Virgin Media offically "Throttling" users

Sponge

VM are trying to attract more and more customers, especially to their high speed 20mb service, when their network can't handle it. In an effort to compensate, they're continuing with traffic management. I don't care, and it doesn't matter, who/where it started.

I can manage with my 2mb connection download speeds. I've paid for faster services, but they never reached the quoted speeds, so I stopped. But to now have VM reducing it to (below) 1mb is infuriating. Anyone that thinks 350mb equates to heavy use (in this day and age) is just showing their ignorance.

Example: After I got home from work last night I thought I 'd check out a few demo games on my 360. The first one that took my fancy was >350mb. I had to leave it as it would have resulted in my connection being throttled for the rest of the night. (It wasn't just me using it.) There's no way I'm staying up until midnight to start it either. I do like to get some sleep before I'm up at 5:30am to get ready for work! (And no, I don't have time to do it in the morning.)

And this is all because VM's system can't handle the demand and they're justifying throttling by saying someone that wants to check a few emails, and could probably manage on a dial-up connection, is more important. Are you seriously telling me this is fair?

Even if I could get better service elsewhere, it would probably require a BT phone line, which I don't have. And I can't afford £125 to get one installed.

amcluesent

>this is all because VM's system can't handle the demand<

Yep, my 2MB service collapses to dial-up speeds from 8pm to 11pm. They're shaping me and the cable bandwidth is waayyy over committed. Profiteering VM won't divide the users across more cable segments

peter999

amcluesent wrote: »

>this is all because VM's system can't handle the demand<

Yep, my 2MB service collapses to dial-up speeds from 8pm to 11pm. They're shaping me and the cable bandwidth is waayyy over committed. Profiteering VM won't divide the users across more cable segments

Have you complained, had any engineers visit, what did VM say ??

Has someone said your area suffers from congestion/overload ??

peter999

amcluesent

>Have you complained<

No, I hammer the link with P2P big time (1GB/day) so I'm keeping my head down;)

Mike_Edwards

So according to some peoples opinions, If i bought a Fast Car, but i drove it around at peak times between 08:00am till 09:00am and 04:00pm till 06:00pm. The car manufacturer would be totally justified in putting a limiter on the speed as i would not be needing to go fast as it is peaktime.
This idea is as flawed as it is stupid. If you are paying for 4mb broadband you should get it, OFCOM should definitely get involved.
I'm with Virgin Media, after having many years good service from NTL (The Customer service was awful but the reliability was excellent) I was shocked by the terrible drop off in service my FTP client bandwidth dropped despite it being the same size pipeline.
The Broadband Industry needs a good hoof up its rear end.

normanmark

Mike_Edwards wrote: »

If you are paying for 4mb broadband you should get it, OFCOM should definitely get involved.

Well you are actually getting the speed, its a case of downloading so much content within peak time that will restrict your speed.

knowledgeman

Good for virgin media I say

Why should people who dont download constantly have to have their browsing destroyed by those who take the !!!!

350mb is high,and anyone who says different is ignorant

Nik_Doof

knowledgeman wrote: »

Why should people who dont download constantly have to have their browsing destroyed by those who take the !!!!

Even if you don't get rate limited, Virgin's network is collapsing under the strain of oversold bandwidth, and you would suffer from the slow speeds. Usually its not down to people taking the mick, its just everyone using the same bandwidth as everyone else in the area.

This is a feeble attempt by Virgin to try and give them a extra bit of legroom to oversell some more.

knowledgeman wrote: »

350mb is high,and anyone who says different is ignorant

350mb is not high, That equates to one high quality video, or a few hours gameplay on like WoW. 350mb People who actually want to use their internet connection for anything other than view the odd webpage are getting stung.

custardy

knowledgeman wrote: »

Good for virgin media I say

Why should people who dont download constantly have to have their browsing destroyed by those who take the !!!!

350mb is high,and anyone who says different is ignorant

350mb is nothing.we have more and more streamed content nowadays.
people legally or illegally downloading music and videos can hit that in no time.
you sit at home buying off itunes and suffer a throttled connection?
as mentioned above those using xbox live and buying from marketplace can wipe out 350mb in no time
my contract on VM is up and im weighing up my options beforei hit them for a new package price. i use the top BB but im not hugely impressed of late as it seems to suffer some slow down regardless of times/managment

darwin-rover

Mike_Edwards wrote: »

So according to some peoples opinions, If i bought a Fast Car, but i drove it around at peak times between 08:00am till 09:00am and 04:00pm till 06:00pm. The car manufacturer would be totally justified in putting a limiter on the speed as i would not be needing to go fast as it is peaktime.

I think you are using the wrong analogy . Imagine rush hour traffic and everyone is on the road at the same time , things inevitably slow to a crawl . Now imagine if all the buses/trucks/large vehicles were limited to travelling out of peak time .Things would move faster wouldnt they ???!!!

I am on the 20meg service . As of yet I have never been throttled , and I download a lot . I just do it out of peak hours .
As for all the doomsayers talking about VM "overselling" bandwidth , I very rarely get less than 15meg (and thats at peak time) , most BB problems are usually to do with the PC and NOT the network .