Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

I've been with Virgin (NTL) since 2000 and had broadband with them since 2001. In the last 17 years BT or any other ISP have offered no real competition to Virgin Media, it wasn't until last year BT / any other ISP was able to offer any more than 2mbps in my area.

Now i'm fully aware no other ISP (in my area anyway) can really compete with Virgin until they start offering FTTP, which i bet is easily another half decade away, if not more going by the amount of time it took FTTC to become available in my area.

That said I am starting to think i might be happy enough with FTTC, the box on the street is two houses down from me, so i'd probably get near enough the estimated speed.

Plusnet estimate this to be 79/80Mb down and 19/20Mb upload for £33.50 a month.

Come this November Virgin will charge:

£38 - 100Mb down, 6Mb upload
£43 - 200Mb down, 12Mb upload (Pretty sure I get 10Mb though)
£48 - 300Mb down, 20Mb upload

I'm currently on the 200Mb package, the download speed is nice for those occasions i download a new game on Steam or the Xbox One, however is not really essential. I think anything above 100Mb is fast these days.

Its more the upload speed that bothers me, especially as i'll randomly host a game server and have started to make backups to the cloud.

Yet i know with any other ISP whatever they offer now will still likely be the same in 5 years time.

It's just ashame Virgin keep having price increases and don't seem to care about loyalty, or the things i do such as upload speed, IPV6 and a static ip on home connections.

I'm curious as to what others think, do you still think Virgin are worth it in 2017?

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

sure do. As much as I love to have a whinge every now and again I have always stuck with VM because at the end of the day it is the best I can get, and they know it, which is why sometimes (or more often than not) they treat people like **** because they know they can get away with it. Just when you think BT et al are about to catch up with VM, VM do major tier increase keeping themselves ahead of the game so unless cost is an issue, you aren't going to benefit from switching isp.
Although upload speed is the sticking point atm, plans are well underway for docsis3.1 and that is going to revolutionise things as we know it. Last time I checked they were supposed to be rollingit out next year.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

As you are so near the cabinet you'll be looking at 1Gb speeds within 5 yrs under G.fast which is being rolled out now. I don't know what the upload will be for it but it will be better than VM can offer ATM.

At the least under G.fast you would be able to get the 300/30 service.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

I guess if we're talking within 5 years, Docsis 3.1 should be well rolled out, so pretty much like for like.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

Quite so, but with cable TV on the decline due to streaming services it will all come down to value for money for BB services.

When it does come to like for like (which it will) then the only deciding factor will be price.

Retentions will be busy!

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

I hadn't read too much about G.fast, however the two tiers seem to be:

330Mbps down, 50Mbps upload
160Mbps down, 30Mbps upload

From looking at this blog here.

Which to be fair looks pretty good today. I think by the G.fast becomes a thing a lot of people can get, Virgin's lowest tier will probably be more than the highest currently available on G.fast though.

I would like to see FTTP companies like Hyperoptic service more areas, that really is fiber to your house, no messing about trying to find new ways to keep copper wires about.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

Yeah, can't see virgin offering 50 upload, not without some ridiculous extra charge anyway.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

Had 80/20 at home and got the full speed but went down to 40/10 because it was more than enough for our two person household, even though I am a heavy downloader and we stream stuff too.

My sisters family has one kid streaming netflix, the other youtube on her phone while they stream something too and 40/10 is enough for that scenario. The only issue they have is when they do the same actions over wifi at the same time, which doesn't seem to an issue with interference or wifi frequency saturated but rather the supplied router not being up to the job.


Miss the 20 upload when sharing video files and such like that but other than that until 4k streaming with minimal compression becomes normal I don't think faster speeds are needed unless you have a house with lots of kids of the right age utilising it.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

I don't think it's worth basing your considerations on what might be coming down the line from either Virgin or BT. Particularly as those things are more than 18+ months away, putting you well out of contract by then anyway.

Go with what's best/more suitable for you now. Don't be loyal for the sake of it, if Sky/Plusnet has a great offer for you and it meets your needs, go with them. You can always come back to Virgin later.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

I would move, but would only get "up to" 17Mb/s from other providers - like going back to the 20th Century.

Update - just checked the BT website, and according to them, I could get "up to" 7Mb/s...

Just downgraded to 100Mb/s (don't really need 200).

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

Yet many gamers found they had better ping and latency on a slower adsl connection than on virgins congested fibre. Horses for courses.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

The FTTC 80 meg gets quickly eroded if you subscribe to TV services that come down the Internet wire.

VM TV comes into a separate box on a different frequency from the Broadband.

So the answer to the question depends on what you want to get out of the connection.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

I've had cable internet since 2001 starting with Telewest's Blueyonder. My VM speed is 150Mbps down, 10Mbps up. It's a reliable service in my area (UB4). I can also get BT Infinity's 76Mbps down, 19Mbps up, which would be good as I back up files to my cloud provider.

But - there are stories of BT Infinity's upload speeds dropping well down, so I'm hanging fire until something else such as G.fast is available.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

There is nowhere else at the moment I can get a 200/20 connection with line rental included for £31 a month. I used to have the 300Mb however it was going wasted as I was making little use of it.

When G.Fast becomes available in my area that will change as it will likely offer better and faster uploads than VM.

Still the Gamer tier does me fine right now, as long as VM doesn't start applying STM then I doubt I will be shifting for quite some time.

Re: Virgin Broadband still worth it?
 

G.fast's major limitation is range. I have a pod on my cabinet and it's no use to me as I'm about 150m from the cabinet in a straight line but about 500m of cable.

As it uses higher frequencies than the current FTTC / VDSL services it attenuates away more quickly too. If you aren't getting full 80/20 on FTTC you aren't going to benefit from G.fast.