Virgin speeds S5

[Notyou 10]

Hi, I'm thinking of joining virgin but hear mixed reports of them (like most ISPs to be honest) and I was wondering what people thought of them (especially in the S5/ Southey area).

I've heard reports in the past of utilisation issues at peak times where people would experience low speeds, are these still an issue?

 

Thanks.

[The Joker 10]

If you're near Firth Park then you should get your advertised speed. I'm on 50Mb and consistently speeds in excess of 30Mb. I don't need 50Mb, but I just got tired of waiting for the "free" rollout to fifty and kicked up a fuss until they gave in.

 

See here for more info:

 

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1380414

 

[Notyou 10]

Thanks for the info, think most of firth park are on the Attercliffe exchange whereas I'm on the wadsley bridge one. Hopefully it'll be just as good though.

[AlexAtkin 10]

Do exchanges have any relation at all for Virgin?

 

I realise they have to peer via exchanges, but I wouldn't think having a BT line at one exchange necessarily means the Virgin cabinet routes via the same exchange?

[mrbrit 10]

Virgin operate on an entirely different network to BTW, so their exchanges have nothing to do with speed issues.

[Notyou 10]

You're probably right, Its because I've always been used to BT lines that I didn't think any different.

 

I know virgin have area references (I think I will be in Area 14, not 100% sure though)

[AlexAtkin 10]

As I understand it, Virgin still use fibre links via BT exchanges (its the logical place they can put their core routers rather than building their own data centres) but their contention issues tend to be at their cabinets or the back-haul network (thus would affect much larger areas than just an exchange).

 

Its generally the luck of the draw with Virgin. If nobody else on your street uses the Internet heavily, you will probably have no problems. If several households are heavy downloaders, you may at some point.

 

That said, I only know one person who has Virgin and AFAIK its been a long time since he had any problems with it.