Virgin Broadband- thoughts?

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Rob
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I’m coming around to the idea that need to upgrade to a better internet speed. Currently I’m on the standard speed package with Utility Watehouse (getting 3.5Mbps download and 0.7Mbps upload). Over the last few months I’ve been having issues over the last few months with download speeds down as far as 0.5Mbps. Far too slow to be useful.

Having checked out potential providers I’ve found my only option for faster speed would be Virgin Media. Their introduction year seems good but after the first year it will increase a bit. As they are the only option I’d have to say with them or dropped back down to ‘standard’ internet. I’m probably looking at the 54Mbps or 100Mbps options as they would probably be ok for my needs (let’s be honest I’m used to 3.5Mbps so anything faster will feel rapid!).

What are everyone’s thoughts on Virgin? Anyone with them or been with them?
 
I have just moved to Virgin. I assumed the cable based delivery would be more consistent but it isn't. Also Hub 3 wireless is terrible. I had mesh before and am using them now in purely wireless mode
 
I have just moved to Virgin. I assumed the cable based delivery would be more consistent but it isn't. Also Hub 3 wireless is terrible. I had mesh before and am using them now in purely wireless mode
I had heard the hub 3 wasn’t great. That was more thoughts/hopes on consistency too.
 
I`ve been with them since the old NTL days. Like everyone/everything, they have their ups and down. But mainly I`m pretty happy with them. I have my 2ac hub in modem mode with an asus router, and get a pretty consistant 200 down and 20 up. Yes I have to reboot now and then, but I don`t know of anyone who doesn`t. There are known issues with the puma chip in the hub 3, but some kind of firmware fix is due (or maybe even sorted now), but it`s a work around. Something to do with latency I think. You can usually get a pretty good deal when they put the price up too, by going to retentions, and saying you`ll leave ;)

Check out cable forums (used to be nthellworld), for pretty much everything you could want to know (y)
 
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I`ve been with them since the old NTL days. Like everyone/everything, they have their ups and down. But mainly I`m pretty happy with them. I have my 2ac hub in modem mode with an asus router, and get a pretty consistant 200 down and 20 up. Yes I have to reboot now and then, but I don`t know of anyone who doesn`t. There are known issues with the puma chip in the hub 3, but some kind of firmware fix is due (or maybe even sorted now), but it`s a work around. Something to do with latency I think. You can usually get a pretty good deal when they put the price up too, by going to retentions, and saying you`ll leave ;)

Check out cable forums (used to be nthellworld), for pretty much everything you could want to know (y)
I’ve heard that you can ask for a ‘reassessment’ by saying you will leave but as they are my only option for fast broadband it’s feels like their line will be ‘pay up and go back to low speed internet’. Currently I’ve never had fast internet so I’ve never missed it as such. Once I do I don’t think I’d be happy going back to 3.5MB/s.
 
I’ve heard that you can ask for a ‘reassessment’ by saying you will leave but as they are my only option for fast broadband it’s feels like their line will be ‘pay up and go back to low speed internet’. Currently I’ve never had fast internet so I’ve never missed it as such. Once I do I don’t think I’d be happy going back to 3.5MB/s.

I have a full package (ooh err missus).... TV, phone and tinternet, but managed to get it reduced from £80 odd, down to £58 ish. Most times they will try to keep you, but use the retentions dept, as opposed to the cs mob.
 
I wonder how common your situation is in that you have cable nearby but not FTTC? The speed you are getting on your ADSL is similar to mine and though I can't yet justify the extra cost I can get FTTC......the cabinet is 500m down the road :)
 
I wonder how common your situation is in that you have cable nearby but not FTTC? The speed you are getting on your ADSL is similar to mine and though I can't yet justify the extra cost I can get FTTC......the cabinet is 500m down the road :)
I gather the issue is something to do with the exchange needing upgrading which hasn’t happened in the 6 years we have lived here. As there is a single supplier fast broadband option I don’t think it will happen any time soon. The council won’t push it as currently the area is a big tick in their goal of fast broadband throughout the borough.
 
