Virgin Media's new p2p and usenet throttling

[rush_tech]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/30/vm_upload/

Faster Upload Traffic Management table - My Virgin Media - Virgin Media

[mattx]

Better change my torrent times then.........

 

9pm to 9:59am is the best time by the looks of it.

Edited September 30, 2010 by mattx

[Greenbeast]

well i guess that just ended their reign as one of the best ISPs for downloads

I might downgrade from 20mbps now as it hardly seems worth it.

[LosOjos]

Am I reading this correctly, the only time I'm going to have any chance of getting near to my 10mb broadband speed is between 9pm - 10am, and for an hour at 3pm every day, because they're throttling my top speed to 2.5mb the rest of the time? (I'm on the 'M' package)

[gl3nnym]

I pay them £17.99 per month for up to 8MB broadband but because of my distance from the Exchange I only get 0.5MB. A friend of mine relatively close by pays £8.99 per month and gets about 5MB.

 

I understand the whole distance thing and it's probably more responsibility of BT to get better cables laid but it still winds me up that I have to pay more on ADSL for poor speeds than most others who get great speeds.

[Greenbeast]

Am I reading this correctly, the only time I'm going to have any chance of getting near to my 10mb broadband speed is between 9pm - 10am, and for an hour at 3pm every day, because they're throttling my top speed to 2.5mb the rest of the time? (I'm on the 'M' package)

 

it's great to be with one of the last few 'unlimited' ISPs out there isn't it.....

 

/sarcasm

[Disease]

Just get Virgins 50mb service, you get no throttling then.

[mattx]

it's great to be with one of the last few 'unlimited' ISPs out there isn't it.....

 

/sarcasm

 

Oxymoron.....

 

Virgin's advert's should read:

 

"You can have an really fast internet connection, provided you don't actually use it for anything that will max it out" or

 

Buy games online ? We will throttle your bandwidth.

Buy movies online ? We willl throttle your bandwidth.

Want to download a large patch ? We will throttle your bandwidth.

 

Virgin - conning you because we can.

Edited September 30, 2010 by mattx

[Greenbeast]

Just get Virgins 50mb service, you get no throttling then.

 

From the article it suggest that is to change

[Rydra]

Isn't the point above that instead of all traffic being limited, known streaming media sites (iplayer, 4oD etc) will be excluded from it?

[LosOjos]

Just get Virgins 50mb service, you get no throttling then.

 

You do. Right round the b***ocks.

[mattx]

Isn't the point above that instead of all traffic being limited, known streaming media sites (iplayer, 4oD etc) will be excluded from it?

 

Can't see it - this still counts:

 

Traffic management - Virgin Media Shop

 

Seems to me that they take your money for a service they can't deliver - [ just like their trains & crappy mobile service ]. Virgin are crap at everything !!

[Disease]

The only throttling they do on the 50mb service is on upload, I don't fileshare I just download lots and lots, Downloading is not throttle on Virgin 50mb.

[Rydra]

I still hate their customer service, but really I don't see the issue with them and why so many hate them.

 

They sell exactly what they advertise. You can download 24/7 for no extra cost. I've had little to no downtime in the years i've had them. Just hate having to call their customer support...

 

Personally I prefer to pay for a service that works 99% of the time and have poor support when it fails, than pay for a service that at it's best won't meet what you pay for, charges me extra when I use it a lot, and only marginally better customer support for the 1% of the downtime they still get.

[LosOjos]

The only throttling they do on the 50mb service is on upload, I don't fileshare I just download lots and lots, Downloading is not throttle on Virgin 50mb.

 

What I meant by "round the b****cks" was that it costs a fortune for 50mb. I'd love 50mb, but I'm not shelling out £50 a month or whatever daft price it is they're charging now for it just so that my connection isn't throttled. This sort of thing should be illegal in my opinion, changing the rules of your contracted services before the contract is up. If they want to change the way they do things, then by all means do so for new customers, for existing customers they should be made to fulfill their original terms until the end of your 12 month contract, at which point a new contract should be issued with the new terms.

 

Mobile phones, broadband and TV services get away with constantly changing the terms of their contracts (read: breaching the terms by default) but if you breach the terms you soon know about it.

[dgsmith]

It seems the changes aren't any worse than before, except for those uploading on 50mb. The times still seem the same except some tiers now have a higher threshold and all upstream speeds have been increased. For me personally on the 10mb L package, the evening upstream allowance is doubled and the speed is too.

 

I'm generally in the same group as Rydra above - would rather be paying for a service that 99% of the time works and works well, knowing what the limits are, than be with an ISP where the limits aren't set in stone and could sting you financially if you step over the grey mark. Not saying I like the traffic management - who does?, but then at least you know what to expect with VM and exactly what the limits are.

[Disease]

I only pay £35 for my 50mb, price is dependant on how hard you negotiate.

[LosOjos]

I only pay £35 for my 50mb, price is dependant on how hard you negotiate.

 

Do you have TV & telephone from them too? Standard price for 50mb is £40 when you include line rental (although why you have to pay telephone line rental is beyond me if you're not using ADSL...)

[Disease]

I only have Telephone with them and Unlimited Evening and weekend calls.