Heaviest Virgin Media downloaders face new daytime go-slow

[ZX7R]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05..._restrictions/

Virgin Media will double the number of hours it throttles the bandwidth of customers who hammer its network day and night, changes to its traffic management policy have revealed.

The tightened regime means that between 10am and 3pm subscribers to its "M", "L" and "XL" packages will have their connection throttled for five hours if they download more than their full speed ration.

The decision follows recent regional testing of extended restrictions in London and the North West. Previously the brakes were only slammed on for five hours if limits were exceeded at any point between 4pm and 9pm.

Now, "M" customers who bust 900MB during the day will have their theoretical maximum download halved from 2Mbit/s to 1Mbit/s. "L" and "XL" users' usual headline speeds of 10MBit/s and 20MBit/s will be slowed by three quarters if they break daytime download limits of 2400MB and 6000MB respectively.

The download thresholds for the daytime throttling period are double those of the evening period, which also restricts uploads. We've reproduced Virgin Media's explanatory table below:

Virgin Media says that at current levels of demand, one per cent of its 3.8 million customers will be affected by the new daytime restrictions. In the evening, when ISP networks are under most strain, traffic limits are aimed at the top five per cent heaviest users.

A spokesman said the new rules are necessary to ensure quality of service for the majority. The move will nevertheless anger some who have been tricked into believing that "unlimited" broadband actually exists by years of crummy marketing by the ISP industry.

The cable monopoly, created by the merger of *** and Telewest in 2006, is currently working to boost its top speed to 50MBit/s as part of its strategy to put broadband at the centre of its quadruple-play offering. recent trials to ramp Virgin Media's 10Gbit/s backhaul to 40GBit/s in support of the upgrade were successful. ®

[Spennyboy]

Virgin have been strange with me past few weeks.

Im not being capped at night like i was before - but have been first thing in the morning ( 7/8 )

Very odd.

[DJ OD]

Not sure, but I haven't been capped at all since upgrade from 4mb to 10mb...


DJ OD

[ant3b]

what is the point o 20meg/50meg if you cant download on the thing!? imagine watching some hd clips on the internet etc.. lots of them

[ant3b]

im on 4mb , in the manchester area still not been upgraded to 10mb grr

[B.I.G.]

So basically you can't download anything large for nigh on the entire time your awake.Sooner or later they're going to start throttling in the night or at least throw a couple of hours on each end of the zones they thottle you.Especially when they roll out 50meg.(speaking of which if you got throttled on 50meg i wonder what speed you'd go down to?).

In theory if you didn't keep check on your times you could actually be paying for 20meg and be throttled down to 5meg for 16 hours in a 24 hour period.

[Waka]

ffs, so if I download NOTHING for 29 days and get ONE DVD during the 30th day I'll get fucking 'shaped'. How the fuck does that make me a 'heavy downloader'? What about all the cunts who download 100's of gigs every month?! Fuck that, I'll throw all my virgin toys out of the pram if they try and pull that stunt (tv/broadband/fixed line/mobile). Just try and shape me virgin - you''l lose all my custom ya cunts.

W.

[whatnow]

i might tell them i'm moving to a non-virgin area & cancel my contract with them. I hate this shaping shit they pull, how will their network ever work when the speeds go up? It's like we're paying into an internet timeshare company :\

[Zippeyrude]

stuff virgin, im bustin to move from my 2meg true uncapped f2s to be broadband!

[biggy7]

this is crazy,

they are taking the p!ss now

i may start looking at alternatives now, Be Internet looks good.

[Soulassassin]

Why dont they just get it over and done with and charge per gig, thats the way they are obviously going. Some days I download quite a bit (10-15gig) while others i dont even switch the comp on. FFS they are just trying to piss EVERYBODY off now, and I'll be fucked if Im paying £35 a month for that.
Just on a side note, as I only ever seem to get 75% of my 20mb speed anyway, does that mean I wont be affected?

[ant3b]

Well im leaving it now just joined and will have to pay 30 quid a month for 8 months which is 240quid grr

[B.I.G.]

You should complain and tell them you feel you've been mislead by their advertising it's worth a shot.

[BFG]

Makes no odds to me, i schedule my big d/l's after 2100 anyhow on my 20mb XL, more like 22:00 til 07:00. I only browse on daytime hours. Never noticed any throttling at all, and there's 5 machines in my house permanently online.

[Ganty]

and there's 5 machines in my house permanently online.

And you're moaning about petrol prices?

[CominAtcha]

This is pretty wank.

But there's no (decent) alternatives where I am really.

[plug1]

When they merged they leveled the service to all custumers by slowing the parts of the network that had capacity to that of the slowest , so the could sell same product in all areas .most of TW in scotland has no need for traffic shaping at all.
Plug

[hjf288]

I have a 2mbit line in my other house, I certainly will be cancelling now.

[B B Leo]

if u buy broadband from any service provider then it should do what it says 24/7 connection and 2mb, 4mb or 20mb what ever u pay for..no matter what u dl or ul
t@ssers

[ZX7R]

Makes no odds to me, i schedule my big d/l's after 2100 anyhow on my 20mb XL, more like 22:00 til 07:00. I only browse on daytime hours. Never noticed any throttling at all, and there's 5 machines in my house permanently online.

Do you use any tools for the scheduling of downloads?