BB prices once 100Mb/s come available?

[BomberAF]

Does anyone know what the monthly price of the 100Mb/s service will be, and when this service is released is there any chance that the 50Mb/s service will dropin price?

Can anyone also confirm or deny the existance of the 'other' back bone that 50Mb BB uses as opposed to the 'normal servise that the other bb packages travel along? The reason I ask is because I got 50Mb bb and then went down to 20Mb, with just a phone call. After a few months I decided to go back onto the 50MB service but was told that an engineer needed to come out, but I told them i have already had an engineer out so what was the point. The woman told me that 50 Mb broadband went over a different backbone so that was what the engineer was for so I could be connected to it. I couldn't be bothered with an engineer call I decieded against going back onto 50Mb/s, and told her not to bother. After contacting her supervisor the phone operator told me I didn't need the engineer and they would just increase my speed, and sure enough no longer than 2 mins after putting the phone down my modem re-booted and i was on 50Mb bb. And this is what makes me think that this story of the separate back bone for 50Mb/s bb may not be real or not in the sense that Virgin wouldhave us believe.

One more point, does anyone actually know of any sites that actually allow youto download at any where near 50Mb? Cause I don't know any that offer download speeds of anything more than 20Mb/s.

[Ignitionnet]

No-one knows its' price and don't see any reason why the 50Mbit would drop in price as its' present price is perfectly competitive with other current and forecast deals from others.

20 and 50Mbit often use the same equipment.

Yes I know of quite a few places that serve above 20Mbit though they're not going to be used very often. Most recent use I had for it was downloading a game client, depends what you're looking to download really. There's some HD content that runs at very high speeds.

[Bman]

Whenever i get games from Steam i often get between 5-6MB/s which is about full speed for 50mb.

[Peter_]

Does anyone know what the monthly price of the 100Mb/s service will be, and when this service is released is there any chance that the 50Mb/s service will dropin price?

Can anyone also confirm or deny the existance of the 'other' back bone that 50Mb BB uses as opposed to the 'normal servise that the other bb packages travel along? The reason I ask is because I got 50Mb bb and then went down to 20Mb, with just a phone call. After a few months I decided to go back onto the 50MB service but was told that an engineer needed to come out, but I told them i have already had an engineer out so what was the point. The woman told me that 50 Mb broadband went over a different backbone so that was what the engineer was for so I could be connected to it. I couldn't be bothered with an engineer call I decieded against going back onto 50Mb/s, and told her not to bother. After contacting her supervisor the phone operator told me I didn't need the engineer and they would just increase my speed, and sure enough no longer than 2 mins after putting the phone down my modem re-booted and i was on 50Mb bb. And this is what makes me think that this story of the separate back bone for 50Mb/s bb may not be real or not in the sense that Virgin wouldhave us believe.

One more point, does anyone actually know of any sites that actually allow youto download at any where near 50Mb? Cause I don't know any that offer download speeds of anything more than 20Mb/s.
Price no one knows as yet.

50Mb uses Docsis 3 and 20Mb uses Docsis 1/1.1 depending on kit used so they do use a different backbone, but once you have the VMNG300 modem it is just a case of provisioning your modem for the correct speed.

No engineer is needed after the initial installation.

[Ben B]

No engineer is needed after the initial installation.

Except if there is a fault of course ;)

[Peter_]

Except if there is a fault of course ;)
A fault on 50Mb unheard of I think.;)

[Ben B]

A fault on 50Mb unheard of I think.;)
Yeah... a fault on 50mb... when pigs fly :p:

[BomberAF]

Price no one knows as yet.

50Mb uses Docsis 3 and 20Mb uses Docsis 1/1.1 depending on kit used so they do use a different backbone, but once you have the VMNG300 modem it is just a case of provisioning your modem for the correct speed.

No engineer is needed after the initial installation.

So to clarify then, in the green cable boxes in the street there is a switch which depending on what bb package you have send will send your internet traffic down either a 50MB cable or the other cable for either 10Mb or 20Mb? Or is it the same cablebut just using a different technology and this is what they mean by a different backbone, or is it an actual separate cable (or backbone).

Also what is the capacity of this backbone, does this backbone have the bandwidth for the 100Mb and 200Mb when they eventualy come out, without causing one almighty bottleneck, or will new backbones be needed?

