Virgin Media shows off 1.5Gb/sec broadband
Communications minister Ed Vaizey was on hand to see the trial in action.
Originally announced back in April, the network is now up and running, offering blistering speeds in the Old Street area of the city. This area is also where TechHub is located; a community and workspace for technology entrepreneurs.
The service, which is the fastest in the world, is only at the testing stage at the moment, but Virgin Media has said, tantalisingly, that it uses the same DOCSIS2 backend infrastructure that's used by its current 100Mb/s service.
The 1.5Gb/sec download connection, which is 240 times faster than the national average broadband speed, comes complete with a maximum theoretical upload speed of 150Mb/sec, and Virgin says the project was made possible by the company’s £13 billion private investment in its fibre optic network.
We’re unlikely to be seeing these kinds of connections rolled out across the country any time soon, but it's still exciting to see projects such as this being trialled. Communications minister Ed Vaizey, who was at the unveiling of the trial agrees, stating that ‘it is fantastic to see the fastest internet speeds in the world over cable being trialled here in the UK.
Is there any need for such a high-speed connection? Will faster internet connections change the way we use the Web? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplySam
I agree. I used to live in Leeds literally a couple of miles from the centre yet I was stuck on 7Mbps!! Shocking. Only round the corner you could get 50Mb fibre optic!
So I now how frustrating it can be for those still stuck on poor ADSL Lines! Surely, if VM can afford to trial 1.5Gb/sec then it would be more effective for them to put Fibre Optic throughout the UK!
Sam: it's only a showcase. They still won't be able to provide a proper service because they're fundamentally backwards as an entity. The sync may look impressive, but the throughput & the politics surrounding it is still going to be crap.
The real game is getting a single-mode fibre (or pair) into everyone's home. You're up to 10Gigabit Ethernet there with affordable optics, which will only get cheaper.
BTOR do already run single-mode fibre in for 100Mbit speeds via their FTTP/FTTC push in some areas (and other small start-ups are doing similar things) but despite being 'only 100Mbit' right now, in the places where the fibre is in, it's going to be able to scale very easily without mega investment (i.e. digging up the road) for years to come.
I was a big fan of Virgin Media (I'm on their 50Mb) until they introduced traffic shaping at peak times (5pm-midnight). Now, I have no problem with them wanting to throttle 'shady' traffic like Bit-torrent etc, but the system they use keeps accidentally interfering with stuff like youtube, iPlayer, xbox live, MMO's etc. They constantly deny it, or claim it's an isolated incident, but one look at their forums and you'll see just how isolated it is.
That part sounds very much like you could be talking about bt too.
I'm on 50meg too and I gotta say this traffic shaping is pissing me off. I get perfect download and upload speeds, yet streaming a youtube video is a joke some days. Don't they realise most of the heavy downloaders don't even use bit-torrent anymore? They are shaping it for nothing.
I use a wired Ethernet connection from our Virgin router to my computer. But at times I find myself switching over to our much slower WiFi Sky Broadband ADSL router (we get it free with our Sky TV) just to watch a Youtube video uninterrupted.
It's crazy the lengths ISP's go to just so they can advertise 'Unlimited' broadband.
Here i have the option of BT ADSL or BT ADSL Max.
BT have a monopoly here.
Oh and my speeds are ever decreasing.
Also, how does it connect to the PC? Even Gigabit ethernet couldn't keep up, and who has a 10 Gig ethernet port here. Anyone?
Don't get confused with Cable & ADSL. Virgin offer both!
If your friend was on 20Mb but could barely hit 50b/sec then A) his connection has a serious problem or B) he's on ADSL and limited due to poor copper wiring either in the home or in the street.
What is point?
I have, in theory, something like 38Mbps to the exchange here, via FTTC. I still can't str.... eam youtube vi.... deos at a reso... lution of 360 by.... 240 without it.... going like thi....
...
...s.
Displaying a very big number to the users at home means nothing when you can't actually connect them to anywhere else at a worthwhile rate. Speedtest.net indicates I get 38Mbps to somewhere in Kent, but barely 6Mbps to my buddy in Los Angeles. The performance in many cases is not noticeably better than basic ADSL because the link between me and the exchange is not the limiting factor. This is a particularly insidious problem as it is not down to any one organisation to fix it, so everyone just says "well, there's no point in us upgrading our links, we'll just get throttled by someone else".
