virgin bb

[Deleted User] · 29/12/10 - 14:23

i am looking at the bb market and have decided after being treated like *"$% by a certain company i feel they dont deserve my hard earned money

question is and i know its down to personal choices and experiences are virgin media any better than the rest. support,stability,etc etc

i would only be having a bb conection.

Tom123 · 29/12/10 - 14:25

Was with Virgin for my BB for more than three years (only recently defected). They are good. Connection was always stable. Having said that they are quite expensive if you don't take the phone line. Customer support is not the greatest in the world but then again it always depends who you get on the phone

[Deleted User] · 29/12/10 - 16:16

Of the main players I've experienced (BT, Sky, Virgin), I'd say that they are all as bad (or as good) as one another. If things go well, they can go very well, but if things go wrong, it's a toss of the coin as to how the problem gets resolved.

For me, the worst so far has been BT. Every time I changed package / upgraded, I was in for a world of hassle with things failing to behave as advertised and possibly weeks on the telephone trying to get matters resolved.

With Virgin, every time I change package / upgrade, it's down to fate whether I actually get what I asked for, if indeed anything happens at all!

I didn't change services much with Sky, but their support was no better than anyone else's.

Bottom line: The more complex your issue, the less likely that first line support (in a foreign call centre) will be able to help and I think that applies to all of these companies.

c4rv · 29/12/10 - 16:30

There is no question that for most people speeed and stability are as good as you are going to get anywhere, definately ahead of ADSL There is capping and bandwidth shaping based on the speed you select so be aware of that. Most people are OK with the limits, though some people on here keep threatening to leave because of it.

Support wise. I have not had many needs to call them but when I have they are on par with service from BT, sky, etc i.e variable. Sometimes you get great person on the line, other times a robot.

Tom123 · 29/12/10 - 20:42

c4rv wrote: »

There is no question that for most people speeed and stability are as good as you are going to get anywhere, definately ahead of ADSL

Depends on the package you choose. I recently switched from cable to ADSL and get better speed for less money. You have to carefully choose what you want. And keep in mind, Virgin's bb is quite expensive if you don't take the phone line. If you opt for Virgin it might be worth checking if it wouldn't be cheaper for you to switch the phone line as well - if not it might possibly be better to stick with ADSL

c4rv · 29/12/10 - 20:55

Tom123 wrote: »

Depends on the package you choose. I recently switched from cable to ADSL and get better speed for less money. You have to carefully choose what you want. And keep in mind, Virgin's bb is quite expensive if you don't take the phone line. If you opt for Virgin it might be worth checking if it wouldn't be cheaper for you to switch the phone line as well - if not it might possibly be better to stick with ADSL

I definately agree that it would be cheaper to get multiple services. What I was saying is that in terms of actual service and stability, it does not rely on how far you are from the exchange and speed is generally consistant with what they advertise. I hear BT infinity service is supposed to be very good for those that have it available.

Tom123 · 29/12/10 - 21:13

That is true. Distance to exchange and quality of line are extremely important with ADSL and if those are not good it can leave you with speeds wildly under those headlines speeds they advertise. With cable distance to exchange doesn't matter.

If you want to go down the cable route I would strongly recommend checking whether to take up multiple services (i.e. phone and bb) as BB as standalone is very expensive (I'd actually call it overpriced). Also check your phone usage if you switch... Virgin's call rates can be quite on the steep side.

Having said all that overall I was satisfied with the product during the time I was on cable.

Had a look at BT Infinity... too expensive for now although it's supposed to be very good speedwise

REDBUS · 29/12/10 - 21:38

c4rv wrote: »

I definately agree that it would be cheaper to get multiple services. What I was saying is that in terms of actual service and stability, it does not rely on how far you are from the exchange and speed is generally consistant with what they advertise. I hear BT infinity service is supposed to be very good for those that have it available.

