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* Posts by iain podger

2 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Oct 2008

Virgin Media calls foul on web speed testers

iain podger

to Jon

I work for a small ISP, we have peering agreements with level 3 and nitrex so i am aware ofthe costs of data shifting, i can get a free adsl max service from work but i choose not too. when we get onto the 21CN network i will reconsider.

in my view, one gigbayte is not a massive download. and this is where i believe virgin are loosing touch. online services are only going to expand and require more data. Microsoft are now actively advertising their HD movie download service for the Xbox 360 (sorry to keep using that example)

Virgin just seem confused now, they give you a service and then cap it after 15 minutes if you use it at the capacity that they are so happy to shout about in adverts, they defend this policy saying it only hits the top 5% who unless managed would disrupt the service for others (last month i downloaded 4gigs of data in total , 1.3 gigs last saturday from a virgin media hosted mirror, and got limited that day, am i to believe i was one of the top 5% of users that day when my traffice didnt even leave their gateway?) when it it clearly just an arbitrary limit, and to top it all off they are now introducing a 50mb service which will chew even more of their bandwidth.

Jon you are right in everything you say, i agree wholeheartedly, i am just a tad annoyed that a service that was once the best in the country known for being forward thinking has fallen into disarray and confusion and become out of touch.

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iain podger
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bring back the old blueyonder days

Virgin media in my view are awful now. 4 years ago i would have said blueyonder where the best ISP i had ever used.

I do not use the internet as heavily as i did 2-3 years ago, i no longer torrent all the time, my downloading now consists of an occassional tv episode, or an iso image or two.

what makes me believe virgin are awful is their lack of understanding of how the publics use of the internet is changing. I am on the 10mb service, which has the 1GB cap put in place between 4-9pm. which means if i use my "super fast fibre optic" broadband at its full capacity for 15 minutes during this time i am restricted. its pointless going to the 20mb service as the "extended" 3GB limit will also be hit again in 15 minutes.

as i said, i dont use the internet as heavily as i used to, however i do own an xbox360 and a ps3, these are everyday common devices with internet services. the 360 offers the ability to download hi-def movies, if i was to get home at 6pm and kick off the download of a hi-def movie (around 4GB) at 10mb this would take a little under an hour, however after 15 minutes tha cap kicks in and the download would take 4 hours. more devices in the future will offer more services and virgin are failing to recognise this and driving a once excellent service into the ground.

they will probably give the 50mb users a 6GB cap so you get super fast fibre optic broadband for the first 15 minutes, then you get switched to the super buggy "gateway timeout" capped service for 5 hours.

sorry virgin, i used to sing your praises, now i too will be leaving. its not about your capping affecting torrent users, as i said, i dont do that anymore, its becasue your service has failed to recognise the demands now of the average user, the bandwidth consumption of the average home is going to sky rocket in the next few years and the draconian limits you are applying are stifling. well done on flushing a formerly great service down the pan

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