Upload speeds & fibre to the house?

Just had a Virgin media chap at the house. Because I've been looking around for somewhere to go when my existing EE contract finished at the end of the year they've noticed I searched their site.

So they sent the man round, sales guy for the area, and he's been telling me some stuff I can't verify anywhere - so I'll ask here.

First, our old cable line was the twin coax and phone line through the garden to a box on the outside wall, which was ceased last year. He tells me they now blow fibre to the house...?

Second, Vivid100 suggests 6Mbps upload speed wherever I look. He says the new fibre hub will give me over 30Mbps up?

The second is the real deal breaker. I jumped from Virgin to EE because of the bad upload speeds, I went to Vivid200 just to get 12Mbps up. I can find nothing to confirm faster upload speeds as he suggested.

He also spoke about 4K TV, but that isn't of interest. We have HD on our telly and that's fine, when we bother to swap tot that from 'normal' Freeview or whatever.

DOCSIS 3.1 has been in the pipeline for ages (pun intended) but I can't see VM giving higher upload speeds on the existing network - or do they?

He went on about new cabinets having been installed in my area, new network connections instead of being a branch. He was quite insistent on having fibre to the house, not coax.

However, no talk of a new hub that would support DOCSIS 3.1 It's the Hub3 in the spec he had, along with a V6 tellybox.

I'm tempted to call him back and get the upload speeds he quoted in writing...

It's news to me.

All their project lightning work I've seen so far has been Fibre for new areas, but existing HFC areas have remained so.

If your area was getting upgraded to fibre then they would have done it already. They don't come down your street and upgrade it after ordering.

He gets commission. He's talking nonsense.

It makes very little difference to the service you receive if your line is coax or fibre though. They both use the same DOCSIS.

Never trust a sales person

If your street is existing coax deployment then you will get the existing coax, they are not overlaying FTTP in the coax areas.

The upload speeds are based on the product you buy, so 100 Mbps service will be the 6 Mbps it is sold as.

No such thing as a fibre hub, since the DOCSIS modem is still used even in the areas with FTTP, since they do RFOG which converts the fibre to coax cable for the last two or three feet through your wall to the cable boxes.

The IP throughputs on the full fibre service are identical to the speeds in the areas where do deploy FTTP anyway.

In reply to a post by TMCR:

First, our old cable line was the twin coax and phone line through the garden to a box on the outside wall, which was ceased last year. He tells me they now blow fibre to the house...?

They've been "marketing" the coax as "fibre" for years. Since they were faster than Openreach connections they "got away" with it, but its still garbage. Never trust a sales-droid.

In reply to a post by TMCR:

Just had a Virgin media chap at the house. Because I've been looking around for somewhere to go when my existing EE contract finished at the end of the year they've noticed I searched their site.

So they sent the man round, sales guy for the area, and he's been telling me some stuff I can't verify anywhere - so I'll ask here.

First, our old cable line was the twin coax and phone line through the garden to a box on the outside wall, which was ceased last year. He tells me they now blow fibre to the house...?

Second, Vivid100 suggests 6Mbps upload speed wherever I look. He says the new fibre hub will give me over 30Mbps up?

The second is the real deal breaker. I jumped from Virgin to EE because of the bad upload speeds, I went to Vivid200 just to get 12Mbps up. I can find nothing to confirm faster upload speeds as he suggested.

He also spoke about 4K TV, but that isn't of interest. We have HD on our telly and that's fine, when we bother to swap tot that from 'normal' Freeview or whatever.

DOCSIS 3.1 has been in the pipeline for ages (pun intended) but I can't see VM giving higher upload speeds on the existing network - or do they?

He went on about new cabinets having been installed in my area, new network connections instead of being a branch. He was quite insistent on having fibre to the house, not coax.

However, no talk of a new hub that would support DOCSIS 3.1 It's the Hub3 in the spec he had, along with a V6 tellybox.

I'm tempted to call him back and get the upload speeds he quoted in writing...

Highest upload on VM is 20Mbit which comes with the 350Mbit Download package.

Went back to sales guy. He said talk to their tech team - hopeless lot in Bangalore of course, no idea. Could not even tell me what Vivid100 upload speed was, just cam back with 'up to 10% of download speed', which is wrong anyway.

Back to sales guy again, he will not confirm anything he said verbally - the 'ball' in there being the relevant part I think!

So, I have cancelled it. Had this before where retention's guy gave me a story but when it came to it the service was not what he said it would be. That time went right up to Tom Mockeridge's office to sort out, not playing those games again.

You guys are right - don't trust a salesman...

IF there was a chance of the speed he quoted being correct I would probably have gone for it but I don't accept 6Mbps upload speed on a 100 Mbps download line. Neither do I want to have to go to 200 or 350 to get a bit better, I don't need the faster download speed and already have a package with EE that suits.

My old address has just gone live with G/fast 330/50 - my current address no such luck. VM I hope will respond by putting the U/L up and we will all benefit.

Maybe - probably never?

On Friday I couldn't get VM to cancel as the order had not yet got on to their system, despite me having had 3 emails to confirm the order and welcome me...

Call back today (Mon 10th) - got retentions at first, but they cannot do anything about new orders so passed me to the overseas call centre where the chap insisted that VM provide the fastest broadband in the country...

He waffled on a while about how he could change my order to the higher broadband speed and get me the upload speed I wanted. I pointed out the extra cost involved and said no, I want to cancel.

7 minutes on hold (I timed it) then he came back with an offer, Player TV with V6, phone line rental and free weekend calls, Hub 3 and Vivid 350 - for the same price as I had been offered the same deal with Vivid100.

BUT, after a year it reverts to real price of £66 a month. That's the killer, I don't need 350Mb down, on my EE package I am getting 55 down and that's fine. I really don't want to be going down this route again after 12 months.

Needless to say the promised email (at about 12:05) to confirm the new offer has not arrived. For a communications company they really do not know how to communicate.

Rather than play russian roulette on the phone yet again I've emailed their exec office.

** EDIT - email arrived 2.15pm. Confirming above deal at £42 a month with an additional £5 rolling credit, for 12 months only.

Edited by TMCR (Mon 10-Sep-18 14:44:52)

And - totally kicked into touch after a telecon with their complaints team today.

I simply don't need 350Mbps download speed, I'm happy with 50 - but that's the only way they can do the download speed I'm getting with EE on a 55Mbps download speed line right now.

I can do without all the hassle of changing providers every 12 month to get all new equipment and a good deal. To me this business plan is all wrong as it means a heck of a lot of people will do just that while loyal customers (I was with VM 20+ years before...) face ever rising prices and terrible customer service.

Goodbye VM - again.

In reply to a post by TMCR:

And - totally kicked into touch after a telecon with their complaints team today.

I simply don't need 350Mbps download speed, I'm happy with 50 - but that's the only way they can do the download speed I'm getting with EE on a 55Mbps download speed line right now.

I can do without all the hassle of changing providers every 12 month to get all new equipment and a good deal. To me this business plan is all wrong as it means a heck of a lot of people will do just that while loyal customers (I was with VM 20+ years before...) face ever rising prices and terrible customer service.

Goodbye VM - again.

I am not sure if I will stick around - I am with AAISP now and very happy with them - the price is £60 a month but you get what you pay for - and I will never use up all my allowance - especially with the 1/2 quota rollover. I literally am still 2.5TB in credit!