Contentious issue
Who gives a flying fuck how fast the connection to the home is if they don't have the back haul infrastructure to keep up. Which Virgin Media clearly don't, because otherwise they wouldn't need to cap the bandwidth usage so ridiculously low. I'd rather see efforts to seriously lower contention so people can use the internet at peak times.
Switching from Plus Net to Be made me realise that putting up with a 98% reduction in speed at peak times with through the roof pings was not just something that you had to live with.
Now I can actually play bandwidth intensive multiplayer games in the evening when I get home from work!
Now I can actually use my Napster subscription to listen to music!
Now I can download large files without having to retry many times due to connection drops!
Now I can download ~200MB episodes of TV shows in 1 minute flat, at peak time!
Now I don't get told that every problem I have is my fault, even when it's not!
Although I admit that last point is probably partly due to my never having had a single problem since I switched to Be, not even a connection drop, which I used to get 5-6 times a night with Plus Net.
And no, it wasn't my phone line, modem equipment or computer that was the problem when I was with Plus Net, since all function perfectly with Be.
What I would like to see is all ISP's be forced to publish average peak time contended speed, and only be allowed to say the line speed in the footnotes.
So for instance a 50Mbps connection with an average of 70:1 bandwidth contention during peak hours could only be advertised as a "~700Kbps peak time download average", whereas a 24Mbps connection with a stated non-contention policy (like Be, see FAQ) would be advertised as 24Mbps peak time download average". And you should be able to check the historic average contention data for your local exchange before you sign up.
While I'm here, I'll mention another gripe.... shaping particular applications should be banned since as it is pretty much fraud. The most that should be allowed is to equally share the bandwidth so everyone gets the same shitty amount, but never less than the peak time average speed they saw in the advert (that is, if the contended peak time speed did become the only thing you could legally put in adverts). If some people want to use that amount for streaming video or gaming, fine. Others P2P, fine again. But don't use shaping tricks to try and hide the fact you haven't got fuck all in the way of back haul, fix the cause don't defraud.
Yeah, I sound like a walking advert for Be, but screw it, they just dropped the price for the exact same great service so it's the least I can do for them.
And I'm staying a coward because I heard that Plus Net have ties to the mafia, and they kill innocent puppies and put the heads in your bed if they don't like what you say about them....