It's Official...VM are the fastest!

[Toto]

Originally Posted by Gary L

The results wouldn't be positive so there's not a chance of me crying foul.
I am going to suggest that they set up their own speedtest, and would recommend that they advertise it as being there. I can only hope they don't say it's a bad idea.

Could be interesting if they do provide their own testing.

[Gary L]

Has to be 24hrs a day. not just from 1am till 10am because that wouldn't be fair.

[Broadbandings]

Something that would be useful, I think, would be for VM to get the speedtest app from http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest but the Java version, and run it locally.

They could easily firewall it off so that only VM customers may use it, and it would present results to the DSLR servers in an easy to read and historical format, along with area information so that people could see where these tests are coming from.

The problem when an ISP is testing its' own service and presenting results to the public is, my humble opinion, it's too easy to be cynical about it. Using a 'neutral' speed testing application with publically readable results removes some of this doubt from people's minds.

[popper]

Originally Posted by m419

In response to the doomsayers.

Like I said Cable Broadband is still technically under construction and i'm sorry but you'll just have to wait a little longer, try asking for 20MB speed from BT,Tiscali,Sky or Orange, you won't get any faster 3MB!!!

However, what Virgin Media need to focus on is City of Westminster in London, most of this area is business orientated and businesses need fast internet! NTL Telewest Business could offer superfast broadband, but is being neglected, I'm aware that offering Digital TV is a problem in this area, but Cable Broadband isn't and the towns and streets which would benefit would be:

Mayfair
Paddington
Marylebolne
Lisson Grove
Oxford Street
Charing Cross
Victoria (Westminster part)
Trafalgar Square
Strand
Soho
Piccadilly
Harley Street
Cleveland Street(Camden side is covered by ex-Telewest)
Regent Street
Wardour Street
Wimpole Street
Marble Arch
New/Bond Street
Covent Garden
Baker Street
St Johns Wood
Edgware Road
Sussex Gardens
Queensway
Maida Vale
Warwick Avenue
Queens Park

I'm also aware that Dolphin Square is completely upgraded and all 3 services are available there.

of course your forgetting that BT actually own the Westminster franchise and lease it to NTL/VM ,so NTL are rather limited in what they can do with it, it seems.

im not sure about the old BT network out in Milton Keynes though ,did BT sell that and it ended up in NTL/VMs hands!

does stating these known facts make one a so called "doomsayer" ?

"Cable Broadband is still technically under construction" were did you get that from?, its been constructed for a very long time now, unless you ment to say being upgraded, in which case sure, IF they put a good % of your payed subscription money into the upgrade pot, they can get some good upgrades, will they though, or more likely palm it off for their executive bonuses as they have done year on year so far....

---------- Post added at 08:03 ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 ----------

Originally Posted by weesteev

After reading these posts i thought I would throw in my own 2p

The upstream launch with Broadband Size XXL of only 1.5Mb is nothing to do with core capactiy but more to do with the "pre cert" headend gear. The initial trial of upstream channel binding was done with Arris CMTS equipment which is silver cdertified DOCSIS 3 and allows upstream channel bonding. I believe 4.5Mbps upload was tested at this phase by bonding three channels together.

The equipment that has passed standard is the Cisco 10k series uBR chassis, both Docsis and Eurodocsis standards are being trialled currently and wil no doubt be franchise specific upon completion.

The modem that is being supplied will be the rather sexy lookig Ambit VMNG 300 Docsis 3 modem. It is very different to current modems and is a matte polished finish to bring it inline with more modern equipment (think playstation 3).

And as for the initial post comments, the news that Virgin is the fastest doesnt come as a surprise but please bear the following factors in mind...

• Virgins total speed is calculated on all three broadband tiers (2mb, 10mb and 20mb). Considering that 2.4million of its customers use 2Mb, thats quite an impressive result to have!
• Faster speeds have inherent problems for all networks, how many non PC enthusiasts have high speed broadband from "legacy" cable days and may not have the PC (or modem) to support such a fast speed.
• The speed tests dont take how the testers connect to the internet, the avergae wireless user will be "G" based, severley restricting most speed test results.

So overall, speed test sites are rubbish! They will never give you an varying result of your speed! If you want to judge your speed then use a newsgroup server and download large files to judge your true speed.

Discuss ?

weesteev, your points about the current VM DS2.0B/DS3 network upgrades are interesting in that all the kit you mention is still "pre cert" in that if you define "pre cert" as anything thats not got a current "gold/Full" cert...


as of todays date, all the cisco Cable Modem Termination Systems cards are only currently Bronze certified.

and that Ambit VMNG 300 Docsis 3 CPE Cable modem isnt even listed on the latest official certfied list never mind got a mear Bronze cert ,although all the other Ambits that are DS3 cert are using the Bronze certified chipset so it reasonable to assume that to if it really exists is also the same bronze cert or at least capable of that bare minimum spec.

http://www.lightreading.com/blog.asp...53456&site=cdn

http://www.cablemodem.com/downloads/...d_Products.pdf

so from the tech POV, weres the data and errata sheets on this Ambit VMNG 300 Docsis 3 CPE Cable modem so we can determine its chipset and related long term expandability, a flashy plastic case means nothing if the PCB/kit inside it doesnt have all the hardware options required for the long term use and sevices saleability.

does this as you put it "rather sexy lookig Ambit VMNG 300 Docsis 3 modem" even have an internal 1gigbit router 4 port switch, ? , now that would be something well werth having on all the new DS3 kit for the end users to make good use of for the long term and cheap to include as standard too, and makes very good sense from a cable companys POV thats forcing its customers to rent all their kit if they want the service

the PS3 can be software upgraded and its super fast CPU and co-processors can be used for future services, the same cant be said for any of the DS3 chipsets and their underpowered SOC CPU's other than that one single Casa Systems FPGA based chipset that also the only fully certified to gold standard for some time.

Bronze = 4x4 4 downsteams bonded, no upstream bonding,Multicast to the CPE,IPv4/6.
silver = 4x4 4 downstream bonded, 4 upstream bonded,extended security+.
gold = 4x4 all the above plus all the other related requirement to the DS3 full spec

there is also a 8x4 DS3 chipset that will have bronze cert soon.

---------- Post added at 09:08 ---------- Previous post was at 08:03 ----------

the closest Amibit come to something reasonable for the long term is this U10C026.

BUT DONT mistake it as anything near real Docsis3 certified kit
http://www.ambitbroadband.com/na/ind...-bonded-modem/



Features

• High performance MIPS4350 processor
• Scalable clock rates to 300 MHz
• DOCSIS 2.0+ channel bonded MAC with QoS and BPI+
• Three advanced QAMLink® 1024QAM downstream demodulators
• 256QAM advanced TDMA and SCDMA upstream modulator

"the modems support future interoperability with full DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS and cable modems when they become available."
interoperability does not DS3 certified make.....

"a maximum 144Mbps downstream and up to 30Mbps upstream throughput"
and remember, the real DS3 downstream is peged at 40Mbit Per Channel so this unit could only EVER reach 120Mbit Max at best with the wind behind it with its DS2.0B/pre DS3 3 channels capability.