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20 years a Virgin...


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Old 12-09-2014, 22:40
TheSloth
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...customer, that is.

I joined Virgin when they were Virgin.Net in the 1990s and they've been good to me and I rarely had internet outages.

However, they've recently said they're not offering ADSL to new customers so I figured it was time to tnink about changing as I had ADSL and it is evidently "red jumper Star Trek guy" time for that technology. I re-checked Virgin fibre optic and still no joy. I checked BT assuming it would be the same (in my ignorance) and to my surprise BT fibre optic is available in my street.

The added speeds tempted me plus the fact it's cheaper than what I was paying before anyway (I'm starting with the BT Infinity 1 20GB package) - I already have a BT phone line. Not to mention free online/mobile BT Sports (kudos to BT in giving me BT Sports access weeks before my start date - that's a bonus - just tested it).

So fingers crossed all will be good.

What I don't quite get is why they don't need access to the house if I'm only on ADSL - I imagined they'd need to do something with the cabling? I'm quite happy setting up the HomeHub 5 etc as I love a good fight with home networking.

Anything else I should know?
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Old 13-09-2014, 00:45
Aye Up
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...customer, that is.

I joined Virgin when they were Virgin.Net in the 1990s and they've been good to me and I rarely had internet outages.

However, they've recently said they're not offering ADSL to new customers so I figured it was time to tnink about changing as I had ADSL and it is evidently "red jumper Star Trek guy" time for that technology. I re-checked Virgin fibre optic and still no joy. I checked BT assuming it would be the same (in my ignorance) and to my surprise BT fibre optic is available in my street.

The added speeds tempted me plus the fact it's cheaper than what I was paying before anyway (I'm starting with the BT Infinity 1 20GB package) - I already have a BT phone line. Not to mention free online/mobile BT Sports (kudos to BT in giving me BT Sports access weeks before my start date - that's a bonus - just tested it).

So fingers crossed all will be good.

What I don't quite get is why they don't need access to the house if I'm only on ADSL - I imagined they'd need to do something with the cabling? I'm quite happy setting up the HomeHub 5 etc as I love a good fight with home networking.

Anything else I should know?

I actually would recommend paying the extra and getting the unlimited package.....when you realise how fast you can download your usage will naturally increase.
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Old 13-09-2014, 09:10
s2k
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What I don't quite get is why they don't need access to the house if I'm only on ADSL - I imagined they'd need to do something with the cabling?
FTTC services like Infinity 1 and 2 are only fibre optic from the exchange up to the street cabinet. From there to your property the signal is carried over the original copper telephone line.

Its quite misleading but all the ISPs seem to be in on it and Ofcom don't seem to care. Even Virgin Cable is copper from the street, but the install is usually more involved - ie. they often need to pull a line from the street to the property hence the need for an installer. Most people already have a phone line in their property so self-installs with ADSL/FTTC are more common.
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Old 13-09-2014, 21:13
TheSloth
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FTTC services like Infinity 1 and 2 are only fibre optic from the exchange up to the street cabinet. From there to your property the signal is carried over the original copper telephone line.

Its quite misleading but all the ISPs seem to be in on it and Ofcom don't seem to care. Even Virgin Cable is copper from the street, but the install is usually more involved - ie. they often need to pull a line from the street to the property hence the need for an installer. Most people already have a phone line in their property so self-installs with ADSL/FTTC are more common.
Ah, OK - thanks for clearing that up.
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Old 13-09-2014, 21:19
TheSloth
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I actually would recommend paying the extra and getting the unlimited package.....when you realise how fast you can download your usage will naturally increase.
I'll moniror usage - we don't use streaming services extensively, download films etc so I'm not overly concerned yet. As the BT Sport streams are excluded from data usage I'm not anticipating a problem. But I will upgrade if we start wanting those services in the future.

I wanted to phase things in to appease the Financial Director (Mrs Sloth). Starting with actually paying less than before for more is a good basis.
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Old 11-10-2014, 20:24
Steven L Hunter
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I have BT Infinity 2 and it's great very reliable
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Old 19-10-2014, 11:02
tiv
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...customer, that is.

I joined Virgin when they were Virgin.Net in the 1990s and they've been good to me and I rarely had internet outages.

However, they've recently said they're not offering ADSL to new customers so I figured it was time to tnink about changing as I had ADSL and it is evidently "red jumper Star Trek guy" time for that technology. I re-checked Virgin fibre optic and still no joy. I checked BT assuming it would be the same (in my ignorance) and to my surprise BT fibre optic is available in my street.

The added speeds tempted me plus the fact it's cheaper than what I was paying before anyway (I'm starting with the BT Infinity 1 20GB package) - I already have a BT phone line. Not to mention free online/mobile BT Sports (kudos to BT in giving me BT Sports access weeks before my start date - that's a bonus - just tested it).

So fingers crossed all will be good.

What I don't quite get is why they don't need access to the house if I'm only on ADSL - I imagined they'd need to do something with the cabling? I'm quite happy setting up the HomeHub 5 etc as I love a good fight with home networking.

Anything else I should know?
FWIW I used to be with Virgin since dialup and had been similarly satisfied with the service until after the merger with TeleWest and NTL when the service declined and the price went up. I moved to BT and got a faster connection for lower cost. I've stayed with ADSL and so far it's been good.
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