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8 Jun 2009, 14:04
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#1
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The Video Guy
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,279
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UK: Cable Broadband
I've been without access to steady, reliable broadband for about 3 years now. I was genuinely downbeat about not having access to Virgin Media cable broadband in the flat I was going to get.
Then I had a fight with the landlords-elect, and told them to stick their flat.
Then I found a new flat, and it DID have access to Virgin Broadband!!
I was so happy :')
Today I was talking to a friend who's just moved in to a new flat, and has access to cable broadband, but has opted not to take it over claims "Virgin are shit".
I was genuinely stunned. I was under the impression that anyone who knew anything about the internet would jump at the chance to go with cable over other inferior alternatives.
What's everyone else's thoughts?
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Writing lists and taking names.
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8 Jun 2009, 15:07
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#2
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Banned
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Blackburn
Posts: 897
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Re: UK: Cable Broadband
NTL was fairly shit service (though were fine, apart from their call centres, in the 5yrs or so I was with them) and since virgin bought them, people assume a similar shit service.
But everyone I know on virgin has no problems with the service at all. The only issues for me is that during peak hours, your bb speed more or less halves, even quaters at times - can be annoying at times.
Oh and I upgraded our internet to the 10MB one before christmas, and seemingly got auto-downgraded after xmas :s Haven't checked the bills to see what we're paying.
Virgin/NTL also gradually upgrade your internet for free too which is nice - probably once a year or so. Actually, me and JC were discussing this last time we were out (our nights out r0x0r!), how his family started on 128kb line (so download speed of 15kb/sec?) and have been upgraded for free over the years to a 2mb line. Apparently sometime soon there's a free upgrade to the 10mb service.
All in all, virgin is pretty decent...
Last edited by newt; 8 Jun 2009 at 15:14.
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9 Jun 2009, 19:20
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#3
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Darling
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 890
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Re: UK: Cable Broadband
Latterly Blueyonder and now Virgin have imposed very draconian STM policies onto their broadband service during both daytime and evening periods, and in my area are very oversubscribed. It meant that often I got sub 1Mb on the 10Mb service at peak times. Their answer? Wait and see for UBR & network upgrades with no specified timescale
Now with O2 and getting good ADSL2 speeds for the area all day.
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11 Jun 2009, 20:05
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#4
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You've Seen The Light
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,152
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Re: UK: Cable Broadband
Quote:
Originally Posted by Newt
NTL was fairly shit service (though were fine, apart from their call centres, in the 5yrs or so I was with them) and since virgin bought them, people assume a similar shit service.
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Its strange no-one knows this, but Virgin didnt buy NTL. NTL brought Virgin's name for 10years (its more complicated than that but Virgin Media is actually NTL still).
Quote:
But everyone I know on virgin has no problems with the service at all. The only issues for me is that during peak hours, your bb speed more or less halves, even quaters at times - can be annoying at times.
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I know many people who get throttled down to stupid speeds on Virgin. The reliability is fine just around where i live, alot of my friends are moving from Virgin due to being throttled down to 126k speeds, even when they havent even been downloading heavily.
Quote:
Virgin/NTL also gradually upgrade your internet for free too which is nice - probably once a year or so. Actually, me and JC were discussing this last time we were out (our nights out r0x0r!), how his family started on 128kb line (so download speed of 15kb/sec?) and have been upgraded for free over the years to a 2mb line. Apparently sometime soon there's a free upgrade to the 10mb service.
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Most ISP's upgrade your internet for free, as they upgrade there lines. As most ISP's only offer 3 tiers, when they upgrade your tier, you usually get upgraded as well with it.
In the UK, o2 and BeThere have the best reputation. BeThere has caps but are very public about the limits (which is why there reputation is so good, as you get what you pay for, while other companys hide there fair usage policy or throttle p2p services all the time etc). Also o2 has UK call centers, which makes anice change when you've got problems.
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First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.
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11 Jun 2009, 20:11
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#5
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Banned
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Blackburn
Posts: 897
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Re: UK: Cable Broadband
Well there are problems with virgin - but its very conveniant. Especially for cable tv viewers.
I had even worse throttling speeds when I was with BT than virgin btw. Then I had the 1mb/sec download speed - inbetween 1am and ~8am I had 800kb/sec, rest of the day it was stuck at around 100-150.
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27 Jun 2009, 03:14
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#6
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.
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 3,382
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Re: UK: Cable Broadband
be broadband rules so much
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28 Jun 2009, 18:19
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#7
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lolly roffle
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,514
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Re: UK: Cable Broadband
Quote:
Originally Posted by Newt
Virgin/NTL also gradually upgrade your internet for free too which is nice - probably once a year or so. Actually, me and JC were discussing this last time we were out (our nights out r0x0r!), how his family started on 128kb line (so download speed of 15kb/sec?) and have been upgraded for free over the years to a 2mb line. Apparently sometime soon there's a free upgrade to the 10mb service.
All in all, virgin is pretty decent...
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They are now on a 10mb connection for £2 more than when we first started with NTL at 128kb back in the day. Virgin tend to roll out upgrades earlier than most other companies in my experience. I'm also now on a 10mb connection in my new house and have had no problems.
Been with Virgin/NTL for 8 years or so in total in various different houses and I've never had any issues. The speed is always pretty close to what it should be and in general the connection is stable (any downtime is infrequent and gets fixed pretty fast). The only problem is the Indian call centres but eventually you get the answer you want after you have turned your modem on and off 5 times.
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eXcessum
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29 Jun 2009, 01:50
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#8
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Bad Girl
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: right here..right now
Posts: 1,055
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Re: UK: Cable Broadband
http://networks.silicon.com/broadban...9157812,00.htm
I'm doubtfull they spent 962 million to use the name for 10 years !
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/04/ntl_virgin/
the register reckons its 30 years, thats probably closer.
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