Virgin Media Introduce Speed Caps
Virgin Media are introducing speed capping measures that for users who download large amounts from the Net during peak hours. Peak hours have been defined as 4pm to midnight which is much longer than for most other ISPs, who consider 6pm to 10pm to be the peak.
Virgin claim that only 5% of downloaders will be affected, but looking at the bands I’m not too sure:
- M tier users who download over 350MB will have their speed capped at 1Mbps during peak
- L tier users who download over 750MB will have their speed restricted to 2Mbps during peak
- XL users who download over 3GB in peak hours will have their speed restricted to 5Mbps
Once a user hits the download limit for their tier then their speed will be capped for four hours. The bands look pretty low to me so I’m sure that it will affect more than 5% of users. Also, the way the scheme appears to be setup will extend the period of capping e.g. if a XL user hits the 3GB limit at 11pm, then their speed will be capped for four hours until 3am.
Personally, I’m quite disappointed by this as I regularly download more than 3GB during ‘peak’ and I wouldn’t even classify my usage as heavy. I’ve also been a big champion of Cable’s unlimited policy in the past and this feels like a big let-down.
The Virgin Media FAQ tries to make out that many users will benefit from the upcoming 20Mbps upgrade (although looking at the timetable it looks like the dates have slipped already), but most users don’t need more speed - they want unlimited downloads.
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Comment by TeX on 18 May 2007:
I’ve been with Blueyonder(Virgin Media) since they started in the UK around 15 years ago & been on there premium connection all the time(currently 20Mb 1-5Mb actual :S).But after all the problems I suffered since Virgin took over Blueyonder I’ve decieded to bin them they are a complete joke as an ISP now & this just caps it all(pardon the pun).I’m switching to https://www.bethere.co.uk/ who offer the following if your within 2km of a BT exchange(speeds drop outside 2km)I live less than 1 mile from the exchange. :-
Up to 24 meg download speed
Upload speed up to 0.4 meg
4 gigs usage included
(additional 5 gigs for £5)
£14 monthly
£24 connection fee
24/7 support hotline
or
Up to 24 meg ultra-fast broadband
Up to 1.3 meg upload speeds
Unlimited usage
£24 monthly
£24 connection fee
24/7 support hotline
or
Up to 24 meg ultra-fast broadband
Up to 2.5 meg upload speeds
24/7 unlimited usage
24/7 prioritised member support
£24 connection fee
£40 monthly (incl. VAT)
1 Static IP free, up to 16 available
You will all agree this beats the pants off Virgin Media both in down/up stream & more importantly price BYE BYE ! Virgin….
Pingback by BT The Number 1 Broadband Provider In The UK | Connected Internet on 17 May 2007:
[...] and I probably will stick with them for a while, as although Virgin Media recently announced Speed capping which hasn’t gone down very well, I don’t think the speed caps are being applied to [...]
Comment by Tom on 14 May 2007:
Unlimited downloads at up to 16 Mbp/s
Unlimited uploads at up to 1 Mbp/s
Comment by Tom on 14 May 2007:
forgot the important bit.. >>
Comment by Tom on 14 May 2007:
Im a long term telewest broudband user, and have been using the
service since the very begining. As a mobile computer engineer iv
allways prided myself in confidentley saying that Blueyonder (Virgin
media now) Is the best service out there because they dont cap your
downloads, download speed, reliability is allways top notch its the
most transparant honest internet service around.
Virgin Media, what your takeing away is the very reason why probably
60% have chosen cable.
Look at improving your service instead of cutting our service down.
PS, if this is implimented, please consider Bulldog internet business
package.
http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/business/small/
* >>
* >>
* Wireless router**
* 3 PC Security Suite licences included
* 1 static IP address included
* 4 email accounts with anti-spam and
anti-virus protection
All for £45 a month.
(im just down the road from the exchange
Comment by David on 14 May 2007:
I’ve signed the petition that was set up over the weekend at http://www.sn2ts.com which will hopefully make Burch reconsider these plans. If not, I’ll be getting ADSL installed.
Comment by Everton on 13 May 2007:
@Mr Nobody
It most certainly is speed capping!
Comment by Mr Nobody on 13 May 2007:
As you don’t get charged when you hit a certain limit or even cut off you can’t really call it capping John.
Comment by John on 12 May 2007:
So say you live in a area with just five people on and they aren’t using there connection to download anything or they go out, does that mean if your the only one using at the time and you download 3gb in a few hours you’ll be punished?
Also imo they are just restricting the service WE pay to have, I upgraded to the 10mb (soon to be 20) so i could download at those speeds and now they say i wont be-able to or i get my service restricted for a few hours…….. and considering i can easily get 3gb in a few hours i suspect i will be capped quite often lol,
I will not pay for a 20Mb line only to be restricted to 5Mb just because i am downloading at the speed they sell to me, it’s unjust and unfair!
Pingback by GigaOM » Disclosing the bandwidth caps on 9 May 2007:
[...] they should take a cue from UK-based cable-broadband Virgin Media, which has become the first broadband service provider that [...]