Virgin Media ADSL (Non-Cable) Broadband Throttling

[MrShed]

You get throttled for 5 hours PER DAY for ONE WEEK is my understanding.

With regards the 512kb, it is throttled to a THEORETICAL MAXIMUM of 1MB. Various other factors, outside of Virgins control, can affect the actual maximum DSL throughput.

[MrShed]

Originally Posted by robin9342

Yes, but the reason he has a problem with it is that the download limit is so low. To quote from Virgin's own help pages: "we sometimes moderate the speeds for the top 5% of customers who are downloading and/or uploading an unusually large amount." 5.9gb is not an unusually large amount of data.

Depends on your POV. There are many FUPs around that class in excess of 20GB per month as over the FUP. This user will be on course for around 25GB of data user for the month. Whilst I personally do not class this as excessive, it is certainly not the usage of a light user, and most importantly, all that matters is what Virgin class as excessive - which it does, as the top 5% of users!!

I have said it before, and am now saying it again. If you do not like it, change ISP.

[Bookworm]

I think there's some massive assumptions being made here about signing-on and choice...

I'm with VM, because I have been with Telewest since the day BT lost their monopoly, and I therefore have no BT line in the house. I also have the top BB package.

VM have NEVER told me about the throttling, have NEVER sent me new T&Cs, and it is only thanks to this forum that I found out what was happening to my speed in the evenings, and this after someone at VM had given me the -then- 09 number to call to find out about the "technical" issue, even though they must have had a fair idea as to why this was happening and I wasn't prepared to do that.

In fact, looking at the table given higher up, it looks as if they have changed it again and they haven't notified me of those either.

VM have unilaterally introduced some serious restrictions to the service and I personally believe that the way they present their unlimited service is going to land them in trouble sooner or later.

They may have the worst customer services, but they do (did) have one of the best packages with highest speeds and no d/l limits, although I suspect the excessive throttling may well be on its way to take away that superiority.

As for changing, why should we? We signed up for something and agreed to pay a certain amount for that something, we simply expect VM to stick to what they have agreed to provide and not introduce changes on the sly, I don't think that it is that unreasonable.

[MrShed]

I agree with everything you have said Bookworm - I was not aware of Virgins lack of communication/T&Cs, and so a lot of my points fall down, I agree.

With regards saying why would you sign up to Virgin, my point was purely about the DSL service, NOT the cable - I agree that Virgin is quite clearly the best internet service overall if you can get cable, despite the poor CS.

The only thing I would say is that do you expect VM to stand still? They are entitled to change their terms over time(albeit with notice of said changes, which they apparently are not doing), especially in something as rapidly changing as the broadband market.

[Bookworm]

I don't know about "standing still" as such, but having said, I'd expect movement to be forward, not backwards. VM are advertising themselves as the fastest and unlimited, and used to be the fastest and unlimited, but now, they are neither, and with the advance of technology, it seems anything but right.

[robin9342]

Originally Posted by MrShed

You get throttled for 5 hours PER DAY for ONE WEEK is my understanding.

"An example of how this works is that if a broadband size M customer downloaded 500MB of data between 4pm and 9pm, their speed would be temporarily managed with their download speed set to 1Mb and their upload speed to 128Kb for a 5 hours."

Above quote from Virgin implies just for 5 hours, not 5 hours/day for a week...

[Bratac]

I have just been browsing to find the traffic management for adsl side of the VM broadband as my brother has it. I cannot find it anywhere. I have spent an hour having this out with them today as I'm on cable not adsl. I can confirm the table in the post by Robin9342 is for cable connections only. The throttling occurs when you reach the allotted limit for your connection speed between the times stipulated and endures for 5hours for that day only. Your connection then returns to it's contracted speed. If you are throttled in the first period after 5 hours your connection will return to normal and they WILL not throttle you again that day no matter how much u/l or d/l you do. (I have tested this and it is true).

I will keep my eye on thread and hopefully all you adsl users will manage to get a statement or a link to a published website with the details of their adsl throttling policy that is as clear as the cable connectivity side. Wouldn't suprise me if they don't though as BT are involved on the adsl side of things and this makes things even more complicated

Good Luck all!!

Oh and they will not inform you by letter or e-mail (even though they manage your mail addresses and know it) - they expect you to keep visiting the site at allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html (wouldn't let me put the link in) to keep up to date with changes to the Traffic Management Policy -lol

[nevilley]

Is there a thread for other ISPs unfair use policies?
I'm with demon and only discovered they had changed my service from unlimited to a 50Gb cap when I almost hit said cap.
I want to know how much I'm using but only get a usage report when I exceed 47Gb in 30days. They are, like all other ISPs, advertising unlimited* (*fair use applies) products.
I think we may have more success against them if we pursue an unfair advertising charge. If the headline says "unlimited" then it must be unlimited. If they are going to apply restrictions after a defined amount then I do not feel that the advertisements are fair.
Any way I'll shut up now in case there is a demon or general ISP thread that I've not found.