Left to its own devices, industry will not solve this.
Unlimited, except when it isn't. What really chafes is it was properly unlimited at first.
They are pushing the fact you can download as much as you want, and that's great. But the majority of the time we don't download, we stream. It almost makes me want to get 100meg just to be rid of the poxy traffic shaping. But I just know it will be more hassle than I want to deal with right now.
It is a solid connection other than that, but this is an area they really need to rethink. If I get sucky latency or drop-outs/disconnects when SW:TOR ships, I will give them a rocket.
From what I've read on the forums, the supplied 'Superhub' is an absolute disaster (however apparently the situation is improving after multiple firmware upgrades). Also it's worth noting that you have to use the Superhub with 100Mb as it's a combined cable modem and router.
Surprising what difference stuff like that makes :)
Not only countryside - I'm in Northampton (pop around 200k) and all I can get is just under 3mb/s
BT said they were doing FTTC in Dec 2011 but that has now slipped to March 2012 (if we're lucky!)
I didn't realise 100meg got it too. I thought as their flagship model it would be free of restrictions. My mistake.
Yeah I have heard about the superhub, hence my opinion that upgrading would be more of a headache than I want to deal with. I'm also extremely aware that many on 50meg still don't get what they pay for. I had to hassle them a fair piece until they upgraded my line from street cab to house. I used to only get 37meg. Now I get the full bandwidth, and I am grateful for it considering the story's I witnessed while I frequented the forum and news group.
What amazed me was the technicians knowledge. I learned a fair old bit about the structure and what was expected. When I informed the techs about it they frowned and scratched their heads. I had to link them to pages that explained, before the penny dropped. Then they were like OH old on...let me phone up and.. But yeah, it ended in me getting a thicker copper cable to my house and an attenuator on the modem because the signal went from too weak to too strong..haha
Granted you only have 1gig NICs in PCs anywho.
And I thought our 7meg was quick and some of you are complaining about "poor" 20meg and 50meg packages in the UK lol.
Yea I wish it was that fast in the USA. Atleast in FL where im at.
Its more for bragging rights but business users, multiple people in one house, IPTV etc may all benefit from it.
Traffic management is abysmal and mistaking games for torrent traffic, staff are too stupid to sort it so they just use whitelists which are not up to date.
DOCSIS 3 protocol is crap, plus they left an important part of the firmware on the VMSH turned off which D3 needs.
Seriously, sort your current customer base first.
the 50mb modem can do 100mb (most are setup in 3x51mb link mode but rate limited to 52mb) you can enable 100mb on them even if they say it will not, just tell them to enable it
Really, why does any normal person need any more than 50MB, let alone 1.5GB.
Gaming requires good latency, which can be had on a simple 8meg line
with adsl state your real speed 24mb is an dream unless your right next door to the exchange with new cabling
The problem is that like people said, they haven't even got the basics down yet. Lots of places can't even get a good reliable 4mbit connection... and even the ones who can have to suffer the lame throttling.
I think the US is generally better than here. Even your 7mbit is better than what most brits get, the majority here are on very over subscribed and badly run ADSL. If you live somewhere like the tri state area in the US, they have amazing connections. I remember in the last game beta I was in, there were other people who had 100 mbit connections but that was download AND upload, 100 up and 100 down *drool*. We've got nothing like that here unless you buy a leased line or whatever which costs a fortune that only some business could justify.
I have a different problem in that my apartment is ONLY wired for Virgin. We have to use them as we can't get a signal on either digital or analogue TV. Not that I mind much as the internet is speedy. We have the 50Meg which is great but as people have said streaming can sometimes be worthless, especially youtube.
A few months ago I hammered the connection, it's very rare I do this but it was around 500Gig in a few weeks and they never complained. Made sure to do it off-peak overnight though.
