Virgin Media speed throttling revisited — FAQ

Andy Merrett Broadband, Top stories
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virginmedia.jpgA consistently popular article on Tech Digest over the past year has been about Virgin Media’s broadband throttling scheme, whereby they slap a speed limit on the customers they deem to be “heavy users” if they download or upload too much during peak hours.

It’s certainly got you hot under the collar, as most of the 80+ comments — plus the search terms you’re using to find the article in the first place — testify.

Here, as a public service, is Tech Digest’s Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ] guide to Virgin Media’s broadband speed throttling.

Why has Virgin Media introduced speed restrictions for some broadband users?

Here’s the official reasoning behind the speed throttle:

When someone is downloading and/or uploading a particularly large amount of information over a long period of time, it can slow down the Internet speed for other users who might just be checking their email or browsing online. So to make sure our service is fair for everybody, we sometimes moderate the speeds during peak times (4pm till 9pm) for customers who are downloading and/or uploading an unusually large amount at these times.

This ensures that the service doesn’t get blocked up with people using more than their fair share – which means a lot fewer traffic jams.

How many customers are being affected by the throttle?

According to Virgin Media, the top 3% of downloaders (taking stuff off the Internet) and the top 3% uploaders (putting stuff on to the Internet) are the main culprits for degraded performance during peak hours. Combined, that’s around 5% of Virgin Media’s broadband customers.

These are generally the people who will notice a restriction in connection speed during peak hours.

However, the speed throttle will apply to anyone who hits a particular download or upload limit during peak hours, so it could affect a lot more customers over time.

How much can be downloaded before my speed gets cut?

It depends which “size” of broadband you’re on, and is only measured during peak hours (4pm – 9pm).

Users on Size M can download 300MB or upload 150MB before being restricted.

Users on Size: L can download 800MB or upload 325MB before being restricted.

When Size: L speeds are upgraded from 4Mb to 10Mb, the upload limit will be increased to 400MB, though the download limit will stay the same.

Users on Size: XL can download 3GB or upload 1.25GB before being restricted.

What will my broadband speed be throttled to, and for how long?

Users hitting the limit during peak hours will be throttled for five hours from the time their up/download limit is reached, according to which “size” of broadband they’re on:

Users on Size L and Size M will have their download speed cut to 1Mb, and their upload speed cut to 128Kb.

Users on Size XL will have their download speed cut to 5Mb, and their upload speed cut to 192Kb.

So I’ll be speed-throttled for FIVE HOURS?

Here’s the official line:

Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till 9pm) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed. This will last for 5 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

This seems to suggest that, if you hit your limit at 8.59pm, your broadband speed will be cut until 1.59am the following day. Seems a bit unfair? Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.

How can I find out when my speed cap / throttle will end?

Each day, you could be throttled for five hours at any time between 4pm on one day and 2am on the following day, but only if you hit your download or upload limit between 4pm and 9pm.

It operates on a daily basis, so you won’t be capped / throttled the following day unless you hit your limits again during peak hours that day.

How can I stop Virgin Media speed capping?

1. Take over the position of CEO, and change the rules.

2. Leave Virgin Media.

3. Don’t download / upload so much between 4pm and 9pm.

There’s really not much else option. Good luck with 1.

I’m not a downloader but get traffic managed by Virgin Media

Possibly, you’re uploading a lot of stuff (like putting videos on YouTube, for example)?

If not, then it could be that you’re just suffering from poor broadband speeds. See “My broadband speed is slower than it should be all the time” below.

What tests have Virgin Media done to prove all this?

Virgin Media claims to have carried out trials, looking closely at when the heaviest broadband users were affecting general users.

They also concluded that, after introducing the speed throttles, everyone’s average speed increased, and there were less calls to technical support regarding broadband performance problems [except, perhaps, from those having their speeds throttled? Andy]

Will Virgin Media’s throttling thresholds change?

The company says that they’ll continue to monitor the way that their customers use the broadband service, and may increase or decrease the limits in future.

How do I know if my broadband speed is throttled?

Virgin Media recommend a tool called DU Meter, though that’s a Windows-only piece of software and it looks as if you have to pay for it after a while.

Other tools include Bandwidth Monitor for all flavours of Windows, or SurplusMeter for Mac OS X

My broadband speed is slower than it should be all the time

This could be due to all sorts of factors, rather than speed capping.

Bear in mind that Virgin Media offers an “up to” service, with speeds that can fluctuate depending on a number of factors such as how far you are away from your local telephone exchange, the quality of the phone line, and how many other people are using the Net.

If you’re getting slow speeds outside peak hours, it may be worth talking to Virgin Media to see if anything can be done. Unfortunately, you may also be in an area where broadband speeds just aren’t that fast.

How can Virgin Media say that their broadband service is “unlimited”?

It depends how you look at their broadband offering.

Introducing speed throttling limits a part of the service for some users. However, the “unlimited’ claim relates to how much data can be uploaded or downloaded, rather than how quickly.

Imagine if you were still on a dial-up connection, but on a flat rate and with no download limits. Access would be hellishly slow, but it would still be “unlimited”.

If you’re feeling really pedantic you could argue that, over the course of a month, if your download speed is throttled, then you won’t be able to download as much. True, but the Internet rarely runs at “top speed” anyway, and if you’re spending that much time online, you really do need to get out more.

Are Virgin Media telling lies about their download speeds?

I need to be very careful here. A lot of broadband suppliers have been criticised for claiming top speeds for broadband access, without making it clearer that very few customers will ever achieve those speeds.

Virgin Media haven’t lied, in as much as they are offering broadband packages with speeds “up to” 2Mb, 4Mb, 10Mb, or 20Mb. Just don’t be surprised if you rarely if ever achieve those speeds on your line. That’s not exclusive to Virgin Media, either.

What idiot called this “speed capping”?

Again, we could get pedantic. I — perhaps erroneously — called Virgin Media’s practice “speed capping”, because a cap is placed on the broadband speed.

Virgin Media seems to call it “speed moderation”. Most other people call it “speed throttling” which is far more emotive.

End result’s the same, though.

Got any real examples of users suffering at the hands of Virgin Media?

Well, take a look at the some of the comments on the last post (and probably many of the comments that will appear on this one.

Our very own Gary “Battery” Cutlack (no, that’s not his real middle name — at least, I don’t think so) is also facing the threat of the throttle:

“It means I have to tread carefully in the evening. Download too much and you’re dumped down to 1MB, for hours so, oddly, you end up downloading all your “warez” during the day.” (OK, now we know) “The limit seems to kick in as soon as you hit the 800MB download mark, so it’s clearly just stuck on an artificial limit that hits everyone.”

