VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I noticed recently that the VIP package now comes with Vivid 300 broadband so I rang today to see what I needed to do to go on to it. They said that they could do it immediately. They also said to ring up early in November to redo my package as my discounts are due to expire. I have now checked my account and it says I'm on 'VIVID 350 Optical Fibre'. I didn't know 350 existed! Does anyone know anything about this? (My network status on the router says 'Max Traffic Rate' (Download) 402500000. Upload is 22010000)

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Just had the same conversation on another thread. Same has happened to me as well. Seems they have quietly rolled it out to residential as well as business users in some areas.

On checking the postcode checker, it does state "up to 350" for my area but doesn't seem like VM are actively pushing it.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/3.png

Cheers
Phil

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Yeah thanks. I noticed the other thread after I posted!

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Another quiet tier added, I wonder if this means we might see a 250 tier pop up as well?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Hm, my postcode checker says "up to 350mbps" but I don't seem to be able to switch to it or anything.....

Edit: One phone call later...


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/4.png

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Which postcode checker page are people using?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

While I am configured for 350 I get 'Up to 300' in my area.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Just got a deal from Retentions to go from 200/12 to 300/20 for less money overall :) Bad news is I have to switch to Hub 3 with it allegedly dodgy latency .. good decision?

Current BQM using SuperHUB 2 in modem mode (ignore the 4pm -> 5pm section, this was a cloud backup):

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/6.png

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

You backup at peak times?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Nope, this was a one off ..

Normal days:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/7.png

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/8.png

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Which bit are you guys getting your information from because when I put my postcode in it asks for my house number and then takes me this page. Nowhere does it says you can get max speed of 200mbits, 300 or 350.


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/5.jpg
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/6.jpg
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/7.jpg
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/8.jpg

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

just found this on Virgin Media website i pay same package at £81 with no sky sports

The Full House Sports bundle

Over 230 channels
All the Sky Sports channels
All the BT Sport channels in HD
Unlimited VIVID 200 fibre broadband
Inclusive weekend calls to UK landlines, Virgin Mobile numbers, plus inclusive weekend minutes to 0870 numbersϪ

£75 a month
for 12 months

Then £100 a month
12 month contract
£20 activation fee applies
Includes Virgin Phone line

http://www.virginmedia.com/shop/bund...ts-bundle.html

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Any ideas when non-300/350 areas will get it activated?

Im on 200 Gamer but would like 300/350 but almost 2 years now and still my area is 200 only?

House was a new build in October 2015.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

It'll be headend/hubsite specific. You're probably running on one of the older CMTS's, so once your site has been upgraded it will be available. In my area some hubsites took a week to upgrade (small site), some hiccups occurred on the way and has taken a whole lot longer at other sites

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

It only lists 300 under my postcode.

As always, I'm not fussed about 300 as opposed to 200.
I want better upload, when are VM going to realise this matters to people now.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

The 20mb upload does address that. The issue is spectrum. There is a lot more downstream spectrum than upstream spectrum. When I was a network engineer a couple of years back I was aware of the future plans to increase this. How that's looking currently I'm not too sure. I haven't looked into it too much but I believe Docsis 3.1 helps massively as well

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Although the extra 8mbits will be nice, the big thing for me is that it is unmanaged. I have always felt like I have only got half an upstream connection when I have to cap my upload speed in the evenings and weekends. Having 20mbits unmanaged is going to be awesome.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Your TBB graph will look like ****, but real world performance is actually fine.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Paul,you are the second person in Nottingham that I've seen that can get Vivid 300. I did a search of my post code and it still came up with Vivid 200. I suppose it depends on which part of Nottingham? On My Virgin Media it says I am area 300 which I believe is the Mapperley end.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I don't even get a number. I put my postcode in and select the address and just says I can get everything. Doesn't seem to indicate any sort of speed at all.
NG13 area

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Area code is on your bill or when logged into my virgin media, it's not given during a "Public" availability check.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I know my Area Code is 30 but I'm trying to find the place everyone else is that tells them if 300 or even 350 is available and I'm finding nothing.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

