Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hello All,


Although I am just up the road in SE5 this problem - basically too many users on VM's infrastructure - apparently affects large parts of SE London and originates with some VM infrastructure at Lewisham. The result is severely decreased broadband speeds at peak times. In my case the first sign was iPlayer constantly buffering in the evening, and I have seen as low as 0.8Mbps on a 60Mbps service.


The good news is that anyone affected can request a refund from Virgin.


A couple of examples from VM's forums:


http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-60Mb-Speed/Unusable-broadband-in-South-East-London-VM-acknowledges-too-many/m-p/1528162/highlight/true#M5255

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-60Mb-Speed/F002125723-Speed-Issue-relating-to-network-congestion-contention/m-p/1753032/highlight/true#M17855

This sounds absolutely right. The majority of broadband third party resellers are effectively sub contracting share of BT fixed bandwidth.


New suppliers tend to 'loss lead' by buying more bandwidth than they have sold, giving major speed advantages to early buyers.


As later buyers come in, the sub contractor doesn't buy any more bandwidth - to recover the loss lead - and all subscribers suffer.


You SHOULD complain. This is subject to regulator oversight and the complaints are valid.

> The majority of broadband third party resellers are effectively sub contracting share of BT fixed bandwidth.


But I assume the complaints this time are about Virgin's dedicated high bandwidth Cable service -- it's that section of the forum - rather than the BT POTS one that VM call National.


I wouldn't be at all surprised about their being overcommitted. I'm on their National service, and experienced over a year of seeing my downloads instantly capped to 2 Mb/s, long after my service had been upgraded so that at startup each day it routinely synched at 8 Mb/s.

H, the quoted 60mb is on dedicated cable, it's unsurprisingly not available on ADSL via BT infrastructure.


Peak times you would expect a detox anyway, that's why they're peak, though I've done some spot testing over the weeks and get about 3-6 mbit at peak times, but they don't last long. I was stuck on 0.8 for years due to poor infrastructure on the Brixton exchange ADSL so I can live with that.

  • 3 weeks later...

KestonKid Wrote:


I have been experiencing unusably slow broadband from Virgin media for about 6 weeks now. It may be a different set of issues from those others have described here. Previously I have found the service fairly stable and reliably usable.


I am on the L package. I have a technician coming tomorrow as I've been told by technical services that there is a problem of some kind.


I'll update after their visit if it's of use to other Virgin media customers

The virgin media fibre service seems to have improved considerably over the last 7 days (Se15 4le) - have been able to watch full movies on lovefilm.com, which was not possible before. We did have it confirmed that as there was an ongoing problem, we would be given a full refund (not much use as brandnew subscription and first 6month are free) plus we would not be held to contract. Haven't moved (yet?) as we cannot decide if other providers are any better....

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Big recommendation for Stephen Viccary who has created a magnificent bathroom for us. Quality of work is absolutely top notch. We couldn't be happier - see pics.  Stephen is considerate and tidy meaning working from home during the work was fine (some noise - obviously, it is a demo and installation after all. He does not work on multiple jobs, does a full days work and does ALL the work himself - Tiling, plumbing, lighting (including lighting on a motion sensor under the vanity and in the shower niche - for night time visits 😉), he even changed the door architraves, sorted the badly cracked ceiling and did all the paint work. A full end to end service. Stephen's number - 07941 266 145
    • Highly recommend Dulwich Eco Gardening.  When he came to quote Saied said he’d give our garden back so we could decide what we do next.  Under two weeks of hard work from Saied and Mo and we have the garden back and can see paving I’d forgotten about. Not only did Saied remove our very overgrown greenery. Nature had taken over. He also took back to our fence line overgrown ivy, apple and pear trees and and dealt with a neighbours bamboo that had invaded our garden.  We are now going to get quotes for what we do next so those quoting will be able to see the space.  Saied has suggested someone to quote and will be coming back when he does in case he has any questions or they can work together.  I thought Saied would be a good choice and he was. Quotes from others didn’t leave me with confidence for the end result. That was never a concern with Saied.
    • Having a BBQ (fingers crossed) in 2 weeks and need a small BBQ for veggie bits and any spare benches or garden tables and chairs to borrow to add to mine. Any going? Thanks in advance...
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...