I think that covers most of the questions and concerns raised about Virgin Media’s broadband speed throttling.

For those of you who arrived here looking for information about other types of virgin — sorry to disappoint.

Virgin Media

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Andy Merrett
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95 comments

  • God dam virgin I phoned last year asking for a higher speed and I was assured of no caps if I paid extra, few months later wham, capped my ass,cocksuckers, fuckin hate them been with them 12 years and am exploring other options

  • what a load of crap virgin mdia has turned out to be. we pay for 100meg which cost us more, and for the last 4 night i have had less than 1meg, i have phoned them and they say due to the fact they have so many customers we now get our broadband cut, if virgin has to many customers then maybe they should look at expanding their infractructor. they take enough money of us and why should we get penalised cus they have to many customers , if they carrry on like this i expect they wont have any customer!!!!!!!!!

  • what a load of crap virgin mdia has turned out to be. we pay for 100meg which cost us more, and for the last 4 night i have had less than 1meg, i have phoned them and they say due to the fact they have so many customers we now get our broadband cut, if virgin has to many customers then maybe they should look at expanding their infractructor. they take enough money of us and why should we get penalised cus they have to many customers , if they carrry on like this i expect they wont have any customer!!!!!!!!!

  • I moved to a new address which isn’t cabled so opted to stay with virgin media and went with adsl. Its a terrible service I’m throttled between 9am and 12pm. I get 10mbps at best during these times ok after but very annoying after I had to pay £120 quid install!

  • I moved to a new address which isn't cabled so opted to stay with virgin media and went with adsl. Its a terrible service I'm throttled between 9am and 12pm. I get 10mbps at best during these times ok after but very annoying after I had to pay £120 quid install!

  • We have the 100meg option, sweet fibre optic! … Apparently up to 100 meg means UNDER 1meg.

    -Can’t watch youtube even on 240p
    -Can’t play any games online
    -Download speeds capped ALL DAY (eg/ 0.2mbps at midnight)

    HOW IS THIS BULL**** LEGAL?!
    We can’t leave because we’d have to pay more money than we pay for the sh** internet connection. These f******s can shove their fibre optic cable where the sun don’t shine. I’m absolutely furious; their customer service is terrible, the internet is slow as **** and they keep on lying! LIES UPON LIES!

  • We have the 100meg option, sweet fibre optic! … Apparently up to 100 meg means UNDER 1meg.

    -Can't watch youtube even on 240p-Can't play any games online-Download speeds capped ALL DAY (eg/ 0.2mbps at midnight)

    HOW IS THIS BULL**** LEGAL?! We can't leave because we'd have to pay more money than we pay for the sh** internet connection. These f******s can shove their fibre optic cable where the sun don't shine. I'm absolutely furious; their customer service is terrible, the internet is slow as **** and they keep on lying! LIES UPON LIES!

  • I’ve just bought a new PC and the time taken to download the software that I had on my old PC and patch up the system has been ridiculous. Many home users of broadband will need modest download speed most of the time and with some occasional large files needing sustained fast download. This type of throttling does not give them the service they need.

  • I've just bought a new PC and the time taken to download the software that I had on my old PC and patch up the system has been ridiculous. Many home users of broadband will need modest download speed most of the time and with some occasional large files needing sustained fast download. This type of throttling does not give them the service they need.

  • Virgin Media claim the cap applies to “heavy” users, but on a 10MB/s package you get capped down to 2MB/s after downloading for FOURTEEN MINUTES!

    Fourteen minutes per day is not “heavy usage” and using this as a defence in court would get laughed at – so why can’t we just sue them for doing it?

    I would term something like three hours or more per day as “above average” usage and maybe six to eight hours per day as “heavy” usage.

    Why can’t we just take VM to court? All you have to say in court is that 14 minutes a day is being classed by Virgin Media as “heavy usage” when obviously, fourteen minutes out of an average day that is 960 minutes (16 hours) is absolutely NOT heavy usage, it is hardly even enough to say it is light usage!

    14 minutes out of 960 minutes = 1.46% of the day. How can VM get away with claiming that using their services for 1.5% of the day is “heavy” usage? Its not like its 70% or more, which I would agree could be construed as heavy (even though 70% would be above average or something).

    This seems like a solid argument – 14 minutes a day is not heavy usage and this stuff needs to be shown to be the case in a court of law so customers can actually get a fair deal.

  • Virgin Media claim the cap applies to “heavy” users, but on a 10MB/s package you get capped down to 2MB/s after downloading for FOURTEEN MINUTES!

    Fourteen minutes per day is not “heavy usage” and using this as a defence in court would get laughed at – so why can't we just sue them for doing it?

    I would term something like three hours or more per day as “above average” usage and maybe six to eight hours per day as “heavy” usage.

    Why can't we just take VM to court? All you have to say in court is that 14 minutes a day is being classed by Virgin Media as “heavy usage” when obviously, fourteen minutes out of an average day that is 960 minutes (16 hours) is absolutely NOT heavy usage, it is hardly even enough to say it is light usage!

    14 minutes out of 960 minutes = 1.46% of the day. How can VM get away with claiming that using their services for 1.5% of the day is “heavy” usage? Its not like its 70% or more, which I would agree could be construed as heavy (even though 70% would be above average or something).

    This seems like a solid argument – 14 minutes a day is not heavy usage and this stuff needs to be shown to be the case in a court of law so customers can actually get a fair deal.

  • how absolutely ridiculous whats the point of paying for 30meg broadband when your being restricted i am disgusted with that.

  • how absolutely ridiculous whats the point of paying for 30meg broadband when your being restricted i am disgusted with that.

  • I am leaving Virgin Media after being with them for 17 years. The principle reason is the speed of broadband. I have 10Mb like most people, I notice the speedchecker (http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/) showed 9Mb. OK I can live with that. But on downloading large files, I noticed the speed fall to ridiculous 1Mb or even 0.5Mb less. Almost dial up quality, when 1gig was downloaded. So I have now going to moving to Sky. Virgin were even prepared to lower by Tariff from £45 to £40 and offer free Tivo Box. My advice tell them you are leaving and get your tariff reduced. They will call you automatically with apologies as they don’t want to loose customers. Rubbish service from Virgin Media – Leave and join Sky as they don’t throttle your speed and you get 20Mb broadband.!!!

