Virgin Launches 50Mbps Service - With sleek new black modem -- but what about caps?
Links: home · search · speed test · login · more ·
Virgin Launches 50Mbps Service
With sleek new black modem -- but what about caps?
(old news - 12:06PM Monday Dec 15 2008)
tags: business · bandwidth · cable · world · caps
As was predicted, Virgin Media in the UK has launched their new DOCSIS 3.0 50Mbps service, the first to do so in the UK. According to the company, the new "XXL" service cost 51 pounds ($76.73) per month on a standalone basis, or 35 pounds a month when taken with an 11 pound phone line. While Virgin hasn't updated their cap page yet, rumors were the new 50Mbps/2Mbps tier would with a 10GB cap that's only in place between 4pm and 9pm, and if violated results in users being throttled back to 7Mbps. But hey, the modem is sexy.

Update: Virgin Media reached out to us to note that at least at launch, the 50Mbps tier won't be throttled. The company didn't comment on whether the throttling (which exists on all other Virgin tiers) will eventually be applied to the new XXL tier as well.

Related:
  1. Rogers Caps Getting Worse?
  2. Rogers Starts Billing For Overages in July
  3. Tuesday Evening Links
  4. Cogeco Unveils 50Mbps Tier
  5. Cogeco Still Struggling With Accurate Meters?
  6. What Network Neutrality Is REALLY About
  7. Cox Raises Their Usage Caps
  8. Comcast Still Fighting FCC Throttling Sanction
Links: New Topic
Forums »

morbo @ 15th Dec 12:13PM:
boo to throttling but hurray for honesty


I'm not a fan of throttling, but i have to admit it is nice to at least see the details of throttling posted on their website instead of how it's usually done here in the U.S.
reply
SLD @ 15th Dec 12:29PM:
Throttled back to Comcast speed

Ha, throttled back to nearly the highest speed Comcast provides in the 4th largest city in the USA.
reply
burner50 @ 15th Dec 12:39PM:
Re: Throttled back to Comcast speed

That throttling sounds like a good compromise, hint hint hint, American ISP's!
reply
swhitney2003 @ 15th Dec 12:55PM:
bundling make sense?

So 51 pounds for internet
or 35 + 11 = 46 pounds for internet and phone line.

Might as well get both, right? (Unless there are some hidden fees that just make it higher in the end)
reply
swhitney2003 @ 15th Dec 01:04PM:
Re: Throttled back to Comcast speed

Capping during prime time hours, who would've thought! I think it is a brilliant idea to do this. If they have problems with congestion, then it will be the worst during prime time. Limit any heavy user during that time should help the issue. Make the time slot 3pm to 10pm! Whatever it is, I can still schedule torrents to download/upload whenever I want. Hell, I typically don't do it during the middle of the day anyways because I want to use the web and not effect any other users on the internet connection.

BUT, where is the money in this? None for ISPs. Can't make a profit unless someone goes over some specified limit and pays overage charges.
reply
anon @ 15th Dec 01:39PM:
VMs spees are infact 50Mbps/1.75Mbps upload

its NOT 50Mbps/2Mbps
it is infact 50Mbps/1.75Mbps upload ,barely enough to supply the return ACKs when you max out your 50Mit download tcp connections....

their webpage is saying 50Mbps/1.5 Mbps OC and thast also wrong, as you can read on the cable forum thread...

»www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33···ber.html
reply
jmn1207 @ 15th Dec 01:48PM:
Re: Throttled back to Comcast speed

said by burner50 :

That throttling sounds like a good compromise, hint hint hint, American ISP's!
A good compromise only if this is not used to undermine infrastructure updates. If throttling is necessary, than something needs to be done to relieve the congestion besides reducing usability. This should be a temporary fix when things get crazy, but I don't think it should be a long-term solution to congested networks. I hope my FiOS connection is never throttled outside of standard networking protocols.


reply
anon @ 15th Dec 02:03PM:
No.

They are not the first to trial or even rollout 50Mbit in the UK.

Ask4 are, with their 50Mbit symetrical.
reply
swhitney2003 @ 15th Dec 02:09PM:
Re: No.

said by Annoyed :

They are not the first to trial or even rollout 50Mbit in the UK.

Ask4 are, with their 50Mbit symetrical.
Maybe first DOCSIS 3.0 50mbit ?
reply
jmn1207 @ 15th Dec 02:53PM:
Re: No.

said by swhitney2003 :

said by Annoyed :

They are not the first to trial or even rollout 50Mbit in the UK.

