Virgin Media set to double broadband speeds

mattytun

Virgin Media is set to double the speed of the broadband service received by over 4m of its subscribers.
In a programme starting next month, and rolling out over the next 18 months, customers with the current 10Mb, 20Mb, 30Mb and 50Mb services will see their speeds 'at least doubled.
Current 100Mb customers will see an increase to 120Mb.
And there's scope for even greater speeds: the new modems to be supplied as part of the upgrade programme are capable of up to 400Mb.
120Mb broadband will allow an album to be downloaded in under five seconds, and an HD movie in five minutes, and the new service speeds will also benefit homes consuming a lot of streaming content, and those with several devices connected to the internet at the same time.
Virgin Media boss Neil Berkett says that 'The burgeoning market for better connectivity has given us an opportunity to transform the digital experience of millions of our customers and to bring about a massive step change in the number of UK consumers who have access to exciting, next generation services.
'As people are increasingly doing more online, and getting connected to the internet with lots of different devices, having a fast, reliable broadband service should not be a luxury. We want to make sure that consumers have access to the best value broadband service and that means a superfast connection.'
Prime Minister David Cameron has welcomed the announcement, saying that'it will provide a great boost for the economy and change the way many households, consumers and businesses use the internet.
'Rolling out superfast broadband across the country is a critical part of our plan to upgrade the UK’s infrastructure and build a new and smarter economy.'

GlynD

Wonderful. I wonder then if I stayed with them would my broadband of 0.5Mbps increase to 1Mbps?

Buzby

This refers to cable BB, not the BT kludge called ADSL. At least this might stop BT promoting Infiity and 'Fibre Broadband' when VM have no cable customers with speeds less than BT's 'top' one.

hippey

VM do have customers at less that BT Infinity Speeds:

I know that my dads speed is 10Mbps with Virgin (Diamond Cable legacy area).

I did find it quite funny when I read the announcement from VM was going upto 120Mbps which is only a few months after BT's 110Mbps announcement. It looks like there will be some fighting going on when BT goes to 300Mbps hopefully this Spring.

dazzaofdagenham

Interesting statement...new modems ?

Will they expect people to enter into a new contract to receive these new modems and newer speeds...

I wonder if people need these speeds though...speaking for myself I have the up to 50 Mbps and get about 47 Mbps

This is enough for music streaming via spotify and surfing and downloading via YouTube and also PS3 gaming all at the same time.

Just my thoughts

Darren

PurplePow

Bonus - I'm happy with our 10MB speed (would never go back to crappy BT phone line broadband ever again!) and that being increased is nice

macman

Why are VM doing this when their creaking network cannot cope with the existing traffic in many areas caused by the 50Mbps service?
It's just about advertising theoretical top speeds that for most people will then be traffic managed down to a crawl.

kwikbreaks

macman wrote: »

Why are VM doing this when their creaking network cannot cope with the existing traffic in many areas caused by the 50Mbps service?

Because they are running scared that BT Infinity will be stealing too many of their customers who have got fed up with their (in places) creaking network. In fact most areas are OK. Mine isn't and I'll be baling out to Infinity as soon as I can get it.

The word is that there will be new traffic management sometime this year which will maybe be draconian enough to sort out at least some of the many oversubscribed areas.

hippey

dazzaofdagenham wrote: »

Interesting statement...new modems ?

Will they expect people to enter into a new contract to receive these new modems and newer speeds...

I wonder if people need these speeds though...speaking for myself I have the up to 50 Mbps and get about 47 Mbps

This is enough for music streaming via spotify and surfing and downloading via YouTube and also PS3 gaming all at the same time.

Just my thoughts

Darren

I don't think that many people do, I have the BT 100Mbps Fibre service and the extra bit is useful when the kids are online but really it's overkill at the moment.... Not sure what I would do with 300M!!!

visidigi

To be fair, the only reason BT is not over subscribed already is because they are refusing to increase capacity where its needed. e.g. If an exchange with the infinity equipment is up to capacity you have to join a waiting list until the network is added to - this can only go on so long before BT ends up in the same situation as VM is in certain areas.

I'm one of the lucky ones, mine isn't over subscribed...I get 50mb and even with my special retention deal ill pay the same for 100mb, can't argue with that.

VM has capacity - to an extent - I mean the engineer in the other day was telling me the TiVO box has its OWN 10mb line for streaming on demand content - whilst my internet is ticking over at a solid 50mb on wired connection.

BT's service on infinity is good right now, but I fear volume up to the olympics may see issues down the line...

spike7451

dazzaofdagenham wrote: »

Interesting statement...new modems ?

Will they expect people to enter into a new contract to receive these new modems and newer speeds...

I wonder if people need these speeds though...speaking for myself I have the up to 50 Mbps and get about 47 Mbps

This is enough for music streaming via spotify and surfing and downloading via YouTube and also PS3 gaming all at the same time.

Just my thoughts

Darren

They'll be given to those customers who still have the old NTL 100/150 Silver modems that can't handle speeds above 10mb & it won't mean a new contract,it'll just be a straight one for one swap.Some customers who still use the internet via the STB may have to have an engineer out to modify the connection to allow the use of a SACM.