Virgin Media has put a traffic management policy in place which could throttle its broadband customers' download speeds by up to half. Update - See also: Virgin Media says throttling is nothing to worry about.
The updated policy was brought into place yesterday and will throttle both download and upload speeds if users go beyond a usage allowance. If the cap is broken then a speed reduction will take place for five hours.
Usage will be monitored daily between 10am and 3pm, then 4pm to 9pm. However, customers will have to have to use between 3.5GB and 20GB of data, depending on their package, during these times to trigger the throttle. This is the first time subscribers to 50Mb and 100Mb have had traffic management.
Virgin Media said: "The policy has been designed to reduce the impact of the top 5% of heaviest users on a daily basis, reducing the detrimental affect of these customers’ extreme usage on network performance and the service other customers receive."
For example, subscribers to Virgin Media's 30Mb package will see a five hour speed reduction of 50 percent if they exceed 7GB of usage between 10am and 3pm. The usage cap is reduced to 3.5GB between 4pm and 9pm. You can see exactly how it will affect you on this document.
Upload speeds will also see a hit of either 65 percent or 75 percent depending on the broadband package. Once again, the duration of the throttle is five hours and will occur if users go over caps starting at 3GB.
Virgin Media already angered its customers recently by introducing a price hike at the same time as doubling its download speeds. This new policy effectively cancels out the free speed upgrade but only if the usage allowance is broken.
"Virgin Media’s traffic management policy is designed to ensure the vast majority of customers get the high quality of service they expect from Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband without being negatively affected by extremely heavy users using more than their fair share at the busiest times." added the firm.
Comments
Zener said: Virgin have been throttling broadband for years This new announcement is only a slight variation on what they were already doing - so if you hadnt a problem with your broadband till now or even been aware of the throttling why change providers Chances are that it wont affect youWhat bugs me more about Virgins claimed speeds is that my 30Mbps connection often slows down to less than 1Mbps at peak times when all the students in my neighbourhood log on making it virtually uselessIve been with virgin telewest eurobell for more than a decade amp watched the service deteriorate in many ways over that time But when I look at the competition they dont look much better amp then theres also the connection fee to considerAt least with Virgin the broadband is fast reliable amp unlimited at off-peak times if one knows how to utilise it then
Pascal Jünger said: Up to half hell you folks are lucky our providers throttled us down by like a factor of TEN yes 10
Fordescort said: You should find if you mention the coming price rises Virgin will be changing your contract therefore you are entitled to cancel or modify it Phone 150 and ask for retentions - They will try and fob you off on the phone - just mention the price rises and they will have to allow you to change contract mid-way through
Owlz said: Im a Virgin Media user for the last couple of years At the present moment Im fighting with them to be released from my contract If your a heavy internet user DO NOT go with Virgin most days I give up using the internet Heres what they told me so farYou get a 40gb download allowance per month depending on your package Once you have used that your then reduced down to 20gb Once that is used your then reduced to 10 then 5 and then 3 Throttling begins when you go over your first allowance of 40gb You will be throttled for the rest of the month during peak times regardless of your download allowance When did this begin At least a couple of years ago but they only came out of the closet about in in October of this year However their technical department doesnt seem to be aware of this and will explain your lag stuttering internet connection and horrifically slow connection down to faults router needing restarted and problems on the line etc all of which is being dealt with None will come out and say sorry your being traffic managed Have a nice day As for being unlimited well you are unlimited at what speed you are allowed to download is entirely a different matter yes you can download but it will be so slow youll give upI made itabsolutely clear when I signed up that we are heavy internet users approx 110gb a month Would that be a problem No I willreceivefast unlimited internet Ok sign me up and now Imsuingthem for mis-selling me a product and failing to tell me about steps to reduce the package that I bought I suggest if anyone is having the same problems that they approach watchdog ofcom and then the ombudsmen I really like them as theyll take VM to court If enough people do this then VM will have to be more honest about what theyre selling and make people more aware of their restrictions rather than leaving it as an unspoken afterthoughtI would like to see the clear listing of products which ones would be throttled and the option to buy a high end product with no throttling or traffic management at a higher cost Im quite willing to pay for that since Im such a heavy user However these companies are not giving anyone any options Surely that would be much fairer are the end of the day They should also consider a limit on the amount of customers they can have since theyre so massively over subscribed Its an absolute mess
Paul said: Hi CasandraIve had Sky Fibre truly Unlimited Pro Broadband since June this year with avg speeds 247 of 76 Mbps DL and 19 Mbps UL with no traffic management and truly unlimitedSky never slow my speeds down even at peak timesThank you Sky
Fedupvirg said: Just wait for few month and see if virgin will downgrade the speed provided in your package and comeback heretomake the same comment
Rango123456 said: wen the robing bastards going to lower there price i wonder
Raidet said: Then invest in infrastructure that can deliver your sales promises
MP said: BS sorry - I wasnt warned of the price hike I wasnt warned of the throttling and all the while having advertising shoved down my throatI will be movingGranted this is more about the service level of my broadband today but all taken togetherBye Virgin Catch up
MP said: Youre awesome
MP said: Who did you end up going with and are they any better Im considering my options Thanks
MP said: Catch up my arse All that money Virgin just spent on their current advertising campaign just went straight down the shitter
MP said: Is this why my broadband connection today is so slow I was wonderingThanks Virgin - you suck Im not even doing P2P stuff
Sabrinasai said: At Virgin Media we want all our customers to get the best possible broadband service
Steve Mc said: I was with Virgin for years as I grew up and lived at home with my parents Bandwidth throttling from Virgin has been around for a good number of years and was the reason I cancelled and went to another supplier They will loose a massive amount of customers because of this and Im glad its featured number one news story on this site
Lui. Jaconelli said: This is a disgrace We are ALL being succered again and again again
Peter-griffen said: I had the sad Sky in which your buying a B-T line as SKY dont have a line-in yet but are working on a cable version nowi use the large package at 23 a month for 10 mbp and upload is low at 24 The thing is B-T will forward bill you 150 within weeks of instal to keep the bill always paid as such they saidbut since joining back to Virgin Media is great nice little speed for all i am doing really and a great price please ask about a broadband package alone and your on a winner free Macfee security to go with my already defender and malwalebytes and cc-cleaner i have got in place already but they do care as its all on-line billing and querys if your stuck instead of calling up B-T all day to be told the man will be booked in for 3 weeks down the line But when asked about joining Virgin Media they just sent the router in the parcel way and fitted it all on my own as its not sciencealso picks up Wi-Fi for my i-phone and my wifes so what more can i say good luck
sip said: Ive only ever had the broadband internet package from NTLVirgin -- no TV and no landline Looked at the new Collections packages and was looking to upgrade to the TVInternet package which is cheaper than the internet-only deal I have now but it looks like you have to also take the landline for an extra 13 or soAnd now this --even though I am unlikely to exceed the daily capI am most definitely not a fan of throttling Unfortunately in terms of speed no other ISP can match Virgin so where to go no Having been on NTL since cable broadband introduced migrating my email is going to be a right PITA
the bunker said: The headline of this article is a bit inflammatory - Virgin have not cancelled their free speed upgrade but have put some clarity around usageIm a Virgin customer basic 10mb amp have noticed that capping has been in place for years amp friends of mine who are Virgin customers have commented the sameSo I think its more a case of bad PRThe points raised around what is normal usage is very important though but I doubt Virgin care too much about media services other than their ownIsnt this the real problem