It's postcode and possibly address specific. The area codes cover too large an area. You could try other postcodes in your area to see if neighbouring areas can get it.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I am area 30 as well dude. I think it is pretty much guaranteed that we can get 300mbits because it lets me go through the ordering process and gets to the point where it says "click here to confirm order". Although 300mbits is going to be the biggest speed jump I have had in years (previous pitiful jumps from 100 to 120, 120 to 150 and 150 to 200) I would very much like 350mbits. Hopefully it will be a pending upgrade even if I do have to have 300mbits for now.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

You will be on the Mapperly UBRs, I'm on Basford.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

My upgrade happened today and so far so good:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2017/08/10.png

I was told I was getting 300/20 but I seem to have the 350 service? I checked my account and it does say VIVID 350. So maybe VIVID 300 is not an actual tier for some areas?

Even the BQM is not as bad as feared:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/08/6.png

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

sweet, I am keeping my fingers crossed for next week

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

So much dose 350 cost?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Can 350 work on a sh2?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I'm paying £55.25p for vivid300 per month and I'd assume vivid350 is an automatic upgrade when available! :)

---------- Post added at 08:30 ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 ----------

SH3 only I'd imagine like vivid300!:)

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

What's happening next week?

If 300 is getting a free boost to 350, surely 200 will see the same to 250.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

What is "Max Traffic Rate 230000000 bps"(from my modem operation configuration) classed as in Mbps? Is that already more than 200Mbps? 200Mbps or 300Mbps will be the package rate. Over time all of the people in a particular package with get the improved rate, and only then can the name of the package change, eg VIVID 300 to VIVID 350. So it may be called VIVID 200 or VIVID 300, but the actual speed is higher for those with the upgrade.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

It's always been 230, to account for overheads etc but that's still the 200Mbps package.

At a guess I'd say 250 would be provisioned at about 280

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Your 230000000 bps is literally about 224Mbps, but Virgin always over-provisions by 10-15% due to advertising regulations (Virgin can't advertise 200Mbit if people can't get it) - it's the same reason that VDSL services are usually advertised as up to 76Mbps when they can go past 80Mbps.

In any case, you're on the 200Mbit tier. If it went up to 250Mbit, the traffic rate would probably be something like 295000000 bps. I believe the 350Mbit service is serviced at nearly 400000000 bps.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I get paid

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

All right, I'm going to say it: I am getting bored of increased download speeds.

100, 200, 300 or 350mbit...it's all the same really. When we were back in the days of sub-mbit speeds, each little increase was exciting but now that we're in triple digits, I feel the return is getting less and less.

What I'm interested in seeing is better upload speeds. 20Mbit still feels archaic, of course I understand the technical reasons why but it would be nice for Virgin to start pushing more here. Back to the 10:1 they used to have, for starters.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

yeah I was thinking about that the other day. When 350mbits is provisioned at 389 you had might as well round it up to 400 and say it is 20:1.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

350 Mb/s business has been available for a while and is provisioned at 400,000,000, I'd expect residential to be similar.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

It looks as though it's slightly more than 400000000 bps.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

;)

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Don't tease :P

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I hate to disappoint

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I wouldn't mind my 200Mb connection having 20Mb upload.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Mine does :)

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Tried on web chat to upgrade 200Mb to 300Mb on my VIP package but it isn't available in the area yet though the online postcode checker says it isn't, the street around the corner can? The person was saying I would get notified in My Virgin Media when it becomes available but I'm not sure it will? Is there anyway to find when 300Mb will become available? I'm sure the postcode checker stated a few weeks back that 300Mb was available but it now says 200Mb. I've been on 24 downstream channels for months now.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Hardly disappointing:

Given the majority of customers are on the lower tiers, I wouldn't be surprised if Virgin kept them at a lower ratio - they do ultimately use the most bandwidth. Makes sense to put the highest tiers on 10:1, another incentive to upgrade now that we're hitting a bit of a "Good enough for me" threshold on Download speeds.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

well spotted, I hope they do do it because the last time I was on 10:1 was when I was on 100/10 and I only got that because I was one of the very first people to sign up. I think it only took them two months to change it to 100/5 for any new subscribers/tier changes. 350 is obviously staying at 350/20 and a 400mbit tier would be a bit of a waste of time in terms of speed increase.