Ask4 are, with their 50Mbit symetrical.
Maybe first DOCSIS 3.0 50mbit ?
Probably refers to cable (coax) service in general. Symmetrical and DOCSIS of any type do not usually get along. That Ask4 50/50 symmetrical tier is for Fiber. FTTB= fiber to the bungalow :D
reply
Smith6612 @ 15th Dec 03:16PM:
Re: boo to throttling but hurray for honesty

But even that, if it is a nightly cap, it's certainly a lot better than what ISPs in the US who cap are going at with the monthly caps.
reply
aSic @ 15th Dec 03:27PM:
Heavy stuff...

"...when taken with an 11 pound phone line..."

Thats a rather big line to swallow...
*rimshot* :D
--
Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say.
reply
keyboard5684 @ 15th Dec 03:31PM:
Re: VMs spees are infact 50Mbps/1.75Mbps upload

Have you measured tcp acks on a 50 MBPS connection?

What about UDP? DNS, Video, Voice, all kinds of things use udp for download so I would still think it is fine. 1.5 is fine even for a 50 meg download at full speed using tcp.

tcp was never designed to be a high speed data transfer method anyway, it was designed for reliability of traffic delivery, not rate.

Everyone needs to complain and find fault in every company trying to do good for themselves and there customers. Every company needs to make money to provide service, or whats the point in giving you anything? This is a compromise, the customers will be happy, except maybe .0001% apparently.
reply
anon @ 15th Dec 04:24PM:
4pm-9pm...

is actually very reasonable, and the cut back speed is very generous too. Too bad that model of throttleing and capping isn't mirrored here with companies that cap. Don't get me wrong, I don't like caps one bit, but if it has to be done then that's the way to do it.
reply
anon @ 15th Dec 05:49PM:
Re: bundling make sense?

I am sure there would be dialtone fees, 911 fees (although in the UK i believe its 999) and i'm sure there would be others making the total sum higher than the stand-alone package.
reply
Default_Uzer @ 15th Dec 04:42PM:
Just wondering.

is anyone on this thread living in the UK? If so, will you plan on ordering the service? OR does anyone have any experience with Virgin? I have had their cell phones in the past, but I am in the boonies of western New York. The cell service was terrible, switched to Verizon.
reply
otty @ 15th Dec 05:25PM:
Re: Just wondering.

Ya I had Virgin when I lived out there, and I was pissed about the throttling....What I wouldn't give to have that kind of throttling now that I'm back here in Canada. It is a reasonable compromise if there truly is a congestion problem.
reply
italiansmoke @ 15th Dec 10:18PM:
but...

like a poster said above, it should not be the be-all-end-all fix to congestion or P2P. It should just be a temporary fix to help people change their downloading habits, and help relieve the tension during peak times.

Caps & throttling suck any way you look at it. To compromise and accept throttling & caps is just going to make matters worse. We need to fight back, and not allow this kind of stuff if we want internet service to be how it's suppose to be. "You pay for this service, we give you our service. You get this service anytime, without interference & policing as long as you pay for it."

Or at least just stop the highest bandwidth hogs, or throttle them. Not ALL your customers. And certainly don't give me crap about congestion, and bandwidth limitations. That's why we pay them money. To use for these companies to upgrade their infrastructure and abilities. Not for this, that's for sure!
reply
dvd536 @ 16th Dec 12:12AM:
2mbps upload?

yawn. you don't need D3 to do that!
reply
Piggie @ 16th Dec 06:09AM:
Re: Throttled back to Comcast speed

said by SLD :

Ha, throttled back to nearly the highest speed Comcast provides in the 4th largest city in the USA.
Yeah, they get throttle back for a total of 7 hours a day to over twice the maximum speed I can get here in the USofA.

It is good they upfront talk about it and that period is the highest use. Throttling only then makes sense.

But how long is one throttled? Just till 9pm the same night would be fair.
--
| Speedstream 4200 Modem - 3m/384 plan | W98-W2KSP4-XPSP2 - All AMD | Buffalo WHR G54S with Tomato 1.18 | 3 downstream switches feeding 6 total clients (no wireless) | Including the Data port on the side of my neck |
reply

Thank you for using lo-fi dslreports.com - report bugs
© 99-2009 silver matrix LLC