Virgin Media

Hi

Im pretty new to VM about a month now on 30mb XL package. Since joining my broadband speed has been completely erratic ranging from a full 30mb service that drops to as low as 0.3mb in the afternoons. My problems with speed mainly start around 3pm and continue to gradually worsen into the evening, and there is no consistency from one day into another we are talking RANDOM with spikes were the speed may suddenly jump back up for a short period before dropping down to ridiculously slow and even locking up completely. I have had the VM hub changed and this has produced the exact same results and i am really getting nowhere with getting the issue resolved. As i write now, i have been cut of by virgin media twice whilst hanging on for 40mins to contact customer services for the umpteenth time to try and resolve a really poor experience. Compared to my old o2 adsl 8mb rock solid 24 hour a day speed, switching to VM fibre has been a massive dissapointment and not what i was expecting at all. Look forward to any advise as to how to sort this situation out?

steve

Sounds like a lot of heavy users in the area.

If you are in an oversubscribed area (one interpretation given your stated symptoms), your chances of seeing a robust fix within the lifespan of the universe is almost exactly 0.

Since Jan 2011 I've seen 3 months of 'acceptable' service on my VM connection (50Mb, mostly) - Cambridge area. I don't even have a fix date from them to miss and push back yet.

Over-utilization.
What is it?
It may be that the sales arm of the company has been doing much too well and that the network arm has been told to sort it out with the speed-double but that's rather cynical.
My new 30Mb connection was brilliant for a month then went bad in October 2011. The "issue" becane official in Jan 2012 so it took much swearing by phone and reasoned argument by letter to get a refund of half the connection cost until April 2012 - the latest "fix" date.
I do hope it will be fixed for everybody.

In reply to a post by zootlewurdle:

If you are in an oversubscribed area (one interpretation given your stated symptoms), your chances of seeing a robust fix within the lifespan of the universe is almost exactly 0.

Since Jan 2011 I've seen 3 months of 'acceptable' service on my VM connection (50Mb, mostly) - Cambridge area. I don't even have a fix date from them to miss and push back yet.

I sadly have to backup your statement.

In 6+ years of using VM(ntl) (cant remember exact period of time) I reckon I have had about 3-4 months of relative uncongested service, that was when they did the uplift work and then took 3-4 months to activate the new speeds, so the upgrade work they did for the 10:1 uplifts was proper congestion relief but of course wasnt done for that purpose it was so they could market better speeds. When they did activate the new speeds it was still not too bad tho, the killer was when they took on 100mbit customers and now my congestion is quite bad again.

The company has a chronic history of under estimating bandwidth needs for high density areas, or they estimate it right and the current congestion levels are deliberate. I still have the opinion that once an area gets bad enough, its like that for life with small periods of relief immediatly after upgrades have been carried out but since they drip feed upgrades congestion will inevitibly come back. The upgrades can be so small and delayed that they often just lessen congestion rather than get rid of it.

We will soon find out how effective the planned upgrades will be for the speed doubling, extra DS channels are been added although so far I have only seen one single person get 8 channels, most seem to have 5 or 6. I have yet to see anyone get US channel bonding even tho thats planned. The new STM will lower utilisation from top tier customers however its upstream limits remain very generous meaning the relief will not be significant, in addition docsis1 customers will be moving over increasing utilisation, probably more than what the new STM saves.

I just hope BT get infinity out as planned here in sept and its good enough for me to ditch VM. As bad as VM is its still overall better than a dodgy adsl service on a long line even when congested.

Edited by Chrysalis (Tue 10-Apr-12 00:12:26)

high denisty areas

dentistry?

Due to the knashing of customers' teeth?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

In reply to a post by zootlewurdle:

or they estimate it right and the current congestion levels are deliberate.

Kerching! Had the same experience, around when they first started rolling out their 20mb product and came to the same conclusion. Never been (went) back!

Edited by NilSatisOptimum (Mon 09-Apr-12 20:02:53)

I think you know what I meant,

Ah, but did you get what I meant ? It seems not.