Virgin Broadband & anytime £19.99 Free Wireless Router

BexTech

The 3 for £30 is available only in their cable franchise area - xNTL or xTelewest.

1) Virgin Phone is a regular landline service and uses their own infrastructure all the way to your phone. Yes you can have Sky Digital TV with a cable phone line (when we had Sky Digital installed back 1 Oct 1998, we had a cable line then, some people incorrectly stated over the years it had to be a BT line, but it only ever was 'a working landline'). Though beware Virgin Land line phone service is very poor value, call charges are very high, much dearer than even BT.

2) No, on the cable service they are not giving away a wireless router, they just loan you their cable modem, connected via Ethernet. Up until the brand name change xTW were giving away wireless routers to those who asked and were on 4mbit or upgraded to 4mbit. You can buy one from them, but cheaper buying a cable router from elsewhere, such as broadbandbuyer, broadbandstuff, ebuyer, dabs, http://stores.ebay.co.uk/DIGIDAVE-BROADBAND-STORE etc.

3) The broadband is mostly excellent.

You might be able to get them to let you have the mobile and broadband for the 2 for £20 if you phone up and ask, then use BT for landline (get free caller display, via bt.com/btprivacy) and use Primus Saver 2 for free evening and weekend calls, and 18185 for calls to mobiles and abroad.

I don't have a phone line at all now, just cable broadband and get the old starter TV package for free, I use my old Sky system for the 100+ free TV channels, only have cable TV as it is free and reduced the cost of my broadband by £5.

griff.

I have received a reply to my enquiry to VM re low broadband speed.

I would like to inform you that I have tested your line and find that your line can support maximum speed up to 2.5Mbps. In order to check the speed status, please visit the link below:
http://www.btwholesale.com/get_broadband/index.html

On checking my number for availability at the VM site, I still get the message:
Thank you for choosing Virgin Broadband. You should get Virgin Broadband Up to 8 Mbps
It also notes I have VMbroadband.

Now assuming that it is factual that I should only expect 2.5Mbps...I am starting to feel that it is misleading that VM do not either a) update their own database to get local speeds and/or b) Provide a clear link to the BT website so that customers know exactly what to expect. Providing the information on speed (when speed is really an essential term of the contract) at this late stage on a 'known' seems rather slippery ?



And yes albertross, my system is encrypted. Thanks

BexTech

With ADSL it can only be up to (8mbit) service.

Virgin Media are just stating that the service you can get from them is their 'Up to 8mbit service'.

With ADSL MAX it takes a few days for the BT system to work out what the actual speed will be you can connect at (it also can then vary).

VM do state:

Up to 8 Mbps
We'll make sure that you receive the highest broadband speed your phone line can handle, however the actual speed you receive can be affected by factors such as phone line quality or distance from your local exchange. This means you could actually receive up to 4 Mbps, 5 Mbps or 6 Mbps - basically anything up to 8 Mbps.

With ADSL if you want the max speed you need to live in the exchange, whoever you have your ADSL service with.

daveuns

I'm with Virgin and am about to move I think. My line can only get 2mb because of distance from the exchange however the contention is ludricous. Today for example, at 9 am it was brilliant, 30ms ping response from the BBC website and very quick access, but as soon as 4pm came the response was up to 300ms and surfing has ground to a halt.

griff.

I'm not satisfied. Now that they have given me the written information that I can only get 2.5mbps - I have 7 days to cancel - and get a refund and a mac code.

I am not paying £17.99(£19.99 minus the anytime talk) for a 2.5mbps that delivers between 0.3 and 0.5 mbps between the hours of 7.00pm and 10.00pm - when I got much higher speeds with my old 2mpbs connection.

qsuzie1

Hello
Reading this thread with interest.

If VM BB comes through their cable rather than the phone line does that not help increase the speed?

I am thinking of swapping my whole utility set up which is currently all through one company (I had kept BT for landline).

If I change my current 8mb (which frequently runs at less than 2mb) to VM's standard 2mb then what in the name of the wee man kind of speed will I get?? Right enough I was using a speed checker I found from a company who sold you a "speed up your internet connection" tool, so it probably was not the most impartial - any good links to speed checkers?

Is it worth the bother of swapping?

Current supplier: Utility Warehouse (no probs with the broadband)
Speed: up to 8mb
Actual deliver speed: usually around 2mb or less
Cost: £17.99 with limits - but I have never went over yet and I am an avid surfer
Issue: want to move to cheaper Gas and Electricity supplier and ditch the constant £1.74 monthly admin fee that UWarehouse charge you - so need to move BB.