---------- Post added at 21:41 ---------- Previous post was at 21:40 ----------

Yeah... a fault on 50mb... when pigs fly :p:

Is this sarcasm?

[Ben B]

<sarcasm>
No it is not sarcasm, the 50mb service is always fault free
</sarcasm>

:D

[Peter_]

So to clarify then, in the green cable boxes in the street there is a switch which depending on what bb package you have send will send your internet traffic down either a 50MB cable or the other cable for either 10Mb or 20Mb? Or is it the same cablebut just using a different technology and this is what they mean by a different backbone, or is it an actual separate cable (or backbone).

We use the same cable and the speed is controlled by software sent from Customer Services to your modem, the VMNG300 can run all current speeds but all of the standard modems cannot as they are not Docsis 3 compliant.

[on in an hour!]

in reply to your 'backbone' question,20 and 50meg modems are on seperate UBR's from all other users ;)
also,i think going forward custs will be installed with the '50meg modem',regardless of the speed being paid for,as this future-proofs them for speed upgrades.VM are already supplying customers on 10/20meg installs with the dlink wireless 'n' router (which future-proofs the router).

[BomberAF]

We use the same cable and the speed is controlled by software sent from Customer Services to your modem, the VMNG300 can run all current speeds but all of the standard modems cannot as they are not Docsis 3 compliant.

So it's not a different backbone then in the true sense of the word it is just a different technology really isn'tit that allows you to get faster bb.

So if these cables are all the same cables for all bb packages what is their capacity, and could they handle in theory every person on cable broadband going onto 50Mb bb, or say 100Mb or even 200Mb when they come online?

Just one more point, is it possible for the people in the control center to press a button right now and give me either 100Mb or 200 Mb bb or does a hardware upgrade on the network need to be done first? Will my 50Mb modem handle speeds greater than 50Mb?

[Peter_]

So it's not a different backbone then in the true sense of the word it is just a different technology really isn'tit that allows you to get faster bb.

So if these cables are all the same cables for all bb packages what is their capacity, and could they handle in theory every person on cable broadband going onto 50Mb bb, or say 100Mb or even 200Mb when they come online?

Just one more point, is it possible for the people in the control center to press a button right now and give me either 100Mb or 200 Mb bb or does a hardware upgrade on the network need to be done first? Will my 50Mb modem handle speeds greater than 50Mb?
They use different Docsis for 50Mb and the lower packages, so you can call it what you want.

The modem gets a configuration file sent from us to inform it what speed to run at.

The VMNG300 can carry 100Mb and I think it may have been used in Ashford on the 200Mb trials, Ignitionnet will confirm this if he reads it.

[BomberAF]

They use different Docsis for 50Mb and the lower packages, so you can call it what you want.

The modem gets a configuration file sent from us to inform it what speed to run at.

The VMNG300 can carry 100Mb and I think it may have been used in Ashford on the 200Mb trials, Ignitionnet will confirm this if he reads it.

I call a backone a cable either copper or fibre a backbone from my computing background, your tech jargon may be slightly different. The only thing that matters is that the cable (the one backbone) used can support all the broadband connections attached to it.

I do appreciate you spending the time to answer my questions, but you never said whether it would be possible for them to just send a signal down my line and increase my bb speed if they so wished without and upgrades on the network anywhere.;)

[on in an hour!]

yes its possible,the cable to the house can at the moment handle up to 50meg speeds,as moldova said the change in your speeds is a keystroke to send the 'config file' to the modem. ;)

[Peter_]

I do appreciate you spending the time to answer my questions, but you never said whether it would be possible for them to just send a signal down my line and increase my bb speed if they so wished without and upgrades on the network anywhere.;)
Post # 4 and post # 10 both answer your question, once installed with the 50Mb modem you can be provisioned on any speed.

[BomberAF]

yes its possible,the cable to the house can at the moment handle up to 50meg speeds,as moldova said the change in your speeds is a keystroke to send the 'config file' to the modem. ;)

I know it can handle 50 Mb i have 50Mb, what I wanted to know was whether it will be able to now as things stand be able to give me 100Mb broad band if they desireed, or is the network not ready.

