cheaper virgin.net account on the way...

From an e-mail I received today (sent 24 Sep 2004 15:17)...

"... a new Virgin.net Broadband service for just £17.99 a month with no 12
month contract! This new broadband service is 10 times faster than dial up
and has a 3GB monthly allowance which is ideal for everyday surfing ... "

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
poster <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> From an e-mail I received today (sent 24 Sep 2004 15:17)...
>
> "... a new Virgin.net Broadband service for just £17.99 a month with
> no 12 month contract! This new broadband service is 10 times faster
> than dial up and has a 3GB monthly allowance which is ideal for
> everyday surfing ... "


Hm - same price as PlusNet's 512k 3GB service. Is there an activation
charge? If not:
1) it's effectively cheaper than PlusNet which *does* have an activation
charge
2) how do they recover the activation charge which *they* have to pay to BT
if *you* cancel after one or two months?
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

"Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)
> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> poster <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> From an e-mail I received today (sent 24 Sep 2004 15:17)...
>>
>> "... a new Virgin.net Broadband service for just £17.99 a month with
>> no 12 month contract! This new broadband service is 10 times faster
>> than dial up and has a 3GB monthly allowance which is ideal for
>> everyday surfing ... "
>
>
> Hm - same price as PlusNet's 512k 3GB service. Is there an activation
> charge? If not:
> 1) it's effectively cheaper than PlusNet which *does* have an
> activation charge
> 2) how do they recover the activation charge which *they* have to pay
> to BT if *you* cancel after one or two months?

Virgin's new Plan 2 tariff (the 3gb/month limit one) charges a £19.99
activation fee - if you already have ADSL with another ISP migrations are
free.

It will also charge £2/gb above the 3gb limit

As with their old/existing tariff (now called plan 1) if you leave they
don't recover any (additional) activation fee from you

Activations on "Plan 1" are still free.

I wonder if Virgin have any rules in place to stop people joining on their
Plan 1 and then moving to their Plan 2 tariff - otherwise they could save
the £20 activation fee

Regards
Sunil

On 24 Sep 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Tiscali Tim" wrote:

>Is there an activation charge? If not: 1) it's effectively cheaper
>than PlusNet which *does* have an activation charge

Apparently (from ADSLguide), which has an item about it:

"Activation costs £19.99 for people who do not already have ADSL. If
you do have ADSL then it appears that migration to Virgin is free. A
£9.99 Virgin.net Broadband starter kit is also available, which
includes a Speed Touch 330 USB ADSL modem and 2 micro-filters."

So it is much cheaper but not completely free.

>2) how do they recover the activation charge which *they* have to
>pay to BT if *you* cancel after one or two months?

This query over "free activation" seems to go round and round - Plus
passes the charge on, like several other ISPs. If you remember 2002
(I think) Pipex put 2 million quid on one side to cover activations,
for the first 40,000 customers. Clearly some ISPs just absorb these
fees and treat it as a way to get a customer. Virgin is exceptional
insofar as them not apparently charging an admin or cancellation fee
if someone closes their account. They make a big thing about having
no 12 month contract - see <http://makeashorterlink.com/?X22822E59>
and presumably they have the cash to push this (though clearly they
are not throwing 50 quid at each new customer, but around 35 as the
cost is not fully covered unless migrating to their service).

On 24 Sep 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Sunil Sood" wrote:

>I wonder if Virgin have any rules in place to stop people joining on their
>Plan 1 and then moving to their Plan 2 tariff - otherwise they could save
>the £20 activation fee

ADSLguide speculates on Plan 9 eventually and easy switching from one to
another, perhaps an aim to keep customers from switching completely to
a different ISP if they find the plan they are on doesn't meet needs.

On 24 Sep 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Sunil Sood" wrote:

>I wonder if Virgin have any rules in place to stop people

Seems not: "Cancellations" on <http://makeashorterlink.com/?U2D863E59>

"However, if you change to another Virgin.net Broadband plan, then the
change is immediate, and no 30 days notice is required"

> "Activation costs £19.99 for people who do not already have ADSL. If
> you do have ADSL then it appears that migration to Virgin is free. A
> £9.99 Virgin.net Broadband starter kit is also available, which
> includes a Speed Touch 330 USB ADSL modem and 2 micro-filters."

And what sort of quality do you think that is going to be considering that a
single really good quality filter costs almost as much?

On 24 Sep 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Peter Crosland" wrote:

>And what sort of quality do you think that is going to be considering
>that a single really good quality filter costs almost as much?

Given the number of ISPs giving away the USB modems, who says they're
not buying reasonable filters anyway ? It is in their interest to not
make enemies of customers, but having said that, I'm using filters from
Ebuyer.com which were under 150p each and if Virgin was buys a container
(20 foot, rather than 40 :-) full I bet they come down below 50p. Peter.

>>And what sort of quality do you think that is going to be considering
>>that a single really good quality filter costs almost as much?
>
> Given the number of ISPs giving away the USB modems, who says they're
> not buying reasonable filters anyway ?

I do! Take a look inside one of those that are the same size as a two way
spltiter and you are likely to see a total of 6 components. A really good
one will have 24 components. There simply is not room within the small
splitter case for much more. Even the best ones of this style only have
eight components.

It is in their interest to not
> make enemies of customers, but having said that, I'm using filters from
> Ebuyer.com which were under 150p each and if Virgin was buys a container
> (20 foot, rather than 40 :-) full I bet they come down below 50p.

In many cases they will get away with it but you really do get what you pay
for in cheap filters particularly at 512k and below. The public perception
is that all filters are equal but this is not so. Once you start to go up
the speed range the filtration becomes more important.

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 08:07:13 +0100, Peter Crosland wrote:

>>>And what sort of quality do you think that is going to be considering
>>>that a single really good quality filter costs almost as much?
>>
>> Given the number of ISPs giving away the USB modems, who says they're
>> not buying reasonable filters anyway ?
>
> I do! Take a look inside one of those that are the same size as a two way
> spltiter and you are likely to see a total of 6 components. A really good
> one will have 24 components. There simply is not room within the small
> splitter case for much more. Even the best ones of this style only have
> eight components.

i haven't had a look inside one, but the filters i got with my virgin
speedtouch 330 modem are speedtouch branded ones, and consist of a box
about 50mm x 40mm x 25mm hanging off a plug by a short cable. i've got
nothing to compare it with, but the modem driver reports "576 kbit/s
down, 288 kbit/s up" - but whether this is what is permitted or what it's
actually capable of.

will