What happened?

http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/about-virgin-b...

Slower than VM, Sky, BT, STalkSTalk, AOL (now that takes the biscuit) O2/Be, and Orange (ROFLMAO they even beat you)

It's official. Not all broadband is made equal.

That says it all. Although not defending Plusnet, Ofcom's data is quite flawed.

Virgin customer could get their full line rate 24/7 if the network could cope with that - that is no secret. The distance from the UBR (exchange equivalent) does not affect the line rate.

The sample of ADSL customers could have sync anywhere from 1Mb to 8Mb, or 24Mb etc - this would naturally bring down the sync rate of each of the lines creating an average of all lines - something Virgin don't have to worry about.

Another factor to consider is that most of the others have quite a large LLU customer base (bar Plus/BT), so that will skew the results too.

Now, if Ofcom used ALL 8Mb or 24Mb (full line rate) ADSL lines - things would be fairer, but I don't believe they did.

IMHO, this promo of VM is just to artificially make them look great.

Matt

Edited by uno (Fri 03-Sep-10 19:55:09)

Just one slight snag.

They are comparing their cable services with ADSL and ADSL2+.

Now what if they compared their Virgin Media ADSLx services with the same other ISPs?

IMHO, this promo of VM is just to artificially make them look great.

Or just to make Plusnet look artificially diabolical

Mind you saying that there are times when speeds are poor on the maaf network and it's supposed to be 90-95% free of traffic management, which is surprising as PN are shifting their customers onto 21CN products where the exchanges have been upgraded so you would think that the pipes on the 20CN network would have a bit less traffic on them.

Maybe they are closing down these pipes or whatever ISPs do so that they can to save some expenditure.

It should be 100% free but that isn't possible on PN's/maaf's hybrid network as everything is traffic managed to a greater or lesser degree.

Edited by Apprentice (Fri 03-Sep-10 21:01:36)

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

so you would think that the pipes on the 20CN network would have a bit less traffic on them.

I'm not so sure. It depends how much traffic they have to manage, or should I say, to what degree.

The more customers bounced over to 21CN may reduce their overall 20CN usage but may not make any real world difference. Edit:.... as new 20CN based users may have joined using that once 'spare' capacity.

Matt

Edited by uno (Fri 03-Sep-10 21:06:33)

That's possible and to be fair to PN they do tell us all about the pipes and segments that they have lit when the question of congestion on their network is mentioned.

For me personally up here miles and miles away from the London based servers the £price I pay for my BB connection is half what I would pay to the so called Premium ISPs and I don't think they would improve upon the speeds and service I get from maaf/PN in the real world of the UK network.

I was under the impression that Ofcom used the data from SamKnows, as in all those boxes / routers out in the field?

If you disregard Virgin's speeds totally, all of the other ISPs are faster than Plusnet, and they are all using ADSL and not cable.

The VM link was to show the results purely.

It is still VM cable against the rest. VM BT phone line broadband against the rest would be terrible.

Maybe it would, apart from the fact that VM are obviously blowing their own trumpet. It does not change the material fact that Plusnet, according to Ofcom are worse (for download speeds) than all those other ISPs listed. This is the most recent up to date research / figures as well, or at least the only recognised method of actually recording results from various ISPs with any clout so to speak.

If VM had included their ADSL offerings in the equation, then obviously that may paint a better picture, but the only reality that could possibly change the results to, would be, Plusnet either still bottom, or an improved position from bottom place, up to second from bottom, if you included (and VM ADSL was truly worse than Plusnet) the VM ADSL results.

Either way, it is not a good sign for Plusnet, as they were one of the best a few years ago.

In reply to a post by soundsystem:

I was under the impression that Ofcom used the data from SamKnows, as in all those boxes / routers out in the field?

Like the Linksys one sitting upstairs attached to my TG585v8 - my 8Mb stats were actually well above the quoted figure which is, obviously, an average of trialists.

My stats are taken every hour at 51 mins past the hour and I can, of course, access these.