Virgin Media to trial world

[tonyjr]

Virgin Media, the UK?s leading broadband provider, is to begin testing internet speeds of up to 1.5Gb in east London. Using Virgin Media?s unique cable network, the trials will begin this month in partnership with four companies in the vicinity of Old Street in London, dubbed the ?Silicon Roundabout?.

The 1.5Gb download and 150Mb upload service will use the same infrastructure and technology as Virgin Media currently uses to provide residential customers with the country?s fastest home broadband. If successful, this will be the world?s fastest cable connection and more than 240 times faster than the national average broadband1. Similar technology tests have already proven the capability of cable to deliver download speeds of 1Gb.

Each of the companies taking part in the trial is involved in the creative industries, working extensively with video for online and mobile streaming, producing interactive applications for the web and bespoke broadcasting services for live programmes and events.

Virgin Media?s future-proofed infrastructure will mean that consumers accessing speeds of 1Gb or more, will be able to access even more interactive entertainment and services such as remote healthcare and online education, without the need to travel. As the pace of technological change increases, they will also be in the best position to enjoy web services yet to be invented.

These superfast speeds are possible because of the ?13 billion of private investment made by Virgin Media which means that every cable home is connected to a state-of-the-art fibre optic network by a high-grade coaxial line. By contrast BT?s infrastructure remains reliant on copper telephone wiring, or in some cases even more inferior aluminium, which was never intended to supply broadband. This will not change for the overwhelming majority of homes eventually offered Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) services from other providers2.

The DOCSIS3 technology used throughout Virgin Media?s network provides a future-proofed platform with theoretically near infinite capacity. Virgin Media is able to bond multiple downstream and upstream channels together to be used at the same time by a single subscriber to deliver faster speeds. DOCSIS 3.0, the current standard used throughout Virgin Media?s network, also incorporates support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said: ?Demand for greater bandwidth is growing rapidly as more devices are able to connect to the internet and as more people go online simultaneously. Our growing network provides a highly competitive alternative to the fastest fibre networks of the future and, with our ongoing investment plans, we can anticipate and meet demand as it develops over time, ensuring Virgin Media business and residential customers continue to enjoy world-class broadband.?

Sam Orams, co-founder of BespokeBanter.com, one of the companies testing Virgin Media?s 1.5Gb broadband, said: ?While the average home might not need these speeds quite yet, we certainly will. The internet is critical to what we do and intrinsically linked to our future growth so it?s exciting to be working with Virgin Media at the forefront of broadband innovation in the UK.?

Source

[amon91]

That's a great deal for the UK. I remember a few years ago when we used to bash "UK internet", but now it's one of the best. This is a great deal, now I hope it gets broadly implemented.

[Paul Ferson Veteran]

I want! :o

[Fubar]

This would be a nice little upgrade from the 100MB connection speed ;)

[BGM]

friend of mine works on the 'silicon roundabout'

hmm.. wonder if his office is involved ;)

[DomZ]

Soon to be renamed to Torrent Roundabout!

Anyone know the theoretical limits of BT's FTTC? Obviously it depends how far away from the cabinet you are, but if you were close what's the max? (I think they've put it at 40Mb to see how things go)

[Teebor]

YES! and keep the 10GB cap on the cheaper internet connections :D lol

I expect that homes won't get speeds anywhere near that anytime soon, but very cool!

[Inklin]

I'd hate to see how much this will be costing these companies, but I am sure money is no object for them.

[DrJens]

Man, my provider offers a maximum of 400/400 ! How nice wouldn't 1,5 Gb/s be !

[neufuse Veteran]

humm 1.5Gbps on a shared cable node network..... every freaking subscriber better have their own node for that to be any good.... but then thats FTTP if you have your own node!

right now DOCSIS 3 only supports 8 bonded downstream and 4 bonded upstream channels in public (thats a max 343.04 Mbps down and 122.88 Mbps up) they must be wasting a LOT of cable channels to get this to work with modems and CMTS's that are obviously in a test state (alpha stage products)

that means they dedicated at least 35 cable channels just for downstream and 16 channels just for upstream! thats 51 channels you lost on a digital cable network! or the equivalent of 153 High definition channel space lost to internet!

you are probably wondering if its 150Mbit upload why is there 16 channels, isn't that 500 Mbit upload? well they have "extra" channels for upload due to noise reserved so you can hop around on upload channels if one becomes noisy

[Tom]

Great! Now I don't have to borrow DaveLegg's Internets!

[Hardcore Til I Die]

If the network is future proofed and capable of such speeds, why do they have to roll out 100Mb and 5Mb (download and upload respectively) speeds?

I live in an area where we were one of the first to get 50Mb, yet 100Mb has been out for months now and it's still "being planned" here which is annoying.

Plus I never get more than ~40Mb on speed tests and slightly less in real world use.

[coth]

So is it going to be with unlimited bandwidth?

[Bhav]

That's a great deal for the UK. I remember a few years ago when we used to bash "UK internet", but now it's one of the best. This is a great deal, now I hope it gets broadly implemented.

No it's not. The "high" speeds of 20Mb+ are only enjoyed by a very small proportion of the country. The majority get ~4-5Mb, which is embarrassingly slow.

Fortunately, things are moving ahead with VM and BT Infinity, but there's still a long way to go.

