Virgin Use of your Router for Public Wifi Hotspot

bazzyb

mark31 wrote: »

Lets go back to the begining. Virgin have only just decided to do this - I've been a customer for years - nor did they annouunce it before they did it. They are switching this facility on in my home whether I like it or not. I have to opt out and then it can take several days for them to switch it off. Does this not strike anyone as the wrong way to go about things?

No.
...............

Bogof_Babe

Surely this is all very well if you are on an unlimited contract, but I am on 12GB with BT, so wouldn't be very happy to find it was being shared out among the neighbours. I never opted in, so cannot use BT hotspots, but that's fine.

DCFC79

mark31 wrote: »

Lets go back to the begining. Virgin have only just decided to do this - I've been a customer for years - nor did they annouunce it before they did it. They are switching this facility on in my home whether I like it or not. I have to opt out and then it can take several days for them to switch it off. Does this not strike anyone as the wrong way to go about things?

Not an issue for me.

[Deleted User]

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

this is all very well if you are on an unlimited contract, but I am on 12GB with BT, so wouldn't be very happy to find it was being shared out among the neighbours.

Nothing you pay for is "shared" with the neighbours or passing pedestrians...

The threadstarter is unnecessarily worried about security and you think your service might be somehow diluted. Neither theory has any validity. Both BT and Virgin allow customers to opt out regardless.

DavidP24

AndyPK wrote: »

No one would opt in if they did that.
And therefore customers would not get free wifi when out and about.

Not true, if you tell people the benefits of a deal, any deal, then they can make an informed choice.

As long as they do not have to bother, they do not put the customer first.

I do admire that Virgin actually informed the OP and gave them an option to opt out.

DavidP24

mark31 wrote: »

Lets go back to the begining. Virgin have only just decided to do this - I've been a customer for years - nor did they annouunce it before they did it. They are switching this facility on in my home whether I like it or not. I have to opt out and then it can take several days for them to switch it off. Does this not strike anyone as the wrong way to go about things?

The real issue here Mark is you, because you have expectations, expectations of being treated as a CUSTOMER; with respect.

Unfortunately many corporations treat their customers as CONSUMERS, it is a very different attitude; they treat you more like cattle, to be prodded and pushed where THEY want you to go rather than where you NEED to go.

If you look at the organisations that have a good reputation, it tends to be the ones that truly treat you as a customer. John Lewis is an example.

DavidP24

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Nothing you pay for is "shared" with the neighbours or passing pedestrians...

I am not sure I agree with you about that; in my opinion you pay for the line installation and for it to be terminated, broadband is sold on the basis that you will get the maximum speed your line is capable of, not the maximum less some arbitrary percentage the corporation feels it can get away with, so that it can flog off the rest.

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

The threadstarter is unnecessarily worried about security and you think your service might be somehow diluted. Neither theory has any validity. Both BT and Virgin allow customers to opt out regardless.

With all the hacking in this world we can never be assured of security and as for dilution, well it kinda is being diluted if they chop of any percentage at all.

Thank goodness you are allowed to opt out, although I would still wonder if they were just telling you that you opted out. Has anyone here actually tested this, does the SSID disappear?

One thing that bothers me is that my router says I am getting 17mb but no speedtest shows above 15mb, however, I am prepared to accept that there is a technical explanation for that.

Corporations do this all the time, Akamai is used to deliver files to you for things like Windows Update, but they use your bandwidth to give files to other users in the same way bittorrent. Google went one step further, they broke into people's wifi from their streeview cars and uploaded the images they collected as they drove by.

I am with the OP on the fact that you should be opted out but encouraged, for example with a rate on the line rental or a profit share. I would not have a problem if it was a customer choice from day one, as FON was before BT changed it.

datostar

My Virgin Hub 3.0 is enabled for the Public Broadband. It has absolutely no effect on my own connection, does not share the SSID or IP address and does not appear in my router settings. The SSID, like all other enabled VM routers, is 'Virgin Media' and is secured. Only mobile devices running the VM WiFi App are able to connect, i.e. Virgin customers using the app who have logged into it with their account details. I know this because I have tested it with my own equipment. I don't see a problem. It's just like the BT Fon system, and of course is entirely optional.