jan 11, 2012, 15:05:33

"... after halving the speeds and allowances before Christmas..."

What? I'm not always cynical, honest!

zappaDPJ · Jan 11, 2012, 15:10:43

Quote from: Steve on Jan 11, 2012, 14:11:19
Serious question, would anyone who has access to the Virgin media service use BT? My uninformed answer is no, so therefore BT do not have to be competitive with VM products.

I do know one exception to that rule, my father. They have Virgin Media to the pavement but don't want the garden trashed to bring it into the house

I also know a lot of people on Virgin Media and in general they are very happy with it. The main gripe if there is one is that their p2p throttling software occasionally throttles other data packets which causes high latency issues with computer games.

Rik · Jan 11, 2012, 17:45:51

Now that is something I wouldn't have to worry about.

FritzBox · Jan 11, 2012, 17:49:55

Quote from: Steve on Jan 11, 2012, 14:11:19
Serious question, would anyone who has access to the Virgin media service use BT?

Me

pctech · Jan 11, 2012, 20:08:57

In MK if you want to use Virgin you have to use their BT based ADSL service.

When broadband first became available where I am I got broadband with them and it absolutely rubbish, quite often in the evenings their DNS resolvers would crash or the modem I had (a speedtouch 330 aka 'The Frog') wouldn't be able to connect.

Support would be closed and on the couple of times I did ring them on a Saturday they displayed a couldn't care less attitude.

Even if I could get cable broadband from them here I wouldn't bother.

john · Jan 11, 2012, 22:30:32

I suppose most providers of anything have customers/clients who are have a problem with the product, the question is how many. I know people who use Virgin Media and think it's wonderful but I don't know if they're in the majority or the minority.

zappaDPJ · Jan 11, 2012, 22:42:29

Quote from: john on Jan 11, 2012, 22:30:32
I suppose most providers of anything have customers/clients who are have a problem with the product, the question is how many. I know people who use Virgin Media and think it's wonderful but I don't know if they're in the majority or the minority.

Everyone who I know on Virgin Media is very happy and there's quite a number of them. However if you do a comparison on thinkbroadband the results paint a completely different picture: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_2=1&isp_4=1&isp_7=1&isp_16=1&isp_21=1&isp_84=1&commit=Compare

The only thing I can surmise from that is they have a lot of customers on ADSL and it's a poor service. Everyone I know is on cable.

Lance · Jan 11, 2012, 22:59:36

The people I know on virgin media cable service are all very happy with it.

Rik · Jan 12, 2012, 09:24:31

Same here. IMO, they are unwise to use ADSL under the same brand name.

Technical Ben · Jan 12, 2012, 15:40:57

Quote from: Rik on Jan 12, 2012, 09:24:31
Same here. IMO, they are unwise to use ADSL under the same brand name.

I don't think the name is the problem. Using it under the same "promise" as the 100mb service is where the problem is. Same as O2. They already notify you that ASDL services ("Home connect" or whatever they call it) costs more and is not on their network. Yet, they still promise "unlimited bandwidth" etc. So no wonder they hit rock bottom.