Virgin Media or Plusnet?

I am considering switching to Virgin Media or Plusnet as they both offer fibre optic broadband. I am looking to get phone and broadband. The deals I am interested in are as follows:

Virgin Media
Unlimited Fibre Broadband and calls. Unlimited monthly usage. Up to 100Mbs. £12.50 a month for 6 months (then £27) + £10.00 line rental. 18 month contract.

Plusnet
Unlimited Fibre Broadband and calls. Unlimited monthly usage. Up to 76Mbs. £9.99 a month for 6 months (then £19.99) + £10.49 line rental. 18 month contract.

Which would you guys recommend? I am debating if the 100Mbs matters compared to the 76Mbs (ideally I'd like the 100).

I have tried to make sense of both companies fair usage policy (I download a LOT, so this matters a great deal) and I believe that Plusnet are the better of the two because their unlimited actually means unlimited? I have read conflicting things online about if there is a limit and how each company manages torrents / downloads.

Also which throttle speeds more?

I am currently with a smaller ISP who are very good and value customers privacy but the speeds I am getting are about 8Mbs and it's costing £27 a month (not including separate line rental of £15 from talk talk). The speeds and the cost combined have unfortunately made me begin to look for a better deal as I like the company but the speed is a problem.

I want to use torrents (I use privateinternetaccess for a VPN) and not have my bandwidth constrained or have to worry about download limits. Who would be the best for this?

In reply to a post by moo2:

I am considering switching to Virgin Media or Plusnet as they both offer fibre optic broadband. I am looking to get phone and broadband. The deals I am interested in are as follows:

Virgin Media
Unlimited Fibre Broadband and calls. Unlimited monthly usage. Up to 100Mbs. £12.50 a month for 6 months (then £27) + £10.00 line rental. 18 month contract.

Plusnet
Unlimited Fibre Broadband and calls. Unlimited monthly usage. Up to 76Mbs. £9.99 a month for 6 months (then £19.99) + £10.49 line rental. 18 month contract.

Which would you guys recommend? I am debating if the 100Mbs matters compared to the 76Mbs (ideally I'd like the 100).

I have tried to make sense of both companies fair usage policy (I download a LOT, so this matters a great deal) and I believe that Plusnet are the better of the two because their unlimited actually means unlimited? I have read conflicting things online about if there is a limit and how each company manages torrents / downloads.

Also which throttle speeds more?

I am currently with a smaller ISP who are very good and value customers privacy but the speeds I am getting are about 8Mbs and it's costing £27 a month (not including separate line rental of £15 from talk talk). The speeds and the cost combined have unfortunately made me begin to look for a better deal as I like the company but the speed is a problem.

I want to use torrents (I use privateinternetaccess for a VPN) and not have my bandwidth constrained or have to worry about download limits. Who would be the best for this?

Hi mate

Id recommend plusnet hands down ive had both plusnet and VM, had VM from 256K all the way up to 100meg when it became available but due to personal reasons against VM where i could no longer turn a blind eye they had to go, So after a while on ADSL waiting for FTTC to become active i finally signed up to plusnet i get exactly 70/20meg due to line length and in my view its faster and more stable than the VM 100 ever was due to VMs horrid traffic shaping at the most inconvenient times

Plusnet no longer have traffic shaping as such the only time they'll ever slow torrents down now is if the network it self becomes crippled at peak times
(8PM-10PM something ive never seen happen since been on fibre unlimited),

on plusnet you also will benefit from the upload speed which is 20meg compared to VMs 5-12meg depending which area your in

Plus cost wise Plusnet = £425.70, VM = £579 over the 18 month plusnet is a considerable saving i have not included any discounts from topcashback in that because i dont know if you use it or not

Whats is the estimate for you with plusnet? mine was 56/20 but i get 70/20 so that could be another limiting factor for you

Just my 2p' worth hope this gives you some help

Ash

Edited by acpsd775 (Sun 14-Apr-13 13:45:20)

Virgin Media Cable is a totally different technology from the Plusnet one.