  • it’s the fact that you get throttled for 5 hours that gets me. I had to download a large file today and it failed + it used up the allowance and now I’m unlikely to get it done. 5 hours that’s ridiculous. How do they justify it!!! An hour even 2 would seem more reasonable, especially given that they stiff you on the cost on the basis that you’re getting high speed. Then theres the amount of throttling why drop me straight from 10mb to 2.x mb for a whole 5 hours. Why not throttle it down a bit and then a bit more.
    Also they have the ability to see how much i download on average they can tell that I’m not downloading large files daily. Perhaps once or even twice a month tops. So its unfair to be treated like this when it a one off and obviously necessary and not file sharing.

    Pretty bloody pissed off

  • just stumbled across this when noticed my downloads from MSDN (which is by Microsoft 100% legal) started of when i went college bout half 8 in the morn got home (around 3pm) to find instead of the mighty 1.2mbps i am paying for i am only getting a pitiful 1-200kbps (which on 10meg is correct so im told) as far as i was aware the limit was like 2-4Gb (not 2 sure) at peak times and is now 800mb the queation is if VM are trying to reduce piracy and be ‘fair’ etc then why does the normal customer suffer when d/ling legit stuff or gaming online i chose VM as they claim 2 b the fastest in the uk but frm what ive seen so far i’d have been better off staying with sky how the fuck can this shit be legal? luckily i have friends who are computer geniuses who assure me they can bypass even failing tht i will do as most r sugguesting and blast my bandwidth 24/7 and see how they like tht ……. ahhhhh feels so gd 2 vent ur anger on the internet in conclusion a MASSIVE F U 2 richard branson and VM

  • I too have just found this thread, in annoyance and desperation to get my speed back, i was transferring from a private server a large personnal home video of a past holiday i wanted get down on to DVD, so not a torrent or video file etc etc. and guess what after 10 mins i get capped to 300kb/s, so now got hours and hours to wait, hell i wanted to do this disc to show my family sometime this weekend, if i sold u a car then you drove it too far by my standards and i said right u can only have two wheels now you would be furious, this is pretty close to a scam, infact i find it hard to tell the difference. So now the big ask, is this the same for all isp’s, from what my danish friends tell me the uk as a whole is stuffed up the backside when broadband is mentioned. If there is a non scamming more open and honest provider i would love to know, i will be seeking out to drop virgin the moment i find a suitable replacement. In an age of faster service for cash virgin are simply thevies.

  • i too suffer from the anytime of day cap, i download all my games from steam and its just ridiculous watching my 1gig download speed drop to 280kbs when i go over 3.5gig,
    i have tried in the morning durign the night and it makes no difference, kind of making steam unworkable, and i love steam

  • Already Canceled my three sevices , i also dont like being ripped of , and i’ve been with them for six years , capp me , i dont think so .

  • I rebuild my raid array today to add some more room and replace a broken drive.

    so i install steam and start installing my games that i would like to play..

    2.4mb/s for the first 8GB than smack slaped down to 570kb/s.

    this may of started as the top 5% of users but now.. its any fucker that wants to download anything.

    i could understand capping sombody after uploading/downlaoding torrents all night long. and yes the network has become somwhat more stable as a resault of this..

    but for fXXk sake, dont oversell your connection to begin with and give out masive upgrades for free unless u have the backbone and support to do so.

    its like selling 5,000 tickets for a show when you know full well there is only 500 seats avalible and then offering them all 2 seats. And because of this you can only come in for a single song and then you have to go wait for it to be released on dvd.

    Retarded.

    okay rant over, borderlands has finnished downloading.. finnaly and my new raid0 settup is up and running.

  • This noted throttling time is a lie, Virgin Media is LYING, sorry but I have spent much time trying to download at 4am, 6am, 12 mid day.. in fact I’ve attempted downloads at every point of time possible in a 24hr period and after 2-3GB they cut me from 1.2mb/s down to 300k/s
    Now 2-3GB might seem a lot to some people, but for someone like me who downloads a lot of stuff from steam (large demos) and watches stuff in iPlayer, this is unacceptable. my Cost per month remains the same and I am PAYING for 1/4 of the speed I should be getting just because Virgin Media never invest money where it counts: In servers and cables and exchanges. They are purely for selfish profit over investing in their customers happiness. BT offer lower speeds still. So you see, broadband in the UK is an oversold and under invested Rip Off

    Rant Over

  • I just downloaded something from iplayer (500mb) as i have been capped for 4 days now, my internet is running at 0.2mbps in the evening (4pm – 4am or more) and at one point was as low as 0.09mbps so it will not run the iplayer website or youtube etc.. i understand fair use and all but why have they capped me so severely? my internet connection is unusable now and so ironically is not fair use.

    im really starting to get pissed off with them, i rang them 3 times got hung up twice, when i do talk to someone they clearly have no training and they all say different things!

    too bad my mum stupidly started a 18m month contract with them fml

  • Well check this one, my miss watched a one single program on BBC Iplayer yesterday and by the time i got home and wanted to use the internet i was capped to 2mb for a 10mb service until 2am in the morning ..

    What a con!!!!

    I bought a legit copy of GTR Evolution off of steam a couple of days ago, it downloaded in 18 minutes in total and i got capped for for hours again..

    ANYONE CONSIDERING VIRGIN SAVE YOURSELF THE TROUBLE AND GO ELSE WHERE THEY ARE A CON!!!!!!!

    And to make matters worst they have taken british call centre jobs and given them to a bunch of indians who can’t ever resolve any of your issues.

    Infact, if youve got high blood pressure stay away from Virginmedia. Im planning on getting a BT line and going with 02 as they offer 8mb down with higher up speeds and a bundle of goodies for seven quid if your a mobile customer already.

    AVOID VIRGIN YOUVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!!!

  • Yep, Virgin Media suck all right. I bought Sacred 2 off steam earlier today, the file size is 20GB and as soon as they download started they did NOT throttle me.. Nope.. They cut me off completely! .. Then, when the internet finally came back on Sacred 2 was, and still is, downloading at 214kb/s average… I started downloading over 7 hours ago and only downloaded 37%.

    I also had a problem with my internet constantly disconnecting at random times for random periods, I knew straight away what is was (It was the junction box outside on the wall leading the cable into the house – It was smashed and so the weather played havoc on the connection) and rang them to tell them it needed sorting. All I got was some damn Indian saying “You switchy off?.. Switchy off now?” Yeah, 8 f-cking months it took them to simply come out and replace the junction box cover..

    I too pay stupid prices for this shit, their internet sucks, their caps are stupid, their phones lines are fuzzy, their TV freezes and often needs switching off and on again for it to unfreeze, the TV menu shows me what was on TV 6 hours ago rather than what is on right now.. The whole thing, shit!

    I am waiting for Sky to implement 20MB support in my local area then I am out of there!