Quick speedtest I've just done... I'm happy with what i'm getting:
http://www.speedtest.net
I'd rather book myself an appointment at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland than switch to ADSL.;)
Edit: Just noticed that this (5m 08s, 360p) clip takes 210 seconds to completely buffer but the HD 720p version of the same video takes 7 seconds to 100% buffer. Is this the VM trickery at work?
Edit2: Installed Speedbit, buffering the above 360p video now takes about 6 seconds instead of 210. Just make sure you use a disposable/fake e-mail address when installing it!
I used to be on the 10mb & it was a near identical ratio, on 1/5 the scale, about 200kbs throttled, 1.4mb peak.
1.5gb... even throttled rates would be insane.
Nobody really needs 1.5gbs now. But 10 years ago nobody needed 100mbs either.
There's no cable available, but if I were to move my house 400 yards to the right... I say stop spending money on ridiculous high speeds and start providing the normal speeds to more people first.
I would love to jump onto Cable but i dont think we are getting it any time soon
what gets me is the poor Upload however, would love to reliably run my home websites at home for multiple users but i dont thin the traffic will allow
Virgin have not invested into ASDL +2 they just used the C&W network, BT have annoucned that they will extend there WBC rollout to 90% of exchanges by spring 2013.
Indeed, all it is is just a advertising stunt for speeds only a business would use and they have access to speeds greater then this already.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
You've got a 100mbit AND a girlfriend? You are king of the internet, sir.
What the hell?! I used to be a Virgin customer, but due to a move into an area without cable (this is a newly built area, within the last three years), I cannot get cable. Instead I'm forced to endure BTs crappy ADSL, which offers me this crappy speed for well over £35 per month (including phone).
Virgin really needs to expand out their existing infrastructure, instead of turning everything up to 11. It's just not necessary for the average end user and they're losing out on so much custom. The area I've just moved in is part of a massive residential complex. It's not just a bunch of houses built on a bit of spare land, it's an entire postcode, and VM haven't even bothered to lay any cable. The joke is that I'm friends with one of their engineers, and he tells me that they've layed the ducting, but no cable.
Virgin have not layed any cable in ages, they should forget 200/300 meg on there network as the recent figures from VM show that there 50/100 meg customers only make up 4.2% of their customer base, a roll out of cable would be a better investment but vigin seems to be happy to wait and see what happens with the open network that will proably not get off the ground.
My dad has a 50mb connection for himself and my mum and that is on a superhub and that is fine as well.
I did have a issue with Youtube a few week's ago and IMDB but found out it was down to VLC media player, as when I did a reinstall of windows and tried Youtube etc it was perfect streaming 1080p at anytime of the day, but then I installed VLC and bang Youtube etc would not stream anymore without stuttering etc.
I am getting the 100mb as soon as it is available for me and I know that the 1.5gb is not aimed at download's solely it's aimed at more than that, but I aint saying what as it's not my place to say.
I know people have issues with there speed's etc and I feel sorry for them as I hated it when I was on a slow connection at the last lan I went to, as the holder only had a 5mb ADSL connection luckily we were only playing Cod 4 and Cod 5.
But I do also know of more thing's and I have to say it will get very interesting soon for Broadband in the UK ;) and no other company will come close to it either I am 99% sure of that.
But for me there is not a single company I would use for Broadband as no one can give a good enough connection, not even BT Infinity.
Anyone on Infinity had issues where there broadband drop's off when the phone ring's :)
My brother in law was on Sky broadband up to 20mb and was less than 400 metres away from the exchange that he was connected, to and he was only able to get a maximum speed of 0.5mb download and 10kb upload he then switched to BT and got 2mb down and 50kb up, then he moved in to a house that was cable ready and went straight on to the 50mb connection and hasn't looked back.
I seriously have no issues with my connection and neither does anyone I know but I do see people saying it's bad.
As for the traffic shaping there was issues I know a while back with Xbox Live etc but that was Microsoft's problem, and I know Youtube had issues because they were converting and still are I think from Flash to HTML 5 I think it is.
Anyway I want 1.5gb and then I can pwn all the American server's on Blop's and other games ;)
Get an vpn service that fix most issues (i have to use it for newsgroups or I only get 2-3mb instead of my 51mb speeds)