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Virgin to launch fastest web connection in UK

B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
Virgin Media will today launch the fastest internet connection in the UK when it unveils its new super-fast 50Mb a second service.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/15/digitalmedia-virginmedia
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Good luck in trying to get through to customer services to switch over without a hiccup in your billing

The product, which Virgin Media claims is nine times the speed of the average broadband speed currently enjoyed by users, has been in testing for almost a year.

Details of the new product, such as pricing and, crucially, the number of UK internet users that will be able to sign up for the service will be unveiled later today. At best, Virgin Media's network passes only half of the UK's homes.
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Oh, so you can't get cable? Sucks to be you.

But of course, the biggest news about this announcement?

Virgin Media's new 50Mb service is being "switched on" by the former S Club 7 singer Rachel Stevens.
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Teh w00tness personified.

Best thing about this, while they have a monopoly on this service, is possibly setting off a price war amongst lower speed services. :)
 
Q

Queso

Suspended
Mar 4, 2006
11,821
8
Still pretty crappy though. In Sweden they had 100Mbps to the home five years ago.
 
MacBoobsPro

MacBoobsPro

macrumors 603
Jan 10, 2006
5,114
6
I was going to start the same thread earlier but then thought... meh... it's Virgin so it won't work anyway.

I was on 10mbps (Fibre) when they were Blueyonder/NTL the day they became Virgin was the day they became crap. More down time than up and crap customer service. Not to mention caps/limits/throttling etc.

Fibre is the way forward but I wont be going back to Virgin (even though my house is still wired) no matter how good the deal as the service is crap.

They also don't seem to be increasing the fibre network either (as far as I can tell) so 90% of the country can't get these speeds anyway.
 
és:

és:

macrumors 6502a
Jan 28, 2007
598
1
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irela
Blue Velvet said:
Good luck in trying to get through to customer services to switch over without a hiccup in your billing
Click to expand...

Virgin are much better than NTL used to be. I've not had a single problem with wait times, customer service or the service reliability since they've taken over.

Oh, so you can't get cable? Sucks to be you.
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Available to over half the homes (presuming that covers half the people) means 31m people have access to it.

Why all the negativity towards a service that will double current speeds?
 
és:

és:

macrumors 6502a
Jan 28, 2007
598
1
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irela
MacBoobsPro said:
I was going to start the same thread earlier but then thought... meh... it's Virgin so it won't work anyway.

I was on 10mbps (Fibre) when they were Blueyonder/NTL the day they became Virgin was the day they became crap. More down time than up and crap customer service. Not to mention caps/limits/throttling etc.

Fibre is the way forward but I wont be going back to Virgin (even though my house is still wired) no matter how good the deal as the service is crap.
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I've had completely opposite experience. Not one second of downtime. I download mega amounts of data and almost never get capped. Fast, excellent service so far and perfect reliability.

Blue Velvet said:
Jealousy. It's the British way. :D
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:D

I'm just hoping that they will be replacing their 20mb service with 50mb and then their 10mb service (which I'm on) with 20mb - they have been known to do free upgrades.
 
N

nick9191

macrumors 68040
Feb 17, 2008
3,365
189
Britain
és: said:
Torrenting, Saint Nick. Torrenting.
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I've never got any decent speeds with torrents. I'm sure that new Kylie album will download instantly, but most of the stuff I like is niche, meaning less seeders. Besides Virgin are cracking down on illegal downloads, which is what 90% of the torrents are.
 
MacBoobsPro

MacBoobsPro

macrumors 603
Jan 10, 2006
5,114
6
és: said:
I've had completely opposite experience. Not one second of downtime. I download mega amounts of data and almost never get capped. Fast, excellent service so far and perfect reliability.



:D

I'm just hoping that they will be replacing their 20mb service with 50mb and then their 10mb service (which I'm on) with 20mb - they have been known to do free upgrades.
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When they were Blueyonder they were great, I was an advocate of their service so much so I got a few of mates to sign up. Then (literally) the day they became Virgin (probably coincidence) I had no end of problems and they just didn't want to know. I had been with them since 1996 (i Think) when they first launched in Sheffield as Telewest, my modem was the same one as the day we signed up and I thought maybe it had given up but they refused to replace it, even though they give out free ones to new customers. :rolleyes: That was the last straw so I left and took the phone and TV with me. :D Hello Sky!
 
OllyW

OllyW

Moderator
Staff member
Oct 11, 2005
17,196
6,799
The Black Country, England
és: said:
I've had completely opposite experience. Not one second of downtime. I download mega amounts of data and almost never get capped. Fast, excellent service so far and perfect reliability.



:D

I'm just hoping that they will be replacing their 20mb service with 50mb and then their 10mb service (which I'm on) with 20mb - they have been known to do free upgrades.
Click to expand...

I'm on the 10MB too and have a similar experience to you.

I agree that the customer support has gone downhill since they changed to Virgin and moved the phone support to India. The old Blueyonder support staff were fairly knowledgeable, but the new ones haven't got a clue what they are talking about.
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
I've never had any problems with VM, nor NTL before. I do wonder if it's going to take the same amonut of time to roll out this new sped as it did for the 20mb upgrade.
 
DoFoT9

DoFoT9

macrumors P6
Jun 11, 2007
17,586
99
London, United Kingdom
and here comes the aussie :):)

were still stuck on ADSL2+ on crappy copper, none of this fibre **** can be seen any further than 100km out of major cities (which only cover like 0.5% of the country).

cant wait until i move into another country or move into the city!! prices are still darn high but.

good to see that you brits are moving up, i daresay the pricing will kill.. what will the upload speed be? i have 20mb up, 1mb down.. hate to be ruled by 1 company that has the monopoly.
 
MacBoobsPro

MacBoobsPro

macrumors 603
Jan 10, 2006
5,114
6
DoFoT9 said:
and here comes the aussie :):)

were still stuck on ADSL2+ on crappy copper, none of this fibre **** can be seen any further than 100km out of major cities (which only cover like 0.5% of the country).

cant wait until i move into another country or move into the city!! prices are still darn high but.

good to see that you brits are moving up, i daresay the pricing will kill.. what will the upload speed be? i have 20mb up, 1mb down.. hate to be ruled by 1 company that has the monopoly.
Click to expand...

Theres only a small percentage covered by Fibre the rest is done on 'crappy copper wire'.
 
S

stomer

macrumors 6502a
Apr 2, 2007
608
1
Leeds, UK
OllyW said:
I'm on the 10MB too and have a similar experience to you.

I agree that the customer support has gone downhill since they changed to Virgin and moved the phone support to India. The old Blueyonder support staff were fairly knowledgeable, but the new ones haven't got a clue what they are talking about.
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Ditto. I was a happy NTL customer for about 5 years. Virgin took over and the service turned to ****.

50MBits? Really? How long do you get your super high speed internet before it's traffic shaped.
 
whooleytoo

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
No mention of contention ratio, which always worries me.

I've a relatively slow 7Mbps connection, but with no contention; and am blissfully happy with it. Once it's fast and stable enough to download >5-6Mbps (the approximate bandwidth required to download a compressed 720p HD movie, such as from Xbox Live), it's good enough for me.
 
K

kumbaya

macrumors regular
Jan 12, 2005
118
0
...before you get too far into your pity party... (O/T)

Here in Kenya.... :eek:

Wananchi just launched broadband for £50 per month, the guaranteed speed is 5kbps (<--- NOT a typo)

and a week ago, the whole country was without electricity for about 5 hours

Yorkshire accent:...But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.
 
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