Moving from Virgin ADSL to Virgin Cable

Because my ADSL speed is so poor (just over 1Mb) I'm thinking of moving
to the 10Mb Virgin Cable package.

I think my current ADSL package is already 10Mb but for reasons I've
never understood my line isn't capable of this speed. Is it possible
that I could have the same problem with cable or are fast speeds
guaranteed? I don't mind signing up for a 10Mb package and getting
7Mb but I don't want to end up still having 1Mb.

I'm about 3 months into a minimum 12 month term for my current ADSL
package having negotiated a new monthly fee. As I'm sticking with Virgin
are they likely to waiver this 12 month minimum term?

How long would the switch over typically take? The previous occupants
had V. cable if that makes any difference.

In article <DcqdnRqo9aKvF2LTnZ2dnUVZ8h-(E-Mail Removed)>, Deux wrote:
> Because my ADSL speed is so poor (just over 1Mb) I'm thinking of moving
> to the 10Mb Virgin Cable package.
>
> I think my current ADSL package is already 10Mb but for reasons I've
> never understood my line isn't capable of this speed. Is it possible
> that I could have the same problem with cable or are fast speeds
> guaranteed? I don't mind signing up for a 10Mb package and getting
> 7Mb but I don't want to end up still having 1Mb.
>
Cable broadband uses coaxial cables designed for the purpose, unlike ADSL
which uses twisted pairs that are already there and were designed for quite
a different purpose. Therefore you should get the speed you sign up for.

> I'm about 3 months into a minimum 12 month term for my current ADSL
> package having negotiated a new monthly fee. As I'm sticking with Virgin
> are they likely to waiver this 12 month minimum term?
>
You'll need to ask Customer Services about contracts.

> How long would the switch over typically take? The previous occupants
> had V. cable if that makes any difference.

If the cable to the premises is already there, you can be sent a modem kit
that you just plug in yourself. No need for a technician visit.

Something to be aware of is that if you are using VM email on ADSL, it will
be (E-Mail Removed) whereas cable email addresses are (E-Mail Removed) and
you won't be able to transfer the old address to the new account. It may
remain working for a while after the ADSL contract is finished but will
eventually stop, so make sure you amend all your details on Amazon, Ebay
etc before the change.

Rod.
--
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/

On Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:53:03 +0000, Roderick Stewart wrote:

> In article <DcqdnRqo9aKvF2LTnZ2dnUVZ8h-(E-Mail Removed)>, Deux wrote:
>> Because my ADSL speed is so poor (just over 1Mb) I'm thinking of moving
>> to the 10Mb Virgin Cable package.
>>
>> I think my current ADSL package is already 10Mb but for reasons I've
>> never understood my line isn't capable of this speed. Is it possible
>> that I could have the same problem with cable or are fast speeds
>> guaranteed? I don't mind signing up for a 10Mb package and getting 7Mb
>> but I don't want to end up still having 1Mb.
>>
> Cable broadband uses coaxial cables designed for the purpose, unlike
> ADSL which uses twisted pairs that are already there and were designed
> for quite a different purpose. Therefore you should get the speed you
> sign up for.

The cable cabinets cover fewer premises than the OpenReach PCP
cabinets, so you're likely to be closer to a cable cabinet. The
attenuation on coax is less than on twisted pair. These two combined
mean you're likely to have less loss on a shorter run of coax than on
twisted pair, so you win twice.
I think Virgin Media claim that their customers do better in the "up to"
speeds than customers on twisted pair ADSL. Some figures mentioned on
http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/tools/speed-test.html

On Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:14:18 +0000, Andrew Benham churned:

>
> The cable cabinets cover fewer premises than the OpenReach PCP cabinets,
> so you're likely to be closer to a cable cabinet. The attenuation on
> coax is less than on twisted pair. These two combined mean you're
> likely to have less loss on a shorter run of coax than on twisted pair,
> so you win twice.
> I think Virgin Media claim that their customers do better in the "up to"
> speeds than customers on twisted pair ADSL. Some figures mentioned on
> http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/tools/speed-test.html

But their network infrastructure is different. Ultimately *everything*
they sell ends up going back to a regional centre in a single, typically
oversubscribed, pipe.

If the VM network was so wonderful [which it is not, it is shit], I'm
sure the need to saturate your data centre with SQUID type proxy servers
would be completely unnecessary.

FTTC has some similarities to cable - they both seem to be victims of
more than normal (if you can define such a thing) amounts of packet loss
and delay. My money, however, would always be with FTTC over cable any
day of the week. Not only do you have a choice of provider, but even on a
bad day BT still have far better infrastructure (even the 20cn ATM back
haul) than VM will ever be able to afford to invest in. Jesus, just look
around any housing estate at the state of VM's shit - it's an utter mess.
If that's the bit they have on show to the world, imagine what the rest
of it is like.

That ole 'speed' metric is utter bollocks. I may deliver 75% of your
packets 10% faster than your competitor. But if I drop 25% of your
packets forcing retransmission a few times will you benefit that much?
The whole gig is about more than the local link speed, it's the back end
throughput that really matters.

On Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:39:36 +0000, Nucking Futs wrote:

> If the VM network was so wonderful [which it is not, it is shit], I'm
> sure the need to saturate your data centre with SQUID type proxy servers
> would be completely unnecessary.

Virgin still have Squid proxies? I had my account changed about 5 years
ago to not use them and connect directly instead, much better.

"Deux" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newscqdnRqo9aKvF2LTnZ2dnUVZ8h-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Because my ADSL speed is so poor (just over 1Mb) I'm thinking of moving
> to the 10Mb Virgin Cable package.
>
> I think my current ADSL package is already 10Mb but for reasons I've
> never understood my line isn't capable of this speed. Is it possible
> that I could have the same problem with cable or are fast speeds
> guaranteed? I don't mind signing up for a 10Mb package and getting
> 7Mb but I don't want to end up still having 1Mb.
>
> I'm about 3 months into a minimum 12 month term for my current ADSL
> package having negotiated a new monthly fee. As I'm sticking with Virgin
> are they likely to waiver this 12 month minimum term?

On the old contract, but not on the new one.

>
> How long would the switch over typically take? The previous occupants
> had V. cable if that makes any difference.
>