Advice on fibre broadband please.

[Tringa]

I'd appreciate some advice and opinions about fibre broadband from Virgin Media.

At present we get our broadband and landline phone from BT via the usual copper phone wire. The reliability is beyond compare but the speed is poor(6 Mbps download and often less than 1 Mbps upload on a good day, and even the BT website suggests the speed range is 3-6 Mbps) so we are considering moving to fibre.

Virgin Media have installed fibre in the street so it is the obvious (and only) one to go for.

I understand that a bit of the front garden might have to be dug up(though I'd rather avoid that if possible) and a hole drilled in the wall to get the cable in.

What happens after that is what I'm not clear about.

The current setup has a phone socket downstairs and then the wire goes to a first floor room where the router is located with two PCs linked to it by wired connections. All the other devices connect wirelessly.


If we wanted the PCs to be connected to Virgin fibre broadband by wire/cable(don't know what is the correct term) would we need new cabling to be installed, or can the Virgin fibre be connected to the existing copper phone wire inside the house?


I suppose I'm thinking of FTTC where, if I'm correct, fibre connects to the a cabinet in the street and then it is copper wire to houses.

I'd prefer wired connections to these PCs but would go wireless if new wiring was needed.

I'd also be grateful for any opinions from anyone who has (or has had) Virgin fibre broadband – how reliable is it, is the speed good, is the wireless range of the router good (the house isn't big but is has a fair bit of water pipes and electrical wiring), any other problems?

Thanks

Dave

 

[cosmicma]

iv'e just gone over to virgin media from BT Fibre within the last few weeks

virgin media does not use anything BT has installed nor does it use any copper cabling already installed by BT they use there own which means more cabling to the house ( if it isn't there already )
speed and reliability so far has been good as far as the broadband is concerned, with BT i was getting 72Mbit bandwidth down and 20Mbit up, with virgin i am getting about 360Mbit bandwidth down and 36Mbit up.
the icing on the cake for me is virgin media are cheaper by 10 quid a month for the same service but much faster

as far as the virgin media router goes i would say the BT homehub 6 is a better router with a bigger range wifi but there isn't that much difference in real use.
what i don't like about the virgin media router ( superhub 3 ) is it isn't that configurable with a pretty basic interface but there's nothing stopping you buying your own and using that instead.

overall i'm happy with the swap but it's still early days to give a proper verdict

 

[realspeed]

That is ok if virgin have prewired the road, try that on an existing non prewired road and the houses drives are block paved . I bet they don't want to know. they would still use BT wiring. To me that is discrimination in the extreme

 

[rob-nikon]

Interested in this thread as Virgin are only out hope to improve our broadband speed (my last test it came out at 3.37 Mbps download 0.57 Mbps upload!). The only reason I’ve not decided to pursue it further is because there is no competition for fibre broadband in my area and after the initial period I gather virgin are quite good at putting there prices up. Virgins Facebook posts have quite a few complaining on there.

I would say they will need to put the router as close to the external box as they can. If you want wired connections elsewhere in the house why not use TP links device to transfer the Ethernet connection by the electrical socket house circuit. Ive done it with our TV after it’s wireless card failed. It works well and very easy to set up. I would definitely do the same for the desktop if it wasn’t next to the router.

 

[troutfisher]

I have been with Virgin and before them with NTL ever since the street was cabled and that is some years ago.
The Cable runs under the garden , up the wall and into a box in a bedroom.
The router is connected in the bedroom as that.s where my PC is, the PC is connected with ethernet to the router.
We have a Tivo box which is connected via powerline / ethernet cable to the router, another TV , a PC tablets and mobiles all using the WiFi connection from the router.
Download on the PC is about 100Mbps and upload is about 6, just checked now, the others vary but are around 50 ish , but I have not checked recently.
Other than one router packing up, which VM replaced FOC I have had no problems apart from the odd time when rebooting the router has sorted it out.

 

[f/2.8]

Have used Virgin and NTL before them speed is great we have 350mb at the moment.

Their customer service is awful though so expect lots of hassle dealing with them if something goes wrong.

 

[JonathanRyan]

I had Virgin for nearly 2 years. There was a period of about a week where the speed dropped. Called Virgin, they sent somebody, it came back up. Other than that, every time I ran a speed test I was running at or slightly over the advertised speed. I paid for 100 meg because that was plenty

Homeplug extenders if you need wired connections. Their wifi is OK - in a large house we had a couple of shaky zones but if I'd cared enough I bet some wifi extenders would have worked (Screwfix have some nice ones that you replace power sockets with...)