I gather the issue is something to do with the exchange needing upgrading which hasn’t happened in the 6 years we have lived here. As there is a single supplier fast broadband option I don’t think it will happen any time soon. The council won’t push it as currently the area is a big tick in their goal of fast broadband throughout the borough.

Ah! makes sense......sadly AFAIK there are still a number of such exchanges.

If you look up your exchange on https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

You will get the current lowdown on the exchange..perhaps with an indicative month & year when FTTC might be due???

PS thankfully our exchange went (I think is called) Market B when 3 or more BT competitors have installed their kit under LLU (local loop unbundling) a few years back.
 
I do think whoever you go with it's a lottery as to what service you get
I was on fibre until just over a year ago, it was getting expensive with BT so I shopped around
and decided to downgrade to ordinary BB after a long chat with Plusnet, who said the speed would
be around 16mpbs which it was for the first couple of months, then things went downhill and often the whole thing stalled and timed out. At least their call centre was easy to deal with, but they never seemed to sort the problems of seem that inclined to
Many phone calls and it was never resolved, luckily a 1 year contract, but when that expired the service became abysmal
tried to go back to fibre but due to all the new building work couldn't get it until openreach install new ports
So decided to look elsewhere and got a great deal for BB and mobile with EE, they stated I would get a minimum of 10mpbs but it is normally around 16/20, plenty fast enough for my needs
I have registered for fibre when it becomes available but TBH I'm not sure I'll bother if things stay as they are
 
I have been with virgin since they were NTL. We have the complete package, TV ,Phone and Internet ( 100mg) and happy to say we have had no serious problems and any minor ones have been resolved with a phone call.
The only thing we have had go wrong is the router fried when we had a power surge and it was replaced within 2 days.
WiFi is pretty good but we do have the TV connected via power line
 
Happy Virgin customer here.
I am on there 100mb package and get a consistent 108mb hard wired and approx 95mb over wifi.

I have the hub 3 but its in modem mode with a Linksys router controlling everything.

The Puma chip issue is a hardware issue so no firmware fix will work, what fix they have already deployed is purely to cover up the latency spikes.

Speaking of latency - unless you are a serious gamer playing fast paced online games then you are unlikely to see the latency issue show.
Certainly I play Fifa 20 online and play Fortnite with my son and I have no noticeable issues.

Below is my WiFi speeds (top is 2.4ghz/bottom is 5ghz). Test was taken one room away from router with no line of sight.

inCollage_20200119_084754433.jpg

Hope that is of some help to you
 
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I am appalled at the UK`s internet speed and price`s and I have to say that the UK is way way behind what other countries have, Here in France I have Fibre, This give`s me, TV (about 200 channels for free) Phone, (I can call 110 counties for free on landline`s and several countries mobile No.s) and my Internet speed is, I have just done a speed test, 813mbps d/l and 161mbps u/l.
Sorry to go a bit off topic here, I am not boasting what I get here, I just want to point out that you are all getting crap service from the UK when you think you maybe getting good service/speeds.
I guess if you have a business in the financial part of London then you will have speed/service like we get but you are not living in a financial office.
PS, we pay 39.99 euros pm
Free.JPG
 
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We are with BT business, both lines 80/20 and solid, never missed a beat in years. We were going to use Virgin as a backup line in the studio, well that was a joke from start to finish.

conversations went. Like this. Virgin: Sorry sir we cannot get a line to you building Me:there is one already here, the last owner have a virgin phone. Virgin: nope sorry no cable.

Once we got over that hurdle they said they would send an pre installation guy out to check and ensure everything was ok, 3 weeks later he never turned up, so we cancelled the order, only to be told we would have to pay for the entire contract, multiple emails and in the end they caved in and cancelled something I never received, 4 weeks passed and two guys turned up in a big red van wanting to install the service, showed they guys the email saying it have been cancelled and they told me they were getting at least three-four a week of the same, more emails about how I was going to be charged for a failed installation, in the end they eventually left us alone.
 
