Virgin Media Monopoly

Hi all,

Just throwing this out there to see if there are any other options that mean we don't have to deal with Virgin Media's absolute scam of a "service". Almost daily service drops, daily ping spikes, regular packet loss.

Worth mentioning I am a very technically minded person, and have been with Virgin media for years out of no other choices available to us. We'd step down to FTTC if we could, but Openreach refused to install a phone line citing safety issues with our telephone poles in the street. I've even considered 4G/5G but signal is poor at our home, even upstairs.

Basically, we're stuck with Virgin Media. We pay £92 p/m for 500mbps and Basic TV with BT Sport. Virgin keeps increasing prices inline with RPI, refusing to give us any discount on our package like others seem to be able to do so easily. I've even had others that I know have scored discounts from threatening to leave jump on the phone pretending to be me, and be shocked at how stubborn they are with us. I think they know there's a monopoly for them here and we'll stay without any other options to us. Lots of friends online with other options available to them seem to have few, but not no problems, little engineer visits, or if they do have engineer visits due to faults, they're able to get the service fixed and back online going months between serious issues. They do experience this national virgin media outage that usually occurs between 12am-2am usually at least weekly, but sometimes can be 2 weeks between. If you've not noticed it, consider yourself lucky because it's extremely annoying.

There are no plans to build out FTTP from CityFibre or Openreach here, despite the full area around us being connected. I live in Kearsley BL4 if you wish to check the maps out for yourself on exactly where we are compared to the build plans - this isn't some rich area out in the sticks. I cannot understand why several hundred homes are not part of these plans.

Here's some graphs showing the failures in service for the past 2 weeks only:


03/04/2024 - Increased latency
31/03/2024 - Increased latency, overnight drops
30/03/2024 - Peak time & short morning drop
27/03/2024 - Degraded Service, impossible to game online
22/03/2024 - multiple hour outage

As you can probably tell, when it's great - it's great. But having almost 50% of days containing some sort of degraded service or outright failure is a joke. This can't be normal, can it?

Thanks in advance, happy to hear any advise here. If there's nothing that can be done, I'll accept compassion.

Steve

Edited by gergy008 (Thu 04-Apr-24 00:10:10)

Have to considered Starlink ?

It is cheaper than what you are currently paying, but obviously won’t give you the TV side of things.

We’ve been using it for our Internet connection for nearly three years now. It has proved to be reliable. At 200-300 down and 15-30 up it is far faster than the 11/3 FTTC we had (and more reliable than 4G which was fine until the evening peak).

You do need somewhere for the dish that has a clear view of most of the sky though.

In reply to a post by gergy008:

But having almost 50% of days containing some sort of degraded service or outright failure is a joke. This can't be normal, can it?

On VM, yes it can.

VM was built out of the ashes of a whole load of regional cable operators. Depending on which one you're on, and how oversubscribed your segment is, performance can be terrible. But other areas get good performance.

In the long term, VM will be replacing the HFC with fibre, but don't hold your breath. 85% of the country will have OR FTTP by Dec 2026, you're more likely to get that first.

In reply to a post by gergy008:

Openreach refused to install a phone line citing safety issues with our telephone poles in the street.

Am I wrong in thinking Openreach have a universal service obligation to (within exceptional financial limits) provide a phone line to all addresses in the UK (excluding Hull)?

My saga with Virgin Media since 2019 could fill a trilogy longer than Lord of the Rings...the extended versions.

It got to the point where my wife and I were in a constant state of anger, her mostly over the billing side, me mostly over latency.

In my town Clevedon nestled in North Somerset indeed Virgin had the entire monopoly over anyone who wanted fast broadband, its that or stick to copper. The Cable network they were using existed long before and Virgin came along and punted their product down it.

On the one hand, great, thanks for being inventive and supplying 100Mbps plus for everyone but in reality the signal around here was always a balance and the error correction on my router was going nuts which resulted unfavorable latency. Attenuators and so on would be fitted in case of their being too much power, in some cases there wasnt enough power and all whilst we were having to pay 60 quid one year then suddenly asked to pay 120 the next, bargaining then reducing our package to get it back down to something reasonable.

By far and away the worst thing that happened to us was when we knew Openreach Fibre was arriving, luckily for us our 18mo contract was finished with Virgin in the August and the Openreach work was due to finish in September.

