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 Everton on 5 November 2007:
@Harry
Just any old proxy?
Comment by Harry on 5 November 2007:
use a proxy!! no capping!
Comment by Splats on 13 October 2007:
I have been with virgin media for arround 8 months now
i’m on a 8meg connection and hit speeds of 850k off deamonews (usenet)
I download arround 250+gig a month and have not (as yet) been capped
I moved from pipex to virgin as pipex basically sent me the Letter of change or F*+& Off so i did F*+£ Off
virgin media So Far So good
Comment by Jack on 3 October 2007:
sorry for my English, I`m Pole (not a plumber :))
this is what I got from them:
“…
User (17:12): WHAT IS MY WEEKLY DOWNLOAD LIMIT?!
Craig (17:13): It’s only during peak. You will find that late at night or early hours of the morning the connection will be fine
User (17:13): How may GB I can download per one week and not have my connection caped?
Craig (17:14): It’s hard to say. It really depends on how much other people are downloading. You are only capped if you are in the top 5%
User (17:15): I do not care about others - give me a figure.
User (17:16): You can say that 2GB is to much.
Craig (17:16): One moment please
Craig (17:22): Ok, I have just spoken to manager and he pretty much says what I have said. There isn’t a figure, it’s done as a percentage. You should find that once we hit the massive downloaders then your download limit should increase and your speed should improve
User (17:23): I do not get it, percentage of what?
Craig (17:24): The top 5% of downloaders
User (17:25): 5% of downloaders of how may gigs?
…”
They can ALWAYS say that you in this 5% of heavy downloaders. There is no any limit (”unlimited” - ###!), there is no any figure, there is only 5% of traffic. This means that depends on overall usage of their servers you can be qualified for capping for downloading 100mb, 1gb, 5gb … you will never know. My case: one week 6.45GB and for that next two weeks my 8mb broadband speed is something 0.3MB, yes! 300kbs! Not only during peak, It is always less then one meg, less then half meg. Tested many times in the middle of the night with thinkbroadband and speedtest. Only about 4:30AM to 6:30AM I have 1.5-1.8mb and it`s been like that for nearly two weeks. Recently they don`t even reply for my emails. Requested my MAC last Sunday, no response so far. I`ve experienced many cons in this country but this is one of the biggest.
Comment by Quincey on 16 September 2007:
Im sure this has to be illegal, this is a service that we have PAYED for, and they are not providing it.
If i was in a taxi and the driver tried to explain that becuase we took over an hour, hes going to drive at 1 mph for the next 10 miles, id jump out there and then without paying.
basicly they are saying you payed for this service but we dont want to give it to you, therefore we will be cutting you off (or close enough) BUT still charging you for this.
I havnt been capped yet. but i intend to download HUGE ammounts tonight just to experiment and if they cap me ill have them on the phone ALL day monday.
Comment by Angry on 14 September 2007:
I just hit the limit 350Mb. Seems Virgin the TV provider has found a back door way to block cheaper online TV services.
This 1Mb restriction is a joke I have run 10 speed tests with Virgins own speed test & others and the Highest result was 22Kbs. Dialup is 56.6Kbs, I pay for 2Mb.
When I signed up it was for a Garanteed 2Mb - Unlimited service.
Virgin started these limits when they launched their 20Mb service obviously they are selling bandwith thay just don’t have!
Comment by now a sky man on 24 August 2007:
Virgin Media couldnt give a monkies f_ck what you or anyone else thinks, they LIE to keep ppl with them, i complained about my download speed and told them that i was thinking of going to sky for the £26 pm package(tv, phone and broadband) i was told all sorts of shit about how sky would give me less quality channels ( VM get their channels from sky DOH) and i would only be able to recieve 3.5gig speed, i am 700 yrds as the crow flies from the BT exchange and my mate is a lot farther away from the exchange than i am and he has 8.0gig from Tiscali.
V Media 4.0gig broadband only £25 PM + £10 to download from usenet groups that Virgin Media blocked
Tiscali (example) 8.0gig £18 PM no blocking of usenet groups
Going by what Virgin (Robbing) Media charges, i would be paying £50 for 8.0gig + £10 usenet server per month = £60 PER MONTH against TISCALI £18 PER MONTH
NOW THAT IS A VIRGIN MEDIA RIPOFF BY ANYONE`S STANDARDS
Comment by Everton on 1 August 2007:
@cipher
How will using a proxy help? Aren’t they just looking at the raw transfer, regardless of where it’s going or how?
Comment by Cipher on 1 August 2007:
Use a proxy many are available search google for more info. It bypasses their capping.
Comment by Everton on 28 July 2007:
@mat
true, ADSL has it’s faults but if you are lucky in the postcode lottery you can get a fast speed
As to VM’s 50Mbps and 100Mbps we won’t be seeing those speeds for a very long time as the technologies that they rely on (DOCSIS3) require both significant network upgrades and also cable modems to be replaced, which isn’t cheap.
Plus, I don’t think VM are really in a good enough shape at the moment to focus on rolling theses speeds out what with all the PE activity and poor results.