Interested in this thread as Virgin are only out hope to improve our broadband speed (my last test it came out at 3.37 Mbps download 0.57 Mbps upload!). The only reason I’ve not decided to pursue it further is because there is no competition for fibre broadband in my area and after the initial period I gather virgin are quite good at putting there prices up.

I don't recall them putting our prices up in the 2ish years I was with them. I thought they charged a standard price for their services.

They are probably not your only option. See this thread - I just checked and I'm currently getting 12 meg over 4G. It's not fibre speed but it's adequate for streaming Netflix in HD.

 

[Dave Canon]

I have used Virgin Media for several years now. My BB speed is 109Mbs down and 6Mbps up. I have the basic service only and this is more than I need. I do have a joint BB, Phone and TV package. From time to time I check with the obvious rival BT, but I have never found the TV package to be very good; neither the channels available or the price. However, it is possible that I could do better if I was just looking for BB and phone only as BT has recently installed Fibre in my area. The reliability has been fairly good whereas our previous BT service was very poor. The local cables were faulty and they would do little about it at the time. I was forced to move to Virgin though I do not regret it. You can decide where you want things placed so discuss before the installation. I chose to have the phone enter the house in a particular corner near the TV and the TV cable was placed in the same position. I already used 3 DECT phones (BT actually) so connected the base station to the Virgin socket. I had the BB cable routed upstairs which they did on the outside and this was the ideal spot in the corner of my computer room. While they have given me a Superhub 3, I have continued to use the Superhub 2.

The price has gone up over the years but the TV is a significant part of it. I did get a reduction in the price after complaining and the reduction has remained.

Dave

 

[troutfisher]

Have used Virgin and NTL before them speed is great we have 350mb at the moment.

Their customer service is awful though so expect lots of hassle dealing with them if something goes wrong.

Funny that I have always found their customer service excellent. perhaps it depends who answers the phone at their end.

 

[f/2.8]

Funny that I have always found their customer service excellent. perhaps it depends who answers the phone at their end.

I have been with them since NTL first rolled out broadband. Their customer service has always been crap and a simple search online even on the support forum on their own website will show that.

Getting good customer service from them is the exception rather than the rule.

 

[rob-nikon]

I don't recall them putting our prices up in the 2ish years I was with them. I thought they charged a standard price for their services.

June 2019:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....es-for-broadband--tv-and-phone-customers/amp/

August 2018:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/08/virgin-price-hikes/

My parents were with them for many years but left after the cost kept going up. A friend is with them too but he manages to haggle them down a bit each year (he has competitors he could leave them for).

My problem is they have a monopoly as the sole provider of fibre broadband in my village (2 miles outside of Bedford which has a pop of 90k). Their initial offer price is quite enticing but it’s the normal price plus price increases when they know my only way to keep fast fibre broadband is with them. Either I would have to cough up or go back to my really poor broadband. If I’ve never had something faster I guess I don’t know what I’m missing.

5G sounds good but there are already plenty of areas that don’t have good fibre broadband or 4G signal. We need to be finishing rolling that out well before start on something else. The other problem is because virgin can supply me with fibre broadband my area gets a tick for fast broadband even though there are no competitors available in the area.

 

[Cockney]

Have you checked that BT fibre is not available in your area? You can check your postcode on their website.
Virgin use coax. to your door and internally to the router. It can be pretty ugly depending on where they enter and where the router is going.

 

[Bristolian]

That is ok if virgin have prewired the road, try that on an existing non prewired road and the houses drives are block paved . I bet they don't want to know. they would still use BT wiring. To me that is discrimination in the extreme

I think it's been pointed out before in this thread VM DO NOT use anyone else's infrastructure. If they can't get their own fibre to your door then they just apologise and move on to the next customer.

 

[Cockney]

I think it's been pointed out before in this thread VM DO NOT use anyone else's infrastructure. If they can't get their own fibre to your door then they just apologise and move on to the next customer.

They dont use fibre they use coax.

