Virgin Media Speedtest

Hi All,
I'm considering joining Virgin Media as I'm moving to a new flat. the flat is walking distance from exchange. My current house is around 3+ miles from exchange so I can only get 400k/s from bethere at max

Now, virgin media speedtest said I can get around 14.5 Mbps. Does this mean I can download at 1.4mb/s or 14mb/s? This will be virgin broadband, not the fiber

You'll have to wait until your connected to find out your correct sync speed.

However if you do connect at 14.5 Mbps (Megabit-per-second) max download speed would be about 1.8 MB/sec (Megabyte-per-second)

Virgin Media cable is fine, but you are talking about Virgin Media ADSLx. Forget it! It is dire, like O2 Access and Sky Connect, the other BT Wholesale-based products offered purely so they can claim to be "nation-wide" ISPs.

There is a huge difference between the "connection speed", which is what ISPs quote, and the real-life download speed they deliver. On Be you are on pretty well the best, and Virgin non-cable is amongst the worst.

If you tell us the exchange you will be on we can make sensible suggestions. Also the kind of usage you have. Simple email/browsing/shopping, or lots of TV catchup such as iPlayer, or lots of live streaming, or lots of P2P downloads. Or is gaming top of the list, in which case which of the above is next?

The balance between those makes a huge difference to the choice, depending however on what is available at the exchange.

Note - as you will be close to the exchange, on a good ISP your usage pattern could change, as the speed will be far higher.

How many users using what kit - ie gaming, Kindle, etc. Mac/Windows irrelevant.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 12-Aug-11 22:59:51)

Yeah I was thinking of virgin media ADSL. I'm on bethere now so I may try and get them on the new line

I'am on this exchange http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MRCEN

cable or fiber isn't available yet. I would want unlimited usage, as I do a lot of youtube, iplayer etc

Be is not available on that exchange.

I suggest Sky Unlimited. It seems to be the next best to Be. You don't need to have Sky TV these days.