What would be amazing and a big WOW next year is if when they start playing around with docsis3.1 they not only bring out a 500mbits tier but make it 10:1 at 500/50. That would definitely kick ass.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I think Igni said elsewhere that DC3.1 is going to be downstream only at first, so I imagine large upload speed increases are still a ways off. Then again 50Mbit upload is hardly a leap from 30Mbit.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

We haven't got 30mbit upload either though. It will be 20 going up to 50 which would be a nice increase if it were to happen.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

500/50 is doable on 3.0.

https://www.comhem.se/bredband/bredband-500

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Id be happy to see 300/30 or 350/35 at the moment, its probably the only thing that will tempt me off my current 200/20.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

it would be nice but it's not going to happen though, at least not on the current tiers and I can't see them doing a "gamer 300" with 300/30. We need a new 400mbit tier at the very least and they can start a new gimmick and called it something like Lightning 400.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I dunno, I think the faster speeds are starting to lose their allure. With every price rise there's plenty of people saying they've dropped a tier because it's good enough.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

🤔 realistically you don't need anything over 200mbps ... I'm on 300 purely for the upload! 😇

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I wouldn't hold your breath for anything faster on the residential side for a while.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Hey Paul,

I did a webchat and I've ordered my superhub 3 with 300mps which will be delivered on Thursday. When I asked if I have to ring back when 350 becomes available in my area (Arnold/Redhill) they said yes.

Funny thing is,Ive just looked on my package on My Virgin Media and it says Vivid 350. Looks like I will get it straight away when Ive installed my Superhub 3 on Thursday evening.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

yes you will, same thing happened to me last week. The new config will come down when you activate the shub and you will be provisioned for 400/22.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Lovely jubbly,many thanks for that GM

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Well,that self install went quite well. Had my account and area numbers ready as it said in the instructions but they were not needed when I rang the automated line to activate. I was suprised to see the leaflet that said I don't have to return the SB 2 but Ive not looked up the website which suggests the disposal of it yet.
All that remains is to do a few tweaks as suggested towards the end of this video https://youtu.be/aB_ZSwdeFwM

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

The best tweak you can do is put it in modem mode and use a proper. I say that (for many reasons) because the one tweak everyone should do which would be of imeasurable benefit to you is chsnging the dns server but you cant do it on the shub.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Not getting any help from VM so I'll post in here again.

I'm on the VIP package but only 200Mb. The postcode checker states 200Mb is only available but the question is, is there anyway to find out why 300Mb isn't available. I'm on 24 downstream channels and the street around the corner can get 300Mb. We don't have any high utilisation and I can achieve speeds of 200Mb wireless at peak times. Why wouldn't 300Mb be available?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

We know what VM are like so there is no way this is going to be true but the only reason I can think of is that there is a standard/rule in place that if your street or area is X% then there isn't sufficient capacity to available to provide higher speeds. You might be on 24 channels but that is the max which is you can physically get atm and it might not be enough for the over subscription in your area.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I think it's about time they were made to tell the truth and not just VM but other companies too.

They should never make the speed standard on a bundle if it isn't available in all areas and to top it off, you then have people getting 350Mb. Yet I can't get an answer as to why I can't upgrade to a speed that is now standard from VM staff

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

you should ring retentions and see what they say. Although I still think it is down to what is available in your area, if they are advertising 300 as the standard speed for your package then you should have it. 350mbits is definitely an upgrade which is in the progress of being rolled out for vivid300 and I wouldn't expect that to be available on vip any time soon because they have only just changed it to 300. Even when I rang up for 300 a couple of weeks ago and specifically asked for vivid350 I was told it wasn't available yet and I would only get 300 but when I checked my account it said vivd350 and that is what I have got.