Yup we're in the dark ages and it's mostly BT to blame.
If you aren't in a city or major town large areas still can't get fibre to a cabinet and that only works up to a mile radius.
Once they have trumpeted that area *done* but you still only get ADSL that's it.
3G/4G is a better option but plenty of rural areas can't get that either (like here)

Having said that most people really don't need GB speeds, I would be happy with 10mb if I could get maye 5mb up too.
It is rather irksome when areas which were already doing much better than us get further upgrades they hardly needed.
 
I’ve been with them twice (not currently) since NTL days, never had a problem related to connection.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I think I will end up going with either the 54MBps or 100MBps virgin options. It’s good to know there are some happy customers, looking on virgin Facebook posts it seems to unhappy customers complaining but that probably true on most company Facebook posts.

I think we may already have the cabling installed from the NTL days/previous owners.
 
We have the 150MBps package and pay £85-ish, including an extra box for another room in the house, phone and the full house tv. Occasionally we have outages which can take a day for them to fix. I think we’ve been with VM for maybe 9 years and the price has gone up £30p/m

The speeds we get is fine - we have 2 PS4s that seems to be in use 24/7 and neither of kids even moan it’s slow..
 
Thanks for all the replies. I think I will end up going with either the 54MBps or 100MBps virgin options. It’s good to know there are some happy customers, looking on virgin Facebook posts it seems to unhappy customers complaining but that probably true on most company Facebook posts.

I think we may already have the cabling installed from the NTL days/previous owners.
Once you have decided, worth having a look at cashback sites for a bit extra back.

I have just moved to them end of last year, need to see what the prices goes up to after the year is over. Paying £34pm for 200mbps and weekend calls.
 
I’ve been with Virgin for years, tv phone and fibre. I get 109 down, but up is only 5 or 6. Every year we do the yo-yo of the prices creeping up from about £70 to £100 per month. A phone call and mention of leaving usually gets it down to ~£55 initially and then it creeps up again. That’s without movies or sport. The hub is dreadful and WiFi round the house is poor, possibly due to hub position.

Anyhow, after many years, I’ve finally cancelled Virgin and am moving over to Sky. It’s cheaper and I get more services. Granted I’m losing about 50mbps down on the internet, but upload speed is anticipated to be 30ish.

Support from virgin was good, they came and fixed a fault at short notice and turned out on a bank holiday. Online groups and Facebook comments only really attract the negatives, no one seems to rave about the good stuff, they just expect it.

good luck with your choice.
 
I used to be a Virgin bb customer but it kept breaking down.
The final straw came when it took them 19 days to repair the service, during which time I had a connection that was slower than dial-up.
I kept pestering them to know when it would be fixed and a just got the response "We're working on it."
When it did work the speed was all over the place. You could test it and get 50+mbps and then 10 minutes later it was down to 10 or 15 mbps.
Virgin have absolutetely NO concept of Customer Service.

I am no longer a Virgin customer and they will never get any business from me again.

What interests me is what people want these 200+ mbps connections for?
If I download something I always find I am speed limited by the originating server, usually about 5-6 mbps. I can't recall when I downloaded a file any faster than this.
Even 10 mbps is adequate for video streaming.
 
I used to be a Virgin bb customer but it kept breaking down.
The final straw came when it took them 19 days to repair the service, during which time I had a connection that was slower than dial-up.
I kept pestering them to know when it would be fixed and a just got the response "We're working on it."
When it did work the speed was all over the place. You could test it and get 50+mbps and then 10 minutes later it was down to 10 or 15 mbps.
Virgin have absolutetely NO concept of Customer Service.

I am no longer a Virgin customer and they will never get any business from me again.