  • Just stumbled across this site. It is nice to know I am not alone in this speed capping B.S. So all I do is leave my machine dl’ing hoping it slows all the so called grannies checking emails.I pay for my bandwidth so im gonna use it. Botox to people reading emails thats what work is for. come in start dling then blam i am back to using a rockwell 56k modem again. 20 mb my ass im down to 1.96 mb after only 40 mins, and rogered roundly, taking it in the IN OUT IN OUT for 5 hours at 75% of what I pay for.By the looks of things virgin is sheep shacking anything below the 50mb users. So everybody jumps to the 50mb upgrade. Then, ‘Oh Shyte’ Virgin thinks, ‘we have no choice but to throttle them too now’.And you have to have a t.v licence if you have a computer because you can watch tv online. My arse can you! You cant watch full screen because your connection is slower than a sick snail! Just yet another chapter in the book called ‘Rip of britain’. (and its not a good read either)

  • I have been a customer of Virgin Media (ntl/Cambridge Cable) for over a decade. I have 10Mb (L) broadband service that has recently begun being capped down to 2.5Mb on a very regular basis. From my standpoint my Internet has been fairly consistent. Granted, I rent more movies and download audio/video podcasts–but my service speed has also increased from earlier broadband speeds (e.g., 5 years ago). I am curious why I am now being targeted as someone who needs capped.

    DSXD

  • Am I right in thinking this was only a problem in certain areas of the country? I lived in a shared house in the south west until recently – we had 10 people on wired and wireless connections – All sharing a virgin 10mb cable connection. I have to say I download a LOT – plus theres another nine people doing the same. We never got throttled – I do speed tests every day and never noticed a difference. We get around 9.5mb in the day.. drops in the evening (I cut everyone elses connection when i test before you ask) so for me virgin are ok. Now im on tiscali ADSL – cheaper, but not nearly as fast!

  • “and if you’re spending that much time online, you really do need to get out more.”

    This is not the point at all… I can watch 2 shows on iplayer after which I have reached my limit. Which puts watching shows in HD out of the window… appalling…

  • Well it would be nice if the times stated were actually correct. But instead here I am at 11:30am on a sunday morning with my broadband capped for downloading Xbox live demo’s. FFS VIRGIN we are not all PIRATES downloading illegal software or films and games!!!!
    Some of us have legitimate reasons for downloading over 6 gig of data at one time! do you idiots even know that ONE DL DVD used for most of todays games can store 9GB!!
    So whenever i purchase a game online, and download it to my console I get 1mbs which is then cut to 250kbs as soon as I complete 25% of the download.
    If the other cable companies werent so sh1t I would have left a long time ago. Ever since you clowns took over Telewest broadband/blueyonder the service I pay for has gone down hill dramatically.
    And you wonder why so many people are leaving….
    If you advertise as unlimited downloads it should mean exactly that, and if I pay for a 10mb connection that is exactly what I should recieve no matter how much data I have downloaded. If its putting a strain on your cable network ITS UP TO YOU TO UPGRADE IT and not punish the user for using what he has PAYED FOR.

  • Virgin Say
    Traffic managementWe don’t like traffic jams

    At Virgin Media, we want all our customers to get the best service possible from their broadband. That means speedy downloads for all users – not just a few.

    LIAR’S They don’t throtle the 50bm connection, so all the “smaller” busy users as being robbed to subsidise the 50MB users, Its blackmail to get these heavy users to pay more cash.

    It stinks, its disgusting and yes I’ll keep looking for a another provider but they are all jumping on the band waggon, letds rob our customers, lets lie about our fair use policy, lets renage on the deal we struck with these customers, Virgin are just lying shitty thieves.

  • virgin can suck my ass!!!! im on the 50mb where “traffic managment is not applied” my fucking ass!!!! everyday i go from a 5.75MB PHSICAL DOWNLOAD to 2.75-3.25MB PHSICAL at around 5pm. yet when i ring “oh no mr dowse we dont throttle the 50Mb in any way shape or form”
    i too play a hell of a lot of xbox360 online and i mean alot yet from pc i can download a 1.5GB demo in around 4mins yet it takes 15mins to download the same sized demo from xbox live!?!?!? someone care to explain?, NO!? DONT WORRY VIRGIN CANT EXPLAIN IT EITHER THEY BLAME M/S and M/S blame my ISP.
    i wonder if its the start of them restricting the encrypted data “trying to stop torrent downloads” which i think it is! cuz like they give a fuck i pay them £68 a month and £60 to M/S a year for xbox live (i buy 3months at a time)i long for the good old days of blueyonder

  • Have just been upgraded from 2mb to 10mb (NOT). After a few hours I’ve been capped, throttled, bludgeoned call it what you will back to the 2mb. Not sure I see the point in increasing my speed as I was happy with 2mb but now I should be getting 10mb but I’m only getting 2mb I’m annoyed. Who’d a thunk it?

  • Virgin Media SUCKS!

    I have been with Telewest for many many years and since Virgin Media has taken over it has sucked big time, every day I seem to be hitting their stupid threshold, Top 3% is bollocks, who doesn’t download films, music and games and how are we supposed to download legal content with such shit connection speeds. This sucks and we have to do something about this! What about net neutrality, when are these stupid politicians going to get off their fat expenses claiming asses and do something about net neutrality, Virgin Media are running trials into throttling bittorrent traffic starting this summer which will make it suck even more its like saying your black so you have to sit at the back of the bus ALL BYTES ARE EQUAL!, but there is not much we can do as Virgin Media has the best network in the UK, if there was an alternative I would be there already. Something has got to be done!

  • I agree, I sometimes have download speeds of 200kbps, when paying for 20Mb its quite distressing.
    When I phone VM I get the same pish about peak times and too many people online and servers can’t cope.
    Well try upgrading the servers, and allowing us who pay for 20Mb to have 20Mb.

  • What really annoys me about it is i was on the phone to them today and they assured me it was my router which it clearly was not! Then they said i must have spyware or a virus (its a brand new comp with AVG, ad aware etc.). But i ran them all anyway and found nothing, they are just liars that wont even admit they are STEALING your internet speed

  • Last night i called virgin to cancel my broadband . I spoke to a very helpful guy that told me that i was not being speed throttled. He told me that they warn you before doing this and it was defiantly not happening to my connection he gave me a condescending speech about how speed gets slower in the evening when everyone goes on line which everyone and its like water through a tap blah blah blah . I am fully aware of how this works . He was lying about my account not being speed throttled .

    Called them again today as at 4 pm my connection was shut down to dial up speed . This time another guy admitted that they were throttling my speed for excessive downloading .After a lot of crap from them i finally managed to cancel my account and get my MAC code . But i have to pay a ridicules cancellation fee equivalent to 11 months subscription. This is annoying and a waste of money but i was getting so frustrated with not being able to use the net and just wanted to tell virgin to go screw themselves .