Any thoughts on moving from reliable 8mb that underdelivers on speed to VM's 2mb? Or am I just being stupid??:rotfl:

One other thought - are VM's BB prices not a bit steep? Their 8mb package is £25 (standard price) for their 4mb and a whopping £37 (standard price for their 10mb (but just how fast does it go??) - compared to others (unless I am missing something) this seems really expensive.

Cheers
Suzie

griff.

I'll say it again, my 2mb service with Pipex was much better than my 'upto 8mbps' (subsequently restated as an 'upto 2.5 mbps service').

Here are my stats to date (the first speed is downstream, the second is upstream)

10/05/07 20:11
203.59 Kbps 302.70 Kbps

05/05/07 19:00
2257.37 Kbps 378.48 Kbps

05/05/07 10:56
555.02 Kbps 293.78 Kbps

03/05/07 22:43
1745.07 Kbps 377.96 Kbps

03/05/07 20:36
1491.84 Kbps 378.21 Kbps

03/05/07 20:30
2571.64 Kbps 378.09 Kbps

03/05/07 20:21
1799.41 Kbps 377.57 Kbps

28/04/07 13:29
265.52 Kbps 290.33 Kbps

28/04/07 08:03
5324.83 Kbps 378.43 Kbps

27/04/07 17:12
457.75 Kbps 305.19 Kbps

27/04/07 17:08
303.28 Kbps 300.88 Kbps

27/04/07 08:22
2385.84 Kbps 378.47 Kbps

25/04/07 07:40
5555.06 Kbps 378.34 Kbps

23/04/07 08:21
5583.00 Kbps 378.56 Kbps

23/04/07 08:16
5522.14 Kbps 378.04 Kbps

For the first time ever in my life (I think) my upstream tonight is higher than my downstream !!

luckyrobp

why are you paying so much for these services.

the provider I use gives a package with 8mb broadband, line rental and weekend calls all for just £19.99 or £27.99 if the exchange isnt LLU (whatever that is).
chuck in your gas, electricity and mobile (8p a minute) and you get all normal landline calls for free - how good is that. :T

I cant find them on these dodgy switching sites, probably because they wont pay them to switch you.

they dont tie you into a minimum contract either.

Did you know NTL charge you 6p connection charge PLUS the call charge so if the answering machine cuts in it has just cost you about 8p. Thats why my brother is swithing from them :mad:

they can be found on https://www.saveonline.org.uk

qsuzie1

Hi Griff
What are you using to measure the speeds? Can I download it from somewhere?

Also - how can PIPEX (phone line BB) be faster? Forgive my complete ignorance but I am under the impression that it would not matter who supplied the BB - because it is over the phone line and you are always the same distance from the exchange, wouldn't that mean they all delivered the same speed?

My main query with Virgin was that since it is coming down the TV/cable line rather than a telephone line that it could (potentially) be faster than normal telephone BB. I am thinking that cable (perhaps) does not face any of the 'distance from the exchange' issues thus allowing 2mb to actually be 2mb.

I am thinking about changing to Virgin as I like the look of their packages and I know my "up to 8mb" does not give that speed (although I would like to measure the speed again using whatever it is that you use). However, if someone out there is already using it and knows that it is much less than the 2mb advertised then I can't imagine it's worth the bother of changing...

Sorry to seem dim on this, an 'idiot guide' on the difference between companies and/or cable vs telephone is more than welcome.

I totally get that someone who can deliver 2mb at 2mb or there abouts is better than someone promising up to 8mb but delivering less than 2mb. I just don't understand how they differ given that I am always the same distance from the exchange - which as far as I can tell is the main reason why the promised speed is not delivered.

Educate me - Please....

Thanks
Suzie

qsuzie1

Hi LuckyRob
I am afraid I am currently with your supplier (utility warehouse).

I am on their £17.99 a month deal - but it under-delivers on speed. Up to 8mb was less than 2mb last time I was able to check. I also dislike having to pay the £1.74 a month admin fee which adds up to £20.88 a year for the privilege of having one bill.

I suppose I am being a bit of a rate tart but that is the whole point of the money saving site - to save money and switch to the best deals despite the effort involved. I doubt Martin would advise people to use switch.com et al if they didn't work, so I will take your comment with a pinch of salt...:rolleyes:

Suzie