….and yet you re-contracted with them, in the full knowledge that their upload speeds were severely limited (for your use case)?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

….and yet you re-contracted with them, in the full knowledge that their upload speeds were severely limited (for your use case)?

What other reasonably priced option did I have to choose from?

Virgin is unfortunately the only provider I can really choose at the moment for speed.

I will say I wasn't going to go with virgin again if they didn't offer me a faster upload since VDSL would have been better.

I know I had a long term plan, you know it too, but It's still the plan to go FTTP.

I will tell you this, I was given the option by virgin for a big bundle with everything, I said only broadband.

RR: I say upload since I upload lots of files and access my home server when I’m away
Virgin Media: As per checking here that I can I can give you the M500 for £31.00 the download speed is 510 to 545 and the upload speed is 36 to 34 Mbps.

The reason was, I wanted to seperate the services for an easier migration if there was a price rise or "issue" to get out the contract and then basically get FTTP when available.

Let's be honest Virgin Media increases the price so often I will have plenty of opportune moments to leave, I know in my area there have been problems, and its been okay for a while, but by the time its winter FTTP should be here so if there are any slowdowns leaving shouldn't be a problem.

I know even if i have to wait ages, its not a bad thing as FTTP prices are still quite high at the moment.


2 FTTC lines would have been worth it if virgin gave me a quote of 40 a month as I could get two 80 * 20 with load balancing routers and traffic management my end so the 140-160Mbps down and 35-40 UP.
This would also give me some increased level of reliability since two different providers on different backhauls and networks


I got a quote for a leased line and that was £270 a month for 100x100Mbps not exactly in budget.

I have had the odd issue with some packet loss on 1gig for the first couple of months but its been fine for the past 3-4 months.

Before that I was on 200mb when I moved to my current place, then on to 350, 500 then 1gig.

Never had any real issues with speed. I can recall a few times when I noticed the connection being slower than usual but a reboot of the router sorted that.

I can say there's no need quite easily.

They aren't losing tons of customers due to the lower upload speeds.

The obvious solution to upstream shortage on M100 is to pay more: there are 20, 35, 40 and 50 Mbit upload products available. It's not like 100/10 is all you can get unlike some and VM actively want to upsell you.

We got RFOG as part of Project Lightning (Doncaster, S. Yorkshire)

I take the 350/36 service and to be honest, its been almost faultless. The only faults have been due to sloppy engineers messing in the cabinet and screwing our connection up for an hour or so - never needed to call up to get them fixed.

I just re-contracted for 18months and I'm just going to use this as "fill-in" time until CityFibre becomes available (they're in the middle of building around here now).

I just find it a joke that you have to chase them for prices they should be giving anyway, after this 18-months at £45 (which includes TV, mobile bill, phone and broadband) it says it'll go up to £86/month, and I don't have sports/movies etc, so I find that rediculous. Anyway, thats by-the-by

Speeds have varied occasionally but nothing that grinds the connection to a complete halt - they might drop to 200mbps rather than 350 - but still completely usable connection. They also sort themselves out after an hour or 2.

Customer support is typical VM poopoo, if you want someone who you can talk to about techie stuff, choose another ISP

In reply to a post by CarlTSpeak:

They aren't losing tons of customers due to the lower upload speeds.

The obvious solution to upstream shortage on M100 is to pay more: there are 20, 35, 40 and 50 Mbit upload products available. It's not like 100/10 is all you can get unlike some and VM actively want to upsell you.

I will mention for a long time in my area, they had capacity problems so they were not taking on new customers and the only service available to upgrade to was the M100.

I see you mentioned the M600 in your upload data, I can't really say that is a broadband product since it isn't. To get it you need a massive package that is so expensive its unbelievable.

I just looked at data on OFCom's spreadsheets and can see that there are comparatively less M600 customer tests compared to all others except M50, now I know this is only a rough indication but looking through all the data, to me, it gives an accurate representation of the divide on some speed tiers.

I also feel like if you compare virgin to other ISP's for the same or even slightly slower download speeds, the upload is almost always faster. Openreach FTTP network is definitely an example, openreach FTTC ISP's have faster uploads whereas with virgin the cost would increase so they could provide it.

I don't see why Virgin should charge more for a service others will often sell for cheaper.

Talktalk FTTP 500Mbps down 75UP is a perfect example of what i'm on about. I can't justify paying for a gigabit product with Virgin thats slower than Talktalk's 500X75Mbps product.

Like I said before I have only gone with the speed virgin offered me because its cheaper than FTTP deals and it would cost me the same to get FTTC until FTTP was here.
£30.84 for 6 months on an estimation of 74.2 down 19Up with NOW, my monthly price is based on the total install cost and additional charges.
Since the price was basically the same and they offered me a superior product, it felt stupid to go the FTTC route.

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

Never had congestion/speed issues here in N.Ireland, had several connections in different places and Cities.

Sadly I had an issue going to Gig1 which they couldn't resolve - and let me leave.

Similar story here in N. Ireland. Many years with NTL/VM and no signs of poor performance or congestion. Currently on 200 as that's all I need with a Hub 5 in modem mode, which has a marked difference in latency on the BQM over the old Hub 3, btw.

Edited by Adduxi (Thu 07-Apr-22 10:23:46)

I did write a more fulsome reply but there's no benefit to anyone in it so deleted.

Edited by CarlTSpeak (Thu 07-Apr-22 12:10:25)

"I don't see why Virgin should charge more for a service others will often sell for cheaper."

Is cheaper better? The majority of users do not require fast upload.

"or leave it for the usual price rise"

With T&Cs as they are now I don't think you can leave because of a price rise.

Do you want cheap or good? If good then pay for it, if cheap then you can't complain about poorer speeds.