Moving back to Virgin for 1GB Broadband from BT
Discussion
So we are thinking of leaving BT for broadband, we have Fibre which should give us 70mbits but it’s never really more than 45-55 in practical use.
We had the BT engineer out last year, he did the usual tests and concluded it was working as it should, but as we are literally at the longest distance possible from the exchange, it would probably never improve.
Now previously we were with Virgin, they decided to install a dedicated fibre to our private estate of just five properties, if 4 of us took up the service they said it would be worthwhile so we all decided as a group of neighbours to go for it.
At first most of us where happy, as back then we had a terrible Bt broadband service, so much so that when we first had the house we paid for a dedicated ISDN service to be installed here as we work form home, and needed a good solid connection.
But as with all things the Virgin speed and then the TV service also dropped in quality and we would have frequent outages.
So again like most people, when BT offered fibre we switched back.
Now Virgin have the 1GB service available to us, so it’s tempting to switch.
But the real deal breaker for us will be the upload speed, because of all the 4K Content we produce and share with Clients it’s the upload that we really need.
We are lucky to get 10mbits on the BT service, Virgin are stating at least 50mb upload on the new 1G service.
So does anyone have Virgin 1GB? Any feedback on it?
And what do we do to Eek our the best price from Virgin, is it worth going back to the TV offering with the 1GB as a bundle ?
Thoughts and opinions welcome.
We had the BT engineer out last year, he did the usual tests and concluded it was working as it should, but as we are literally at the longest distance possible from the exchange, it would probably never improve.
Now previously we were with Virgin, they decided to install a dedicated fibre to our private estate of just five properties, if 4 of us took up the service they said it would be worthwhile so we all decided as a group of neighbours to go for it.
At first most of us where happy, as back then we had a terrible Bt broadband service, so much so that when we first had the house we paid for a dedicated ISDN service to be installed here as we work form home, and needed a good solid connection.
But as with all things the Virgin speed and then the TV service also dropped in quality and we would have frequent outages.
So again like most people, when BT offered fibre we switched back.
Now Virgin have the 1GB service available to us, so it’s tempting to switch.
But the real deal breaker for us will be the upload speed, because of all the 4K Content we produce and share with Clients it’s the upload that we really need.
We are lucky to get 10mbits on the BT service, Virgin are stating at least 50mb upload on the new 1G service.
So does anyone have Virgin 1GB? Any feedback on it?
And what do we do to Eek our the best price from Virgin, is it worth going back to the TV offering with the 1GB as a bundle ?
Thoughts and opinions welcome.
I can’t help with the 1gb package but I can share my experience with the 350mb package with 36mb upload.
It’s been very stable considering lockdown and more people working from home occasional fluctuations in speed but not noticeable to the untrained eye at most I think I had a night of only 250mb it was only noticeable as I was downloading something. Upload speeds have never fluctuated every time I run a Speedtest 36mb on the dot so I’d suggest it’s stable.
Just bypass their router as it’s s
t.
It’s been very stable considering lockdown and more people working from home occasional fluctuations in speed but not noticeable to the untrained eye at most I think I had a night of only 250mb it was only noticeable as I was downloading something. Upload speeds have never fluctuated every time I run a Speedtest 36mb on the dot so I’d suggest it’s stable.
Just bypass their router as it’s s
t. ecsrobin said:
I can’t help with the 1gb package but I can share my experience with the 350mb package with 36mb upload.
It’s been very stable considering lockdown and more people working from home occasional fluctuations in speed but not noticeable to the untrained eye at most I think I had a night of only 250mb it was only noticeable as I was downloading something. Upload speeds have never fluctuated every time I run a Speedtest 36mb on the dot so I’d suggest it’s stable.
Just bypass their router as it’s st.
Thanks Bud, that’s good to hear, the mega fast download will of course help, but if we can get close to 5 times improvement in upload it’s got to be worth going for it!It’s been very stable considering lockdown and more people working from home occasional fluctuations in speed but not noticeable to the untrained eye at most I think I had a night of only 250mb it was only noticeable as I was downloading something. Upload speeds have never fluctuated every time I run a Speedtest 36mb on the dot so I’d suggest it’s stable.
Just bypass their router as it’s s
t. IIRC the reason you will not be getting the full 70Mb FTTC speed will be the distance from you to the cabinet. If FTTP is available then you may be able to get better download and upload speeds.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com will tell you if FTTP is available. I'm about 300 metres from our cabinet and get a solid 900 down, 120 up.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com will tell you if FTTP is available. I'm about 300 metres from our cabinet and get a solid 900 down, 120 up.
QuartzDad said:
IIRC the reason you will not be getting the full 70Mb FTTC speed will be the distance from you to the cabinet. If FTTP is available then you may be able to get better download and upload speeds.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com will tell you if FTTP is available. I'm about 300 metres from our cabinet and get a solid 900 down, 120 up.
Thanks for this, I think we checked before if fttp was available here ,but it wasn’t then.https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com will tell you if FTTP is available. I'm about 300 metres from our cabinet and get a solid 900 down, 120 up.
Checking the Bt checker again still says it’s not available, sadly.
FTTP on demand is in effect FTTP.... just you have to wait and pay for the install.
Zen seem to charge ~£70 per month for the 900mbit download it can do, so looks like by going with Virgin you save the install cost/delay.
Just do as already mentioned and skip the router, it really is pants.
Zen seem to charge ~£70 per month for the 900mbit download it can do, so looks like by going with Virgin you save the install cost/delay.
Just do as already mentioned and skip the router, it really is pants.
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