Yeah see if you can get someone in the area to do some ping tests/tracerts at peak times for a week or so. If ping/packet loss is a problem, don't sign up.
Only person i know in the area is who i'm poss moving in with, and as said, is a sub 2mb ADSL, So as much as i would generally stick to ADSL, it's wait for BT Infinity, or go straight to the lions den with VM. Sam
I think people call it Infinity because they're either a) with BT and hence using Infinity or b) BT got there first, and other providers have only more recently starting offering FTTC, and it is by no means universal yet (BE don't offer it, for example). Marketing plays a part as well I guess, but equally, I'm finding BT to be a remarkably good ISP for FTTC - none of the horror stories I've heard about ADSL.
Been with virgin for years. It is strangly one of the first things I check when looking for a new flat -- does it fall within a cable area. Started with 20mb, then 50mb, now 100mb. Love it.
Check on the VM forum, as their will be threads of areas with high capacity. http://community.virginmedia.com/ The race to infinity campaign by BT and the subsequent advertising has really sealed FTTC being called Infinity. Any new service it will take time for isps to announce their packages and get setup but the main group of large isps are selleing the service, the most recent being EE (Orange). The only Big Isp's not selling FTTC are O2 and BE, the reason why is that BE needs a new fibre backbone and O2 has not approved it, without this both isps are loosing subscibers (service has gotten worse) to other isps offering FTTC namely BT and Sky as those are the two most popular unlimited offerings. 15-20 years time you will likely see Openreach go to full FTTP, but it doesnt mean FTTC is a dead end as its capable of doing 100Mbps at current and 200Mbps+ in the future and FTTP on demand from 2013 allows for the FTTP solution to be reached sooner if you are willing to pay for it.
FTTC if done properly is capable of speeds of 1Gbps or more. If Virgin's back end systems could handle it they could do speeds of over 1Gbps without using FTTP because the current COAX cable that is used, is capable of carrying speeds of up to a maximum of 3.5Gbps. However the problem with all these ISP's offering more than 100Mb connections is simple, do you really need such speeds? Gaming requires a maximum of around 1Mb download speeds and around 0.5Mb upload. Streaming requires a maximum of around 5Mb down and 1Mb up for 1080p iirc Granted downloading linux disks is faster with these speeds. My main issue with all these companies offering speeds of over 100Mb is that most of the connections to servers outside of the uk are only at between 100Mb and 200Mb. Instead of going for headline speeds ISP's should be focusing on getting the network sorted within the country so there are no ping issues etc, because it's fine having high speed connections but when it's nearly impossible to game or stream using them it makes, having such a high speed connection basically useless.
I had Virgin media for about 3 and a half months in total I only had 7days of internet connection, horrible CS insisted nothing was wrong. Had a similar issue
Had VM since the beginning with 2, 4, 10, 20 and now 100Mbps. Had many happy and fast years internet access. I will always go for VM first. I run Super Hub, 3 wifi routers, 1 hub switch an Xbox, PS3, 2 PCs, 5 Laptops, 5 smartphones, psp, LaserPrinter, plus visitors smartphones and also a partridge in a pear tree. You get the picture. Without VM I would be struggling! Just remember that wifi connections are competing with different devices and speeds can vary greatly. I always get superb speeds from my devices that are connected using ethernet cables. Also youtube, i-player, and other streaming sites along with gaming consoles (online gaming) can take up quite a bit of bandwidth when done at the same time. You need a decent upload speed of at least 5-10Mbps (I would say 10Mbps for 3 Xboxs). Basically it all depends on what you wish to do, at what times of the day/night, and how many devices at any one time you wish to run.
had 30 mbps line which was always rocksolid, downloading at 31 or 32mbps. Recently upgraded to 100 meg line (only worked out a few pounds more expensive for some reason) and it seems a bit more flaky, often peaking at 70-80meg. Could be that I've been hammering the connection since I got it though. IF you exceed the fup they bring the line down to 50 down 5 up for a few hours.