    The guy at virgin tried to convince me that canceling was a bad idea.saying i would have to pay the cancellation fee so id be paying for someone i cant use . But i just told him i am already paying for something i cant use if im getting such slow speeds . That seemed to stumble him and he had no comeback for that argument . At that point finally gave in and went and got my mac code

    Its ridiculous that virgin dont want people to download at peak times . How can we watch iplayer ,youtube ,online games or download tv shows and movies itunes.Even webpages dont load sometimes .
    I dont think that in 2009 this is not excessive usage of the internet .I think i just like most other virgin customers that paid for so called unlimited downloads are just using it to its full potential. This is not bandwidth abuse .

    According to the guy at Virgin we should really be downloading after 12pm .This is not his really an option if you want to watch iplayer or you tube when you get home from work . Even just doing things like opening up a high resolution photo from a webpage take an absolute age

    Anyway virgin ae going to sen me my mac code in a week so im gonna sign up with o2 broadband . As far as i can tell they dont speed throttle . Feel much better now.

  • lets face it when virgin took over from ntl thay royaly did every one even the low users i know people that watch programs and lectures online have been royaly stuffed im sick of been on the phone to virgin media whith problems and not getting very far you just cant do a lot about it at all and thay know it you wont fast internet then you have to use them the othere r just as bad and you dont get the speed thay say ether bring back the old ntl every one new were thay stood whith them

  • Completely fed up with Virgin Media crap, cant game or use ventrilo for sh!t during peak times.

    Cant wait activation date for Sky BB MAX is on Tuesday 😀

  • I have been on the phone to VM soo much lately because of this, they always blamed it on my router or firewall or A/V. It is clearly traffic management. I knew about the 4-12 bit but i didnt know they cap it between 10-3 aswell. Please see http://www.virginmedia.com/traffic

    Hope this helps

    VM are ripping us all off!

  • Virgin used to allow me to download uncapped at off-peak times. So I only used bbc iplayer and utorrent at 12:01am until 7:59am, totally off peak times as you’ll agree. However, now they cap me 24 hours a day everyday! Only 90kb/s out of a possible 380kb/s.
    I used to only ever download about 40 to 60 GB of data each month. 90% of which was at off peak times.
    Well you are cheats Virgin! So i’m going to now download everything and anything 24hrs a day every day now! Yes its only 90kb/s but that means i’m aiming for 240GB of data a month. 200GB i dont even want! But if they want to play silly games, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
    Join me – Max out your broadband 24hrs a day all day.

  • I think what needs to be looked at here is, will remove this ‘speed throttling’ really cause problems? Because I really feel that it is pi$$ing people off more than solving any problems? More than 70% of broadband users will be browsing/emailing anyway? surely? Fix It. Pleeez!

  • I live in the US, but Comcast is “experimenting” with this same practice of throttling bandwidth. This issue worries me a lot.
    For what it’s worth, here is a suggestion:
    Email the companies that advertise on VM. CC those emails to VM. In the email, inform the companies that you will no longer be using their products/services (boycotting, essentially), and explain why. Add that you will be suggesting to family and friends to do the same.
    I have no stats to prove this, but I suspect VM is making much more revenue from advertisers than they are from their customers (which might explain why they don’t care about their customers!) Find alternative products/services that don’t advertise on VM and list them, so those companies can see you are not only serious, but are going to the competition!
    Also, list the alternative companies on websites, blogs, whatever, so other people can do the same.
    Lastly, DO IT!
    Good Luck, and I hope this helps!

  • I live in the US, but Comcast is “experimenting” with this same practice of throttling bandwidth. This issue worries me a lot.
    For what it’s worth, here is a suggestion:
    Email the companies that advertise on VM. CC those emails to VM. In the email, inform the companies that you will no longer be using their products/services (boycotting, essentially), and explain why. Add that you will be suggesting to family and friends to do the same.
    I have no stats to prove this, but I suspect VM is making much more revenue from advertisers than they are from their customers (which might explain why they don’t care about their customers!) Find alternative products/services that don’t advertise on VM and list them, so those companies can see you are not only serious, but are going to the competition!
    Also, list the alternative companies on websites, blogs, whatever, so other people can do the same.
    Lastly, DO IT!
    Good Luck, and I hope this helps!

  • This is absolutely pathetic, I can’t stand it!

    I should be getting 10mb, and it says it’ll be cut down to about 5mb, but I end up getting 2mb which is crap.

    If only I was in charge of what ISP we we’re on i’d be off of virgin in a heartbeat!

    And even if I don’t go on the PC for the WHOLE day, and then I turn it on to check e-mails it’s been throttled again, they’re not constantly monitoring people’s usage of bandwidth, it’s as if they’ve created a profile for everyone who has overused it once.

    All I do is play World of Warcraft, which is not extremely bandwidth hungry.

    I hope virgin dies as a company! Hahaha that would be funny!

  • so, I was on virgins 4meg service and got 3.42 down and .23 up typical

    Then the jolly kind fellows gave me 10meg at no extra cost

    tonight same time (21.15) I got 2.59 and 0.09 from london to plymouth and ,wonders, 2.86 and 0.08 to washington US

    Thinking of Virgin? Don’t bother…this is the Motherf****r of all broadbands

    I found this site after being strangled to 0.9meg last evening and wondering why

  • I dont like how virgin are throwing around that they are making it “fair” for all customers. The person who just checks their email and surfs a few pages, obviously has a package to suit their needs. People who require to download files will be on an unlimited package. Fairness should be directly proportional to how much the customer is paying for the service and what package they are on. If im paying a small fortune for a XL broadband, phone and TV package I expect them to provide a better service than someone who has a small package to suit checking emails. Am i being unreasonable?

  • I think plain and simoply that virgin media are liars!!…Simple as that

    I work from home and have to upload small html files and I can tell you, this ‘throttlig’ kicks in as soon as you start uploading files to a sever.

    Talk about discrimination against home workers!!

    Plain and simple – LIARS!!!

  • Virgin Media unlimited – You can download as much as you want, but we’re gonna make it f*cking hard to do.

    • I’ve never tried them but I was going to consider. I’m just at the end of my BT contract. Virgin not friends of yours, Tom?

  • I Just Upgraded To 10MB Connection From 2MB And The B@st@rds Trottled Me 3 F|_|cking Hours Later.

    (Virgin Media) You Are The Real Pirates Not Me

    Uploading Warez You C|_|NTS.