What interests me is what people want these 200+ mbps connections for?
If I download something I always find I am speed limited by the originating server, usually about 5-6 mbps. I can't recall when I downloaded a file any faster than this.
Even 10 mbps is adequate for video streaming.

that’s why I’m happy to come down to 58mbps and gain 25 for uploading.
 
I must agree about VM poor customer service, if you’re lucky you get Glasgow. If not, you get a call centre in India and then you lose the will to live.....
 
I am on ADSL and crave a higher upload speed.....that would at least make something like Backblaze an option for another string to the backup bow. Though with an approx 3.2mbps, if SDSL, it would still take a good while for the initial upload but compared to the current 0.7mpbs it would be a joy to use :)

If BT, as the backbone supplier, could make SDSL a common connection i.e. what I get on download is replicated on the upload i would be that bit more content!
 
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We have also been with VM sine the NTL days but have been considering changing. Have 200Mbps BB, phone plus TV with sports and the last monthly bill was £121.00 so I think a 'pencil sharpening' call will be made very soon. I have just tested the speed and the d/l showed 97.7Mbps with upload of 21Mbps so it looks like they are struggling to cope with demand. Probably move to Sky as we can get a intro offer through our daughter as an new customer referral. We don't need the landline as we both have good mobiles and a BB speed of 100Mbps would suffice as there is no gaming and very little heavy streaming.
 
last monthly bill was £121.00
OMFG :eek::eek::eek::eek::facepalm::facepalm:
You could move to France, have really good BB/package and still afford to travel daily back to blighty for work and have some change left.. (ok i`m joking)
 
I was with Virgin for years also NTLworld days , They priced themselves out of the market for me , Just stick the price up when they want to , Then send you emails telling how much I have saved ?

Now with Plusnet at £12.50 a month less than Virgin , Works all OK for me
 
I recently changed from virgin due to the price, they also raise prices during the year...which gives you a chance to cancel and move...I had their TV and broadband and wanted to swap to broadband only for their advertised price of £25 a month but they wouldn't do it, it was for new customers only....so I left and went with another provider for £24. Virgin broadband was excellent, had it for 4 years with no issues.
 
I was with Virgin for years also NTLworld days , They priced themselves out of the market for me , Just stick the price up when they want to , Then send you emails telling how much I have saved ?

Now with Plusnet at £12.50 a month less than Virgin , Works all OK for me

PN would good for @rob-nikon but for the fact he has no access to FTTC.......it seems it is either ADSL or Virgin Cable!
 
I am appalled at the UK`s internet speed and price`s and I have to say that the UK is way way behind what other countries have, Here in France I have Fibre, This give`s me, TV (about 200 channels for free) Phone, (I can call 110 counties for free on landline`s and several countries mobile No.s) and my Internet speed is, I have just done a speed test, 813mbps d/l and 161mbps u/l.
Sorry to go a bit off topic here, I am not boasting what I get here, I just want to point out that you are all getting crap service from the UK when you think you maybe getting good service/speeds.
I guess if you have a business in the financial part of London then you will have speed/service like we get but you are not living in a financial office.
PS, we pay 39.99 euros pm
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Yet I read on ex-pat forums how bad the broadband is in France and how it's like the bad old days of ADSL with long line lengths here.

Can anyone in France order fibre to the premises for 39.99 euro / month?
 
Yet I read on ex-pat forums how bad the broadband is in France and how it's like the bad old days of ADSL with long line lengths here.

Can anyone in France order fibre to the premises for 39.99 euro / month?
In 10 yrs here we've had very little outages, maybe longest 6hrs.
Fibre was offered in the package for free when they rolled it out in our town. Like everything, it's all prone to problems. The fibre installation guys said every household should have fibre within about 5 yrs.
Depends on the company and package for that price.
 
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switched from 80Mb bt fibre to virgin a while ago and have no complaints

speed test.jpg

not as fast as some but i hear 1 gigabit broadband will be in this area soon which might be tempting depending on price
not really had any problems with the Hub 3 but i read quite a few do
 
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