VM is an amalgamation of all the cable TV companies that put most of the cabling in then went bust.

Plusnet FTTC is via BT Wholesale and that system is available from most ISPs. The major competitors to Plusnet on that are BT Infinity, Sky and TalkTalk.

The VM one is Virgin only.

I'm on Plusnet and recently renewed for a new 18-month term, so my opinion is obvious. I do always keep my phone line with BT Retail though, whichever ISP I have my broadband with at the time. I think the excellence I have always experienced from BT when I have had phone problems is worth the little extra they might cost at times. Also once you take into account the things you get free on BT call plans that get charged for by others, including Plusnet, the bare rental isn't quite as significant. The problem with not taking Plusnet phone though is the FTTC setup charge.

I think your best bet is Plusnet. At the moment the service itself seems to be up to the hype.

The Unlimited definitely is. They do not throttle at all, and keep adding capacity. They do apply traffic management, and this explanation of why makes a lot of sense. I don't think I have seen a single complaint about it from a Plusnet user. Only from detractors and doubters who are not Plusnet customers, and a tiny few who had a bad experience over something else with them in the past. They also keep adding capacity due to the influx of customers recently - so they aren't letting things slip so far.

Virgin Media I get the impression is very hit and miss as to the performance you will get. Best to ask in their forum here and give your rough location. Possibly your postcode. See what others in the area reckon.

I hope that lot helps.
_{Edit - typo.}

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 14-Apr-13 13:52:25)

If you plan on doing any gaming forget Virgin, they cannot guarantee contention ratios that are free from packet loss. I have just left Virgin for the much slower but totally reliable ADSL 2+ from Plusnet who have good customer services, although Virgin try hard in that area they are still a bit flakey in my experience. I did look at trying to get FTTC from BT but lost the will to live after 3 hours on the phone. In the end its not available for me at the moment.

While the headline speed of the plusnet FTTC product is 76 Mbps, you need to check what the estimate is for your premises. It might be a lot slower than 76 Meg.

Virgin Media if in an area that is not heavily utilised will probably be fine, but that is the gamble. Plusnet tends to be less affected by a small number of people, i.e. will need a higher proportion of users like yourself to really slow things down.

Thanks so much for all of your replies everyone, I really appreciate it.

I think I will be going with Plusnet. Is there a way to get a speed estimate before signing up with them? According to their website you get an estimate once you sign up.

One final question - what is their take on bittorrent? I noticed in a link provided above that plusnet acknowledge people use bittorrent (which in itself impressed me) but what is there general stance? Do they send out letters etc?

I have a VPN so i'm not too concerned about this but I'm always interested to hear actual current users experiences.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

You can get an estimate using the BTW DSL checker with your address or phone number - not postcode
http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome

Thanks for the heads up. I also found a way on the Plusnet website by entering my phone number and post code. Results were pleasing - Estimated download speed: 79Mb. Estimated upload speed: 20Mb.

Not too shabby.

If you use bittorent to download and upload/seed copyrighted material, and the owner of the copyright becomes aware of it, it is easy for them to find out your ISP.

If they then obtain a court order telling your ISP to send you a warning letter, all ISPs have to send a suitable letter to you. The penalties for a company not doing so are somewhat dramatic.

If the copyright owner, or their agent/solicitor, do not get a court order, but just write to your ISP about you, that is a different matter. I don't know what Plusnet's stance would be on that.

In the complete absence of complaint to them from a copyright holder Plusnet won't know what you are downloading or uploading, and on the unlimited product there isn't any hidden FUP or AUP.

In reply to a post by moo2:

Thanks for the heads up. I also found a way on the Plusnet website by entering my phone number and post code. Results were pleasing - Estimated download speed: 79Mb. Estimated upload speed: 20Mb.

Not too shabby.

Those are connection speeds. Actual throughputs are a bit lower due to how the BT Whoesale system works and also normal overheads as there are on ADSLx.