Yep, and that's why I left BE after 5 years of service. They won't say when FTTC is coming, so I ditched them for BT, and it looks like that was a good choice as 6 months later BE are no further forward. FTTC is fine, to be honest. Do we really need 200mbps or more? FTTP is more expensive to install as well. I think a mixed offering of FTTC/FTTP will be the future, with FTTC for most uses and FTTP for business and those who think they need excessive speed for multiple users. This is why I'm happy with BT - ping of 9ms when playing BF3/L4D2 etc etc is pretty awesome. I think you need a bit more speed than 1mbps for a good gaming experience, but you're absolutely right that the need for 1Gbps in the home setting is minimal. Google Fibre in Kansas City is already demonstrating that there are no servers in the world that will actually saturate that connection, or even come close.
I've been with VM for several years. I'm now on the VM 60mbit connection. The download speeds are good (the full 60) if you happen to be getting something from a server with enough speed. Often though when I'm downloading something like a new game or whatever, they usually host it on servers that don't allow that much bandwidth so I only get about 20mbit anyway. But it's nice when you do occasionally get to max out the connection. And its great that VM at least provide what the connection is supposed to do. I recently downloaded BF3 from Origin and it totally maxed my connection which was something to behold It was coming down at about 7 megabytes per second, or something like that. Reliability is great, it very rarely goes down for me. I think maybe once every 6 months or even a year. The downsides though are that the traffic shaping sucks. If I get a new game or something then it usually trips the fair usage policy and I end up gimped for the rest of the day/night. I recently got a F2P MMO and it was about 5gig but I also downloaded some other stuff, and then I had to spend the rest of the night with the speed limits. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a normal speed limit but it affects games in weird ways and can basically just make internet slow. If you can avoid that though, you will enjoy it. I usually try to just download stuff late at night so it doesn't cause issues. If you need to download large volumes during the day or early evening though, steer well clear of Virgin Media. The other downside is that the Superhub sucks. The wireless signal is unusable even in the next room. It's so bad that I got myself my own router and had to switch the Superhub to just run in modem mode and then use my own router, and that works well now. But it's worth mentioning. And yeah the customer service sucks too, you get through to india and they are clueless, just reading from a sheet of basic questions and answers and if you happen to have something less common, then you may as well not bother. p.s. Oh and the most common issue of all, youtube is a pain. I would say that 90% of videos you have to just load it and then do something else and give it a few minutes to build up a buffer. Not sure if this is VM's fault or if some Youtube videos just happen to be hosted on lower bandwidth or something, but it's a nuisance either way.
Be have done trials via staff etc, but theirs not been anymore news and with BT/SKY and now Plus Net doing unlimited FTTC, they would struggle to get customers. Its likely to be about 20-25% FTTP coverage by Openreach and the rest FTTC in their commerical rollout- add in the BDUK contacts its most likely going to be FTTC but with FTTP in places. Their is a commercial FTTC offering by Openreach for small/medium sized businesses that want to move to a full ethernet solution but without the large cost of a full fibre solution. Im still waiting for FTTC, wont be till my local County BDUK scheme is awarded- contact not signed till July 2013 and then another 3 months for planning, so November 2013 till work begins till 2015.
I saw Sky where advertising Fibre, which is quiet convenient, as i'm already with them. I've had Sky Digital for a few years, but only switched to Calls and Broadband in Sept, so if i cancelled, TV would be ok, but i would face an early cancellation fee on the Calls and Broadband. My only concern with Sky at present is the shocking upload speed limit of 700Kbps or so, and the block on certain ports if you have a Home Server or similar, Otherwise i'm happy with Sky. Sam
I swear by virgin. I have been down for six hours in two years. I have everything with them from the the TiVo box phone and a 120mbps connection. Sky still is one of the best with TV though, uhh they had fibre where I'm lived I would have stayed with them. But virgin is good
Kovoet, There is Fibre in harrow. Ive checked and ready to order but I need my contract to be up by march so im still waiting.
Just ordered my superhub. You wont be sorry bud and yes I know there will always be someone who will pick up a snag but that happens with any provider, so far I'm very chuffed
Virgin isn't great for upload either. On the 60mb package you only get 3mb upload, so in theory only 375kbps......
That is due to restrictions I believe within the Docsis platform, which is what they use for the broadband however the likes of Sky and BT etc don't use it hence they can offer higher upload speeds.