  • im sick and tired of VM, this has been going on since VM took over NTL thats when i was made redundant at NTL, their custoemr service was horrible but the broadband service was awesome, after 3 4 months later after virgin taken over i have noticed my interent keeps disconnecting when i quried this they kept saying reset the modem how many times to i have to reset the modem, now to my shock when the annoutced this in feb hmm virgin media can f**ck off. im gona cancel and go with sky. i need my full speed for online gaming, the other day i was walking next min screen froze for to sec and i ended up on the other side of the map.

  • I’ve had a gutsful of the throttling, reported their advertising campaign as misleading in asa and time cancel my subscription for me.

  • Another reason for me leaving RIP OFF BRITIAN! I got fed up of the bullying policies and chose to leave the UK for a better life. I made a huge mistake…. hmmm should have done it years ago! The trouble with eveyone in the UK is that you moan but do nothing about it. Its about time you all learnt from the French. Down tools! If everyone was to stick together then these fat cats have to sit up and listen! Look at the petrol prices, emails went round advising people to stop buying from a particular petrol company. You know what? it WORKED! price of fuel came down. Now all you need to do is boycott the cable company, how? leave them. They will soon be crying over their spilt pint in the wine bar when they realise they have no customers left and the only receivers the cable company will be using is the official receivers! lol

  • Anyone else having problems at night lately? I recently got upgraded from 4 to 10 megs (about 2 weeks ago)

    At night it seems to be slow for some reason, I struggle to get above 100KBps download speeds.

    Also, the 800mb limit is ridiculous, I can’t even download a game demo, or video, etc without it being capped for the rest of the day?

    I usually leave my warez over night, maybe that;s why I get capped at night.

    2008? Mother of all broadbands? WHAT A SHITTY BOLD CLAIM TO MAKE! All I can say is, I can’t wait for my contract to finish, I think I can deal with copper wire if I don’t get speed capped.

  • i am trying to download windows server 2008 standard, trail, it had 40 minz left when virgin decided at 11AM (not 5-9PM) to hack at my speeds taking it from 240KB/s to 110KB/s. so it jumped to 1 hour adn 40 minz left. this is stupid, virgin should provide a service that is capable of handling users, rahter than making users have to handle the lagging service. it is not the users fault that their system cannot handle it. i am a student and once i get my login info i will be downloading free copies of win svr 08, visual studio 07 pro etc. from microsofts channel8 site.

    This is so annoying having a download look like it will be done soon, then boom, extra hour.

  • I just download everything I might want when I’m away from my PC (using a low power atom device.) I throw away the 95% I don’t want. The result? I get what I want, when I want it, and 20 times more data goes through Virgin’s pipes. The reduced download rate is fine for e-mail and a little browsing, just as long as my ‘cache’ is full.
    Stick with M accounts. The cap doesn’t have as much of an effect on M as it does on L.

    • You might not want to tell Virgin Media that 😉

      Fact is, if you can wait for content to download, it’s usually OK. The problem arises for gamers and those streaming video etc. for which speed is critically important.

      It’s not just VM, either. Whether intentionally or not, I’ve had broadband dropouts on BT when trying to stream from BBC’s iPlayer. Yes I could download it onto my PC first, but sometimes I just want to watch straight away.

      Sounds like there’s an ongoing spat between the likes of VM and BT, anyway, over false advertising of broadband products.

  • Virgin, Telewest and all BT derivatives are living in the stone age of the internet. They are set up to sell the 10 Meg of bandwidth to anywhere between 20 and 50 users, that is the same 10 Meg to each of them.

    This is based on the old usage of check email and do a bit of html browsing such as using google web search and reading mainly text pages, not the high bandwidth required by such as the bbc iplayer and you tube.

    So when people who are just using their Internet connections for the very thing they were bought for and gobbling most of that 10 Meg of bandwidth. Then other people complain of slow speeds, the company then says right instead of spending some of this money we have made to upgrade we will cap the high usage people and say its only 5% of users when it really is nearly everybody that uses their internet connection.

    Here is the math 🙂

    10 Mbs is 10,000 bits per second
    or 10,000/8 = 1250 bytes per second
    or 1250/1024 = 1.22 Megabytes (MB) per second

    So every minute you download at full speed you can receive up to 73.2 MB of data. Now based on the current figure of 1200 MB for the evening cap that is equivalent to 16 minutes and 40 seconds of downloading at full speed or 32 minutes for the afternoon caps.

    So this says to me that if virgin can deliver 10 Mbs which I have and do receive then I can only use my full internet speed for a fraction of the time the caps are in place.

    As a final note this means we are all paying for shared access, for me this is like paying for your tv only to find that you can only watch what the other 19 people want to watch, and only being able to choose your own channel for a short period. Another way of looking at it is you buy a house only to find it is shared accommodation and that there are 20 people sharing the same house, and that you can only live on your own in your house for 30 minutes in the afternoon or 16 minutes in the evening.

    If this kind of behaviour was done in any other market such as cars, houses, or even the music industry the government and the people would put a stop to it, because it would be illegal, but this seems not only to be legal but actively encouraged.

  • Simple as this :- Virgin oversold their capability to too many users, then steal back the bandwidth by claiming unfair use !!! patent rubbish from virgin to cover up their mistake – traffic shaping my Ar**. They should give us what we PAY for and what we ask for :- UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS AT MAXIMUM SPEED ALL THE TIME !!! how simple is THAT ???

  • I was keepin an eye on the speed capping carry-on 2day, this mornin i put stuff on to download from usenet and after a short while my download speed dropped from 1200kbps to 280kbps (im on the 10mb connection, and it dropped at around 11am), shortly after it dropped my download finished and i was out for a few hours and when i come back in i put something else on to download and it run at 1200kbps and dropped again, this time it was between 4pm & 9pm,

    Why did it drop in the morning (outside the hours they say they will throttle it) then drop again in the afternoon ???

    any idea?

  • Someone tells me that the speed capping/throttling whatever was only introduced when virgin took over telewest and telewest had no such thing

    is this true?

    if so, bring back telewest !! lol

  • these guys are complete dickheads, if you are thinking of swapping or deciding whether to go with virgin… these guys are complete fucking idiots, do not go with them and if you are with them and reading this, cancel ASAP.

    I’ve had no end of problems starting about 3 weeks ago with these dicks, you call them and have to press 15 buttons to get through to a person, and even then they have NO IDEA what they are talking about, the problem is NOT on my end either. Every time I come to use my internet, I can use it for half an hour (about) and then it cuts off for 5 minutes, sometimes 15…. seriously these guys are all about making money, SWITCH YOUR ISP FROM THESE FAILURES AT ONCE. ]

  • Warning, general ranting contained within, all of it true.

