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Seems like we’ve got a broadband rollout war on our hands, and it’s about time. A couple of months after BT announced that it was ahead of schedule with its fibre upgrades, Virgin’s boasting the same with its countrywide introduction of its 100Mbps package, which will be available to 10 million homes this spring.
I have to say I’m pretty pleased that we’re finally getting some rapid movement on British broadband. Lord knows we’ve suffered long enough with crummy internet speeds and crappy customer service. Don’t get me wrong; I know many still can’t get a decent connection where they live. But things are changing and more of us will finally be able to break from the grasp of piss-poor ADSL.
Let’s just hope the two networks follow up with actions and their boasts aren’t just hollow words. [Virgin]
Image credit: Squabbling children from Shutterstock
So how are these companies allow to use the term ” countrywide introduction” and the like, when the reality is that they only cover large cities and nothing else…
Still waiting for 100mb in Reading Berkshire. I’ve been promised it since August.
aww poor you, so brave
What was the point in that?
I think the point they were trying to make (admittedly uneloquently) was that if you’re already getting a speed in the Mbs, it’s not like you’re hard done by.
Out of interest SD, correct me if I’m wrong, but am I correct in saying Virgin didn’t contact you in august saying “Wow! We’re upgrading you tomorrow, hold on to your hats!” I’d imagine the email was more along the lines of “We’re rolling out 100Mb broadband across the country, at some point it will be coming to you, please follow this link for a more solid timeline”.
Or did they promise you 100Mb would be ready by last august?
[rant]I’m a Virgin Media customer, and a very happy one too. For too long BT has had a monopoly on the internet in this country, forcing newer providors to come cap-in-hand as they own all the exchanges. BT essentially had everyone over a barrel. You just try setting up a non-cable broadband service & phoneline without using BT. They make you wait months, and who turns up in the end? Lo and behold a BT engineer (strangely enough they quoted a 1 week turnaround if we’d chosen BT and paid their extortionate connection fees). Not to mention the complete and utter clusterfuck they created when instead of installing next door’s line, they ripped ours out so we then had no line, and next door’s calls and broadband. Until they rectified the mistake, at which point we had no phone line, no internet, and very nearly got stung by both the phone company and broadband company for early termination of our contract (and of course, nobody would assume responsibility). Fwiw, avoid Primus or the Post Office for phone line or broadband they don’t know their arse from their elbow.
More power to Sir Richard for giving dinosaurs like BT a great big wakeup call, and for giving us an alternative to shitty, pisstaking, useless BT.
[/rant]
I’m with Virgin and have been for a year. I am supposed to get 50Mb through fibre optic but rarely get this. There customer service is appalling and I struggle to imagine how they can increase their service to 100Mb when they’re struggling with providing a stable 50Mb.
Funnily enough, this weeks service I have been experiencing about 1Mb download speeds. I plugged my Talktalk broadband back in as it was never disconnected and it is massively more stable. Ridiculous considering I’m connected through my crappy decades old copper wire.
Having lived in New Zealand for the best part of 18 years, the 50MB I’m already getting on Virgin Media over here is a stunning increase over anything I’ve had before. Cable is not widespread in NZ (I was the sysadmin for one of NZ Telecom’s failed attempts at rolling it out in the late 90s). Degradation of signal is appalling over copper in NZ – worse than anywhere else I’ve encountered. The last apartment I lived in was about 400 metres from the exchange, and even on the top of the line package (when they finally unbundled the local loop) I was one of the lucky ones, getting around 10MBps. Even then, I had to pay through the nose for a 50GB per month allowance, and that included any TV I wanted to (legally) stream. Working in IT and often working from home, I would chew through that in 2-3 weeks easily, and then get downgraded to 256KBps. Believe me, the speeds that are possible over here are very good – and with no caps. Don’t get me wrong, bigger, better, faster, more is always good – but I’m pretty happy with what I’m already getting.
Something that I know the average broadband user won’t realize or even consider is that you can make your connection 1) More stable and 2) Faster, just by changing settings on your router or replacing it with a brand name router. Changing the MTU value to the optimum for your connection will increase stability and add a little speed. It is something worth looking at. I moved to a rural location. I got 5.5mbps with the standard router I was sent. I chucked the router and bought a higher end one with all the settings I wanted. I now get 7-8mbps.
It’s not always the router, but it is worth reading up on the settings and/or consider replacing.