[locutus]

DU Meter Home Page is a good tool for monitoring your usage.
Yeah and capped unlimited usage is an oxymoron... wonder if any of the more legal minded people can put forward any legal breaches that this would cause.

[nevilley]

A usage meter on my PCs would be useless. I have 5 PCs in use by different people in the household all connected direct to the internet via a wireless router. The only place usage can be measured is after my router. ie by the ISP.
But thanks for offering the link.

Would any one buy a car with no fuel gauge, just a light that comes on when you're down to the last gallon? No neither would I.

[legalpickle]

Originally Posted by nevilley

A usage meter on my PCs would be useless. I have 5 PCs in use by different people in the household all connected direct to the internet via a wireless router. The only place usage can be measured is after my router. ie by the ISP.
But thanks for offering the link.

Would any one buy a car with no fuel gauge, just a light that comes on when you're down to the last gallon? No neither would I.

Put the program on all 5 computers and have everyone run it for a month whilst they are using the broadband within the house. That's why my cousin did for all his children when he was in the same trouble - though he had admin passwords for his children's computers and they didn't. He set it [I'm not sure which program it was, but there is one somewhere that can measure the usage of each connection] to run whenever they connected to the wireless in the house. He then found out which child was overusing and restricted his usage!

5.9gb a week is not OTT. I would think that you would definitely be able to contest it in court on the basis that you were never informed as to the usage only a 'fair usage policy' which you assumed would be 'fair' ['fair' being the most important word here], 5.9gb is an unfair cap/weekly in your opinion - and I'm sure you could get sufficient witness statements from people on here - I sure would give you one! supporting that.

I would switch provider - sorry but I doubt you have much choice - to a 50gb capped package [then you know you're likely to keep within the limit] and then send them by special delivery to their head office a final letter before legal action, and sue them for the difference in price till the end of your contract with them. That's my recommendation.

[JohnH2008]

Hello Guys and Gals.

Having read most of what has been written about VirginMedia 'throttling' I thought I would throw in my ten pence worth.

I too have fell foul of the 'throttling' exercise and I agree entirely with the person who quite rightly pointed out that, the limit, past which you are 'throttled' is not explained. It seems to be secret! They show you all the 'Advantages' upfront but... they keep their secrets.
Someone has placed onto the forum the infamous Broadband limits guide. It took several hours of telephone calls to India ...and local..to get this website address. Not ONE of the people I spoke to would, or could, tell me what the limits were. More infuriating was, I was totally unaware of this 'throttling' until I read about it in the 'Computeractive' magazine. A few days later I got a letter from Virgin saying I "may have noticed my broadband was slow"... "Slow" was a definate understatement!!. They stated that they will HALF the broadband speed of my package (I only had 2 mb) if I downloaded over the limit.... Interestingly, they did'nt tell me what that limit was!. The 'throttling' times were also strange. Between 10.00am and 3pm. There was then a break of one hour and then 'throttled' again between 4pm and 9pm..virtually the whole waking day!
I immediately went to PC Pitstop.com and checked the bandwith when it slowed up. Forget HALF!! The 'throttled' download speed ranged between 81kbs and 256kbs. This was confirmed by using another tester. The ping speed was over 2000ms. The upload speed from 9kbs to 21kbs. Not only that...but it stayed like that even AFTER the 9.00pm watershed.

No prizes for guessing what I did next?.

I not only cancelled the TV,Telephone and 'Broadband' account I had at my normal address but also my other address where I have been a customer Telewest/Virgin since 1999. I also cancelled my insurance policies with Virgin as I do not deal with companies who 'Con'. So, in one fell swoop they lost a long standing customer with two accounts and two insurance policies.... Makes good business sense to me, Richard!.

There was no fair warning. There were no speed/bandwidth limits mentioned. There was no good 'customer care'. These are all good reasons for cancellation. They tried to argue but gave up even though the latest 'contract' was only six months old.... I would also like to advise Virgin customers that, each time you 'upgrade' they deem that a NEW contract and that means you are trapped with them for at least another twelve months!.

To the person who kept on about "reading the 'term & conditions'." THERE IS NO MENTION OF BANDWITH OR SPEED LIMITS IN THE T & C's!!...only "fair usage".

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[mick094m]

Anyone wants to monitor their uploads/downloads do a "google" on "netmeter" when you install it you just right click on it and you can see all the relevent information,and its free to download as well,all the ones with slow speed etc consider yourself lucky I cannot even get online during the day only after 4.00pm then its hit and miss been like this since 27th.October 2008,have another thread which martin linked me to this one. Must also point out I am not a heavy downloader either.