    UK cable BB once looked like this.

    NTL
    Cable&wireless
    Telewest
    VirginMedia

    Now if you want cable BB you have to go with VirginMedia. The result is a monopoly on cable broadband and a company attitude of freck you, what you gonna do about it. Capitalism and free markets at their finest. Theirs a lot to be said for govt keeping a grip on some of the countries services. It stops companies taking the piss.
    Were seeing the same all over the world. Everything is being put into private hands that has a bottom line of money, the amount of hands at the greedy barsteward table is getting smaller and smaller. The middle classes are being obliterated with high inflation, high fuel, coming food shortages, water shortages, a coming carbon tax on the myth of global warming being man made. Man made Global warming is a billion dollar money spinner. No amount of logical credible science will prove its related to sunspot activity. Question it and you get lumped in with the holocaust deniers. I remember when it was called scientific debate. Al Gores daily energy use at home would power 200-300 American homes for 1 whole month. Can you smell that hypocrisy???? No-one denies we are polluting and poisoning, but the carbon link to heating is at best half baked research, at worst an outright fraud.
    How long before we have “Planet Earth, INC”. Ownership and copyright of the coca cola, mars, smithkline beecham haliburton and santander group. Their slogan could be “If you own it, we sold it”. Or “When capitalism leads to communism, who’s the stealthiest”? Or “we beetch slapped your govt, and it was easy”. Or “The new world order, You’ll either like it, or like it”. Or “They said it couldnt be done, but we bought the whole damned world”. Or “Bow down, and pay me for the air you breathe”. They could run crime stopper ads like:

    Every year your taxes are paying for the oxygen for those who wont pay to breathe for free, does that seem fair? We dont think so!! They think they have the God given right to breathe the air you pay for, for free. YES!!! FOR FREE!!! They are Oxygen stealing criminals, call this number, confidentially guaranteed, if you know someone who is dodging their oxygen breathing license fee.
    Oxygen theft, together we’ll crack this crime!

  • Just got the letter about the new limits. You’ve got to laugh at the BUT YOU CAN STILL DOWNLOAD LOADS section complete with a table of how much I can download during a 24-hour period. Let’s call that a 13-hour period during the night shall we, you bunch of crooks? CANCELLATION OF ‘UNLIMITED’ SERVICE PENDING

  • I’ve been on VM 2mb bb for the past 12 months, never been throttled or capped in any way.

    This week I called them about upgrading my internet to the 10mb package. Within 24hrs my 2mb connection has been cut back to 1mb because I hit a 500mb download limit.

    I have received a letter today which tells me while I’m still on 2mb I’m allowed to download 15gb in a 24hr period. But only 1gb of that between 10am-3pm and only 0.5gb between 4-9pm.

    Today I’ve been online for 90 minutes… and already I’ve had 15mb of uploads and 175mb downloads. I’ve not downloaded any files, I’ve watched one video on a website and I’ve been to 4 or 5 websites and checked my emails. That’s it. By the time other people get home from work we’re going to hit our limit again just from regular surfing. This is utter tripe!

  • I’ve been on VM 2mb bb for the past 12 months, never been throttled or capped in any way.

    This week I called them about upgrading my internet to the 10mb package. Within 24hrs my 2mb connection has been cut back to 1mb because I hit a 500mb download limit.

    I have received a letter today which tells me while I’m still on 2mb I’m allowed to download 15gb in a 24hr period. But only 1gb of that between 10am-3pm and only 0.5gb between 4-9pm.

    Today I’ve been online for 90 minutes… and already I’ve had 15mb of uploads and 175mb downloads. I’ve not downloaded any files, I’ve watched one video on a website and I’ve been to 4 or 5 websites and checked my emails. That’s it. By the time other people get home from work we’re going to hit our limit again just from regular surfing. This is utter tripe!

  • Like many others I’d like to know where Virgin publish this info (which seems to change on a near-daily basis). My other half is on VM in Dundee and gets throttled all the time in late evening. She can’t set any downloads up to occur off-peak as she only has a laptop that she need to take to work each day.

    I downloaded the terms and agreements docs from VM’s website a few weeks ago when she started getting this problem and there is *no mention whatsoever* of capping/packet shaping/anything else in them. By all indication according to the service and paperwork she signed up for, she should be receiving an unlimited connection. From my point of view, VM are in breach of contract.

    Strangely, my dad lives about 20 mins from her and is also on VM. He gets loads of stuff off iPlayer and never gets his bandwidth throttled. They are both on the same “M” scheme.

  • Hi guys!

    Stop whining, would you? It’s time to stick the finger up your arse and do something!

    Quite honestly, I don’t believe complain to the authority that kind of shit, we have been deceived for fxxk sake! Guys who have got the fxxking guts to do this to us will not be afrid and not be affected by bleeding authorities.

    I am gonna start shopping around for another provider but the only information I need at the moment is that ANYONE KNOWS ANY GOOD PROVIDERS WHO DO NOT FXXKING CHEAT? That’s all i want to know and unfortunately i have spent bleeing almost an hour on the website trying to find it, guess what? I FXXKING HAVE NOT!!!

    So let’s stop these nonsense, shall we? Virgin doesn’t give a shit about what the customers think. That’s fine, because we don’t need to give a shit if they give a shit!!! What we do? We fxxking swith guys!!!

    Come on, wake up from your sweat dreams and start think realistically!!! You think they gonna on their knees one day and beg for forgiveness? Dream your ass.

    I don’t know about you, but I am moving on.

    Again, anyone knows any good internet providers?

  • I’m on XL package, but my download speed is capped at 7Mbps at all times any day (I’ve done a large number of tests over the last few months to confirm that – the results are very consistent), so it shouldn’t make a big difference for me when I’m throttled. What worries me is that I’m not getting a good value for money (I’m paying £37 a month for this service)

  • Hi all!
    You should not accept those restrictions! Switch your service provider! Make your voices been heard!
    They can’t limit peoples access for example to youtube videos and stuff like that!
    Guys visit all so this great site to get more info about this topic
    http://stopvirgin.movielol.org/

  • Fuckin bullshit.

    Plain and simple.

    How the hell am i meant to enjoy my videogames online ,watch youtube videos, download demos, or just browse an imageboard when ill be dragged down to some stone age speed?

    Goddamnit.

    Its retarded capitalism, making us want to spend more of our money to get an equally crappier service, far below the competitors standards.

