Virgin Media to demo 200Mbps broadband.

Media Boy · 19-03-2010, 13:55

Virgin Media has confirmed plans to stage public demonstrations of its 200Mbps broadband service at this year's Ideal Home Show.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...broadband.html

*sloman* · 19-03-2010, 14:03

hmmm wonder what they are going to show with it?

Multitasking iplayer, xbox, web browsing all at the same time. i can do this with my 50Mb

give me 100UP/100Ddown

Ignitionnet · 19-03-2010, 14:19

An uncapped DOCSIS 3 modem, whoopie

dd11 · 19-03-2010, 14:35

Great, but personally I don't really feel any excitment with news of download speeds faster then the 50mb is at the mo.

Just a little frustrating that all the hype is about download, when they still haven't mentioned anything about upload speed, i wonder if it will pop up when they do there demo.

uno · 19-03-2010, 18:40

I didnt know the virgin network/UBRs near Earls Court had been upgraded for 200mb broadband I expect just demo videos of what you can do

Ignitionnet · 19-03-2010, 21:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by uno

I didnt know the virgin network/UBRs near Earls Court had been upgraded for 200mb broadband I expect just demo videos of what you can do

It's the same technology as the 50M just without a 50M limit on the modem. They could even bring a CMTS/uBR with them.

Pantsu-san · 19-03-2010, 22:20

I'd love them to show a CM maxing out at 200Mb and then disconnecting in time to a bunch of T3/T4 errors in the log file. Then, the only way to get the demo working again is to hard reset the modem to have it crawl along at 1Mb for 15mins before returning to the speed it's meant to be. For a bit.

I'd suggest that the poor person running the demo have the number of the Chief Executive's office on speed dial.

Phil-ntl · 19-03-2010, 22:23

Never one to put a dampener on things but it would be interesting to see if it suffers from the same speed drops, disconnections, "motorola ubr issues" as a fair few customers seem to experience on the 50mb service.

To be fair, mine has been rock solid since day one but if this happens I can see a few people with egg on faces

Phil

---------- Post added at 21:23 ---------- Previous post was at 21:21 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pantsu-san

Id suggest that the poor person running the demo have the number of the Chief Executive's office on speed dial.

Or a very thick skin and a good line in excuses

Phil

Welshchris · 19-03-2010, 22:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pantsu-san

I'd love them to show a CM maxing out at 200Mb and then disconnecting in time to a bunch of T3/T4 errors in the log file. Then, the only way to get the demo working again is to hard reset the modem to have it crawl along at 1Mb for 15mins before returning to the speed it's meant to be. For a bit.

I'd suggest that the poor person running the demo have the number of the Chief Executive's office on speed dial.

u saying that reminded me of this.... lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzFUcDKC64E

Pantsu-san · 19-03-2010, 23:08

Well, here's to VM coming out with the XP equivalent. Or, better yet, W7.

*raises glass*

roughbeast · 24-03-2010, 12:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Virgin Media has confirmed plans to stage public demonstrations of its 200Mbps broadband service at this year's Ideal Home Show.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...broadband.html

Lifted from your link:-

"An additional 200Mbps trial is due to get under way soon in Coventry, while Virgin Media intends to offer a 100Mbps service to customers by the end of the year."

I'm in Coventry. They just finished my 5Mb upload trial last week. Here's hoping I'm in line for the 200Mb download trial. I wonder if my upload speed would be increased at least proportionally?

*sloman* · 24-03-2010, 13:52

Watch all of our modems go down for 30mins while they are showing this.

timbiller · 24-03-2010, 13:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by *sloman*

hmmm wonder what they are going to show with it?

Multitasking iplayer, xbox, web browsing all at the same time. i can do this with my 50Mb

give me 100UP/100Ddown

A colleague in Holland is just having duplexed 100MB fitted - fibre into his house.

€70/month uncapped and with unlimited in-country telephone service.

/green

Tim

cook1984 · 24-03-2010, 16:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by *sloman*

hmmm wonder what they are going to show with it?

Multitasking iplayer, xbox, web browsing all at the same time. i can do this with my 50Mb

give me 100UP/100Ddown

You can't multitask on VM, the upload speed is too low. A person downloading at full speed (e.g. 50 meg) will require all of the available upload bandwidth as well for control and acknowledgement packets. VM have deliberately set the upload speed at just high enough to support full speed downloading.

Of course if the downloader is using P2P then even when not at full speed down most of the upload bandwidth will be consumed anyway.

As such if you were to try watching a video or making a Skype call while someone else is downloading you will get stuttering and freezing.

The biggest advantage of a 100/100 connection, which people tend not to realise, is that it is almost impossible for one person to saturate it and even if you do it doesn't matter. Even when using P2P there will be spare capacity available. One person really can watch a streaming HD movie while someone else uses a HD webcam, sends a large email and a third person is busy downloading some files while uploading photos to Facebook.

Even when close to saturation of upload bandwidth because there is so much of it packets are not delayed nearly as long as they are on the pathetic speeds VM provides. A packet has to wait up to 200 times longer to be sent on a 512k connection as on a 100Mb one. A bit of prioritisation but the router helps of course, but the main thing is that latency is massively reduced.

timbiller · 24-03-2010, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by cook1984

The biggest advantage of a 100/100 connection, which people tend not to realise, is that it is almost impossible for one person to saturate it and even if you do it doesn't matter. Even when using P2P there will be spare capacity available. One person really can watch a streaming HD movie while someone else uses a HD webcam, sends a large email and a third person is busy downloading some files while uploading photos to Facebook.

Many businesses survive with hundreds of staff sharing a 2Mbps E1 or a 45Mbps E3 leased line - so 100Mbps each way is just massive and very OTT for a home ;-) And as for 200Mbps ...

What's the upstream bandwidth on a VM 50Mbps line?

Tim