Jump to content

50 Mbps service launched


Happy Face
 Share

Recommended Posts

Virgin Media has launched its new 50 Megabits per second (Mbps) domestic broadband service.

 

It doing so it will be the first UK ISP to roll out a next generation broadband service that runs far faster than most others available to UK web users.

 

The new 50 Mbps service will cost £51 a month, although this is reduced to £35 if users also take a Virgin Phone line for an additional £11 a month.

 

The service will put Virgin at the top of the speed league for UK ISPs.

 

Close behind is Be Broadband which offers at 24Mbps service for £17.50 per month.

 

The details of the service were released during a press conference on 15 December. Trials of the high-speed service were carried out in Kent during 2008.

 

The service will be rolled out country-wide over the next six months.

 

The news comes as the cable group announces that it will cut 2,200 jobs by 2012.

 

Rival competition

 

BT has announced that Muswell Hill, in London, and Whitchurch, in Cardiff, will be the first pilot sites for its fibre-based broadband trial, which will begin in the summer of 2009.

 

Up to 15,000 homes and businesses will get the chance to take part in a trial of fibre to the cabinet technology which can deliver speeds of up to 40Mbps.

 

It has said it will invest £1.5bn in laying fibre as far as its street cabinets. The connection from the street cabinet to peoples' homes will rely on copper lines.

 

What will deliver next-generation broadband?

Rural areas see jump in broadband

 

Charlie Ponsonby at comparison site Simplify Digital said higher speeds would drive changes in the way people use the web.

 

"As we see an increasing blur between the TV set and the PC, with on-demand content flowing seamlessly between the two, people's appetite for broadband speed will head rapidly upwards," he said.

 

"Today's average of about 2 Mbps will soon seem as inadequate as a 56 Kbps dialup connection already seems to the great majority of web users," he added.

 

Not everyone is convinced that the cable modem technology on offer from Virgin Media will be enough to satisfy speed-hungry consumers.

 

The president of the Fibre to the Home Council of Europe, Joeri Van Bogaert, said: "Cable modem can be complementary to fibre to the home (FTTH) but is in no way a substitute," he said.

 

"The main issue is speed. While FTTH can easily deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps and could eventually pump out 1000Mbps, Virgin's service offers 50Mbps and is asymmetric.

 

"This means that uploading content will be much slower than download speeds."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7776139.stm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would be great except for their traffic shaping

 

and the fact they monitor your web usage and collect the data as they are part of the Phorm Advertising thing.

 

 

Be lucky to see 1/2 that in real world performance, even with the new "advertising code". :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would be great except for their traffic shaping

 

and the fact they monitor your web usage and collect the data as they are part of the Phorm Advertising thing.

 

 

Be lucky to see 1/2 that in real world performance, even with the new "advertising code". :P

 

 

The 20Mb service does the full whack - only drawback is the shaping as mentioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would be great except for their traffic shaping

 

and the fact they monitor your web usage and collect the data as they are part of the Phorm Advertising thing.

 

 

Be lucky to see 1/2 that in real world performance, even with the new "advertising code". :P

 

 

The 20Mb service does the full whack - only drawback is the shaping as mentioned.

 

 

I dropped form 20mb to ten months ago and haven't noticed any difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dropped form 20mb to ten months ago and haven't noticed any difference.

 

 

Doing what though? the only thing that uses the full bandwidth that I know of is usenet binary downloads. I think if it was just for browsing I'd be happy with 2Mb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would be great except for their traffic shaping

 

and the fact they monitor your web usage and collect the data as they are part of the Phorm Advertising thing.

 

 

Be lucky to see 1/2 that in real world performance, even with the new "advertising code". :P

 

 

The 20Mb service does the full whack - only drawback is the shaping as mentioned.

 

Really?

 

Mine usual virgin connection only gives about 1/2 what is advertised, back in 1999 it used actually give more than was advertised, but too many on it these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fella from Virgin came out yesterday to fix our V+ Box. He's offered us a deal where for an extra £20 a month we get a box upstairs and our broadband upped from 2Mbps to 20 and then 50Mbps a couple of months after that. My cock's going to be like a blood orange :aye:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Be are also gonna be extending there 48meg trials to the rest of the country.

 

Theirs is whats called a 'bonded' service where 2 telephone lines are linked together with a special router and each line delivers upto 24meg.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Virgin are the worst broadband ISP I've had by a country mile.

 

Ditto. I couldn't wait to get away from them. Managed to fight my way out of my 12month contract without penalty. 8mbps speeds down to 0.1mbps - 0.3mbps most times.

 

Truly awful. Took me months to get them to admit that they had network problems and couldn't service their customers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
Virgin :icon_lol:

 

aye, we're on their tv phone and broadband, its not actually that bad but if something ever goes wrong their customer service is absolute dogshit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with Sky.

 

I hammer the downloads constantly peak or off peak, going way over my 40gb usage cap most months and they havent given me a single warning about it, maybe I'm lucky.

 

on the 8mb service, has never steered me wrong, always get full speeds.

 

This was after being told by BT that the max my line could take was 1mb broadband. Cunts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Prompted me to ring them and they've double my speed (to 20) for an extra fiver a month (£30)

 

Does me.

 

Seriously monitor you speed, you may well find you're paying for nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I said earlier in the thread - I've never trusted these speed test things or taken notice of bit torrent readings - as far as I know the only thing that uses the full bandwidth is usenet downloads - and I certainly have always had the full speed from 4Mb then 10Mb and now 20Mb. I have no reason to doubt I'll get the full 50Mb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.