300M : 300 Mb now connected.

[Ignitionnet]

It can bond 24 but obviously VM could deliver more than 24 and have modems load balance between them.

VM Ireland are doing 360Mb on 16 channels, Comhem have been selling 500Mb on 16 channel devices.

With the exception of Openreach, whose technology isn't shared anyway, many are selling closer to the full bandwidth than before. Hyperoptic for instance start off selling 1Gb on 1Gb backhaul.

VM in the past have sold 20Mb on 38Mb and 100Mb on 154Mb.

If you price the really hard core products high you get low uptake, low uptake means you need less capacity.

While the idea may make some people cringe 600Mb+ via the SH3 is perfectly feasible.

The moment they release DOCSIS 3.1, as a premium product, they can immediately sell a gig. The (up to) 192MHz OFDM block will supply all, or at least most, of what this tier needs. Sell it as a high price and take the PR win.

---------- Post added at 09:27 ---------- Previous post was at 09:23 ----------

Just to mention, with VM rebuilding networks as they are they'll have tons of room for DOCSIS 3.1 channels, something some of Comcast's networks lack.

VM are still using MP2 for video, so the change to MP4 will help a ton there and will recover bandwidth, as will changes to VOD to improve efficiency.

VM have fewer TV channels in use than Comcast.

VM are rebuilding to 1.2GHz. Given they have a bunch of 750MHz networks even without the MP2 and VOD efficiency changes they'll have a ton of spare bandwidth, more than enough to carry gigabits of DOCSIS 3.1 data.

[Kushan]

I am surprised it took this long for them to dump MPEG2. I understand the need for backwards compatibility, but even so, it's such an old CODEC and better things have been around for over a decade. When you say MP4, is that H.264 then?

I wonder how premium 3.1 is going to be. Is it going to be like when 100Mbit came along, a new tier with a new cost that (eventually) gets merged with the lower tier as the network upgrades, or will it be the new "Vivid 200" tier or what?

[Ignitionnet]

I would imagine it will be like the old 50Mb and 100Mb services were initially, with DOCSIS 3.1 CPE becoming more commodity hardware as time goes on. Think about the money VM are spending on the new 24 channel CPE. 3.1 renders those redundant. No way they'll be simply consigning every 'Vivid whatever' the customer is on the top tier at the time's SH3 to the scrapheap.

EDIT: I also imagine they will be wanting to bed the technology in and not throw too many punters on it at once. For a glorious but brief period I was the only customer on 3.0 on the entire Mortlake hubsite. Unsurprisingly, pings and jitter were rocking

[Kushan]

I remember that when 50meg came out - glorious bandwidth, no STM, it was beautiful.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

VM are still using MP2 for video, so the change to MP4 will help a ton there and will recover bandwidth, as will changes to VOD to improve efficiency.

Originally Posted by Kushan

I am surprised it took this long for them to dump MPEG2. I understand the need for backwards compatibility, but even so, it's such an old CODEC and better things have been around for over a decade. When you say MP4, is that H.264 then?

Just to point out that MPEG2 will still be used for SD content and channels as all the SD only boxes are only MPEG2 compatible.

MPEG4 is going to be used for HD only once the SA V+ HD swap activity is completed, as all the other HD boxes (V HD, Samsung V+ HD and TiVo) are MPEG4 compatible.

[Kushan]

Makes sense. I'm guessing few/none of those have an MP4/h.264 encoder chip, to maximise space on the HDD?

[BenMcr]

All the MPEG4 compatible boxes will just record whatever format the channel is in, as I believe it's just a copy of the broadcast itself (with appropriate copy protection to stop it being ripped from the HDD).

[Kushan]

That makes sense. Could be an interesting turn of events if recording in HD takes up less space than SD.

[BenMcr]

Depends on the channel broadcast quality I suppose. Not all channels in HD (or SD) take up the same HDD space even when all are in MPEG2 format.

So there would still be variables in size when HD swap to MPEG4.

Connecting that back to this thread, even when MPEG4 happens for all HD channels I doubt it'll be a direct halving of the bandwidth used.

[heero_yuy]

It all rather depends what bit rate (effective bandwidth) is used for the HD channels. After all it's quite possible to have an HD picture that is inferior to an SD that's been up-scaled if the bit rate is too low especially for motion. Same applies to 4K, if the bit rate is too low then the PQ will be crap irrespective of the codec in use.

[craigj2k12]

Originally Posted by Kushan

I remember that when 50meg came out - glorious bandwidth, no STM, it was beautiful.

Those were the days

[General Maximus]

And my vmng300

[roughbeast]

Originally Posted by craigj2k12

Those were the days

I'm beginning to feel a little nostalgic too. My 300Mb gloat, didn't last long.

[Rik]

Well I have given 300Mb a chance.

But the traffic shaping on usenet is a joke. 16Mb most evenings and then after midnight goes back to normal.

I don't leave it running all day either, my connection is not used while I am in the datacentre for 12 hours of the day, but if I want to come home and actually use Usenet in the evening to download say 5GB I get a whopping 1.64MB/s.

I have a server in France connected to exactly the same newsgroup provider and same connection settings and it maxes out at 30MB/s downloading the same articles which proves it is VM and their crumby network shaping.

Its an embarrassment to VM, I understand there is a need for traffic management, but because I want to use newsgroups in the evening I am basically paying for a 16Mb line.

Why should it matter if I want to download 5GB from Usenet or go to a FTP where I will get no traffic shaping and full speed?.

I am actually putting a complaint in with Ofcom, and that's being a customer for 20 years plus to VM.

Why should I be penalised because I want to download my files from Usenet in the evening?

In my town it is shaped the same every night, has been for a couple of months.

Then ring up VM and ask about if I have time left on a contract and they tell me 7 months, well we will see about that.

Ill give them one more chance tomorrow at Retentions before I start the ball rolling.

It shouldn't matter what protocol I want to use to download my 5GB a night, whether HTTP. FTP or Usenet. Its a joke! The whole reason I have 300Mb is because I want to download something fast, I'm out for 13hrs at work and when I get home I want to grab my whopping 5GB quickly not have to endure 1.64MB/s speeds.

Its an embarrassment to VM and I am......sorry used to be a big fan and advocate.

[General Maximus]

Ssh