[Peter_]

I know it can handle 50 Mb i have 50Mb, what I wanted to know was whether it will be able to now as things stand be able to give me 100Mb broad band if they desireed, or is the network not ready.
It is to be rolled out at the end of the year as that is when they reckon the network will be ready for the rollout which will probably be done in stages as per the 50Mb rollout.

They could probably give 100Mb now but it will not happen in case it causes issues ahead of the rollout

At present they are trialling 200Mb in Ashford in Kent and the is talk of a further 200Mb trial in the Midlands, so the network should be fine for the 100Mb rollout.

[on in an hour!]

I know it can handle 50 Mb i have 50Mb, what I wanted to know was whether it will be able to now as things stand be able to give me 100Mb broad band if they desireed, or is the network not ready.

you asked about the cable i replied yes,the network,to all intents and purposes is ready, they only need to replicate what theyve done in the pilot ares into other areas ;)

[Ignitionnet]

The VMNG300 can carry 100Mb and I think it may have been used in Ashford on the 200Mb trials, Ignitionnet will confirm this if he reads it.

Yep.

---------- Post added at 12:41 ---------- Previous post was at 12:35 ----------

you asked about the cable i replied yes,the network,to all intents and purposes is ready, they only need to replicate what theyve done in the pilot ares into other areas ;)

Hmmm.

You don't think they might need to do some resegmentation on the overlay network? It's not far off an entire uBR on each bonded group at the moment, this ignoring the upstream congestion.

[Stuart]

you asked about the cable i replied yes,the network,to all intents and purposes is ready, they only need to replicate what theyve done in the pilot ares into other areas ;)

Especially when you bear in mind that the bandwidth used by Analogue TV was more than enough to provide bandwidth for 100 meg connections.

[Ignitionnet]

So it's not a different backbone then in the true sense of the word it is just a different technology really isn'tit that allows you to get faster bb.

Every connection uses the same 'backbone' in the true sense of the word. A backbone in a network isn't a cable or anything else to do with the connection to each customer it's the highest bandwidth part of the network where the largest number of connections flow.

On the VM network the backbone is indicated by routers with 'bb' in their name, for example;

8 5 ms 44 ms 5 ms glfd-bb-1b-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.185.77]
9 6 ms 5 ms 6 ms brnt-bb-1a-as3-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.163.106]

Guildford and Brentford backbone routers 1b and 1a respectively.

The cable going out of the home hits nothing with intelligence until it gets to the CMTS, your first hop after your home router on a traceroute. The overlay network / DOCSIS 3 CMTS and the non-DOCSIS 3 CMTS are separated from one another by frequency division multiplexing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-division_multiplexing).

The DOCSIS 3 CMTS is the one delivering 50Mbit and will be delivering the 100 and 200Mbit services in due course.

[Jayster]

Every connection uses the same 'backbone' in the true sense of the word. A backbone in a network isn't a cable or anything else to do with the connection to each customer it's the highest bandwidth part of the network where the largest number of connections flow.

On the VM network the backbone is indicated by routers with 'bb' in their name, for example;

8 5 ms 44 ms 5 ms glfd-bb-1b-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.185.77]
9 6 ms 5 ms 6 ms brnt-bb-1a-as3-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.163.106]

Guildford and Brentford backbone routers 1b and 1a respectively.

The cable going out of the home hits nothing with intelligence until it gets to the CMTS, your first hop after your home router on a traceroute. The overlay network / DOCSIS 3 CMTS and the non-DOCSIS 3 CMTS are separated from one another by frequency division multiplexing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-division_multiplexing).

The DOCSIS 3 CMTS is the one delivering 50Mbit and will be delivering the 100 and 200Mbit services in due course.

I was reading your post and was intreaged, Would you mind explaining how the cable network works? If not then thats ok.
Thanks

[BomberAF]

Every connection uses the same 'backbone' in the true sense of the word. A backbone in a network isn't a cable or anything else to do with the connection to each customer it's the highest bandwidth part of the network where the largest number of connections flow.



Yes I understand that, but I thought that when they said a separate 'backbone' they connected you to a different set of 'cables, or just a cable' i.e. a backbone. What VM do is not use a separate back bone they just allow you to use more bandwidth of the one back bone that they have which handles all their BB traffic as well as the TV.