So whats better Virgin 50mb or BT Infinity 40mb?

cococoladebt

I have virgin media 50mb and receive 50mb bang on for £35 per month. BT Infinity 40mb is £25 per month. What's everyone's view on the services provided by both? What are your experiences like?

KillerWatt

Even though Infinity is FTTC (Fibre To The Cab), the last part of the run is still the 30+ year old copper in the ground so unless the cab is practically outside your front door it is unlikely you will get the full 40Mbit.

cococoladebt

Ah right. I never knew that. So BT is ripping off customers then?

KillerWatt

cococoladebt wrote: »

Ah right. I never knew that. So BT is ripping off customers then?

Not really, they make it quite clear it is "up to" 40Mbit.

iniltous

KillerWatt wrote: »

Even though Infinity is FTTC (Fibre To The Cab), the last part of the run is still the 30+ year old copper, in the ground so unless the cab is practically outside your front door it is unlikely you will get the full 40Mbit.

So exactly the same as VM broadband then ( apart from the 30 year old copper part and not all of BT copper from the cab will be 30years old, could be less, could be more) VM is fibre to the cab same as infinity, the last part from the cab to the home is not fibre with VM same as Infinity
So cococoladebt if you consider BT are 'ripping people off' by claiming 'fibre optic broadband' then I presume you think VM are ripping you off also.

Woggle

I think that Plusnet have just launched Fibre to the Cabinet as well - might be worth a look at?

spike7451

iniltous wrote: »

So exactly the same as VM broadband then ( apart from the 30 year old copper part and not all of BT copper from the cab will be 30years old, could be less, could be more) VM is fibre to the cab same as infinity, the last part from the cab to the home is not fibre with VM same as Infinity
So cococoladebt if you consider BT are 'ripping people off' by claiming 'fibre optic broadband' then I presume you think VM are ripping you off also.

Nope,VM are fibre to the MUX/DA....NOT the cab! however the signal is boosted from the DA (Distribution Amp) to the cab & then on to the home.The Mux/DA can be up to half mile from your home.

shifty27

I would Opt for Virgin Media (even though i'm on BT home phone) and here's why:

- Virgin 50MB is a 12 month contract, BT Infinity is 18month
- Virgin is £35 a month, BT is only Slightly cheaper at £28 (I think)

However both have their issues:

- Virgin Superhub has been explicitly critisized for slow speeds, bad connectivity speed (wired and wireless) - There was an update pushed to the superhub recently that was supposed to fix this.

- BT users have reported repeated disconnections from the service. Although BT do have the Upper hand on Upload speed 10mb vs virgins 5mb (still 1.5mb in some areas)

- More Bt users have reported getting a fair bit less than the 40MB download connection speed (more than 5mb less). Whereas aside from the router issues most virgin customers get 46-50mb connection speeds.

Overall I'd prefer to pay the extra £7 a month and stay on a 12 month rather than 18 month contract.

The market will change so quickly and with plusnet and talktalk already announced they are bringing out fibre and surely more companies to follow there will be better competition and cheaper prices in say 6-12 months time and don't want to be tied down for that extra 6-12 months with BT.

Overall Virgin Tips it for me due to the above reasons.

macman

Woggle wrote: »

I think that Plusnet have just launched Fibre to the Cabinet as well - might be worth a look at?

This is just a resold BT FTTC service, however Plusnet tend to undercut BT most of the time, so worth a look as an alternative.

kwikbreaks

BT Infinity could be as low as 15Mbps - below that it won't be branded Infinity but sold as something else.

I think the £28 for Infinity includes a phone line and calls but check as it may be extra and you need the phone.

The £35 VM XXL is broadband only. I have it and use Vonage for my landline although I initially took the phoneline to get free install and a good cashback deal. It doesn't cost vastly more to have BB+phone.

Always check Quidco/TopCashBack etc. before signing for either. Certainly there is normally £60 or so cashback for VM (I got £125 through SimplifyDigital last year).

Check the fair usage policy on both if you download heavily. If you don't then 50Mbps may well be overkill.

cococoladebt

iniltous wrote: »

So exactly the same as VM broadband then ( apart from the 30 year old copper part and not all of BT copper from the cab will be 30years old, could be less, could be more) VM is fibre to the cab same as infinity, the last part from the cab to the home is not fibre with VM same as Infinity
So cococoladebt if you consider BT are 'ripping people off' by claiming 'fibre optic broadband' then I presume you think VM are ripping you off also.

Didnt know that...