Your packages and tiers are managed by codes and I imagine there will be a code on everyone's account which has changed them from vip200 to vip300. You might have been missed out for whatever reason, especially if you have had discounts in the past.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I've been on webchat and the forums and both say 300Mb isn't available in the area yet which is in line with the postcode checker. It's the lack of information which annoys me. The street round the corner says it is available yet with everything I've posted about 24 downstreams, no high utilisation, 200Mb speeds at peak times over WiFi yet I can't get an answer from them why the 300Mb upgrade isn't there.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

ah well that is a completely different story then. You haven't been left out and somebody hasn't made a mistake, it just isn't available yet. I know it is frustrating but I have had it for years. Whenever they announce (or used to) a rollout schedule for a speed doubling programme I was always in the middle of it and had to wait a year and you will find messages on this forum with me whining "my area is fantastic for congestion so why can't I have it now?".

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Don't get me started on that. I was on 152Mb waiting for the 200Mb update that kept getting pushed back every month. The only reason I got it before the rollout in the area was because I upgraded from the old style VIP package to the new one when the V6 came out. I'm not sure when it eventually went live in the area but it was annoying knowing new customers in the area were getting better deals money wise and were able to get 200Mb yet I couldn't get it because the area wasn't ready. They actually said I could pay to upgrade, but couldn't have it as the free upgrade.

I don't know much about the way it works but like I keep saying, street around the corner can get 300Mb through the post code checker, I'm on 24 ds channels and have no congestion and can achieve speeds of 200Mb wireless at peak times, it's so frustrating that I can't get what comes as standard in the package.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Finally got a reply from VM to my post.

"Even though the network may be good now, when we look at upgrading our customers we need to calculate as if every customer in the area was to upgrade.



I'm sorry that it's not available for you just yet. As per Nat, once it is available, we will let you know."

What does this actually mean? More work is needed in my street? What work would that involve if on 24 ds channels and can already achieve full speeds.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Not necessarily on your street. Think of your connection and where it goes - you have a coaxial cable coming from your house to the green box somewhere on your street, all your neighbours connect to that same green box. That green box will have it's own connection to a hub where other green boxes connect to. Depending on where you are, there might be an even bigger hub those hubs connect to and so on and so forth until you hit a backbone/link site that Virgin connects to the rest of the internet with.

If anywhere along those connections doesn't have the capacity to deal with everyone having faster speeds, it will need upgrading. So it might be that the green box on your street needs upgrading, or it might be the hub that green box connects to, or it might be somewhere further up the line.

Furthermore, the point isn't that you get full speed now, so what's the issue? The issue is if they open the floodgates and give everyone faster speeds, you won't get full speed, you'll get congestion. When enough people use enough bandwidth on your local node, they sometimes have to split it - akin to taking half the people connected to a green box and putting them on a new green box (or a new hub further up the line, etc.). Sometimes you'll even lose downstream channels as a result of this, but overall capacity is boosted all the same.

Virgin used to not care about this - they'd double everyone's speed and as a result, nobody would get that speed, everyone would just get congestion and it would get worse and worse. Never mind going from 200 to 350, your connection would drop to sub-10mbit if you were lucky. It made your connection almost unusable. Congestion is a bit like a dam busting, if you don't hit the capacity it's all gravy but as soon as you do then buffers start to bloat, packets start to drop and the whole thing falls apart.

You'd then have to wait months (or worse) for them to upgrade the area because it was all reactive and not proactive - and with everyone jumping the gun and getting mad speed boosts at once, it just crippled the network in huge areas for a long time.

As frustrating as it is waiting for the speed upgrades, it's by far the better option. It's better you get full-speed at 200Mbit now and have to wait 6 months to get boosted than to get "350Mbit" in name only but actually suffer serious congestion for 6 months.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Still provisioned at 345000000 here. Getting 331Mb on Homeworks 300. Up speed 21Mb on 20Mb headline speed. I'm in a non-contended area so I get these speeds 24/7.

I assume that when they upgrade Vivid 300 to 350Mb in my area, then Homeworks will be done at the same time.