 

[Tkenny]

I can probably answer both your questions, as I moved from PlusNet fibre to virgin 13 months ago. They install new points and they may need to run a cable through your garden or drive. This won’t make much/if any mess. You then get a small box put on the outside of your house which then runs a cable into where you want the router located. They will not use any of the old BT lines or equipment. At the end of my first year contract my deal was coming to an end and I called up saying I wanted to leave as I couldn’t afford the increase, they moved me to their new oomph offer for new customers and I’m now getting 550mbps internet up from the 360mbps. I only pay £99 a month for all the channels, phone, unlimited 4G mobile sim and two TiVo boxes along with the 550mbps internet.

I was lucky enough that my house has coaxial installed in every room so he patched that into their cables and I don’t have any visible cables.

 

[Tringa]

Many thanks for the comments everyone.

iv'e just gone over to virgin media from BT Fibre within the last few weeks

as far as the virgin media router goes i would say the BT homehub 6 is a better router with a bigger range wifi but there isn't that much difference in real use.
what i don't like about the virgin media router ( superhub 3 ) is it isn't that configurable with a pretty basic interface but there's nothing stopping you buying your own and using that instead.

overall i'm happy with the swap but it's still early days to give a proper verdict

As I'm not keen on lifting carpets and other flooring, wireless seems the way to go so the above is good to know, thanks.

That is ok if virgin have prewired the road, try that on an existing non prewired road and the houses drives are block paved

There is Virgin cable in the road but our from garden is block paved, and I'd rather not have any of it disturbed. I wonder if they would route it above ground by the bottom of the garden wall.

Interested in this thread as Virgin are only out hope to improve our broadband speed (my last test it came out at 3.37 Mbps download 0.57 Mbps upload!). The only reason I’ve not decided to pursue it further is because there is no competition for fibre broadband in my area and after the initial period I gather virgin are quite good at putting there prices up. Virgins Facebook posts have quite a few complaining on there.

I would say they will need to put the router as close to the external box as they can. If you want wired connections elsewhere in the house why not use TP links device to transfer the Ethernet connection by the electrical socket house circuit. Ive done it with our TV after it’s wireless card failed. It works well and very easy to set up. I would definitely do the same for the desktop if it wasn’t next to the router.

The lack of a fast alternative if I'm not happy with Virgin is a concern to me, I'd be stuck with going back to the slow BT I have at present. Thanks for the pointer about using devices that use the mains to distribute the broadband signal; must check what impact they have on the speed,

Have you checked that BT fibre is not available in your area? You can check your postcode on their website.

Yes, no BT fibre here. When I use the BT website to check what is available the best they offer is what I have now.


Dave

 

[JonathanRyan]

June 2019:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....es-for-broadband--tv-and-phone-customers/amp/

August 2018:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/08/virgin-price-hikes/

My parents were with them for many years but left after the cost kept going up. A friend is with them too but he manages to haggle them down a bit each year (he has competitors he could leave them for).

My problem is they have a monopoly as the sole provider of fibre broadband in my village (2 miles outside of Bedford which has a pop of 90k). Their initial offer price is quite enticing but it’s the normal price plus price increases when they know my only way to keep fast fibre broadband is with them. Either I would have to cough up or go back to my really poor broadband. If I’ve never had something faster I guess I don’t know what I’m missing.

5G sounds good but there are already plenty of areas that don’t have good fibre broadband or 4G signal. We need to be finishing rolling that out well before start on something else. The other problem is because virgin can supply me with fibre broadband my area gets a tick for fast broadband even though there are no competitors available in the area.

Thanks - the second was after I left them - the first I must have missed. I remember comparing prices at one time and it was still more expensive to buy BT line, Sky and fibre and I was happy with Virgin so I stayed.

 

[onomatopoeia]

That is ok if virgin have prewired the road, try that on an existing non prewired road and the houses drives are block paved . I bet they don't want to know. they would still use BT wiring. To me that is discrimination in the extreme

They don't use BT infrastructure. Years ago they offered an ADSL service to people in non-VM areas but they have long since discontinued that.

If someone lives in a VM area and they have a paved / tarmac drive or front garden they will usually route the cable along the side of the garden at the wall until they take it across to the home.

 

[Tringa]

If someone lives in a VM area and they have a paved / tarmac drive or front garden they will usually route the cable along the side of the garden at the wall until they take it across to the home.

Thanks for this, as I said above if it can be avioded I don't want the paving disturbed.

Dave

 

[Tkenny]

Dave, I can see why you wouldn’t want the paving disturbed but believe me, if you get the 350 or 550mbs internet compared to what you have, you will help him dig it Up lol