[Singh400]

That's a great deal for the UK. I remember a few years ago when we used to bash "UK internet", but now it's one of the best. This is a great deal, now I hope it gets broadly implemented.

Errr no it isn't. This is only a TRIAL. BT Infinity trials took place years ago (I think 2006?) and I'm only just getting switch from BeThere to BT Infinity.

Anyone know the theoretical limits of BT's FTTC? Obviously it depends how far away from the cabinet you are, but if you were close what's the max? (I think they've put it at 40Mb to see how things go)

This is a good question, one I'd like the answer to. Because I'm getting BT Infinity come the end of the month - engineer is coming to install it on the 28/04/11. I've been told it's 30/8, but my green cabinet is literally 10 secs from my front door. So I'm surprised I'm not getting the full 40!

I'd hate to see how much this will be costing these companies, but I am sure money is no object for them.

They make it back VERY quickly. No doubt by charging a top premium for it, I know a few people who pay for this, me included.

No it's not. The "high" speeds of 20Mb+ are only enjoyed by a very small proportion of the country. The majority get ~4-5Mb, which is embarrassingly slow.

Fortunately, things are moving ahead with VM and BT Infinity, but there's still a long way to go.

Indeed, the national average is horrible. I'm lucky I've got 14/1.5 (BeThere), soon to upgrade to 30/8 (BT Infinity).

And yes finally some competition in the FO industry. I can see BT and VM lighting up the FO market. I think OFCOM have already ruled that BT must open up it's FO FTTC network to 3rd parties. I'm happy to pay ?25.60 for 30/8 speeds. That's dead cheap! Cheaper than Virgin.

[Dark_ph0enix]

That's a great deal for the UK. I remember a few years ago when we used to bash "UK internet", but now it's one of the best. This is a great deal, now I hope it gets broadly implemented.

Shame the Digital Economy Act has been pushed through - seems to me that there won't really be any need for 'home' consumers to have access to these kinda speeds at anypoint in the next 10 years. Even if companies start pushing through 1080p 7.1 HD content, you aren't gonna need a 1.5Gb connection for that.

[BGM]

I'd hate to see how much this will be costing these companies, but I am sure money is no object for them.

what makes you think this?

[torrentthief]

remember guys this is just a trial to see the maximum speed cable will do. I thought 400mb was the max cable could manage, i presume they are using multiple pieces of cable to achieve these speeds?

They trialed 200mb a while ago and were going to trial 400mb. They are doing 1.5GB just for P.R purposes, i can't see a single modem and a single standard coaxial cable being capable of such speeds.

I'd like to see the govt mandate all new homes to have fibre laid that way loads of homes each year will be futureproofed for little cost as digging up the roads costs alot.

[acnpt]

I think people forget that BT is a private company, and NTL was bankrupt after building their network.

I could get 50Mb from Virgin, but I'm happy with 4.5Mb from Sky for ?10 a month.

Wouldn't mind an upgrade though, bring on FTTC.

[Xtreme2damax]

remember guys this is just a trial to see the maximum speed cable will do. I thought 400mb was the max cable could manage, i presume they are using multiple pieces of cable to achieve these speeds?

They trialed 200mb a while ago and were going to trial 400mb. They are doing 1.5GB just for P.R purposes, i can't see a single modem and a single standard coaxial cable being capable of such speeds.

I'd like to see the govt mandate all new homes to have fibre laid that way loads of homes each year will be futureproofed for little cost as digging up the roads costs alot.

Yeah I was told by Verizon that coax cable has a max throughput/speed of 500 Mbps. They informed me of this because I was concerned about the use of a coax cable from the ONT/UPS to the router since it was supposed to be fiber. I'm not really sure how those speeds can be attainable on cable unless they are using fiber as the backbone of the network. The great thing about fiber though is that it is possible to get symmetrical upload and download speeds. I'm a happy camper with my 25/25 Mbps Fios connection. :p

[neufuse Veteran]

remember guys this is just a trial to see the maximum speed cable will do. I thought 400mb was the max cable could manage, i presume they are using multiple pieces of cable to achieve these speeds?

They trialed 200mb a while ago and were going to trial 400mb. They are doing 1.5GB just for P.R purposes, i can't see a single modem and a single standard coaxial cable being capable of such speeds.

I'd like to see the govt mandate all new homes to have fibre laid that way loads of homes each year will be futureproofed for little cost as digging up the roads costs alot.

no cable can theoretically go up to 5Gb/s HOWEVER the current modems only support up to 4 channels bonded on some CMTS's which give you about 171 Mbit, and some are moving to 8 Channels bonded which gives you more up to 344 Mbit, you could theoretically bond all the channels in a 800 MHz range downstream and get many Gb/s of download

[Crisp]

How's about a network expansion first?

[PotatoBlaster]

"Fastest broadband" xD What's the point, when they are blocking all p2p traffic? I am not from UK, but even I know Virgin Media is famous for blocking/throttling torrent traffic...

[torrentthief]

yep, usenet on my 20mb virgin is throttled to 10mb max no matter what time of the day i use it which is against their terms and conditions. Then there's the fact that my 20mb becomes 5mb once i download or upload a few gb.

Give me unthrottled with no traffic shaping etc and i'd be happy.

[cashman Veteran]

And still I am stuck on 1mb "broadband" because of BTs outdated copper, and the fact there is no Virgin available here. Makes me laugh. I live in one of the nicest residential areas of Luton too! Haha.