SnoopZ Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Starting from 1st October 2015 Virginmedia have announced they're giving their subscribers a free speed upgrade. Customers on 50Mbps get an increase to 100Mbps, 100Mbps to 200Mbps and customers on 152Mbps to 300Mbps. No news on the upload speeds but they're likely to be in the region of 6Mbps, 12Mbps and 16Mbps. http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/7119-virgin-media-to-start-next-round-of-speed-upgrades-in-october.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloatingFatMan Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Awesome. 300mpbs! *evil cackle* Alera and MightyJordan 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skiver Veteran Posted August 19, 2015 Veteran Share Posted August 19, 2015 Urgh, I remember the last previous two times Virgin announced they were giving free speed upgrades. Funnily enough not long after that free upgrade I found my bill being increased both times. Aergan, GreatMarkO and The Evil Overlord 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeChipshop Member Posted August 19, 2015 Member Share Posted August 19, 2015 /me looks at BT connection speed, *weeps * Aergan 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloatingFatMan Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 /me looks at BT connection speed, *weeps * I'd be weeping too if I had to use BT's cables. My inlaws, 2 streets away, barely manage 1.5mbps... Alera and MikeChipshop 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeChipshop Member Posted August 19, 2015 Member Share Posted August 19, 2015 I'd be weeping too if I had to use BT's cables. My inlaws, 2 streets away, barely manage 1.5mbps... I moved from London 5 years ago, with a VM cable connection. The place i moved to had no choice but BT and at most 1.5MB speeds. About 18 months ago i moved again, still no choice but BT but at least i can get around 4MB which in comparison feels like heaven. To make it worse, we're still marked as "No plans for upgrade" on BT's fibre map. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Depicus Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Well yes ok but having had Virgin before Fibre the biggest problem was their upload speeds and the lack of a fixed ip. Thankfully despite living in the sticks I get fibre now and although it's half the download speed the uploads are 5x faster which for uploading videos is great for me. The fixed ip is a bonus and means I can run a little web server at home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted August 19, 2015 Supervisor Share Posted August 19, 2015 Whilst these speed upgrades are great, I hate Virgin Media's traffic shaping. I've been with Sky for a few years (who use BT infrastructure I believe) and having 40Mbps all day is better than having 100Mbps in the early hours of the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian M. Veteran Posted August 19, 2015 Veteran Share Posted August 19, 2015 Urgh, I remember the last previous two times Virgin announced they were giving free speed upgrades. Funnily enough not long after that free upgrade I found my bill being increased both times. Every single time they announce a free speed upgrade, the bill has gone up a couple of months later. I wish they'd stop focusing on headline speeds and do something about the pathetic upload speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alera Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Whilst these speed upgrades are great, I hate Virgin Media's traffic shaping. I've been with Sky for a few years (who use BT infrastructure I believe) and having 40Mbps all day is better than having 100Mbps in the early hours of the morning. We get little to no traffic shaping here, unless there is a problem with the line we always get high speeds. Granted there are a few times where the connection will drop and an outage or slowdown will occur for a few hours but it's fixed quite quickly and thankfully isn't that common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alera Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Every single time they announce a free speed upgrade, the bill has gone up a couple of months later. I wish they'd stop focusing on headline speeds and do something about the pathetic upload speed. I would much rather not have bandwidth caps than have higher upload speeds as seen in other countries. Commercially available gigabit internet connections should be available in the UK soon though with 100Mbps upload for decent prices if that will make you happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneNutter MVC Posted August 19, 2015 MVC Share Posted August 19, 2015 (edited) 300Mbps down and a potential 16Mbps upload, ouch. I really hope Virgin just offer 50Mbps upload or something if download speeds are getting that fast. Sure for free ill take 300Mbps, however it's of no real use to me! A good upload speed would benefit me loads more these days. Whilst these speed upgrades are great, I hate Virgin Media's traffic shaping. I've been with Sky for a few years (who use BT infrastructure I believe) and having 40Mbps all day is better than having 100Mbps in the early hours of the morning. Virgin only traffic shape the upload these days: http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy-thresholds.html which if its enough to affect download speeds i've never noticed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot B. Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 I've used Plusnet's 76 Mbps (I get around 70 Mbps) service for a few years now and whilst I'm happy with it, I'd love more speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skiver Veteran Posted August 19, 2015 Veteran Share Posted August 19, 2015 Every single time they announce a free speed upgrade, the bill has gone up a couple of months later. I wish they'd stop focusing on headline speeds and do something about the pathetic upload speed. I used to get the full TV/Phone/BB from Virgin until this year and I've now switched to a mix of VM for BB and Sky for TV because their prices were getting so ridiculous. At the point I made the change I was paying near enough what I had been paying a few years before when I had Sky Movies and Sports (obviously I had then dropped it).Now I've managed to get BB (50Mb) and Phone for £18.50 per month but I suspect that price will go up around Xmas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian M. Veteran Posted August 19, 2015 Veteran Share Posted August 19, 2015 I would much rather not have bandwidth caps than have higher upload speeds as seen in other countries. Commercially available gigabit internet connections should be available in the UK soon though with 100Mbps upload for decent prices if that will make you happy. Virgin haven't had bandwidth caps for a while. The only thing they do is slow down P2P traffic if the network is busy during peak times (which pretty much most ISPs will do). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted August 19, 2015 Supervisor Share Posted August 19, 2015 We get little to no traffic shaping here, unless there is a problem with the line we always get high speeds. Granted there are a few times where the connection will drop and an outage or slowdown will occur for a few hours but it's fixed quite quickly and thankfully isn't that common. Virgin only traffic shape the upload these days: http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy-thresholds.html which if its enough to affect download speeds i've never noticed. Would explain the other comment I wasn't aware of that but it's great news. When I move houses and Virgin is actually available I may need to look into this! Thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metallithrax Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 If they can get my 50mb service to actually go faster than 5, I'll be pleased. Low speeds due to over utilisation. Contacted the CEO and have a reduction on my bill until October, when the problem is supposed to be getting looked at. MikeChipshop 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoom7000 Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Meh! I hope they fix my network's high utilisation issues first! I'm supposed to be on 152Mbps, but I'm getting between 4 and 20Mbps in the evenings! It's a known issue that has been reported on 30th October 2014 and isn't due to be fixed until 30th September 2015, although the estimated fix date has been moved back about 5 times already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeChipshop Member Posted August 19, 2015 Member Share Posted August 19, 2015 Commercially available gigabit internet connections should be available in the UK soon though That's the problem though. For such a tiny island with very little vast expanses, we have an incredibly inconsistent service. An example of this is me vs my parents. My parent live more rural than me, further from a town but have fibre gearing up for them. No chance of it here as our area is still greyed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanx Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 *rubs hands with glee* MikeChipshop and Crisp 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 I'd be weeping too if I had to use BT's cables. My inlaws, 2 streets away, barely manage 1.5mbps... Whereas I'm pretty happy with my BT internet and 76/20mbps. That's my fastest option, cable never made it to my area despite several promises many years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeChipshop Member Posted August 19, 2015 Member Share Posted August 19, 2015 That's the problem though. For such a tiny island with very little vast expanses, we have an incredibly inconsistent service. Sorry to quote myself, probably something egotistical about it, but just to point out that those places that are considered "Vast expanses" actually either already have better internet speeds than i do, or they're already on the "getting Fibre Soon" list. Whereas I'm pretty happy with my BT internet and 76/20mbps. That's my fastest option, cable never made it to my area despite several promises many years ago. Haha at least you were promised it, i'm flat out laughed at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloatingFatMan Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Well yes ok but having had Virgin before Fibre the biggest problem was their upload speeds and the lack of a fixed ip. Thankfully despite living in the sticks I get fibre now and although it's half the download speed the uploads are 5x faster which for uploading videos is great for me. The fixed ip is a bonus and means I can run a little web server at home My IP hasn't changed in about 6 years... Just leave the SuperHub turned on, and it holds the lease permanently... Alera 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Anarkii Subscriber² Posted August 19, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted August 19, 2015 1.5mb/sec is about the average we in Australia get lolEveryone forgets about us *cries* SteveMackinnon and MikeChipshop 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeChipshop Member Posted August 19, 2015 Member Share Posted August 19, 2015 1.5mb/sec is about the average we in Australia get lolEveryone forgets about us *cries* Yeah but shouldn't you busy practicing skills to battle the nature that's trying to kill you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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