More throttling on Virgin Media Cable Broadband

BexTech

From Virgin Media's Newsgroups:

Hi,

I know there have been many queries regarding STM (Traffic Management), and
below is the official statement regarding changes to the STM policy.

If you have any questions or comments, please can I ask that you post these
in the Feedback group (virginmedia.feedback) to keep the support groups
clear for the team to respond to service affecting issues. This has been
cross-posted to feedback.

Thankyou.

STM Statement:

· As part of our continued efforts to improve our customer's broadband
experience we are continuing to trial measures which will more efficiently
and pro-actively manage network traffic.

· As part of our continued efforts to improve our customer's broadband
experience, we are making changes to the current Traffic Management Policy
within certain trial regions.

· This updated policy will be trialled within the following regions
Preston, Wigan, Blackpool, Camden, Dalston, Enfield and Haringey.

· These measures are based on policies that detect traffic patterns
that are deemed potentially abnormal and apply traffic management rules to
ensure that other customers are not adversely affected by this traffic.

· The trial aims to prevent or reduce the effects of a minority of
users abusing the network and preventing the majority of subscribers from
having the network performance they desire.

· For the vast majority of customers, upwards of 95% of the base,
their experience will be a more consistent speed (both upload and download).

· Those who have the policies applied to their connection will
experience their download / upload speed being constrained (less than 5%
affected). Breach of acceptable use policy may lead to these policies being
applied.

· These optimisation policies are being trialled during the following
times where the potential for abnormal traffic has been identified as having
the greatest adverse impact on our customers' experience.

10am - 3pm Download only
4pm - 9pm Download
3pm - 8pm Upload


During these times the following thresholds will be applied for upstream and
downstream.

10am - 3pm Download
Size M: 900MB
Size L: 2400MB
Size XL: 6000MB

4pm - 9pm Download
Size M: 450MB
Size L:1200MB
Size XL: 3000MB

3pm - 8pm Upload
Size M: 200MB
Size L: 700MB
Size XL: 1400MB


--

Kind Regards
Karl Rio
Virgin Media Technical Support

BexTech

For other areas the existing STM continues: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

thedarkness

Hi All,

I've always admired Richard Branson, but I'm increasing becoming dissappointed with his companies and his brands attitudes... I found a link to this on a message board I use at work and I think it's disgraceful.

They're apparently working on "Slowing Down" any sites and media services that don't PAY VIRGIN a premium, effectively controlling the speed of their customers Internet Connections. So unless you've got big bucks to slip them, smaller sites and media providers are going to be put in the slow lane!

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/13/virgin-media-ceo-net.html

I've been an NTL/Virgin Media customer ever since they were Diamond Cable, but this it seriously making me consider moving to a new ISP... I've suspected for some time that they throttle connections back for heavy users if they're not on the top plan... I'm sure they've done it to me at least twice now just to get me to upgrade... Anyone got any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks

Justin

steven767

Virgin Media are the most persistant users of the throttling system, especially if you are on ADSL and not cable.

I was paying £17.99 a month for 8MB broadband which barely registered 1MB during peak times of 4pm til 1am. This wasn't a line issue as I had gotten about 6MB consistantly from my previous provider Orange.

2 months ago I switched to BE Broadband (owned by O2). I pay £14 a month and have gotten above 15MB in every speed test I have done since I switched.

If you are an O2 mobile customer, then get the broadband thru them as you get a further discount.