Network and speed are solid, although some people say they live in over subscribed area's and have issue's at peak time's ,check with Virgin first, i pay for 20MB and have alway's got 19.75Mbps no matter what time, you may have a local area (or national)outage once maybe twice a year ,but that's life and usually a couple of hour's till sorted , 2 over-night outage's in 4 year's for me

Could never in a million year's go through copper wire's for broadband & t.v. , cable or death for me.

Any experience with C/S has been faultless, since Virgin re-brand,been with Cable 12 year's and was mind f#@ckingly very painful, couldn't put dish on house and it hurt BAD,since Virgin HAPPY DAY'S.

Must say you REALLY need to have triple XL at least to get real value though, although you can get VERY good value starter subscription package's and even 10MB will knock the sock's of most copper wire Broadband supplier's.

Triple XL will give you free espn channel's and all HD channel's for no additional charge's, free t.v. choice/catch-up including H.D. on demand, with more HD channel's coming next year, you only really get full value with phone XL (all local and national call's) I.M.O. ,and if you add virgin mobile (if you use mobile) free virgin to virgin house/moble call's.

There is cash back if you sign up to virgin ,can't remember who with but worth googling, (if still available)

My advice is don't sign up to save money with the first ie. 6 month's half price,think of long term after the 'honeymoon' period and you've watched most of t.v. choice favourite back to back series,although TBO there is thousand's of hour's to watch and you could take a good couple of year's FULL enjoyment to get through it all.

Catch-up is very good also ,save's valuable HDD space and HD content is great, i for one aint intrested in tivo at an extra £200 plus install just for sand boxed web content (that's why i have broadband) ,in a few year's YES when it's tweaked to max and flowing with app's, all other function's of tivo rock big time and 1 TB of HDD is badly needed depending on how much you wan't/need to save,there is an upgade samsung/S.A. V+ thread here on DS although not allowed on term's and condition's ,but if your savy with partition/firmware software then swaping HDD disc's in and (out if needed), 1TB is a few hour's away (with DS thread help)

[Deleted User] · 29/12/10 - 23:40

can only get upto 2meg with conventional bb

have looked at virgin packages and yes they would be cheaper in the long run with a combo mix but bb is all i am interested in,as i am very happy with what i have apart obviously from the bb .

i am a online gamer as well and have noticed cable have issues with wow (which i play a lot perhaps 70% of my internet use is playing it ) and those isssues still havent been resolved according to there official support forums .

REDBUS · 31/12/10 - 16:16

comatoes wrote: »

can only get upto 2meg with conventional bb

have looked at virgin packages and yes they would be cheaper in the long run with a combo mix but bb is all i am interested in,as i am very happy with what i have apart obviously from the bb .

i am a online gamer as well and have noticed cable have issues with wow (which i play a lot perhaps 70% of my internet use is playing it ) and those isssues still havent been resolved according to there official support forums .

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/11/15/isp-virgin-media-uk-getting-close-to-fixing-world-of-warcraft-multiplayer-lag.html

this may some intrest to you comatoes

[Deleted User] · 31/12/10 - 17:35

Despite what has been said above, the CS experience with VM is actually constistently appalling with any issues you get never being a VM issue(according to them) and offers denied after being given just two of the oft reported results.

If you aren't in one of the many oversubscribed areas, then you will get close to your paid for peak speed. Even in the oversubscribed areas, you will almost certainly get much closer to the advertised max speed than you will with any ADSL/ADSL2 service.

Quality of ping/consistency is another matter. VM gaming can be highly unpredictable and has often been unplayable, especially in the evenings.

Beware of the VM STM throttling where after a certain amount of downloads, your BB speed will be quartered (depending on the package you pay for) for 5 hours.

Add to this the very undefined, relatively new QOS throttling where VM state they will reserve and least 75% of available system bandwidth for non- (P2P/usenet/other unstated protocols) at their discretion.

From testing friends connections, it would appear that less than 10% of expected throughput is actually allowed for these inadequately defined VM penalised protocols. ThisQOS throttling has already hit many gamers although I hear VM put patches in to work around the VM core throttling-sometimes/eventually.

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