Called virgin to say we didnt want to renew for 18mo and please put us on a rolling contract for just broadband, after hours on the phone they agreed, but we were stupid, we didnt follow up and check online.

When I was provisioned with BT FTTP in Jan I called Virgin to give one months notice, they said you are on a 18month contract and need to pay 500 quid to exit.....I looked online and there is was, an 18month renewal on the day we had the phone call. Somehow I had to accept responsibility and blame myself for not checking.

After many more hours or arguments and phone calls to various people eventually after pointing out to the right person that all your calls are recorded, you can pull this call up and hear what was said. Someone finally had mercy, I might add just to even get onto a 'rolling' contract we had to pay almost twice the value of the service as if we had renewed for 18mo. So we ended up paying rolling contract charges for an 18mo contract, which was another point I made. I said why on earth would I cancel everything apart from broadband and then pay more, it doesnt add up.

Anyway, finally we left and ive been enjoying FTTP since 900/110 and its been glorious, this does not help you but I wanted to offer my compassion because we really went through the ringer with them, the only other service I could get to my house was copper based and would give me about 30Mbps down and 5 up....alas, Virgin had the monopoly.

Hopefully now they will start to see that they need to up their game in some areas because Openreach are opening up a new world of ISP's for FTTP, even Truespeed are there also.

Oh yeah I also got a really good TV package with BT, all skysports and TNT for £41, I maintain the same access to NOW and Discovery Plus so Im not just limited to the box in the main lounge. So im paying 80 quid all in, which yes is alot but I do have all the sport there is. That price is locked for 2 years and then there is many other ISP's you can join as a new customer.

Check out my switch over day, the latency improvement was crazy, btw all the spikes on the right are my constantly running speed tests maxing out the line because I was over excited, the spikes on the left however were just random....

In the real world of course my download speed is crazy which is wonderful for Steam Updates and PS5 but online gaming, ive gone from a ping of 30-50 to 8-15.

Switch Over

There is a USO, the basic terms on Ofcom site are:

Subject to the Conditions set out in Section 2, BT is required to provide Broadband Services
where all of the following criteria are met:
a) the Broadband Connection requested is to a fixed location which is a Premises;
b) Alternative Broadband Services at a price less than, or equal to, the Eligibility Threshold:
(i) are not available to that location; and
(ii) will not be made available to that location through a publicly-funded intervention
within the period of one year beginning with the date on which the Request is
made;
c) the provision of the Broadband Connection requested:
(i) will cost no more than £3,400 excluding VAT; or
(ii) will cost more than £3,400 excluding VAT, but any Excess Costs will be paid by the
USO Customer.

As alternative broadband services are available (from Virgin) then the USO would not apply. They already have a phone line - they have issues with the supplier that provides it but that isn't enough for USO to kick in.

Edited by ian72 (Thu 04-Apr-24 13:39:42)

In reply to a post by ian72:

They already have a phone line - they have issues with the supplier that provides it but that isn't enough for USO to kick in.

I think you are thinking about the USO for broadband whereas I think there always was and still is a USO for the phone line.
Ofcom says:

Part 3: Conditions
Section 1: Conditions applicable to Telephony Services and Broadband Services
Conditions A.1 to A.4 – Provision of Telephony Services and Broadband Services
A.1 BT must provide one or both of the following upon request:
a) subject to Condition A.2, Telephony Services;
b) subject to Condition A.3, Broadband Services.
A.2 BT is required to provide Telephony Services where the request in respect of the Telephony
Services is reasonable.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018...

Forget about broadband, that says BT must provide a phone line. The OP says they've been refused, I'm questioning if they can.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In the long term, VM will be replacing the HFC with fibre, but don't hold your breath. 85% of the country will have OR FTTP by Dec 2026, you're more likely to get that first.

VM are competing, they're saying their DOCSIS Coax footprint will be converted to FTTP by 2028...
https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/2021/jul/29/vi...

The same applies - they can already get a phone line, from Virgin. I don't think you'll find the phone USO applies when a provider can already provide a phone line to a property.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I don't think you'll find the phone USO applies when a provider can already provide a phone line to a property.

If you can find that get out in the regs, I'm wrong. See if you can find the quote. Otherwise they clearly say BT must provide a phone line. I can't see any if or buts.
It's my suggestion for the OP to put pressure on BT or if it comes to it their MP. Even if I'm wrong, OP can still use the quote and something might get things moving.