  • I’m starting to regret leaving AOL now…

    Posted by: Connor | May 2, 2008 4:54 PM

    Come on, it’s not THAT bad…

    Well, no illegal stuff downloaded but already I have a 1Mb line all night again – I downloaded WinXP SP3, that’s all.
    How is streaming P2P video (legal, e.g. BBC iplayer) something that shouldn’t be supported. I’d be happy to pay a small premium to the BBC or the ISP for that (but then again Virgin don’t want their cable TV business undermined)

  • I can understand the whole throttling idea and why it’s in place.
    I can also understand why I am one of the few to be throttled…

    What I can’t understand is why i’m being reduced to a max d/l speed of 14kB/s (which is effectively 128kbps broadband or less) when I should only be throttled to 1Mbit (or 125kB/s).

    I’m starting to regret leaving AOL now…

  • I’m on an “up to 8MB Unlimited” broadbad package with virgin and i have been cap for the last week now. My download speed is currently 60KB/s, i phoned them 2 days ago and was told i have been put on the heavy users list on an UNLIMITED download package…
    I play xbox live and thought an unlimited 8MB broadbad would be perfect. They should not be allowed to false advertise, and because of this i will be leaving them as soon as i find a good, no lies, package.
    Its like saying they’ll offer me a ferrai but if i drive it too much they’ll restrict the performance to a tractor.
    If im paying for fast broadband, then i want FAST BROADBAND!

  • Im being throtttled aswell ive had suspicions of this for a while but blogs about virgins action only recently are appearing. If u are a really heavy user u will be cut to 512kb/s

    Every1 search online there is a petition about this and the upcoming phorm technology isp want to implement

  • From what date is the information in the report?
    i only ask as i found out yesterday i was being ‘SPEED MANAGED’ actually manged down to 9k last night!!!
    anyway when i spoke to virgin they said the peak hours were 4 till midnight and the management lasts for a week! looking on the site for VM it does say this, i would be interested to see the T&C’s this report has used as surely if the conditions of use have changed so much i should be able to get out of my contract without having to pay £113!?

  • this is not entirely accurate. I used to get throttled from 4.30pm to 1.30am, and now throttling kicks in at around 1.30pm.

    I’m on ‘M’ and i don’t believe I’, in the top 3% of downloaders or even close, and i seldom ever upload.

    Most of my downloads are legitimate from clients. I have arranged to change from ‘Virgin’ to ‘BE Unlimited’ who are cheaper, faster, and don’t cap.
    (my neighbour gets 20Mbits down, 1.6Mbits up, for £18/month).

    The trouble with some virgins is they promise lots but when it comes to it they dissapoint !

  • i dont download much i play online games and i can say vm sux. cant play bf2 anymore ping of 150-700 on uk servers and offshore. my pc is not very good on energy 880watt psu so i cant leave it on allnight if i want to download.was with bt they were good no problems im going to change isp

  • How can they continue advertising an unlimited service? I’ve only just clocked this – I thought I had a problem with my computer. Which ISPs don’t throttle because I’m not prepared to be ripped-off like this. Advertise a limited service and see how many customers you get. Crooks.

  • You know, the real funny thing is… I’m ALWAYS part of that 3%. Every single day (on “up to” 4mb), my downloads/browsing, whatever… are absolutely sliced in about 30mins when I come home from work from an average of 500kbps to 100kbps (Probably after a pathetic 350mbs they state), while downloading at 100kbps, I can’t do much else for my money… so it is becoming less satisfactory and a huge inconvenience for me.

    If the cap stays, I will switch service soon and get my old BT line activated one way or another, for Bethere or another service. I don’t like being told how and when to browse the internet… and am willing to pay for a better service for those rights.

  • You know, the real funny thing is… I’m ALWAYS part of that 3%. Every single day (on “up to” 4mb), my downloads/browsing, whatever… are absolutely sliced in about 30mins when I come home from work from an average of 500kbps to 100kbps (Probably after a pathetic 350mbs they state), while downloading at 100kbps, I can’t do much else for my money… so it is becoming less satisfactory and a huge inconvenience for me.

    If the cap stays, I will switch service soon and get my old BT line activated one way or another, for Bethere or another service. I don’t like being told how and when to browse the internet… and am willing to pay for a better service for those rights.

  • Wow, that is funny!

    You say
    “Virgin have stopped shaping my bittorrent traffic when I keep it below 40% of upload and download at ‘peak’ (1600-2100) and 70% the rest of the time. This has the great benefit of leaving some clear bandwidth on which to browse the web.”

    I’m not surprised!
    You don’t even want value for money far less a good deal from them do you?
    Can I sell you something? Antthing.

  • Wow, the anger!

    If you don’t shape your own traffic, your ISP will shape it for you.

    There’s lots of spare bandwidth 2300-0700, and little during the day.

    Virgin have stopped shaping my bittorrent traffic when I keep it below 40% of upload and download at ‘peak’ (1600-2100) and 70% the rest of the time. This has the great benefit of leaving some clear bandwidth on which to browse the web.

    tl;dr – lol l2internet

  • I discovered yesterday that I was being throttled by VM (as I was last weekend) and was kicking in a 1PM.

    What I got back from them was “After looking in to this for you, I can confirm that you have hit our download amount threshold. The times change on a bank holiday and weekend.”

    I have yet to get an answer to what hours they are using at weekends/bank hols. But I have only asked 6 times so far. In fact they denied the obvious when I confronted them last weekend.
    Does anyone know what the actual policy is for WE/BH? It is still annoying, but it would help if we knew the hours and down/up limits.

    Thanks

    Andy

  • When I bought Halo 3, it came with a nice offer from Virgin Media, giving away a years subscription to Xbox Live when you take out an XL package.

    So now, as an XL customer if I DARE use that XL package to play games online, or download some of the downloadable content (remember Xbox Live has HD video content too) I’ll be stung by this throttling?

    I’m sorry but my reason for choosing Virgin Media was because they sold it as being suitable for Xbox Live – so much so that they gave me a free subscription.

    And we cancel our VM subscriptions where exactly?

  • Maybe you could set the download off before you leave for work, because presumably that’s outside “peak hours”.

    What’s interesting is that Virgin Media makes no mention of changing weekend times — you’d think peak usage would extend beyond 4-9pm.

    It will also be interesting to watch whether they change things if a lot of people start downloading “off-peak”.

  • So I come home from work and start to download the latest game demo from Sony for my PS3.

    Of course, doing such a thing means I am using my “High Speed” “Broadband” Internet inconsiderately and ruining the fun for everybody else and therefor I am capped.

    I’m glad I wasn’t so naive as to think when I paid for my internet connection, I would be allowed to use it.

    Virgin, you will be receiving my letter of cancellation in the next few days.

Comments are closed.