EDIT.............................................. ....................

Just spoke to webchat. They said that those on 350MB are there on a trial basis only.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

That makes a lot of sense but it is very annoying VM offer 300Mb as standard on the VIP package yet can't deliver it to certain places. In my eyes, it shouldn't be standard until all areas can receive it.

To add to that how the heck is a paying customer supposed to know when they can upgrade to something they are paying for and how long this 'issue' will continue. It's not a very fair system in my view.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I agree it's less than ideal, but the alternative would be Virgin lagging behind the competition because they'd literally have to upgrade the entire network before offering faster services.

It's no different to the DSL providers either, huge swathes of the country still can't get fibre broadband at all yet they'll all advertise it.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Still not getting any answers from VM. All I really want is a date that the work needed for my street/area is planned. I find it annoying that they can offer a speed as standard but some areas can't get it and have no clue as to when it could be available.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Dude you are going to make your head explode. Give up! I can tell you now that any dates you pressure VM into giving you (and they will eventually make something up just to shut you up) aren't going to be stuck to. I have seen many other areas which have suffered serious congestion issues in the past and customers were given genuine fix times (between 3-6 months time) and the dates came and gone and when the users rang up again to say there was no improvement it is because the dates got pushed back again. Even if you do get a date out of them, I can guarantee they won't stick to it.

They will do it when they do it and it will be a nice surprise for you.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I do actually understand this but I will put as much pressure on them as I can. A date is a date which is more than I have now. I just dislike everything that is happening with this at the minute. It should be a straightforward answer and it's just turned into an argument or being ignored.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Not quite as straightforward as you think. The fact the max you can get in your area is 200mb says to me you're running on an older CMTS. There are a lot of CMTS upgrades going on across the country. As an example in the area I work there are approx 8 headend/hubsites. To give an example of a couple, one of them was about a weeks work. New CMTS installed in spare rack space, old equipment cut over to new CMTS. Another site took not far off a year, multiple CMTS's, not enough room to house them so a complete headend rebuild. Various issues encountered on the way. I can't say for certain but I would imagine major issues at one site could have knock on effects for others. Obviously I know nothing about the area you are fed from, so I couldn't comment, but all I can say is it's not always a case of chuck a CMTS in job done unfortunately

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I'm in the Teesside area 30, postcode TS17 area. I'm on 24 downstream channels, 200Mb+ at peak times over WiFi and 350Mb is available round the corner. I understand it can be a complex issue but surely there must be some sort of time frame even if it goes past that time. At the moment I don't have a clue what's happening if anything and if I'll still be sat here in a year's time none the wiser. The bit that has annoyed me is they've made it standard on the VIP package which is what I'm on yet I can't get.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Hi guys.

I signed upto Vip a couple of weeks ago and because 300 isn't available in my area, it's put me down to 200.

Is there anyway I could at least get the 20Mb upload or am I stuck on 12Mb?? Can't they just push through the 300Mb config file so I could at least get the 20Mb upload speed?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

which means the highest you can get is 200

so the inference is that you was on something higher than 200 and the only tier higher than that is 300 which you have just said isn't available in your area

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

I'll pick up on this some more later but there have been some more extreme actions to get rid of older CMTS, and there are a number of areas that have other issues preventing release of >200. Now even having CCAP in place isn't enough, they want more than 16 channels available for quality reasons.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Will these CMTS upgrades allow VM to change the down/up ratio in favour of better uploads? Most people can never max out their download speed and would trade this off for faster upload?

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

Not instantly. But it lays the foundations. Other than stuff they've already got planned. So basically you're not gonna see a massive jump instantly. It's the just the CMTS's. It's the equipment in the field as well, bearing in mind VM is made up of many old cable companies. Each network built to different specs etc.

Re: VIP now with Vivid 300
 

This is one of those rare things I can't discuss in too much detail in public, beyond to say no. The older Motorola and Cisco kit was perfectly capable of bonding 4 upstreams.

---------- Post added at 11:34 ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 ----------

You've a PM :)